Free The Veiled Lady by Lee Falk

nobody sneeze," said Gabe.

    The Phantom had carried Gabe not more than a dozen feet when the first tremor came.

    39

    The ground beneath them jumped and buckled like a pulled rug. Leaves, twigs, and petals came raining down. Then it was over; the earth fell still again.

    "Look out," cried Jan, gesturing violently. "It's awake!"

    The Phantom set Gabe on his feet and whirled round to face the giant bat.

    From out of the dark cave, it came flapping, a great silent creature, black as the shadows it had left.

    "Yeah, that's a giant bat sure enough," said Gabe. "Worse than that," warned the blonde biologist.
    "It'sDesmodus, the vampire bat."

    "A vampire that size must get pretty thirsty," said Gabe, watching the gigantic bat go gliding up through the waning day.

    "We'd better try a run for it," suggested Karl. "I'll give you a hand with Gabe."

    The Phantom kept his gaze on the circling bat, on its wide snout and its vast shadowy wings.
    "There's no time to run. He's going to attack us."

    The giant bat reached the end of its climb and wheeled. Then it came swooping down toward them.

    Feet firmly planted, Jan took her rifle and sent a shot at the diving creature. "He's so darn big," she said. "It may take several shots to hit a vital spot."

    The Phantom chose not to use a gun, but rather the magic spear his old friend Guran had given him.

    The great vampire seemed to be after Gabe, who was leaning now on Karl's arm.

    The masked man put himself between them and the swooping bat. "Guran, I hope your poison is still working," he said and hurled the spear.

    The poison point passed between the enormous bat's teeth, lodged in its throat. The creature gave one strange shriek, a mixture of rage and surprise. Then came spinning, crashing, to the ground.

    It missed hitting any of the four, though the tip of one wing brushed Jan's blonde hair and made it flutter like a strong wind.

    Lowering her rifle, Jan approached the dead creature. "No doubt about it," she said, nodding to herself. "VampireChiroptera, a lovely specimen." She made a quick entry in her notebook.

    The Phantom tugged his spear free. "Lovely," He said, "and deadly. Like a good many things here."

    "Like a good many things everywhere," said the girl. "The only thing different here inside is the size of things. You see, the

    "Jan," said Karl, "we ought to get away from here. There could be more of these fellows in the neighborhood. You can lecture the Phantom when we're on safer ground."

    Jan smiled. "Yes, you're right. Where to?" she asked the masked man.

    The sky below the ceiling of mist was turning a very patchy blue, starting to blacken around the edges. "We'll probably be safer back in your copter, at least for tonight. In the morning, we can begin 40

    looking for a way out."

    "You mean," asked Karl, "there is a way out of this valley?"

    "I think there may be several," said the Phantom. "One good one will do," said Gabe, "By the way, can one of you scientific types tell me what the earthshaking business was all about?"

    "An earth tremor," said Karl. "A mild quake."

    They began moving, single file, in the direction of the downed ship.

    "But this is supposed to be a dead volcano," said "Not dead," said Jan, "only sleeping. It's probably quite unstable."

    The Phantom, who was leading the party and walking in front of the pretty blonde scientist, said, "It's odd, though. There's been no activity from for countless years. Nothing in this century as far as I know."

    "That doesn't mean she couldn't still erupt," Jan told him. "Look at what happened to the volcano in the Azores Islands a few years ago. Everybody thought that one was long dead, too, until it erupted again. No, we can never be really certain with volcanoes and quakes. The earth is-" She stopped herself, laughing. "That was starting to turn into another lecture. Excuse me."

    Gabe, hurrying alongside Karl, said, "So, we can maybe expect more tremors, huh?"

    "Well," said Karl, "let's say we