Mystery Of The Sea Horse

The Story of THE PHANTOM

THE MYSTERY OF THE SEA HORSE

PROLOGUE

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Over four hundred
y
ears ago, a large British merchant ship was attacked hy Singg pirates off the remote shores of Bangalla. The captain of the trading vessel was a famous seafarer who, in his youth, had served as cabin boy to Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to discover the New World. With the captain was his son, Kit, a strong young man who idolized his father and hoped to follow him as a seafarer. But the pirate attack was disastrous. In a furious battle, the entire crew of the merchant ship was killed and it sank in flames. The sole survivor was young Kit, who as he fell off the burning ship, saw his father killed by a pirate. Kit was washed ashore, half-dead. Friendly pygmies found him and nursed him to health.

One day walking on the beach, he found a dead pirate, dressed in his father's clothes. He realized this was the pirate who had killed his father. Grief-stricken, he waited until vultures had stripped the body clean. Then on the skull of his fathers murderer, he swore an oath by firelight as the friendly pygmies watched. "I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, and my sons and their sons shall follow me."

This was the Oath of the Skull that Kit and his
7

descendants
. would live by. In time, the pygmies
led
him
to
their home
in
the Deep Woods
in the
center of the jungle
where he found a large cave
with many
rocky chambers. The mouth of the cave, a natural formation formed by the water and wind of centuries, was curiously like a skull. This became his home, the Skull Cave. He soon adopted a mask and a strange costume. He found that the mystery and fear this inspired helped him in his endless battle against world-wide piracy. For he and his sons who followed became known as the nemesis of pirates everywhere, a mysterious man whose face no one ever saw, whose name no one knew, who worked alone.

As the years passed, he fought injustice wherever he found it. The first Phantom and the sons who followed found their wives in many places. One married a reigning queen, one a princess, one a beautiful red-haired barmaid. But whether queen or commoner, all followed their men back to the
Deep Woods,
to live the strange but happy life of the wife of the Phantom. And of all the world, only she, wife of the Phantom, and their children could see his face.

Generation after generation was born, grew to manhood, assumed the tasks of the father before him. Each wore the mask and costume. Folk of the jungle and the city and sea began to whisper that there was a man who could not die, a Phantom, a Ghost Who Walks. For they thought the Phantom was always the same man. A boy who saw the Phantom would see him again fifty years after; and he seemed the same. And he would tell his son and his grandson; and
his
son and grandson would see the Phantom fifty years after
that.
And he would seem the same. So the legend grew. The

Man Who Cannot Die. The Ghost Who Walks. The Phantom.

The Phantom did not discourage this belief in his immortality. Always working alone against tremendous—sometimes almost impossible—odds, he found that the awe and fear the legend inspired was a great help in his endless battle against evil. Only his friends, the pygmies, knew the truth. To compensate for their tiny stature, the pygmies mixed deadly poisons for use on their weapons in hunting or defending themselves. It was rare that they were forced to defend themselves. Their deadly poisons were known through the jungle, and they and their home, the
Deep Woods,
were dreaded and avoided. Another reason to stay away from the
Deep Woods—if
soon became known that this was a home of the Phantom, and none wished to trespass.

Through the ages, the Phantoms created several more homes or hideouts in various parts of the world. Near the
Deep Woods
was the Isle of Eden, where the Phantom taught all animals to live in peace. In the southwest desert of the New World, the Phantoms created an eyrie on a high sheer mesa that was thought by the Indians to be haunted by evil spirits and became known as "Walker's Table"—for The Ghost Who Walks. In Europe, deep in the crumbling cellars of the ruins of an ancient castle, the Phantom had another hideout from which to strike against evildoers.

But the Skull Cave in the quiet of the
Deep Woods
remained the true home of the Phantom. Here, in a rocky chamber, he kept his chronicles, written records of all his adventures. Phantom after Phantom faithfully wrote their experiences in the large folio volumes. Another chamber contained the costumes of all the generations of Phantoms- Other chambers contained the vast treasures of the Phantom acquired over centuries, used only in the endless battle against evil.

Thus twenty generations of Phantoms lived, fought, and died, usually violently, as they followed their oath. Jungle folk, sea folk, and city folk believed him the same man, the Man Who Cannot Die. Only the pygmies knew that always, a day would come when their great friend would lie dying. Then, alone, a strong young son would carry his father to the burial crypt of his ancestors where all Phantoms rested.
As
the pygmies waited outside, the young man would emerge from the cave, wearing the mask, the costume, and the skull ring of the Phantom; his carefree happy days as the Phantom's son were over. And the pygmies would chant their age-old chant, "The Phantom is dead. Long live the Phantom."

This story of
The Mystery of the Sea Horse
is an adventure of the Phantom of our time—the twenty-first generation of his line. He has inherited the traditions and responsibilities created by four centuries of Phantom ancestors. One ancestor created the Jungle Patrol. Thus, today, our Phantom is the mysterious and unknown commander of this elite corps. In the jungle, he is known and loved as the Keeper of the Peace. On his right hand is the Skull Ring that leaves his mark—the Sign of the Skull—known and feared by evildoers everywhere. On his left hand—closer to the heart —is his "good mark" ring. Once given, the mark grants the lucky bearer protection by the Phantom, and it is equally known and respected. And to good people and criminals alike, in the jungle, on the seven seas, and in the cities of the world, he is

The Phantom, the Ghost Who Walks, the Man Who Cannot Die.

Lee F
a
lk

New York
1973

CHAPTER ONE

It was during her second day on the island that she began to suspect they might not let her leave.

Standing on the black cliffs above the quiet blue Pacific, Diana Palmer saw that the two motor launches were gone from the private dock below. A slender, dark-haired girl, she shivered now in spite of the noonday warmth.

"And why did I sleep so late?" Diana asked herself. "It's not like me."

When she'd come down from her room a few minutes ago, the big house on the hill had seemed oddly silent, empty, and hollow.

"Where have the other guests gone?"

Something screeched directly above her.

She stared, looking up. There was a gray gull circling overhead.

Diana shivered once again.

She had come to Southern California a week earlier. It was the end of summer and David Palmer, her uncle, and one of her favorite people, was house-sitting for some friends who were touring Europe. Uncle Dave had invited her out.

The house was large, all stucco and grill work and red tile. It nestled in the Santa Barbara hills, in the midst of palm trees, feathery ferns, and tangling vines.

Uncle Dave had greeted her out in the patio.

.Behind him a large sea-blue swimming pool glistened. "You've got time for a swim," he said, grinning at her. He was in his sixties, gray-haired, and not quite ten pounds overweight. He still wore the businesslike rimless spectacles he'd worn when he had been a police commissioner back East.

"Time before what?" Diana ran a slender hand through her dark hair. She shrugged some of the travel stiffness out of her shoulders.

"Big house like this," said her uncle, "plus all this outdoors to go with it. Seems like a perfect setting for a party."

"You mean you're planning a party for this afternoon?"

"Unless you're too tired." He watched her face, an expectant smile on his. "I invited a few people over to meet my best-looking niece."

Diana laughed. "You never give up, do you, Uncle Dave."

"Meaning what?" He took off his glasses and polished them on the tail of his bright multicolored sport shirt.

I'll bet you've got at least two, if not more, eligible young men on your guest list."

"Well, I've been here a couple of months," said Uncle Dave. "And you know me, I'm always meeting people wherever I go. Now maybe there are a couple of single fellows among those who'll be popping in today."

Diana nodded her head. "I'd like to meet all your new friends, Uncle Dave. A party sounds fine. I think I'll skip the swim and settle for a quick shower and some unpacking."

Her uncle put his hand on her shoulder. "It's still the Phantom, I suppose?"

"Yes," she answered. "It always will be."

"I guess you know what you're doing," the old man said. "I have a great deal of admiration for him. How can you not admire a man like the

Phantom, who's devoted himself completely to fighting against—well, I guess you'd have to call it evil. Still, though, Di, he is a loner. He has to be and I hate to see you. .

Diana gave him a sudden hug. "Point me toward my room, will you? And don't worry about me.

Her uncle returned the hug before leading her into the big sprawling house.

She heard Chris Danton before she saw him. Diana, in a party dress, was in the middle of a cluster of people. Two of them were among Uncle Dave's selection of eligibles. A burly young man with close-cropped blond hair and very plaid pants was trying to explain football to her. Diana wasn't exactly sure if the close-cropped young man played it himself, or only watched it on television. The other man was a few years older, lean and fond of cigarette-size cigars. He was trying to tell her how to invest her money.

"No, I think you'd like Bangalla," a deep voice said somewhere behind her. "Of all the countries on the dark continent, it's my favorite."

"Well, we are looking for someplace, you know, a little different this time," said a woman with a plump voice. "Hulbert keeps wanting to go to Switzerland again, but, between you and me, I've had it with Switzerland."

"Bangalla is quite different from Switzerland." The deep voice laughed. "I can guarantee you that."

Bangalla was where the Phantom lived, far from civilization in the stretch of jungle known as the
Deep Woods.
Diana was interested in anyone who'd been there. "Excuse me," she said to the man with the little cigar. "We'll talk again before you leave," she told the football buff.