The Scorpia Menace (23 page)

Diana heard the clash of steel from the balcony above as Colonel Crang got up heavily. There was a dazed look in his eyes.

He howled with pain as the girl cracked him with the shaft of a pike she snatched from the wall. He crashed to the floor.

The Phantom swerved gracefully as Sojin's sabre cut splinters from a priceless carved table at his elbow. Perspiration was running down the Baron's face, but he was a fine swordsman and there was plenty of fight left in him.

"Why don't you give up, Excellency?" said The Phantom, jumping up on top of an oak bench and effortlessly parrying the other's thrust. The clash of the steel had an exhilarating effect on him, and, as the Baron redoubled his efforts, it seemed only to increase his energy.

"Why don't you stand still?" Sojin snapped irritably, the perspiration staining his pajamas. He had thrown aside his robe when the fight began, but he was puzzled at the brilliant technique of this peculiar swordsman, and already the jacket of his pajamas, where it billowed out, was slashed in two places.

"There are no rules in your sort of fighting, Baron," said The Phantom, jumping down from the bench and parrying his way along the edge of the balcony. He waved encouragingly to Diana. He saw that Crang was now on the floor with an oak bench on top of him and Diana on top of the bench. He grinned.

Sojin came at him in a mad rush then, forcing him to the edge of the railing. The Phantom stood on the rail, jumped outwards as the sabre blade whistled viciously beneath his boots, reaching the chandelier on its heavy supporting chairs. He stood supporting himself by the central chain, making a great arc through the air. His blade splintered the balcony near Sojin and the Baron sprang back. He was spluttering incoherently with rage.

"Why don't you stand still?" he screamed.

"Certaintly, Baron," said The Phantom. He wrenched the chandelier chain and came forward in another great arching swoop. He let go and in a tremendous leap through space cleared the balcony and was at the Baron's throat before the ruler of Scorpia knew what had happened. He fell backwards over a table, all the breath knocked out of him. Steel clashed for the last time as The Phantom pinned his sword-arm. Sojin found a sharp blade pricking his throat.

"I really think it's time you surrendered," The Phantom said.

Baron Sojin sat sullenly at the telephone in the Armory. Colonel Crang's head was being bound up by Miki, who had a secret smile of glee on his face. The Phantom leaned on his sabre, Diana at his side, and surveyed the scene of wreckage that had once been an elegant room.

"Places without windows have their disadvantages, Baron!" he told Sojin lightly.

"Now just tell your men to stack their arms in the courtyard and assemble in the dungeons."

He turned back to the old handyman and waited until the Baron had picked up the telephone and given his instructions. "When that's done," he told Miki, "go down and lock them all in and bring me back the keys."

The old man bowed.

"It shall be done, O Ghost Who Walks!" he said.

He was about to scuttle off when the big man called him back.

"All except Lieutenant Carson," he said. "We shall need him. Tell him to go to the radio room and wait."

The old man left and The Phantom drew Diana close to his side. He looked coolly at Baron Sojin and the sullen figure of Colonel Crang.

"Accept defeat with grace," he advised them. "All good things have to come to an end, but, after all, Scorpia lasted for over four hundred years!"

A scowl was the only reply from Sojin.

"Now," said The Phantom going across to lean over him. "The American 7th Fleet is on battle exercises only about six hours steaming time from here. We passed them in the plane on our way over. I want you to send them a message. And here's what you're to say."

He gave his instructions to Sojin and a few minutes later there came a knock at the door. Miki was back with the keys.

"All locked in, O Ghost Who Never Dies!" he said with satisfaction, basking in the smiles Diana and the big man gave him.

"When you've finished those chores, I want you to get radio contact with Westchester," The Phantom ordered Sojin. He gave Diana an affectionate squeeze.

"It's about time your mother and your uncle heard your voice again."

It was near dawn before the sound of sirens and the beat of powerful motors reached the group in the Armory. Leaving Diana with a gun trained on Sojin and Crang, The Phantom went out onto the terrace. Two powerful cruisers and a destroyer had dropped anchor off the island. Fast launches were already speeding ashore, loaded to the gunwales with Marines.

The Phantom laughed as heavy-booted feet echoed on the staircases of Castle Toeplitz. He hurried back to the Armory.

"The Marines have landed and the situation is well in hand," he told Sojin.

Before he could reply the door burst open and the room was full of steel-helmeted bluejackets.

A broad-shouldered man with a bristling mustache was at The Phantom's elbow. He stared at the big man.

"I'm Colonel Robbins," he announced. "What's going on here?"

"Too long a story to tell you now," said The Phantom. "Just lock those two up. You'll find several hundred more in the dungeons."

He shook the Colonel by the hand,

"This is Miss Diana Palmer, who was lost at sea a few days ago."

He chuckled at the Marine Colonel's expression.

"What does this all mean?" said the latter.

"It means that a four-hundred-year-old Empire of Evil called the Scorpia has been broken," said The Phantom. He took Diana by the arm and they went out onto the battlements, oblivious to the noise of men's feet tramping up and down stone corridors.

The Phantom looked at Diana as she gazed down at the blue sea and the grey steel outlines of the warships.

"It's difficult to believe, Kit," whispered Diana, "that we're here together like this."

"And it's all thanks to you," said the big man.

"What do you mean, Kit?" replied the girl.

"You smashed Scorpia, darling," her companion said. "If it hadn't been for your research none of this would have happened."

She lifted her head and placed her hands on each side of The Phantom's face as though she were memorizing every line.

She stopped at the sound of a cough behind her. A young Marine Lieutenant stood there with a pink, embarrassed face.

"Radio telephone contact with Westchester, Miss Palmer," he said. "Your mother is waiting to speak to you."

Diana's face was alight with happiness.

"I'll be back soon, darling," she said, "to take up where we left off."

The Phantom turned back to the battlements, the sun hot and dazzling on his face, as the sound of Diana's footsteps died away down the Castle stairway. "We most certainly will," he said.