1966
Just One of Those Days
The bank robbery was planned to account for every last detail — except one.
Harry came into the motel room as I was putting my shoulder holster on. “Forget it, Ralph,” he said.
I looked at him. “Forget it? What do you mean, forget it?”
He took off his coat and tossed it on the hod. “The bank’s closed,” he said.
“It can’t be closed,” I said. “This is Tuesday.”
“Wrong,” he said. He flipped his automatic out of his holster and tossed it on the bed. “It ran be closed,” he said. “Everything can be closed. This is Griffin’s Day.”
“This is what’s Day?”
“Griffin’s,” he said. He shrugged out of his shoulder holster and tossed it on the bed. “Kenny Griffin’s Day,” he said.
“I give up,” I said. “What’s a Kenny Griffin?”
“Astronaut,” he said. He opened his shirt collar and tossed himself onto the bed. “Comes from this burg,” he said. “It’s his Homecoming Day. They’re having a big parade for him.”
“By the bank?” I asked.
“What difference?” He moved his automatic out from under his hip, adjusted his pillow, and shut his eyes. “The bank’s closed anyway,” he said.
I cocked my head, and from far away I heard band music. “Well, if that isn’t nice,” I said.
“They’re gonna give him the key to the city,” Harry said.
“That is real nice,” I said.
“Speeches, and little kids giving him Bowers.”
“That’s so nice I can’t stand it,” I said.
“He was in orbit,” Harry said.
“He should of stayed in orbit,” I said.
“So we’ll do it tomorrow,” said Harry.
“I know,” I said. “But it’s just irritating.”
It was more irritating to me than to Harry, because, after all, I was the planner. I hated it when a plan went wrong or had to be changed around, no matter how minor the change. Like planning a caper on Tuesday and having to do it on Wednesday instead. A small alteration, an unimportant shift, but we’d have to stay in this town one day longer than expected, which increased the chances of identification at some later date. We’d have to change our airline reservations, which maybe some smart clerk would think about afterwards. We’d show up at the Miami hotel a day late, which would tend to make us conspicuous there, too. Nothing vital, sure, nothing desperate, but it only takes a tiny leak to sink a mighty battleship. I remember reading that on a poster once when I was a kid, and it made a big impression on me.
I am the natural planner type. I had eased this bank and this town for three weeks before making my plan, and then for another five days after it was set. I worked out just the right method, the right time, the right getaway, the right everything.
The one thing I didn’t work out was one of those astronauts hailing from this town and deciding on my day he’ll come on hack again. As I later said to Harry, why couldn’t he of just phoned?
So we did it on Wednesday. We went to the bank at precisely two fifty-four, flipped the masks up over our faces, and announced, “This is a stick-up. Everybody freeze.”
Everybody froze. While I watched the people and the door, Harry went behind the counter and started filling the bag.
Actually, Wednesday worked just as well as Tuesday so far as the mechanics of the plan were concerned. On all three midweek days, Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, all but three of the bank employees were at lunch at two fifty-four p.m., having to take a later-than-normal lunch because the bank was at its busiest during usual lunch hours. On the days I had chocked it, there had never been any more than three customers here at this time, and the average had been only slightly over one. Today, for instance, there was just one, a small and elderly lady, who carried an umbrella despite the bright sun outside.
The rest of the plan would work as well on Wednesday as on Tuesday, too. The traffic lights I’d timed worked the same every day of the week, the plane schedule out at the airport was the same as yesterday and the traffic we could expect on the Belt Highway was no different, either. Still, I did hate to have things changed on me.
Harry was done filling the bag at one minute to three, which was a full minute ahead of time. We both stood by the door and waited and, when the second hand was done with its sweep once more, Harry put his gun away, flipped his mask off, picked up the hag and went out to where we’d parked the stolen Ford in front of the fire hydrant.
I now had 40 seconds. I was looking everywhere at once, at my watch, at the three employees and the little old lady customer ami at Harry out front in the Ford. If he didn’t manage to get it started in time, we’d have to wait another minute and ten seconds.
But he did. After 31 seconds, he gave me the sign. I nodded, let nine more seconds go by and dashed out of the bank. Eighteen running paces while I stuffed the gun away and stripped off the mask, and then I was in the car and it was rolling.
There was a traffic light at the corner. “Twenty-two miles an hour,” I said, looking at that light, seeing it red down there in front of us.
“I know,” said Harry. “Don’t worry, I know.”
The light turned green just as we reached the intersection. We sailed on through. I looked back, and saw people just erupting from the bank.
Midway down this block there was an alley on the right that led through to the next block. Harry made the turn, smooth and sweet, into a space hardly any wider than our car, and ahead of us was the MG. Harry hit the brakes, I grabbed the bag, and we jumped out of the Ford. Harry opened the Ford’s hood and grabbed a handful of wires and yanked. Then he shut the hood and ran to the MG.
I was already in it, putting on the beard and the sunglasses and the cap and the yellow turtleneek sweater. Harry put on his beard and sunglasses and beret and green sports jacket. He started the engine, I stared at the second hand of my watch.
“Five,” I said. “Four. Three. Two. One. Go!”
We shot out of the alley, turned left, made the light just before it went to red, turned right, made the lights perfectly for three blocks, then hit the Schuyler Avenue ramp to the Belt Highway.
“You watch the signs,” Harry said. “I’ll watch the traffic.”
“Naturally.” I said.
Almost every city has one of these bypass highways now, a belt that makes a complete circuit of the city. Not only can travelers passing through use it to avoid getting involved in city traffic, but local citizens can use it for high-speed routing from one part of the city to the other. This one, called the Belt Highway, was an elevated road all the way around, giving a fine view of the town and the countryside.
But it was neither the town nor the surrounding countryside I was interested in at the moment. Right now, my primary concern was the Airport Road exit. As Harry steered us through the light midweek afternoon traffic, I watched the signs.
One thing I have to admit, they did put up plenty of signs. Like for the first exit we came to, which was called Callisto Street Exit. First there was a sign that said, “Callisto Street Exit, ¼ Mile.” A little after that, there was a sign that said, “Callisto Street Exit, Keep Right.” And then finally, at the exit itself, a sign with an arrow pointing to the down-ramp at the words. “Callisto Street Exit.”
Of course, all of this was mostly geared for local citizens, so there wasn’t any sign telling you where Callisto Street itself might take you, but if you knew it was Callisto Street you wanted there wasn’t a chance in the world that you’d miss it.
Harry buzzed us along in the white MG, just exactly at the 50-mile-an-hour speed limit, and I watched the exits go by, with the standard three signs for each one: Woodford Road, Eagle Avenue, Griffin Road, Crowell Street, Five Mile Road, Esquire Avenue…
I looked at my watch. I said, “Harry, are you going too slow? You’re supposed to go fifty.”
Harry was insulted; he prides himself on being one of the best drivers in the business. “I am going fifty,” he said, and gestured for me to take a look at the speedometer myself.
But I was too intent on watching for signs. Airport Road I wanted, Airport Road. I said, “It shouldn’t be taking anywhere near this long, I know.”
“I’m doing fifty — and I been doing fifty.”
I looked at my watch, then back out at the highway. “Maybe the speedometer’s busted. Maybe you’re only doing forty.”
“I’m doing fifty,” Harry said. “I can tell. I know what fifty feels like, and I’m doing fifty.”
“If we miss that plane,” I said, “we’re in trouble.”
“We won’t miss it,” said Harry grimly, and hunched over the wheel.
“The cops will be asking questions all around the neighborhood back there now,” I said. “Sooner or later they’ll find somebody that saw this car come out of the alley. Sooner or later they’ll be looking for us in this car and with these descriptions.”
“You just watch the signs,” said Harry.
So I watched the signs. Remsen Avenue, DeWitt Boulevard, Green Meadow Park, Seventeenth Street, Glenwood Road, Powers Street…
Harry said, “You must of missed it.”
I said, “Impossible. I’ve read every sign. Every sign. Your speedometer’s off.”
“It isn’t.”
Earhart Street, Willoughby Lane, Firewall Avenue, Broad Street, Marigold Hill Road…
I looked at my watch. “Our plane just took off,” I said.
“You keep looking at your watch,” Harry said. “That’s how come you missed it.”
“I did not miss it,” I said.
“Here comes Schuyler Avenue again,” he said. “Isn’t that where we got on?”
“How did I miss it?” I cried. “Hurry, Harry! We’ll get it this time! They’ll have a plane going somewhere!”
Harry crouched over the steering wheel.
They stopped us halfway around the circuit again. Some smart cop had seen us — the description was out by now. of course — and radioed in, and they set up a nice little road block across their elevated highway, and we drove right around to it and stopped, and they put the arm on us.
As I was riding in the back of a police car, going in the opposite direction on the Belt now, I asked the detective I was handcuffed to, “Do you mind telling me what you did with Airport Road?”
He grinned at me and pointed out the window, saying, “There it is.”
The sign he pointed at said, “Griffin Road, ¼ Mile.”
I said, “Griffin Road? I want Airport Road.”
“That’s it,” he said. “We changed the name yesterday, in honor of Kenny Griffin. You know, the astronaut. We’re all real proud of Kenny around here.”
“I better not say anything against him then,” I said.
The Perils of the Sky Rangers
(as Curt Clark)
Once upon a time, when the world teas young and simple, and so were we, a kid could enter a theater on a Saturday afternoon and, after waiting impatiently through the two features and the three cartoons, be rewarded by that glorious fifteen minutes of death and destruction known to all as the Chapter. Today, a kid can get his cartoons on the television set, and the feature movies at his neighborhood theater are much the same as ever, but where in the world is he going to find himself a good ripsnorting Chapter? Nowhere. Nowhere.
Breathes there a man alive today who didn’t as a child stand up on his seat and cheer when, with a familiar brrrannggg, the latest episode of his favorite serial came flashing on the screen? If there is one at all, he’s probably the kid with glasses who always got A in geography. All red-blooded, red-eyed, bloodthirsty regular guys would no more miss their weekly Chapter that always closed with a cliff-hanging scene than tune out Tom Mix in favor of Just Plain Bill.
To all such fire-breathing boys now disguised as men, the following is dedicated. Everything is here: the fast cars and the slow thought processes, the secret panels in the walls of the apartment, the ka-pwing of revolver ricochets in a California canyon, the mysterious rays that burned gaping holes through strongest steel, the inspiring fist fights that knocked people out of action but never out of their hats, the sputtering rocket ships held up by thick black wires, the hero in his padded costume and the heroine in her padded shoulders, and the mad, mad villain who has escaped once more from his padded cell. All frantically hurled together in a world of evil evil and good good. No economy has been spared in bringing you this flashback into the glorious time when serials were better than movies, and Saturday afternoon was by far the most glorious lime of all…
Chapter 1
The Return of Doctor Gore
At Sky Ranger Headquarters high atop a peak in the North American Rockies. Commander Harlowe North calls into his office Captain Rip Storm and his faithful sidekick Happy Gibson, for briefing on a special assignment. North, through a confidential agent, has received a secret document suggesting that Doctor Gore, the villainous scientific genius whom they had thought to be dead at the conclusion of Kip Storm of the Sky Rangers (1954), is still alive and in league with a mysterious organization known only as The Society for the Destruction of the World. North instructs Rip and Happy to search from the air in the vicinity of the Grand Tetons, where it is believed Gore’s secret laboratory is located.
Upon leaving North’s office, the Sky Rangers encounter Sally Blair, girl reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, and her friend Daisy Bates. Sally, having received a tip that a big story is brewing, is determined to get air exclusive. The Sky Rangers, however, refuse to reveal the nature of their mission.
Stopping off at the headquarters laboratories, Rip and Happy learn that Leon Zolkin, scientist, has perfected a device which detects unusual ray activity. Since this would aid their search for Dr. Gore. Zolkin arranges to have the device installed in Rip’s rocket ship by Sky Ranger Mechanic Ray Webb, who is secretly in league with Gore.
Meanwhile, Sally and Daisy have returned to the newspaper, where Sally, after consulting her editor, determines to stow away on a Sky Ranger rocket ship.
At this moment, in his underground lair, Dr. Gore is greeting Vontz and Vera von Hendrich, agents of a foreign power which has been financing the doctor’s research into a new Destroying Ray in the expectation that Gore will turn it over to it on completion. The agents are angered by Gore’s apparent stalling on the unit, but the doctor informs them that he has perfected a small working model.
Interrupted by a call from Webb, Gore learns that the Sky Ranger rocket ship is even now proceeding toward his headquarters. Gore, seeing an opportunity to convince Vontz and Vera of his good intentions, offers to demonstrate his ray by blasting the rocket ship out of the sky.
In the meantime, Rip and Happy, unaware of Sally’s presence aboard, pilot their craft to the sector indicated by Commander North. Zolkin’s Ray Detector Device soon reveals that they have flown within range of a powerful but unknown electromagnetic force.
At this moment, a bolt from Gore’s device scores a direct hit on the Sky Ranger craft. Helpless, their ship out of control, Rip. Happy and Sally fall to their dooms below.
Chapter 2
Descending Doom
Searching for the hideout of the notorious Doctor Gore, Rip Storm and Happy Gibson find evidence of an electromagnetic ray in operation, when…
A bolt from Gore’s device scores a direct hit on the Sky Ranger craft. Helpless, their ship out of control, Rip, Happy and (unknown to them) Sally plunge earthward, the fuel tanks aflame. But at the last moment Rip, struggling with the controls, lands the ship safely in the lee of a ridge and out of sight of Gore’s remote television viewing device. Shaken, Rip and Happy succeed in extinguishing the blare before it gets out of control.
Meanwhile, at the laboratory, Vontz and Vera congratulate Gore on his genius and pledge their country’s continued aid. After their departure, The Destroyer, mysterious hooded leader of The Society for the Destruction of the World, enters with Lobo, Gore’s mindless henchman. It is revealed that the Destroying Ray is merely a front for Gore’s true work. He is developing a device which he calls the Mind-Freezing Ray which blots out the good in human beings, making them completely evil. Victims of this ray are subject to the will of Dr. Gore, and it is his intention to amass an army against the forces of justice and sanity.
Meantime, at the fallen rocket ship, Rip and Happy contact Sky Ranger Headquarters and inform North of the near disaster. Instructed to return to headquarters, they head toward the highway, unaware that Sally is lying unconscious in the cargo hold of their ship.
Gore, meanwhile, after The Destroyer’s departure, has sent a party of henchmen to recover the bodies of the Sky Rangers. Finding Sally alone, the henchmen blindfold her and return with her to Gore’s laboratory.
Upon reaching the highway, Rip and Happy are given a lift by a passing truck loaded with electronic equipment intended for Gore. Recognizing the nature of the apparatus, Rip and Happy overpower the driver and force him to reveal that his destination is the Museum of Tibetan Art and Culture in a nearby city. Unable to extract any further information, the Rangers turn the driver over to the Highway Police and proceed into town.
In the meantime, Dr. Gore has confronted Sally Blair in his secret hideaway. Telling her that she is valuable to him as bait, he outlines a plan to set a trap for the Sky Rangers that very night. At Gore’s instruction, Lobo and the henchmen take Sally to a warehouse in the city. Gore then sends a radio message on a Sky Ranger frequency telling of Sally’s whereabouts.
At the museum, meanwhile, Rip and Happy question J. Lyman Raucher, curator, who denies any knowledge of Dr. Gore or the machinery intended for the museum. Rip and Happy, dissatisfied, leave for Sky Ranger Headquarters.
Upon arrival, the rangers learn from Daisy Bates of Gore’s radio message and hurry away to rescue Sally at once.
At the warehouse, the Rangers find Sally on the top floor, bound to a chair. As they release her. Gore’s voice booms out from concealed speakers, informing them that their fate is sealed. Even now, the Destroying Ray is trained on the warehouse. There is no escape.
With the very walls around them beginning to glow and melt, the Rangers and Sally race to the elevator. As the car descends, the beam of the ray penetrates the shaft, severing the cable. The car plummets down the shaft with its doomed occupants as the warehouse collapses into white-hot ruins.
Chapter 3
Robot Deathtrap
Attempting to rescue Sally from the clutches of Dr. Gore, Kip and Happy walk into a trap at the old warehouse, and…
As the Destroying Ray melts the warehouse walls, Rip, Happy and Sally plummet down the elevator shaft when the ray’s beam severs the elevator cable.
Fortunately, safety springs at the bottom of the shaft cushion the fall of the elevator car. Moreover, the trio is now below street level and they are spared the full force of the ray as it destroys the building above them. Shaken but unhurt, the three crawl free of the ruins and proceed to Sky Ranger Headquarters.
Meanwhile, gloating over his apparent victory, Dr. Gore has informed Vontz and Vera that the Destroying Ray is now almost ready to be turned over to them. Upon completion of the doctor’s call, the agents discuss the true nature of their mission — to steal the completed ray from Gore and execute him with it. They are not aware that the doctor plans to double-cross them.
At his laboratory, Gore and The Destroyer decide that only Leon Zolkin stands in the way of their plans. Gore instructs Lobo to bring Ray Webb to a conference that evening, to which Vera von Hendrich, mysteriously, has also been invited.
In the meantime, at Sky Ranger Headquarters Commander North has devised a plan to infiltrate Gore’s mob. Sally agrees to have her paper release a story reporting the death of the trio in the warehouse disaster, thereby lulling Gore into a sense of false security. Rip and Happy, in disguise, will then join Gore’s mob and attempt to locate his hidden lair. This plan is not revealed to the Sky Ranger staff, since North is now convinced, because of Gore’s apparent knowledge of Ranger movements, that there is a spy at his headquarters.
Sally informs them that while Gore’s prisoner she overheard a henchman mention a rendezvous at the Wun Lo Asiatic Import Corporation, and Rip and Happy determine to seek the gang there.
That evening, at his secret lair, Gore meets with Vera, and it is revealed that she is, in reality, a counteragent working with the doctor against the foreign power represented by Vontz. She informs him of the nature of Vontz’s planned double cross, and Gore resolves to deal with him at the proper time. For the moment, the doctor, convinced that the scientist’s genius can be useful to him, is determined to capture Zolkin alive. Upon Webb’s arrival, Gore outlines his plan…
Sally, meanwhile, has contacted Daisy, and they have proceeded to the Museum of Tibetan Art and Culture. The girls are suspicious of the curator and suspect that somehow he is in league with Gore.
At this moment, Rip and Happy arrive at the Wun Lo offices with a set of dummy Sky Ranger blueprints provided by Zolkin. They wish to sell these plans directly to Dr. Gore and refuse to deal with subordinates. Wun leaves them in an outer room, contacts The Destroyer by radio, and is instructed to bring the two to his secret headquarters.
Sally and Daisy, in the meantime, have arrived at the museum and are attempting to force the lock on Curator Raucher’s private office, unaware that an electronic death trap awaits anyone entering the room.
By now Rip and Happy, still in disguise have met The Destroyer who, after agreeing to transport them to Gore, informs a henchman that these men are spies. He orders that they be killed at once. The disguised rangers are taken by car to the outskirts of town.
At the museum at that very moment, Sally and Daisy succeed in forcing the lock on Raucher’s office and enter, unaware of their danger. Instantly, a rain of electrical fire begins falling from the ceiling, cutting off their escape. They watch helpless as the death-fall sweeps toward them.
In the speeding car, meanwhile, a henchman holding Rip and Happy at gunpoint informs them their ruse has failed. Making a sudden lunge, Rip grapples for the gun, and in the struggle Happy and his adversary are thrown clear of the careening vehicle as, uncontrolled, the auto hurtles madly toward a power generating station. Still bearing the battling Rip and the remaining henchman, the vehicle smashes through a fence and directly into the certain doom of a million-volt high-tension terminal, which explodes in a shower of sparks around the plummeting death car.
Chapter 4
The Mask of Evil
Sally and Daisy have forced the lock on Raucher’s office, unaware of the deathtrap awaiting them, while Rip and Happy, their identities discovered, battle with The Destroyer’s men in the speeding car, and…
In the struggle, Happy and his adversary are thrown clear of the careening vehicle as, uncontrolled, the auto hurtles madly toward a power generating station. Still bearing the battling Rip and the remaining henchman, the vehicle smashes through a fence and directly into the certain doom of a million-volt high-tension terminal, which explodes in a shower of sparks around the plummeting death car.
As a result of the crash, an entire section of the city is blacked-Out, and the electronic death mechanism in Raucher’s office is cut off. Shaken, Sally and Daisy flee from the museum and return to the office of the newspaper.
At the power station, the car has jarred to a stop beyond the demolished terminal, and Rip and the henchman have survived the crash, owing to the protective steel of the auto body. A live-wire, however, is draped across the hood, and Rip, aware that to touch the frame of the car means sudden death, attempts to dissuade the henchman from doing so, but to no avail. The henchman opens the auto door and is instantaneously killed. His body, however, falls clear, leaving the door open, upon which Rip launches himself through the opening to safety, as the gas tank of the auto bursts into flame behind him.
Rack on the highway. Happy has been knocked unconscious by Gore’s henchman and is being taken by auto to the secret hideout of the master-fiend himself. A search of his pockets reveals his Locataspace Device, a standard Sky Ranger unit, which electronically pinpoints the location of the bearer, and the henchmen resolve to turn this mechanism over to Dr. Gore at the earliest opportunity.
Shortly after, Zolkin, the scientist, who has determined Rip’s whereabouts by tracking his Locataspace Device, arrives by rocket ship at the burning power station. The Locataspace Screen within the ship shows that Happy is in motion and drawing farther and farther away. Zolkin and Rip, convinced of Happy’s capture by Gore’s men, follow the progress of the signal to learn Gore’s secret hiding place.
However, when the henchmen and their captive reach the underground laboratory, Gore immediately recognizes the nature of the Locataspace Device and instructs the henchmen to take it by car to the Asiatic Import Corporation in the city. After their departure, Gore instructs Lobo to follow and destroy the car when it is a safe distance away, thereby deceiving the rangers as to the location of his laboratory. At the rocket ship, Rip and Zolkin, unaware of Gore’s ruse, continue to track what they believe to be Happy’s signal.
Vera, in the meantime, observed Sally and Daisy leaving the museum and conveys this information to The Destroyer, who is under the impression that she is a double-agent working for Gore and The Society for the Destruction of the World against the foreign power. In reality, however, Vera is a triple-agent, owing allegiance only to Dr. Gore, who intends to double-cross the Society when it can no longer be of use to him.
At the newspaper, later, Sally and Daisy receive a phone tip on the location of the Society’s headquarters and determine to track it down over their editor’s protests.
Back at the rocket ship, Rip and Zolkin note that the Locataspace Device is no longer transmitting and rocket oil in the direction of its last signal. Lobo is ahead of them, however, and has destroyed the speeding car containing it with an electronic grenade of Gore’s design. When the rocket ship arrives on the scene, Rip and Zolkin discover only smoking wreckage. Convinced that Ranger Happy has been killed, they return sadly in the ship to headquarters.
Meanwhile, in Gore’s laboratory, the Mind-Freezing Ray is being tested on its first victim — Happy Gibson. The test successful, Gore instructs Happy to return to Ranger Headquarters, seek out Rip Storm, and kill him. His mind warped by the doctor’s device. Ranger Happy agrees and departs on his treacherous mission. At this point, Vera, who has been following the movements of Sally and Daisy, radios Gore that the girls are seeking the Society’s secret meeting place. Since they are sure to be captured and killed by the group. Gore hastens away, determined that his plans for Sally Blair will not be foiled.
Sally and Daisy, meantime, have located the brownstone headquarters of the Society. They are discovered, however, and, in the confusion. Daisy escapes, but Sally is taken prisoner by The Destroyer. Confronted by the hooded villain, Sally makes a sudden boll for freedom and in the darkness fails to see a black and yawning pit. As she plunges headlong into the trap, Sally’s fate seems sealed.
Simultaneously, at Sky Ranger Headquarters the mind-frozen Happy seeks Rip out in the Ranger trophy room, where he threatens his former partner at gunpoint. Rip, also armed, pleads with Happy not to shoot, lest he be forced to defend himself. Defiant, his brain twisted by Gore’s evil device. Happy opens fire, whereupon Rip’s own gun barks out its message of death.
Chapter 5
Quadruple Jeopardy
Sally, discovered spying on The Destroyer, attempts to escape and plummets into a yawning pit, while, at Sky Hanger Headquarters, the mind-frozen Happy confronts his former partner Hip at gunpoint, and…
Rip, also armed, pleads with Happy not to shoot, lest he be forced to defend himself. Defiant, his brain twisted by Gore’s evil device, Happy opens fire, whereupon Rip’s own gun barks out its message of death.
Having seen a way to subdue his friend without harming him, Rip aims at the cables supporting a trophy rocket model, which falls, knocking Happy unconscious. Rip takes his fallen comrade to Zolkin, who immediately recognizes the nature of Happy’s condition and begins work on a counteracting ray. Ray Webb, overhearing the conversation, dashes off to radio Gore.
Meanwhile, at the Society’s headquarters, Sally is lying unconscious at the bottom of the pit. Gore, hurrying to the scene through a secret tunnel, enters at the bottom of the shaft and. finding the prone figure of Sally, bears her off to his hideout. Daisy, meantime, attempting to flee for help, is kidnapped by Vera, who takes the struggling girl to the Museum.
Back at Ranger Headquarters, Zolkin is slowly developing the device which he hopes will cure Happy. His progress is slow, and Rip waits worriedly as Zolkin attempts every means known to his science to bring Happy to his senses.
Meanwhile, Commander North, monitoring at Sky Ranger Communications Center, overhears Webb’s message to Gore. Knowing now the identity of the spy, the Commander hastens to Rip and Zolkin and informs them of Gore’s plan to capture the Sky Ranger scientist. Zolkin suggests that Gore be allowed to succeed, since the doctor seems to want him alive, as he would then be in a position to learn the nature of the doctor’s defenses. After discussion, Rip and North agree to the plan. Zolkin, however, is still determined to cure Happy before putting the scheme into effect.
At Gore’s hideout, Sally has been brought before the doctor and, angered by her capture, insults Gore to his face. Enraged, Gore instructs Lobo to put Sally to death in the lava pits below the laboratory.
At the museum, at this very moment, Daisy has managed to elude Vera long enough to get a call through to Ranger Headquarters. She informs Rip of Sally’s latest whereabouts and tells him the location of the Society’s meeting place. Before she can reveal her own location, however, Vera discovers her on the phone, and the connection is broken. The hapless girl is sealed in an airless sarcophagus by Vera, who informs her that the oxygen will not last more than an hour.
At Ranger Headquarters, meanwhile. Zolkin has discovered the antidote for the Mind-Freezing Ray. Rapidly instructing Rip in its use, Zolkin allows himself to be captured by Webb and taken to Gore’s hideout, leaving Rip to work on Happy. Shortly thereafter, Happy returns to his senses, and the Rangers immediately head for the headquarters of The Society for the Destruction of the World.
Sally, in the meantime, has been taken to the lava pits and is hanging by her heels over a pool of molten rock as an automatic mechanism slowly lowers her to certain doom.
Rip and Happy, arriving at the Society meeting-place, decide to split up for safety. Rip, going ahead, is discovered and captured and is brought before The Destroyer, who orders him executed. Happy, following dose behind, bursts into the room in time to see Rip chained to the wall in the path of a Death Ray Machine.
At the underground lair, meanwhile, Webb and Zolkin are confronted by Gore, who opens fire, thereby removing the last bit of hope for the doomed Sally’s rescue.
Chapter 6
The Final Reckoning
Daisy has been sealed in a suffocating sarcophagus by Vera, and Hip is tied helpless in the path of a Death Hay at the Destroyers hideout, while Zolkin, facing certain death from Dr. Core’s revolver, is unable to aid Sally, being slowly lowered helpless into a pit of molten lava, when…
Happy, seizing upon the momentary confusion caused by his sudden appearance in the room where Rip is chained to the wall, smashes the Death Ray Machine before its beam can reach Rip. The senior Ranger manages to release himself, and he and Happy battle furiously with the members of the Society for the Destruction of the World.
Meanwhile, at Core’s hidden lair, the doctor’s bullet has found the heart of Ray Webb, who, Gore explains to Zolkin, is no longer useful, now that his duplicity has been discovered. Gore then proposes that Zolkin make his scientific genius available to the doctor’s organization, which Zolkin agrees to do on the condition that no harm come to Sally, who, he is sure, is in the doctor’s clutches. Agreeing to this, Gore instructs Lobo to halt the mechanism that is lowering the helpless girl to her doom, which the mindless henchman succeeds in doing in the nick of time.
In the meantime, at the museum, a struggling Daisy has succeeded in unbalancing the sarcophagus by shifting her weight, and the heavy coffin falls to the floor, bursting open and releasing her. Quickly recovering from her ordeal, Daisy discovers a map in Raucher’s office which shows the precise location of Gore’s hideaway. She heads toward Sky Ranger Headquarters immediately with this invaluable information.
At the Society meeting place, meanwhile. Rip and Happy have almost completely succeeded in subduing all the members of the evil group. During the battle, Vera arrives, and, realizing that the Society has been exposed, sets a time-bomb before fleeing back to Gore. Rip and Happy fight their way clear of the building before the infernal mechanism detonates, demolishing the Society and all its members, save The Destroyer.
At Gore’s laboratory, at that very moment, Zolkin and the now released Sally are studying the Doctor’s fiendish Mind-Freezer. The Ranger scientist soon discovers the principle of its operation and conceives of a plan to render Gore powerless.
Rip and Happy, returning to headquarters, find Daisy in conference with Commander North and soon learn the whereabouts of Gore’s lair from the map she has stolen. Daisy also informs them that, by listening from within the sarcophagus to a phone call by Vera, she learned of Sally’s capture by Gore. North orders an immediate armada of rocket ships assembled for the final assault on Dr. Gore.
Vera, meanwhile, arrives at Gore’s hideout and informs him of the fate of the Society. It is her belief, however, that The Destroyer has escaped and could still seriously hinder their plans. Gore sweeps her objections away. The Mind-Freezer is now ready, and Dr. Gore needs help from no man. Nothing now can possibly stop his plan for the conquest of the world. Vera convinces him that Vontz, at least, should be liquidated, and he instructs her to bring the agent to the hidden lair.
At this moment, The Destroyer, his headquarters destroyed and all his henchmen dead, realizes that only Vera von Hendrich could have been responsible for this betrayal and that therefore she must be in league with Gore. He starts at once for the doctor’s mountain stronghold.
Vera, meanwhile, has succeeded in luring Vontz to Gore’s hideout with the information that the Destroying Ray is now complete and ready to be turned over to the foreign power. Upon their arrival, the treacherous Vontz holds Gore at gunpoint, but, unsuspecting, hands the gun to Vera, who immediately shoots Vontz, her one-time associate, dead. At this moment, however, The Destroyer, who has been listening to the conversation, leaps from concealment and grapples with Gore. In the resulting confusion, Vera effects her escape.
At that very moment, at Sky Ranger Headquarters, the armada is nearing readiness. Rip and Happy, concerned for the safety of Sally and Zolkin, are permitted by North to precede the sky force and attempt to penetrate Gore’s lair on foot.
Meanwhile, in Gore’s laboratory, Zolkin searches for a way to convert the Mind-Freezing Ray to his own purposes. While he studies the evil machine, Rip and Happy succeed in penetrating the stronghold. Before they can locate Gore, however, Zolkin succeeds in adapting the Mind-Freezer and switches it on. As modified by the Ranger scientist, the Mind-Freezing Ray now has the reverse effect on the minds of its subjects, repressing all the evil and bringing only the good to the surface.
At that moment, The Destroyer, now under the influence of the my, ceases fighting with Dr. Gore and unmasks himself as J. Lyman Raucher, curator of the Museum of Tibetan Art and Culture, Gore, unaffected by the modified ray, shoots the reformed Raucher down.
Rip and Happy, meanwhile, have reached Zolkin and Sally, and lead them to safety as the Ranger armada arrives. The underground fortress of Dr. Gore is emptying of his henchmen, now reformed and repentant due to the action of the reversed Mind-Freezing Ray.
With only the mindless Lobo still at his side, Gore, enraged beyond reason at the thwarting of his scheme, turns his Destroying Rayon at full power in a mad effort to annihilate the Sky Ranger force. Pushed beyond its power capacity, its tubes bursting and its wiring running into white-hot liquid, the ray machine explodes, destroying the secret lair, Lobo, and the insane Dr. Gore in a blinding flash of energy.
Shortly after, at Sky Ranger Headquarters, Rip and Happy receive a special citation from Commander North for their brave and fearless work, while Sally and Daisy look on proudly. Zolkin, meanwhile, is hard at work on a further version of the Mind Ray, one which will eventually extend its influence around the world, thereby assuring that the forces of evil will never again be able to threaten the Sky Rangers.
Once upon a time, when the world teas young and simple, and so were we, a kid could enter a theater on a Saturday afternoon and, after waiting impatiently through the two features and the three cartoons, be rewarded by that glorious fifteen minutes of death and destruction known to all as the Chapter. Today, a kid can get his cartoons on the television set, and the feature movies at his neighborhood theater are much the same as ever, but where in the world is he going to find himself a good ripsnorting Chapter? Nowhere. Nowhere.
Breathes there a man alive today who didn’t as a child stand up on his seat and cheer when, with a familiar brrrannggg, the latest episode of his favorite serial came flashing on the screen? If there is one at all, he’s probably the kid with glasses who always got A in geography. All red-blooded, red-eyed, bloodthirsty regular guys would no more miss their weekly Chapter that always closed with a cliff-hanging scene than tune out Tom Mix in favor of Just Plain Bill.
To all such fire-breathing boys now disguised as men, the following is dedicated. Everything is here: the fast cars and the slow thought processes, the secret panels in the walls of the apartment, the ka-pwing of revolver ricochets in a California canyon, the mysterious rays that burned gaping holes through strongest steel, the inspiring fist fights that knocked people out of action but never out of their hats, the sputtering rocket ships held up by thick black wires, the hero in his padded costume and the heroine in her padded shoulders, and the mad, mad villain who has escaped once more from his padded cell. All frantically hurled together in a world of evil evil and good good. No economy has been spared in bringing you this flashback into the glorious time when serials were better than movies, and Saturday afternoon was by far the most glorious lime of all…
Chapter 1 The Return of Doctor Gore
At Sky Ranger Headquarters high atop a peak in the North American Rockies. Commander Harlowe North calls into his office Captain Rip Storm and his faithful sidekick Happy Gibson, for briefing on a special assignment. North, through a confidential agent, has received a secret document suggesting that Doctor Gore, the villainous scientific genius whom they had thought to be dead at the conclusion of Kip Storm of the Sky Rangers (1954), is still alive and in league with a mysterious organization known only as The Society for the Destruction of the World. North instructs Rip and Happy to search from the air in the vicinity of the Grand Tetons, where it is believed Gore’s secret laboratory is located.
Upon leaving North’s office, the Sky Rangers encounter Sally Blair, girl reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, and her friend Daisy Bates. Sally, having received a tip that a big story is brewing, is determined to get air exclusive. The Sky Rangers, however, refuse to reveal the nature of their mission.
Stopping off at the headquarters laboratories, Rip and Happy learn that Leon Zolkin, scientist, has perfected a device which detects unusual ray activity. Since this would aid their search for Dr. Gore. Zolkin arranges to have the device installed in Rip’s rocket ship by Sky Ranger Mechanic Ray Webb, who is secretly in league with Gore.
Meanwhile, Sally and Daisy have returned to the newspaper, where Sally, after consulting her editor, determines to stow away on a Sky Ranger rocket ship.
At this moment, in his underground lair, Dr. Gore is greeting Vontz and Vera von Hendrich, agents of a foreign power which has been financing the doctor’s research into a new Destroying Ray in the expectation that Gore will turn it over to it on completion. The agents are angered by Gore’s apparent stalling on the unit, but the doctor informs them that he has perfected a small working model.
Interrupted by a call from Webb, Gore learns that the Sky Ranger rocket ship is even now proceeding toward his headquarters. Gore, seeing an opportunity to convince Vontz and Vera of his good intentions, offers to demonstrate his ray by blasting the rocket ship out of the sky.
In the meantime, Rip and Happy, unaware of Sally’s presence aboard, pilot their craft to the sector indicated by Commander North. Zolkin’s Ray Detector Device soon reveals that they have flown within range of a powerful but unknown electromagnetic force.
At this moment, a bolt from Gore’s device scores a direct hit on the Sky Ranger craft. Helpless, their ship out of control, Rip. Happy and Sally fall to their dooms below.
Chapter 2 Descending Doom
Searching for the hideout of the notorious Doctor Gore, Rip Storm and Happy Gibson find evidence of an electromagnetic ray in operation, when…
A bolt from Gore’s device scores a direct hit on the Sky Ranger craft. Helpless, their ship out of control, Rip, Happy and (unknown to them) Sally plunge earthward, the fuel tanks aflame. But at the last moment Rip, struggling with the controls, lands the ship safely in the lee of a ridge and out of sight of Gore’s remote television viewing device. Shaken, Rip and Happy succeed in extinguishing the blare before it gets out of control.
Meanwhile, at the laboratory, Vontz and Vera congratulate Gore on his genius and pledge their country’s continued aid. After their departure, The Destroyer, mysterious hooded leader of The Society for the Destruction of the World, enters with Lobo, Gore’s mindless henchman. It is revealed that the Destroying Ray is merely a front for Gore’s true work. He is developing a device which he calls the Mind-Freezing Ray which blots out the good in human beings, making them completely evil. Victims of this ray are subject to the will of Dr. Gore, and it is his intention to amass an army against the forces of justice and sanity.
Meantime, at the fallen rocket ship, Rip and Happy contact Sky Ranger Headquarters and inform North of the near disaster. Instructed to return to headquarters, they head toward the highway, unaware that Sally is lying unconscious in the cargo hold of their ship.
Gore, meanwhile, after The Destroyer’s departure, has sent a party of henchmen to recover the bodies of the Sky Rangers. Finding Sally alone, the henchmen blindfold her and return with her to Gore’s laboratory.
Upon reaching the highway, Rip and Happy are given a lift by a passing truck loaded with electronic equipment intended for Gore. Recognizing the nature of the apparatus, Rip and Happy overpower the driver and force him to reveal that his destination is the Museum of Tibetan Art and Culture in a nearby city. Unable to extract any further information, the Rangers turn the driver over to the Highway Police and proceed into town.
In the meantime, Dr. Gore has confronted Sally Blair in his secret hideaway. Telling her that she is valuable to him as bait, he outlines a plan to set a trap for the Sky Rangers that very night. At Gore’s instruction, Lobo and the henchmen take Sally to a warehouse in the city. Gore then sends a radio message on a Sky Ranger frequency telling of Sally’s whereabouts.
At the museum, meanwhile, Rip and Happy question J. Lyman Raucher, curator, who denies any knowledge of Dr. Gore or the machinery intended for the museum. Rip and Happy, dissatisfied, leave for Sky Ranger Headquarters.
Upon arrival, the rangers learn from Daisy Bates of Gore’s radio message and hurry away to rescue Sally at once.
At the warehouse, the Rangers find Sally on the top floor, bound to a chair. As they release her. Gore’s voice booms out from concealed speakers, informing them that their fate is sealed. Even now, the Destroying Ray is trained on the warehouse. There is no escape.
With the very walls around them beginning to glow and melt, the Rangers and Sally race to the elevator. As the car descends, the beam of the ray penetrates the shaft, severing the cable. The car plummets down the shaft with its doomed occupants as the warehouse collapses into white-hot ruins.
Chapter 3 Robot Deathtrap
Attempting to rescue Sally from the clutches of Dr. Gore, Kip and Happy walk into a trap at the old warehouse, and…
As the Destroying Ray melts the warehouse walls, Rip, Happy and Sally plummet down the elevator shaft when the ray’s beam severs the elevator cable.
Fortunately, safety springs at the bottom of the shaft cushion the fall of the elevator car. Moreover, the trio is now below street level and they are spared the full force of the ray as it destroys the building above them. Shaken but unhurt, the three crawl free of the ruins and proceed to Sky Ranger Headquarters.
Meanwhile, gloating over his apparent victory, Dr. Gore has informed Vontz and Vera that the Destroying Ray is now almost ready to be turned over to them. Upon completion of the doctor’s call, the agents discuss the true nature of their mission — to steal the completed ray from Gore and execute him with it. They are not aware that the doctor plans to double-cross them.
At his laboratory, Gore and The Destroyer decide that only Leon Zolkin stands in the way of their plans. Gore instructs Lobo to bring Ray Webb to a conference that evening, to which Vera von Hendrich, mysteriously, has also been invited.
In the meantime, at Sky Ranger Headquarters Commander North has devised a plan to infiltrate Gore’s mob. Sally agrees to have her paper release a story reporting the death of the trio in the warehouse disaster, thereby lulling Gore into a sense of false security. Rip and Happy, in disguise, will then join Gore’s mob and attempt to locate his hidden lair. This plan is not revealed to the Sky Ranger staff, since North is now convinced, because of Gore’s apparent knowledge of Ranger movements, that there is a spy at his headquarters.
Sally informs them that while Gore’s prisoner she overheard a henchman mention a rendezvous at the Wun Lo Asiatic Import Corporation, and Rip and Happy determine to seek the gang there.
That evening, at his secret lair, Gore meets with Vera, and it is revealed that she is, in reality, a counteragent working with the doctor against the foreign power represented by Vontz. She informs him of the nature of Vontz’s planned double cross, and Gore resolves to deal with him at the proper time. For the moment, the doctor, convinced that the scientist’s genius can be useful to him, is determined to capture Zolkin alive. Upon Webb’s arrival, Gore outlines his plan…
Sally, meanwhile, has contacted Daisy, and they have proceeded to the Museum of Tibetan Art and Culture. The girls are suspicious of the curator and suspect that somehow he is in league with Gore.
At this moment, Rip and Happy arrive at the Wun Lo offices with a set of dummy Sky Ranger blueprints provided by Zolkin. They wish to sell these plans directly to Dr. Gore and refuse to deal with subordinates. Wun leaves them in an outer room, contacts The Destroyer by radio, and is instructed to bring the two to his secret headquarters.
Sally and Daisy, in the meantime, have arrived at the museum and are attempting to force the lock on Curator Raucher’s private office, unaware that an electronic death trap awaits anyone entering the room.
By now Rip and Happy, still in disguise have met The Destroyer who, after agreeing to transport them to Gore, informs a henchman that these men are spies. He orders that they be killed at once. The disguised rangers are taken by car to the outskirts of town.
At the museum at that very moment, Sally and Daisy succeed in forcing the lock on Raucher’s office and enter, unaware of their danger. Instantly, a rain of electrical fire begins falling from the ceiling, cutting off their escape. They watch helpless as the death-fall sweeps toward them.
In the speeding car, meanwhile, a henchman holding Rip and Happy at gunpoint informs them their ruse has failed. Making a sudden lunge, Rip grapples for the gun, and in the struggle Happy and his adversary are thrown clear of the careening vehicle as, uncontrolled, the auto hurtles madly toward a power generating station. Still bearing the battling Rip and the remaining henchman, the vehicle smashes through a fence and directly into the certain doom of a million-volt high-tension terminal, which explodes in a shower of sparks around the plummeting death car.
Chapter 4 The Mask of Evil
Sally and Daisy have forced the lock on Raucher’s office, unaware of the deathtrap awaiting them, while Rip and Happy, their identities discovered, battle with The Destroyer’s men in the speeding car, and…
In the struggle, Happy and his adversary are thrown clear of the careening vehicle as, uncontrolled, the auto hurtles madly toward a power generating station. Still bearing the battling Rip and the remaining henchman, the vehicle smashes through a fence and directly into the certain doom of a million-volt high-tension terminal, which explodes in a shower of sparks around the plummeting death car.
As a result of the crash, an entire section of the city is blacked-Out, and the electronic death mechanism in Raucher’s office is cut off. Shaken, Sally and Daisy flee from the museum and return to the office of the newspaper.
At the power station, the car has jarred to a stop beyond the demolished terminal, and Rip and the henchman have survived the crash, owing to the protective steel of the auto body. A live-wire, however, is draped across the hood, and Rip, aware that to touch the frame of the car means sudden death, attempts to dissuade the henchman from doing so, but to no avail. The henchman opens the auto door and is instantaneously killed. His body, however, falls clear, leaving the door open, upon which Rip launches himself through the opening to safety, as the gas tank of the auto bursts into flame behind him.
Rack on the highway. Happy has been knocked unconscious by Gore’s henchman and is being taken by auto to the secret hideout of the master-fiend himself. A search of his pockets reveals his Locataspace Device, a standard Sky Ranger unit, which electronically pinpoints the location of the bearer, and the henchmen resolve to turn this mechanism over to Dr. Gore at the earliest opportunity.
Shortly after, Zolkin, the scientist, who has determined Rip’s whereabouts by tracking his Locataspace Device, arrives by rocket ship at the burning power station. The Locataspace Screen within the ship shows that Happy is in motion and drawing farther and farther away. Zolkin and Rip, convinced of Happy’s capture by Gore’s men, follow the progress of the signal to learn Gore’s secret hiding place.
However, when the henchmen and their captive reach the underground laboratory, Gore immediately recognizes the nature of the Locataspace Device and instructs the henchmen to take it by car to the Asiatic Import Corporation in the city. After their departure, Gore instructs Lobo to follow and destroy the car when it is a safe distance away, thereby deceiving the rangers as to the location of his laboratory. At the rocket ship, Rip and Zolkin, unaware of Gore’s ruse, continue to track what they believe to be Happy’s signal.
Vera, in the meantime, observed Sally and Daisy leaving the museum and conveys this information to The Destroyer, who is under the impression that she is a double-agent working for Gore and The Society for the Destruction of the World against the foreign power. In reality, however, Vera is a triple-agent, owing allegiance only to Dr. Gore, who intends to double-cross the Society when it can no longer be of use to him.
At the newspaper, later, Sally and Daisy receive a phone tip on the location of the Society’s headquarters and determine to track it down over their editor’s protests.
Back at the rocket ship, Rip and Zolkin note that the Locataspace Device is no longer transmitting and rocket oil in the direction of its last signal. Lobo is ahead of them, however, and has destroyed the speeding car containing it with an electronic grenade of Gore’s design. When the rocket ship arrives on the scene, Rip and Zolkin discover only smoking wreckage. Convinced that Ranger Happy has been killed, they return sadly in the ship to headquarters.
Meanwhile, in Gore’s laboratory, the Mind-Freezing Ray is being tested on its first victim — Happy Gibson. The test successful, Gore instructs Happy to return to Ranger Headquarters, seek out Rip Storm, and kill him. His mind warped by the doctor’s device. Ranger Happy agrees and departs on his treacherous mission. At this point, Vera, who has been following the movements of Sally and Daisy, radios Gore that the girls are seeking the Society’s secret meeting place. Since they are sure to be captured and killed by the group. Gore hastens away, determined that his plans for Sally Blair will not be foiled.
Sally and Daisy, meantime, have located the brownstone headquarters of the Society. They are discovered, however, and, in the confusion. Daisy escapes, but Sally is taken prisoner by The Destroyer. Confronted by the hooded villain, Sally makes a sudden boll for freedom and in the darkness fails to see a black and yawning pit. As she plunges headlong into the trap, Sally’s fate seems sealed.
Simultaneously, at Sky Ranger Headquarters the mind-frozen Happy seeks Rip out in the Ranger trophy room, where he threatens his former partner at gunpoint. Rip, also armed, pleads with Happy not to shoot, lest he be forced to defend himself. Defiant, his brain twisted by Gore’s evil device. Happy opens fire, whereupon Rip’s own gun barks out its message of death.
Chapter 5 Quadruple Jeopardy
Sally, discovered spying on The Destroyer, attempts to escape and plummets into a yawning pit, while, at Sky Hanger Headquarters, the mind-frozen Happy confronts his former partner Hip at gunpoint, and…
Rip, also armed, pleads with Happy not to shoot, lest he be forced to defend himself. Defiant, his brain twisted by Gore’s evil device, Happy opens fire, whereupon Rip’s own gun barks out its message of death.
Having seen a way to subdue his friend without harming him, Rip aims at the cables supporting a trophy rocket model, which falls, knocking Happy unconscious. Rip takes his fallen comrade to Zolkin, who immediately recognizes the nature of Happy’s condition and begins work on a counteracting ray. Ray Webb, overhearing the conversation, dashes off to radio Gore.
Meanwhile, at the Society’s headquarters, Sally is lying unconscious at the bottom of the pit. Gore, hurrying to the scene through a secret tunnel, enters at the bottom of the shaft and. finding the prone figure of Sally, bears her off to his hideout. Daisy, meantime, attempting to flee for help, is kidnapped by Vera, who takes the struggling girl to the Museum.
Back at Ranger Headquarters, Zolkin is slowly developing the device which he hopes will cure Happy. His progress is slow, and Rip waits worriedly as Zolkin attempts every means known to his science to bring Happy to his senses.
Meanwhile, Commander North, monitoring at Sky Ranger Communications Center, overhears Webb’s message to Gore. Knowing now the identity of the spy, the Commander hastens to Rip and Zolkin and informs them of Gore’s plan to capture the Sky Ranger scientist. Zolkin suggests that Gore be allowed to succeed, since the doctor seems to want him alive, as he would then be in a position to learn the nature of the doctor’s defenses. After discussion, Rip and North agree to the plan. Zolkin, however, is still determined to cure Happy before putting the scheme into effect.
At Gore’s hideout, Sally has been brought before the doctor and, angered by her capture, insults Gore to his face. Enraged, Gore instructs Lobo to put Sally to death in the lava pits below the laboratory.
At the museum, at this very moment, Daisy has managed to elude Vera long enough to get a call through to Ranger Headquarters. She informs Rip of Sally’s latest whereabouts and tells him the location of the Society’s meeting place. Before she can reveal her own location, however, Vera discovers her on the phone, and the connection is broken. The hapless girl is sealed in an airless sarcophagus by Vera, who informs her that the oxygen will not last more than an hour.
At Ranger Headquarters, meanwhile. Zolkin has discovered the antidote for the Mind-Freezing Ray. Rapidly instructing Rip in its use, Zolkin allows himself to be captured by Webb and taken to Gore’s hideout, leaving Rip to work on Happy. Shortly thereafter, Happy returns to his senses, and the Rangers immediately head for the headquarters of The Society for the Destruction of the World.
Sally, in the meantime, has been taken to the lava pits and is hanging by her heels over a pool of molten rock as an automatic mechanism slowly lowers her to certain doom.
Rip and Happy, arriving at the Society meeting-place, decide to split up for safety. Rip, going ahead, is discovered and captured and is brought before The Destroyer, who orders him executed. Happy, following dose behind, bursts into the room in time to see Rip chained to the wall in the path of a Death Ray Machine.
At the underground lair, meanwhile, Webb and Zolkin are confronted by Gore, who opens fire, thereby removing the last bit of hope for the doomed Sally’s rescue.
Chapter 6 The Final Reckoning
Daisy has been sealed in a suffocating sarcophagus by Vera, and Hip is tied helpless in the path of a Death Hay at the Destroyers hideout, while Zolkin, facing certain death from Dr. Core’s revolver, is unable to aid Sally, being slowly lowered helpless into a pit of molten lava, when…
Happy, seizing upon the momentary confusion caused by his sudden appearance in the room where Rip is chained to the wall, smashes the Death Ray Machine before its beam can reach Rip. The senior Ranger manages to release himself, and he and Happy battle furiously with the members of the Society for the Destruction of the World.
Meanwhile, at Core’s hidden lair, the doctor’s bullet has found the heart of Ray Webb, who, Gore explains to Zolkin, is no longer useful, now that his duplicity has been discovered. Gore then proposes that Zolkin make his scientific genius available to the doctor’s organization, which Zolkin agrees to do on the condition that no harm come to Sally, who, he is sure, is in the doctor’s clutches. Agreeing to this, Gore instructs Lobo to halt the mechanism that is lowering the helpless girl to her doom, which the mindless henchman succeeds in doing in the nick of time.
In the meantime, at the museum, a struggling Daisy has succeeded in unbalancing the sarcophagus by shifting her weight, and the heavy coffin falls to the floor, bursting open and releasing her. Quickly recovering from her ordeal, Daisy discovers a map in Raucher’s office which shows the precise location of Gore’s hideaway. She heads toward Sky Ranger Headquarters immediately with this invaluable information.
At the Society meeting place, meanwhile. Rip and Happy have almost completely succeeded in subduing all the members of the evil group. During the battle, Vera arrives, and, realizing that the Society has been exposed, sets a time-bomb before fleeing back to Gore. Rip and Happy fight their way clear of the building before the infernal mechanism detonates, demolishing the Society and all its members, save The Destroyer.
At Gore’s laboratory, at that very moment, Zolkin and the now released Sally are studying the Doctor’s fiendish Mind-Freezer. The Ranger scientist soon discovers the principle of its operation and conceives of a plan to render Gore powerless.
Rip and Happy, returning to headquarters, find Daisy in conference with Commander North and soon learn the whereabouts of Gore’s lair from the map she has stolen. Daisy also informs them that, by listening from within the sarcophagus to a phone call by Vera, she learned of Sally’s capture by Gore. North orders an immediate armada of rocket ships assembled for the final assault on Dr. Gore.
Vera, meanwhile, arrives at Gore’s hideout and informs him of the fate of the Society. It is her belief, however, that The Destroyer has escaped and could still seriously hinder their plans. Gore sweeps her objections away. The Mind-Freezer is now ready, and Dr. Gore needs help from no man. Nothing now can possibly stop his plan for the conquest of the world. Vera convinces him that Vontz, at least, should be liquidated, and he instructs her to bring the agent to the hidden lair.
At this moment, The Destroyer, his headquarters destroyed and all his henchmen dead, realizes that only Vera von Hendrich could have been responsible for this betrayal and that therefore she must be in league with Gore. He starts at once for the doctor’s mountain stronghold.
Vera, meanwhile, has succeeded in luring Vontz to Gore’s hideout with the information that the Destroying Ray is now complete and ready to be turned over to the foreign power. Upon their arrival, the treacherous Vontz holds Gore at gunpoint, but, unsuspecting, hands the gun to Vera, who immediately shoots Vontz, her one-time associate, dead. At this moment, however, The Destroyer, who has been listening to the conversation, leaps from concealment and grapples with Gore. In the resulting confusion, Vera effects her escape.
At that very moment, at Sky Ranger Headquarters, the armada is nearing readiness. Rip and Happy, concerned for the safety of Sally and Zolkin, are permitted by North to precede the sky force and attempt to penetrate Gore’s lair on foot.
Meanwhile, in Gore’s laboratory, Zolkin searches for a way to convert the Mind-Freezing Ray to his own purposes. While he studies the evil machine, Rip and Happy succeed in penetrating the stronghold. Before they can locate Gore, however, Zolkin succeeds in adapting the Mind-Freezer and switches it on. As modified by the Ranger scientist, the Mind-Freezing Ray now has the reverse effect on the minds of its subjects, repressing all the evil and bringing only the good to the surface.
At that moment, The Destroyer, now under the influence of the my, ceases fighting with Dr. Gore and unmasks himself as J. Lyman Raucher, curator of the Museum of Tibetan Art and Culture, Gore, unaffected by the modified ray, shoots the reformed Raucher down.
Rip and Happy, meanwhile, have reached Zolkin and Sally, and lead them to safety as the Ranger armada arrives. The underground fortress of Dr. Gore is emptying of his henchmen, now reformed and repentant due to the action of the reversed Mind-Freezing Ray.
With only the mindless Lobo still at his side, Gore, enraged beyond reason at the thwarting of his scheme, turns his Destroying Rayon at full power in a mad effort to annihilate the Sky Ranger force. Pushed beyond its power capacity, its tubes bursting and its wiring running into white-hot liquid, the ray machine explodes, destroying the secret lair, Lobo, and the insane Dr. Gore in a blinding flash of energy.
Shortly after, at Sky Ranger Headquarters, Rip and Happy receive a special citation from Commander North for their brave and fearless work, while Sally and Daisy look on proudly. Zolkin, meanwhile, is hard at work on a further version of the Mind Ray, one which will eventually extend its influence around the world, thereby assuring that the forces of evil will never again be able to threaten the Sky Rangers.
Domestic Intrigue
“Mrs. Carroll,” said the nasty man, “I happen to know that your husband is insanely jealous.”
I happened to know the same thing myself, and so there was nothing for me to do but agree. Robert was insanely jealous. “However,” I added, “I fail to see where that is any of your business.”
The nasty man smiled at me, nastily. “I’ll come to that,” he said.
“You entered this house,” I reminded him, “under the guise of taking some sort of survey. Yet you ask me no questions at all about my television viewing habits. On the contrary, you promptly begin to make comments about my personal life. I think it more than likely that you are a fraud.”
“Ah, madam,” he said, with that nasty smile of his, under that nasty little mustache, “of course I’m a fraud. Aren’t we all frauds, each in his — or her — own way?”
“I think,” I said, as icily as possible, “it would be best if you were to leave. At once.”
He made no move to get up from the sofa. In fact, he even spread out a bit more than before, acting as though at any instant he might kick off his shoes and take a nap. “If your husband,” he said lazily, “were to discover another man making love to you, there’s no doubt in my mind that Mr. Carroll would shoot the other man on the spot.”
Once again I had no choice but to agree, since Robert had more than once said the same thing to me, waving that great big pistol of his around and shouting, “If I ever see another man so much as kiss you, I’ll blow his brains out, I swear I will!”
Still, that was my cross to bear, and hardly a subject for idle chatter with perfect strangers who had sailed into my living room under false colors, and I said as much. “I don’t know where you got your information,” I went on, “and I don’t care. Nor do I care to discuss my private life with you. If you do not leave, I shall telephone the police at once.”
The nasty man smiled his nasty smile and said, “I don’t think you’ll call the police, Mrs. Carroll. You aren’t a stupid woman. I think you realize by now I’m here for a reason, and I think you’d like to know what that reason is. Am I right?”
He was right to an extent, to the extent that I had the uneasy feeling he knew even more about my private life than he’d already mentioned, possibly even more than Robert knew, but I was hardly anxious to hear him say the words that would confirm my suspicions, so I told him, “I find it unlikely that you could have anything to say to me that would interest me in the slightest.”
“I haven’t bored you so far,” he said, with a sudden crispness in his tone, and I saw that the indolent way he had of lounging on my sofa was pure pretense, that underneath he was sharp and hard and very self-aware. But this glimpse of his interior was as brief as it was startling; he slouched at once back into that infuriating pose of idleness and said, “Your husband carries that revolver of his everywhere, doesn’t he? A Colt Cobra, isn’t it? Thirty-eight caliber. Quite a fierce little gun.”
“My husband is in the jewelry business,” I said. “He very frequently carries on his person valuable gems or large amounts of money. He has a permit for the gun, because of the business he’s in.”
“Yes, indeed, I know all that.” He looked around admiringly and said, “And he does very well at it, too, doesn’t he?”
“You are beginning to bore me,” I said, and half-turned away. “I believe I’ll call the police now.”
Quietly, the nasty man said, “Poor William.”
I stopped. I turned around. I said, “What was that?”
“No longer bored?” Under the miserable mustache, he smiled once again his nasty smile.
I said, “Explain yourself!”
“You mean, why did I say, ‘Poor William’? I was merely thinking about what would happen to William if a Colt Cobra were pointed at him, and the trigger pulled, and a thirty-eight caliber bullet were to crash through his body.”
I suddenly felt faint. I took three steps to the left and rested my hands on the back of a chair. “What’s his last name?” I demanded, though the demand was somewhat nullified by the tremor in my voice. “William who?”
He looked at me, and again he gave me a glimpse of the steel within. He said, “Shall I really say the name, Mrs. Carroll? Is there more than one William in your life?”
“There are no Williams in my life,” I said, but despairingly, knowing now that this nasty man knew everything. But how? How?
“Then I must say the name,” he said. “William Car—”
“Stop!”
He smiled. His teeth were very even and very white and very sparkly. I hated them. He said softly, “Won’t you sit down, Mrs. Carroll? You seem a bit pale.”
I moved around the chair I’d been holding for support, and settled into it, rather heavily and gracelessly. I said, “I don’t know when my husband will be home, he could be—”
“I do,” he said briskly. “Not before one-fifteen. He has appointments till one, and it’s at least a fifteen minute drive here from his last appointment.” He flickered back to indolence, saying lazily, “I come well prepared, you see, Mrs. Carroll.”
“So I see.”
“You are beginning,” he said, “to wonder what on Earth it is that I want. I seem to know so very much about you, and so far I have shown no interest in doing anything but talk. Isn’t that odd?”
From the alert and mocking expression on his face, I knew he required an answer, and so I said, “I suppose you can do what you want. It’s your party.”
“So it is. Mrs. Carroll, would you like to see your good friend William dead? Murdered? Shot down in cold blood?”
My own blood ran cold at the thought of it. William! My love! In all this bleak and brutal world, only one touch of tenderness, of beauty, of hope do I see, and that is William. If it weren’t for those stolen moments with William, how could I go on another minute with Robert?
If only it were William who was rich, rather than Robert. But William was poor, pitifully poor, and as he was a poet, it was unlikely he would ever be anything but poor. And as for me, I admit that I was spoiled, that the thought of giving up the comforts and luxuries which Robert’s money could bring me made me blanch just as much as the thought of giving up William. I needed them both in equal urgency; William’s love and Robert’s money.
The nasty man, having waited in vain for me to answer his rhetorical question, at last said, “I can see you would not like it. William is important to you.”
“Yes,” I said, or whispered, unable to keep from confessing it. “Oh, yes, he is.”
Until William, I had thought that all men were beasts. My mother — bless her soul — had said constantly that all men were beasts, all through my adolescence, after my father disappeared, and I had come to maturity firmly believing that she was right. I had married Robert even though I’d known he was a beast, but simply because I had believed there was no choice in the matter, that one married a beast or one didn’t marry at all. And Robert did have the advantage of being rich.
But now I had found William, and I had found true love, and I had learned what my mother never knew; that not all men are beasts. Almost all, yes, but not entirely all. Here and there one can find the beautiful exception. Like William. But not, obviously, like this nasty man in front of me. I would have needed none of my mother’s training to know that this man was a beast. Perhaps, in his own cunning way, an even worse beast than brutal and blustering Robert. Perhaps, in his own way, even more dangerous.
I said, “What is it you want from me?”
“Oh, my dear lady,” he protested, “I want from you? Not a thing, I assure you. It is what you want from me.”
I stared at him. I said, “I don’t understand. What could I possibly want from you?”
As quickly as a striking snake, his hand slid within his jacket, slid out again with a long blank white envelope, and flipped it through the air to land in my lap. “These,” he said. “Take a look at them.”
I opened the envelope. I took out the pictures. I looked at them, and I began to feel my face go flaming red.
I recognized the room in the pictures, remembered that motel. The faces were clear in every one of the photographs.
“What you’ll want,” said the nasty man, smiling triumphantly, “is the negatives.”
I whispered, “You mean, you’ll show these to my husband?”
“Oh, I would much rather not. Wouldn’t you like to have them for yourself? The prints and the negatives?”
“How much?”
“Well, I really hadn’t thought,” he said, smiling and smiling. “I’d rather leave that up to you. How much would you say they are worth to you, Mrs. Carroll?”
I looked at the photos again, and something seemed to go click in my mind. I said, “I believe I’m going to faint,” Then my eyes closed, and I fell off the chair onto the floor.
He had a great deal of difficulty awaking me, patting my cheeks and chafing my hands, and when at last I opened my eyes, I saw that he was no longer smiling, but was looking very worried.
“Mrs. Carroll,” he said. “Are you all right?”
“My heart,” I whispered. “I have a weak heart.” It was untrue, but it seemed a lie that might prove useful.
It did already. He looked more worried than ever, and backed away from me, looking down at me lying on the floor and saying, “Don’t excite yourself, Mrs. Carroll. Don’t get yourself all upset. We can work this out.”
“Not now,” I whispered. “Please.” I passed a hand across my eyes. “I must rest. Call me. Telephone me, I’ll meet you somewhere.”
“Yes, of course. Of course.”
“Call me this evening. At six.”
“Yes.”
“Say your name is Boris.”
“Boris,” he repeated. “Yes, I will.” Hastily he retrieved the fallen photos. “Call at six,” he said, and dashed out of the house.
I got to my feet, brushed off my toreadors, and went to phone William. “Darling,” I said.
“Darling!” he cried.
“My love.”
“Oh, my heart, my sweet, my rapture!”
“Darling, I must—”
“Darling! Darling! Darling!”
“Yes, sweetheart, thank you, that’s all very—”
“My life, my love, my all!”
“William!”
There was a stunned silence, and then his voice said, faintly, “Yes, Mona?”
There were advantages to having a poet for a lover, but there were also disadvantages, such as a certain difficulty in attracting his attention sometimes.
But I had his attention now. I said, “William, I won’t be able to see you tonight.”
“Ob, sweetheart!”
“I’m sorry, William, believe me I am, but something just came up.”
“Is it—” his voice lowered to a whisper, “—is it him?”
He meant Robert. I said, “No, dear, not exactly. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”
“Shall I see you tomorrow?”
“Of course. At the Museum. At noon.”
“Ah, my love, the hours shall have broken wings.”
“Yes, dear.”
With some difficulty I managed to end the conversation. I then took the other car, the Thunderbird, and drove to the shopping center. In the drugstore there I purchased a large and foul-looking cigar, and in the Mister-Master Men’s Wear Shoppe I bought a rather loud and crude necktie.
I returned to the house, lit the cigar, and found that it tasted even worse than I had anticipated. Still, it was all in a good cause. I went upstairs, puffing away at the cigar, and draped the necktie over the doorknob of the closet door in my bedroom. I then went back to the first floor, left a conspicuous gray cone of cigar ash in the ashtray beside Robert’s favorite chair, puffed away until the room was full of cigar smoke and I felt my flesh beginning to turn green, and then tottered out to the kitchen. I doused the cigar under the cold water at the kitchen sink, stuffed it down out of sight in the rubbish bag, and went away to take two Alka-Seltzer and lie down.
By one-fifteen, when Robert came bounding home, I was recovered and was in the kitchen thawing lunch. “My love!” roared Robert, and crushed me in his arms.
That was the difference right there. William would have put the accent on the other word.
I suffered his attentions, as I always did, and then he went away to read the morning paper in the living room while I finished preparing lunch.
When he came to the table he seemed somewhat more subdued than usual. He ate lunch in silence, with the exception of one question, asked with an apparent attempt at casualness: “Umm, darling, did you have any visitors today?”
I dropped my spoon into my soup. “Oh! Wasn’t that clumsy! What did you say, dear?”
His eyes narrowed. “I asked you, did you have any visitors today?”
“Visitors? Why… why, no, dear.” I gave a guilty sort of little laugh. “What makes you ask, sweetheart?”
“Nothing,” he said, and ate his soup.
After lunch he said, “I have time for a nap today. Wake me at three, will you?”
“Of course, dear.”
I woke him at three. He said he’d be home by five-thirty, and left. I checked, and the crude necktie was no longer hanging on the doorknob in my bedroom.
When Robert came home at five-thirty he was even quieter than before. I caught him watching me several times, and each time I gave a nervous start and a guilty little laugh and went into some other room.
I was in the kitchen at six o’clock, when the phone rang.
“I’ll get it, dear!” I shouted. “It’s all right, dear! I’ll get it! I’ll get it!”
I picked up the phone and said hello and the nasty man’s voice said, “This is Boris.”
“Yes, of course,” I said, keeping my voice low.
“Can we talk?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t your husband home?”
“It’s all right, he’s in the living room, he can’t hear me. I want to meet you tonight, to discuss things.” I gave a heavy emphasis to that word, and put just a touch of throatiness into my voice.
He gave his nasty laugh and said, “Whenever you say, dear lady. I take it you’re recovered from this afternoon?”
“Oh, yes. It was just tremors. But listen, here’s how we’ll meet. You take a room at the Flyaway Motel, under the name of Clark. I’ll—”
“Take a room?”
“We’ll have a lot to — talk about. Don’t worry, I’ll pay for the room.”
“Well,” he said, “in that case…”
“I’ll try to be there,” I said, “as soon after nine as possible. Wait for me.”
“All right, M—”
“I must hang up,” I said hastily, before he could call me Mrs. Carroll. I broke the connection, went into the living room, and found Robert standing near the extension phone in there. I said, “Dinner will be ready soon, dear.”
“Any time, darling,” he said. His voice seemed somewhat strangled. He seemed to be under something of a strain.
Dinner was a silent affair, though I tried to make small talk without much success. Afterward, Robert sat in the living room and read the evening paper.
I walked into the living room at five minutes to nine, wearing my suede jacket. “I have to go out for a while, dear.”
He seemed to control himself with difficulty. “Where to, dear?”
“The drugstore. I need nail polish remover.”
“Oh, yes,” he said.
I went out and got into the Thunderbird. As I drove away I saw the lights go on in my bedroom.
If it was nail polish remover Robert was looking for, he’d have little trouble finding it. There was a nearly full bottle with my other cosmetics on the vanity table.
I drove at moderate speeds, arriving at the Flyaway Motel at ten minutes past nine. “I’m Mrs. Clark,” I told the man at the desk “Could you tell me which unit my husband is in?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He checked his register and said, “Six.”
“Thank you.”
Walking across the gravel toward unit 6, I thought it all out again, as it had come to me in a flash of inspiration this afternoon just before I had had my ‘faint’. The idea that I could have Robert’s money without necessarily having to have Robert along with it had never occurred to me before. But now it had, and I liked it. To have Robert’s money without having Robert meant I could have William!
What a combination! William and Robert’s money! My step was light as I approached unit 6.
The nasty man opened the door to my knock. He seemed somewhat nervous. “Come on in, Mrs. Carroll.”
As I went in, I glanced back and saw an automobile just turning into the motel driveway. Was that a Lincoln? A blue Lincoln?
The nasty man shut and locked the door, but I said, “None of that. Unlock that door.”
“Don’t worry about me, lady,” he said, grinning nastily. “All I want from you is your money.” Nevertheless, he unlocked the door again.
“Fine,” I said. I took off my suede jacket.
“Now,” he said, coming across the room, rubbing his hands together, “to get to business.”
“Of course,” I said. I took off my blouse.
He blinked at me. He said, “Hey! What are you doing?”
“Don’t worry about a thing,” I told him, and unzipped my toreadors.
His eyes widened and he waved his hands at me, shouting, “Don’t do that! You got it all wrong, don’t do that!”
“I don’t believe I have it wrong,” I said, and stepped out of the toreadors.
With utter panic and bewilderment, the nasty man said, “But William said you’d—” And stopped.
We both stopped. I stared at the nasty man in sudden comprehension. All at once I understood how it was he had known so much about me, how it had been possible for him to take those pictures.
So William couldn’t live on the amount I gave him willingly. Mother was right, all men are beasts.
As I stood there, trying to get used to this new realization, the door burst open and Robert came bellowing in, waving that huge and ugly pistol of his.
I still wasn’t recovered from my shock. To think, to think I’d been trying to save William from being killed, to think I’d been willing to sacrifice both Robert and the nasty man for William’s sake. And all the time, all the time, William had betrayed me.
But then I did recover from the shock, and fast, because I saw that Robert had stopped his enraged bellowing and was glaring at me. At me. And pointing that filthy pistol at me.
At me.
“Not me!” I cried, and pointed at the nasty man. “Him! Him!”
The first shot buzzed past my ear and smashed the glass over the woodland painting above the bed.
I ran left, I ran right. The nasty man cowered behind the dresser. Robert’s second shot chunked into the wall behind me.
“You lied!” I screamed. “You lied!”
All men are bea—
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