Give me a motor's roar / Give me a plane to soar

[austin_dern]

Ace Drummond Chapter Nine, ``Secret Service'', opens with the discovery that Ace Drummond is not dead.

Sure the radio set exploded as The Dragon sent his radio-set death ray, but it turns out that was just Comic Relief Mechanic Jerry shooting out the set before it could explode. Drummond fainted because ... uh ... look, he just did, all right? And I guess the plane is all right too, since we don't see it crash or anything. But they arrest Ivan/Johnny, who's been lurking around ominously for almost the whole serial, and it's revealed he was hired by Henry Kee, the other great red herring. Naturally, Ace Drummond sings his ``Give Me A Ship And A Song'' while dressing, as kid Billy makes googly eyes at him.

Billy shows off his model planes to Peggy Trainor, accidentally knocking the spinning prayer wheel The Dragon uses to communicate with his men and reminding the audience he does that. Over at the Hall of Dead Kings, the henchmen holding Dr Trainor captive are told about Drummond and Ivan/Johnny driving to The Authorities and getting Commanded to stop them. Dr Trainor fakes sickness long enough to make another escape. When The Dragon alerts his men about this Peggy overhears the prayer wheel message and goes by herself to the monastery while leaving a note so that ... uh ... I don't know why she doesn't just tell people, but it gives her the chance to get chased on a car by The Dragon's Henchmen.

Henry Kee, in one of The Dragon's planes, lands by Drummond, Jerry, and Ivan/Johnny, where Drummond's insistance on arresting him makes Kee reveal that he's part of the Mongolia Secret Service. Jerry is skeptical but when Kee can correctly identify his code number from underneath the card's sticker Drummond buys it. Kee's a Mongolian Secret Agent and Johnny one of his operators. I can't imagine any way this identification scheme could be faked. Johnny reminds the audience of the plot and he and Jerry return to the airport, while Drummond flies off with Kee.

Back at the airport, Drummond learns where Peggy went, and they grab Kee's car to drive back. Peggy's doing well outrunning The Dragon's henchmen, but she runs out of gas and so runs the rest of the way to the monastery. The henchmen have a better plan than chasing her into the monastery, though. Drummond finds Kai Shek saying Peggy isn't there, but Chang Ho says she is, and Kai Shek goes off to his prayer wheel to definitely not report all of this to The Dragon.

Drummond finds the High Lama unconscious and reporting that two men disguised as monks kidnapped Peggy, so Drummond runs off into the secret passage. But Peggy and her kidnappers are in --- I'm not sure it's the Room of Death, or if it's just the same set --- and when they lock her in and leave her father pops up to get her out. But that's a trap: the henchmen capture Dr and Peggy Trainor. Drummond overhears her screaming and leaps up over a wall in time to get shot by a henchman. Well, he looks shot, or at least very, very disappointed in the henchman. He falls off the wall and that's our cliffhanger.

Episode title: makes legitimate sense. Can't complain about this one.

Trivia: On 27 July 1917 Ford Motor Company incorporated Henry Ford & Son, to manufacture tractors, with hurried delivery for the British. Source: Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire, Richard Bak.

Currently Reading: Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2011, Editor Gordon van Gelder.

Comments

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of Fordson tractors until I found an rusting gas tank embossed with the name at an abandoned farm.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I never heard of them until I started reading books about Ford (the man and the company), and I initially thought it was a joke. Maybe the name was, in part --- I mean, a new division for Ford's son to work on, and it's called Fordson? That's cheap-novel work --- but it got to be really in there.