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"General Simms considered that prospect So he caests that we destroy the wreck of the Empress"

"You could do that without causing a nasty incident?"

"Provided that I can reach the wreckage before Pitt does"

Villon sat back, coldly analyzing how the information Shaw had put before hie He let his eyes drift across the roo on the wall of a clipper ship under full sail before the wind At last, his thoughts arranged, he nodded "I shall give you every cooperation"

"Thank you," Shaw replied "I'll require the services of fiveequipment"

"You'll need a good man to coordinate your plans"

"Do you have someone in mind?"

"I do," said Villon "I'll see that he gets in touch with you He is a Mountie, well trained for this sort of work His name is Gly, Inspector Foss Gly"

The expedition to locate the Manhattan Limited seeills Already he was four days behind on his promised schedule

After a hurried dockside loading of men and equip and especially designed by NUMA engineers to cruise inland ays, churned upriver and headed toward near destruction

The hel pleasure craft His ht splattering of rain on the wheelhouse s Together they prohtfall

As darkness settled, the river's chop began throwing spray over the De Soto's foredeck Suddenly the wind howled down over the steep palisades bordering the shoreline, gusting from twenty miles an hour to over sixty The force of the blast pushed the speeding boat out of the main channel Before the helmsman could literally muscle it back on course, it had driven into shalloaters, ripping a two-foot gash under its port boas believed to be a sub

For the next four hours, Giordino drove his creith the heavy hand of a Captain Bligh The sonar operator insisted later that the feisty Italian's tongue lashed about his ears like a bullwhip It was a ed until there were only a few small trickles, but not before the water had risen above the bilges and was sloshing ankle deep on the lower deck

Laden with two tons of water, the De Soto handled sluggishly Giordino ignored it in his fury and crammed the throttles to their stops The sudden burst of speed raised the splintered wound above, the waterline and the vessel hurtled back down the river toward New York

Two days were lost while the boat was dry docked and its hull repaired No sooner had they gotten underway again than the netometer was found to be defective and a new unit rushed from San Francisco Two more days down the drain