Sky Ryder
Sky vs. Spies
Fiction by Frank Knebel
Chapter 8

Joanna Dorrin rose from her seat in an overstuffed armchair and paced back and forth a couple of times. Rowlands, his hat in hand, stood watching her. Myra and Donna, both wearing only tiny bikinis and pouting expressions, sat on the couch nearby. Mrs. Dorrin stopped pacing and faced Rowlands.

     “Again, Rowlands,” she said, “you and your men have proven unequal to the job, and a rather simple job at that. How three men could fail to deliver one bound and gagged woman to us seems incredible! And not only did they fail in their mission, but their failure might have drawn the attention of the authorities in this direction.”

     “It was a great plan, Aunt Joanna,” said Donna glumly. “Those men must have bungled it somehow.”

     “I don’t see how they could have,” added Myra.

     They all looked at Rowlands. He shrugged.

     “Somehow or other somebody spotted the truck,” he said with a shrug. “With that plane of his Ryder has all the advantages in a chase if he knows what to look for.”

     “He must be eliminated,” Joanna said.

     Rowlands chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head.

     “A lot of others have tried it in the past and he’s still here. We tried it and lost five men. Now he’s on the alert. Captain Atkins and her driver have moved out to his ranch and his men and the sheriff’s are guarding the place around the clock. There’s no way to get at them there.”

     Donna looked imploringly at her aunt.

     “We really had her, Aunt Joanna. We had her stripped and all tied up for you. She’s very beautiful too.”

     “You’d have enjoyed playing with her,” said Myra, putting a comforting arm around her cousin’s shoulder.

     “You’ve hired the wrong kind of men, Rowlands,” said Joanna.

     He raised an eyebrow.

     “What kind would you have hired? Men who can shoot down a plane with a pistol? Men who can hit a moving target at a hundred and sixty miles an hour? There aren’t very many men who can do that. Now Hammer’s dead and the Sheriff has Gordon and Harvey. Three of the new men cleared out when they heard, so I’ve got only six men left. Any more plans better not require an army.”

     “I hope that those six will prove to be better than the others.”

     He paused and ran a finger over his mustache.

     “You know, nobody asked me but I’d never have tried that last plan to kidnap the Captain.”

     The three women looked at him in surprise.

     “I’m not saying that it couldn’t have worked,” he continued. “It was a pretty slick idea, and it should have worked. Ryder and the Sheriff are plenty clever and they must have been lucky too. But even if we’d gotten the Captain, what would we have? A woman who has some idea where the balloon came down, but not the thing itself. We’d still have to go search for it. I say why not let them find it and take it from them? If you want to kidnap the Captain, it’d make more sense to use her for leverage. You know, trade her for the instrument package. I think that would be a lot smarter.”

     Mrs. Dorrin ran a finger over her jaw as she looked thoughtfully at him. The girls on the sofa sat up.

     “You have some kind of plan, Rowlands?” asked Mrs. Dorrin.

     The man gave a hint of a smile.

Summer Smithers heard the sound of the plane nearby and turned in the saddle to look for it. She had on a wide-brimmed Western hat, and she also raised a hand to help shield her eyes from the sun as she searched. Finally she located the plane to the southwest. The Cessna Bobcat was headed east across the southern parts of her ranch. She lost sight as it came near the brightness of the morning spring sun.

     Summer sighed. She had heard about Sky’s prominent role in the rescue of the beautiful Captain Julie Atkins from her kidnappers. And now she and her driver were quartered at the Flying Coronet under the guard of Sky’s men and the Sheriff’s deputies. If only they would find that balloon and its instruments today! The Captain’s mission would end and she would return to her base. And Sky would no longer think of her. After all, he hadn’t carried a torch for her for the last nine years, so why would he now? She would be out of his life once again. And she, Summer, would be back in.

     The dark haired rancher sighed. It was all wishful thinking, she knew, unless they found that balloon quickly. For the past couple days they had been concentrating their search on her ranch. If there were only some way she could help them. Having her ranch hands drop their work and search full time was out of the question. Not only could she not neglect the daily work of the place, but word would get out what was happening and draw the attention they had tried to avoid. She could do it herself, but alone and on horseback it would be wasted effort. She would need a plane and a pilot, since she could not fly. But how could she get a trusted pilot?

     And then, in a blinding flash of intuition, came the solution!

Julie lowered her binoculars and dabbed at her eyes with a white handkerchief. Sky glanced over at her.

     “Tired eyes?” he asked. “Hours of looking at the sand every day will certainly cause them.”

     Julie sighed wearily.

     “I don’t know, Sky. I was so eager for this assignment at first. It was like having my own command in a way. I sure felt more like an officer than I do back at the base watching over an office full of clerk/typists. Out here I’m actually doing something.”

     She paused for a moment.

     “And then what happens? First Connie and Copper are taken prisoner and nearly killed by this gang, then they tie up four innocent women and ambush me coming out of the shower before I can even get dressed. Naked, bound and gagged I’m taken away in the back of a truck and have to be rescued by you and the Sheriff. Oh, I can really take care of myself all right.”

     Her voice quavered as though she were about to cry. Sky reached over and laid his hand on hers.

     “That’s enough of that, young lady,” he said gently. “I don’t know what you think you ought to have done in that situation. But even Audie Murphy wouldn’t have had many options if he’d been in your place.”

     She glanced over at him. There was a gentle smile on his handsome face. Almost involuntarily, she smiled back.

     “No. I guess he wouldn’t have.”

     She squeezed his hand with her left hand as she raised her binoculars with her right. Very slowly she moved her head from side to side as she examined the arid land below. Sky also swept the landscape with his eyes.

     Julie took in a sharp breath.

     “Sky!” She pointed to the right below. “Look down there! I think we’ve found something!”

     Sky craned his neck to look over the instrument panel but could not see it clearly. He put both hands on the yoke and banked the plane to the right.

     “Let’s take a closer look.”

     He made two passes over the object below, one so that his side of the plane faced it and one with Julie’s side facing. She looked at it closely both with the binoculars and with her unaided eyes. A long streak of something light colored and reflective stretched out from a few cacti below.

     “That might be it, Sky!” Julie cried, vainly trying to suppress her excitement.

     He smiled at her.

     “There’s only one way to find out.” He scanned the ground below and nodded toward a barren strip free of rocks. “That area looks pretty flat. Better buckle up again.”

     Julie fastened her seat belt as Sky eased the yoke forward to begin their descent.

Rowlands watched through his field glasses as the Cessna Bobcat came in for a landing. Klee scrambled up to the rocky point where Rowlands knelt.

     “The car’s hidden,” Klee announced as he climbed the last few feet.

     Rowlands turned away from the plane and looked at Klee.

     “You want to say that again louder when the plane’s engines stop?” he asked sarcastically. “I mean, just in case Ryder can’t hear every word clearly.”

     Klee glared at him.

     “I don’t care how well sound carries out here. They can’t hear us in that plane.”

     “Maybe not,” said Rowlands as he raised his binoculars again. “But they may have deputies following them on the ground. Ryder’s no dummy. He’s gonna be watchin’ for an ambush from now on.”

     Klee swallowed and looked around, shielding his squinting eyes with one hand as he did.

     “I don’t see anybody.” He noticed the plane descending, but tried to keep his voice low. “Hey! What’s goin’ on?”

     Rowlands shook his head.

     “I don’t know. They must’ve seen something.” He swept the glasses over the area, then froze. “Hey! What’s that?”

     Klee continued to squint as he looked toward the plane.

     “I can’t see anything with the glare off the sand.”

     Rowlands put down his binoculars.

     “Well I see somethin’ over there. There’s somethin’ shiny on the ground. Come on. We gotta get closer.”

     The two made their way toward the landing Cessna.

Ten minutes after landing Sky and Julie were climbing over rough, rocky ground toward the object they had seen from the air. Sky wore his gunbelt and he had his revolver in his hand as they drew near.

     “Oh, Sky!” cried Julie. “This is it!”

     As Julie ran toward the large strip of material, Sky paused to take a cautious look around. Seeing nothing, he followed her. Julie was kneeling beside the material feeling it with her fingers. She turned back to him.

     “It’s one of our balloons all right,” she announced.

     Sky looked at the piece of balloon material. One end had somehow become around the base of a cactus. It was roughly rectangular, about thirty feet long and twelve feet wide. The edges were torn and frayed as if it had been ripped apart. The ragged edges flapped and waved in the desert breeze.

     “Well it’s part of one anyway,” he said. “There’s not nearly enough here to be a whole balloon. Those Mogul balloons were much larger. This is only a piece.”

     He walked slowly around the flapping wreck.

     “And no sign of any instrument pack or any of the lines that held it to the balloon.”

     “What happened to the rest?” Julie asked.

     Sky looked to the west.

     “I’d say it came down a few miles out that way and got caught somewhere, in trees, rocks, or something. The winds through those canyons tore the balloon to bits.”

     “Why do you think it landed west of here?”

     “The winds lately have been mostly westerly and fairly strong too. I’d guess that the instrument pack, being the heaviest part, got lodged on something and is still back there while pieces of the balloon blew out this way. This piece got stuck here when it wrapped around this cactus.”

     Julie looked as Sky pointed to various points as he talked. He walked about fifty yards to the west, looked at the ground and pointed again.

     “It’s hard to tell after so many days,” he said, “but I think you can still see the marks where it dragged across the sand.”

     Julie looked west into some very rugged-looking country. A half-hour earlier they had seen them from the air: rocky hills scored by deep ravines and canyons.

     “How can we find it back there?” she asked Sky.

     He smiled wryly.

     “I doubt we’ll be able to do the whole job from the Hummingbird. I’ll have to fly low over those ravines and gorges to spot it but, since there’re no good places to land around there, we’ll have to have a team on the ground to recover the instruments.”

     “On horseback?”

     Sky nodded.

     “We’ll put your long experience on horses to good use.” He glanced around uneasily. “We’d better have some deputies along too. Our friends could be watching us to see if we turn up anything so they can take it away from us.”

     Julie looked around nervously.

     “I hope you don’t mean that,” she said unconvincingly. “I mean, thanks to you, they’ve gotten a couple of bloody noses already. They wouldn’t try again, would they?”

     “I hope not.” He smiled encouragingly and extended his hand to her. “Come on. Let’s get back in the air. Maybe we’ll see something on our way back to the ranch.”

     She smiled and took his hand, then gave him a quizzical look.

     “Shouldn’t we take this part of the balloon back?”

     Sky shook his head.

     “If it’s not important I think we should leave it. If our friends are out hunting too, maybe they’ll see it and waste some time looking out here.”

     She put her arm around his waist and squeezed.

     “How did I get along for all those years without you, Sky Ryder?”

     He gazed at her for a moment.

     “I’ve been asking myself the same question.”

     He bent over her and kissed her.

Summer Smithers could see the sturdy looking guard on Sky’s front porch stand and pick up his rifle as she brought her station wagon to a stop by the front gate. She noted that it was Wes Donovan and waved as she got out of the car. He relaxed and waved back.

     “’Morning, Wes,” said called as she trotted toward the front door.

     “’Mornin’, Mrs. Smithers,” he called back. “Sky and the Captain are still out in the plane.”

     “That’s all right, Wes. I came to see Copper.”

     Wes was of average height but his thick, broad shoulders gave him a powerful appearance that was reinforced by his sparing use of language. He smiled genially, ran a big hand through his dense, wiry brown hair then pointed toward the door with his thumb.

     “Go on in.”

     Wes lowered himself back into his chair as Summer bounded up the steps and knocked loudly, calling Copper’s name as she did. Not waiting for an answer, she opened the door and went in. She met Copper coming from the hallway.

     “Hi, Summer,” the girl said, obviously surprised to see her neighbor. “What brings you over?”

     “Oh, nothing special,” Summer replied. “I’m going into town today and just thought that you might like to come with me.”

     Copper’s lower lip protruded a bit.

     “Well, there’s nothing much for us to do around here.” She looked into the living room. “Is there, Sarge?”

     Sergeant Connie Wade was sitting on the couch with her legs crossed and well displayed by a short, tight fitting skirt. She looked up from the movie fan magazine she was reading. There was a sizable pile of similar magazines, all new, on the coffee table in front of her next to a bottle of Coke.

     “Not a thing, Copper,” she called. “We just wait and keep the home fires burning.”

     “Good!” said Summer. “You can use some entertainment then. Let’s go!”

     Copper grinned and grabbed her cowboy hat from the table by the door. She and Summer hurried out to Summer’s station wagon and were soon on the road.

     They were barely half a mile from the ranch when Copper looked shrewdly at Summer.

     “Okay, Summer. I can tell that you’ve got something up your sleeve. What is it?”

     Summer feigned a look of pained innocence.

     “Why Copper! What could you possibly suspect me of?”

     Copper folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes.

     “Come on,” she demanded. “Out with it.”

     Summer laughed.

     “Okay. You’ve got me. Look, this watching Sky out there every day and waiting for something to happen is driving me crazy. And I know that it must be getting to you too.”

     “It sure is,” the girl pouted. “Here I am, a perfectly good pilot, and I have to wait on the ground every day while Sky gets to do all the fun stuff. And I think that I handled myself pretty well in that crisis the other day. Julie might not have been rescued if it hadn’t been for me!”

     “Exactly!” said Summer. “And this week they’ve been flying over my ranch. If there’s some possibility that the wreckage is on my spread, I want to find it as soon as I can. I don’t want that gang hanging around!”

     “But what can we do?” said Copper with a shrug. “Your station wagon couldn’t get into the rough country to the south and west. And it would take weeks to search all that land on horseback.”

     “True,” said Summer looking studiously at the road. “But it wouldn’t take long with a plane.”

     “But Sky’s using the Hummingbird, and you don’t have a plane,” objected Copper.

     “Ted Barry’s a pilot. And he’s got a nice little Piper Cub.”

     “The only problem is that Ted’s in New York until next week.”

     “But he’s a good friend of Sky,” Summer continued calmly. “And I know that he’s told Sky that he’s welcome to use his plane anytime.”

     Copper’s eyes lit up with excitement at the realization.

     “And I’m sure that it’d be okay with the guys at the airport!”

     “I’ll pay for the gas,” said Summer enticingly.

     Copper giggled in anticipation.

     “When do you want to start?” she asked.

     “There’s no time like the present,” answered Summer.

     She pressed the accelerator a bit more as they headed for Kermit.

Rowlands and Klee waited to approach the wreckage until the Hummingbird was in the air and several miles away. Rowlands knelt beside the fabric and examined it closely. Klee leaned over, hands on his knees.

     “What is it?” he asked.

     Rowlands was amused by his partner’s denseness.

     “All this work and trouble, and you don’t know when we’re starting to get close.”

     Klee stared at him blankly.

     “It’s part of the balloon,” said Rowlands. “You know, the thing we’ve been looking for.”

     Klee looked at it in disbelief. He spread his hands expressively.

     “You mean that this is it?”

     Rowlands shook his head.

     “Nah. It’s just only a piece of it, and not the most important piece. We want the instruments that the balloon took up.”

     “Where do you think they are?”

     Rowlands straightened up and pointed to the west.

     “Out there somewhere. The winds have been blowing from that direction, so I figure that the main part of it’s still back where it fell.”

     Klee nodded.

     “What do we do now?”

     “First we get back to the car and report in. Ryder and the Captain found this too so they’ll be looking back there too.”

     Klee squinted at the rocky hills in that direction.

     “Pretty rugged country out there,” he said.

     “Yeah. We’ve gotta find out what they’re gonna do, then figure out how to get one jump ahead of ‘em.”

     Klee grinned at Rowlands and gave him a poke in the midsection with his elbow.

     “The Lady Captain and Ryder looked pretty friendly, didn’t they?”

     Rowlands chuckled.

     “That Ryder must work pretty fast.” He looked at Klee significantly. “And remember that about them being so sweet on each other. It may come in handy. Let’s go.”

     The two headed back for their car.

Fred Merrill dismounted and hitched his horse to one of the wooden fenceposts of Sky Ryder’s corral. As the big foreman walked around the house to the front porch, a police car drove slowly past the ranch. Merrill waved and the deputy in the passenger seat waved back. The car continued on. Wes Donovan, on guard on the small front porch, also waved to the deputies as they passed, then nodded at Fred when he saw him coming.

     “ ‘Mornin’ Wes,” said Fred. He walked up to the end of the porch and leaned on the rail. Wes ambled over to meet him.

     “Fred,” was all he said in reply.

     “Didn’t I see Miss Summer’s car pull in here about twenty minutes ago?”

     “Yup,” said Wes, maintaining his verbal economy.

     “What did she want?”

     “Didn’t really say.”

     “And she’s gone already?”

     Wes nodded. “Didn’t stay long. Took Miss Copper into town.”

     “Thanks, Wes.”

     Wes employed his main form of communication by nodding once more. Knowing that Wes was talked out, Fred walked slowly around the house to check the guard at the back. There was something about Copper and Summer’s departure for town that bothered him.

Within twenty minutes of their arrival at the Kermit Airport, Copper and Summer were in the air. Though Copper was now more used to the twin engine Hummingbird, she had trained extensively on single engine planes and had no trouble in handling the Cub.

     “We made it!” exclaimed Summer once they were airborne.

     Copper laughed.

     “It was kind of close there, wasn’t it?” she said.

     Summer giggled.

     “I’m glad I had you along to flirt with Tim back there. Even though he was in charge this morning, he’s more your age. I think he’d have done anything for you after you played up to him like that.”

     “Believe me,” the girl replied, “he liked having the attractive older woman batting her eyelashes at him too.”

     They both laughed.

     “Where should we start?” asked Copper.

     “I don’t know anything about air searches,” admitted Summer. “What do you think?”

     “Well, if it had come done someplace where you have cattle regularly, it’d have been found already. So let’s start a little south of your main grazing area.”

     “Sounds good to me.”

     The little plane headed southeast.

Rowlands was breathing hard from climbing up and down the rocky landscape. He turned back to Klee.

     “How much farther to the car?”

     He pointed ahead.

     “It’s right over there. I found some good cover for it, even from an air search. Ryder’d have to fly right over it to see it.”

     They stood panting for a moment. Rowlands suddenly became alert and held up a hand.

     “What’s that?” he asked.

     Klee listened. The low hum of airplane engines could be heard.

     “Take cover!” ordered Rowlands.

     The two men hid themselves among the rocks. When the sound of the engines did not become louder, Rowlands peered out from his concealment. Klee followed his example. To the north, a white single engine plane was heading east, flying low and rather slowly. Rowlands took his binoculars from the case slung over his shoulder and studied the plane carefully.

     “It’s not Ryder,” said Klee. “But he looks like he’s searchin’ for somethin’ too.”

     Rowlands reached into a hip pocket and drew out a small notebook and a pen. He wrote a few numbers on a sheet.

     “Yeah, it does look that way, doesn’t it?” he said. “We’ve got to find a phone. I want to have a man check the airport and see who’s using that plane.”

     The two mad their way through the rock to the car. In a few minutes they were back on the road and headed toward Kermit.

That night there was another meeting in Sky Ryder’s living room. The same principals who had gathered a few days before were back again. Sky had done most of the talking, bringing everyone up to date on the progress of the search. He did not say exactly where traces of the balloon had been found or where they would be concentrating their efforts the next day, but mainly outlined the new search plan.

     “Let’s see if I get it,” said Deputy Amy Cole. “You’re going to continue the air search with Julie on horseback leading the ground team. Who’s going with her?”

     “It’s going to have to be someone who can handle a horse in rough country,” said Julie. “I’ve been riding since I was five so I know it won’t be easy.”

     Sky nodded.

     “And my trailer holds only two horses. So who’s it going to be?”

     Sky looked at Tyler, but the stocky deputy shook his head.

     “I’m a city boy from Phoenix,” he said. “Rivera’s from L.A. I haven’t ridden very much, but I’ll do my best.”

     “No, Harry.” Sky shook his head. “That area’s no place for a beginner. Who else do we have?”

     Winchell rubbed his chin. After a glance toward Tyler and Amy he fixed his eyes on the carpet.

     “I don’t know, Sky,” he said slowly. “I don’t really have anyone---“

     Amy Cole took a step forward.

     “Come on, Sheriff,” she said firmly. “You know I’ve got a drawer full of rodeo medals and I’m the best rider on the force. I’m the logical choice.”

     Winchell said nothing but his expression indicated this was true.

     “No, Amy,” said Sky. “It’s far too dangerous. That gang might be out there waiting in ambush. Maybe you could deputize Fred, Winch.”

     Sky was surprised to note the look of alarm on Merrill’s face at the suggestion.

     “Too dangerous for a deputy sheriff?” Amy protested. “Do you think I joined the force just to write parking tickets? It’s my job to do things like this! And besides, with you in the plane you’ll need Fred to run the ranch.”

     “I don’t like sending a woman out on this either,” said Winchell. “But Amy is my best rider, and she’s near the top in pistol marksmanship too.”

     “That sounds good to me, Sky,” said Julie. “I’ll feel safe with Amy along.”

     Sky and Winchell exchanged indecisive looks.

     Harry Tyler spoke up.

     “Al MacKeever drove a colonel’s Jeep across Europe, didn’t he? The Department has a couple of surplus Jeeps. He and Ben could use one to stay close to the gals. With Sky watching from the air, that should be enough to keep them safe from ambush.”

     Amy smiled gratefully at Tyler.

     “And Barnes and I will be patrolling out this way,” added Winchell. “We’ll keep an eye on the ranch and be available to help if we’re needed.”

     “All right,” Sky said, though he sounded less than convinced. “I want to be sure that Sergeant Wade and Copper are safe as well.” He looked at Summer. “I hope you’ll have a few of your men within hollering distance of the house too.”

     Summer smiled and gave Copper a sideways look.

     “Oh, don’t worry about me, Sky,” she said. “I think that Copper and I’ll spend the day in town tomorrow.”

     “It’s just as well, isn’t it, Uncle Sky?” asked Copper. “I mean, since we can’t be of any help in the search we might as well amuse ourselves doing something else.”

     Copper had given him such an innocent and entreating look that Sky gave his permission without hesitation. But as the discussion went on he became more and more uneasy about the knowing looks that Copper and Summer were giving one another, as though the two were sharing some sort of private joke. Other matters drew his attention from them and he might have forgotten all his misgivings had he not noticed that Fred Merrill was watching Summer to Copper as well.

Joanna Dorrin, dressed in a filmy and low-cut negligee, sat in a reclining chair beside the torch-lit swimming pool of their rented house. Donna and Myra were in the pool giggling and splashing one another. Water from one large splash arched over the concrete patio deck and spattered on the newspaper that Joanna was reading. She said nothing, merely lowering one hand to look disdainfully at the two. The girls became silent for a moment. Finally Donna spoke.

     “Sorry, Aunt Joanna.”

     The woman was about to reply when tapping came from the glass doors to the patio. Rowlands stepped from the house and slid the door closed behind him. He took his hat off and held it beside him.

     “Well?” Mrs. Dorrin asked.

     Before Rowlands could speak Donna and Myra glanced at one another, faced Rowlands and pulled down their bikini tops, baring their breasts.

     “Hi, Rowlands!” they called in unison.

     The man was unfazed. His expression a blank, he nodded to the girls.

     “Ladies.”

     Joanna Dorrin watched him with some amusement.

     “You have something to report, Rowlands?”

     He turned to her.

     “Yeah. I sent Lynch to the airport to find out about that other plane that we saw searching the Smithers woman’s ranch.”

     “And?”

     “It belongs to a businessman in town, a good friend of Ryder’s. But the owner wasn’t flying it today. He’s out of town.”

     Rowlands paused for dramatic effect.

     “It was Ryder’s niece who was flying. She and the Smithers gal were out most of the day, and they told the manager they’d be back tomorrow.”

     “Oh, goody!” squealed Donna. “She’s playing detective!”

     “Quiet girls!” ordered Mrs. Dorrin. She turned back to Rowlands. “You have some kind of plan, Rowlands?”

     Rowlands fingered his hat.

     “Well, as long as they’re out there looking, I think we ought to give them something to find.”

     “This Smithers woman,” Myra interrupted. “She’s attractive isn’t she?”

     “She’s a looker all right,” he replied. “A brunette.”

     Myra looked eagerly at Donna.

     “One for each of us, Donna,” she said. “I get the niece, cause she’s a blonde; and you can have the brunette!”

     “Come out of that pool and cover yourselves up, girls,” Mrs. Dorrin said firmly. “Mr. Rowlands has seen women’s breasts before.”

     Rowlands raised one eyebrow slightly but said nothing.

     “We must make plans in order for you to get the little presents you want,” she continued as the girls pulled up their bras and climbed out of the pool.

     “Oh, Auntie Jo,” said Myra, looking rather embarrassed. “If Donna and I get the Ryder girl and her friend, what fun can you have?”

     Joanna Dorrin looked into the desert darkness that surrounded the patio.

     “I will claim the right to the beautiful Captain Atkins.”

End of Chapter 8

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Copyright © 2002 by Frank Knebel