The Trail to Gravelines Prison

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The Trail to Gravelines Prison!
Start date: August 16, 2010
End date: December 11, 2010
# of strips: 102 strips (17 weeks)
Writer: Tony DePaul
Artist: Paul Ryan
Original colorist: unknown
Preceded by: "Terror Cells of New York"
Followed by: "Chatu's Fate"

"The Trail to Gravelines Prison!" is the 230th Phantom daily story. The story was written by Tony DePaul and drawn by Paul Ryan. It is the fourth part of a longer story, totally consisting of five.

Plot Summary

Lee Falk briefly mentions that the India Voyager II sets it course for Rhodia with the mission to find Diana.

At the India Voyager II, Captain Savarna wonders how the Python found out about Diana, but the Phantom has no idea. He suppose that the mysterious woman on the phone was an ally of Chatu, not really daring to think that it really was Diana.

The Phantom contacts President Luaga and informs him that Chatu might know about Kit and Heloise. Luaga warns the Phantom that his mission to Rhodia is Chatu toying with him, but the Phantom cannot miss the chance that she still might be alive.

They arrive to Rhodia and leaves the India Voyager II in secret, despite that Rhodian authorities shoots undocumented foreigners. After som minor fights with Rhodian officials, they check in at a hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Walker. The Phantom spots an interesting story in the newspaper; someone has broken out of Gravelines Prison and then broken themselves into a nearby house.

They go to the house and gets confirmed that it happened at the same hour as the mysterious person called the Palmers in the US, even though the homeowner did not know whether she spoke in the phone or not.

The Phantom then enters the Gravelines Prison and masquerading as a guard checks the records to find the section from where the prisoner escaped, he then starts checking all the cells in that part of the prison, though stopping and not checking the last one since he the prison warden turns up, thereby missing that Diana is in that cell. The Phantom is about to give up and returning, but then realizing that not checking that last cell is not how he do things, thus he returns and though he is not able to check the cell, he eavesdrop at a conversation that the Prison warden has with the prisoner, thereby learning the name Cole and that she is assigned to the farm detail.

During the daylight, the Phantom watches "prisoner Cole" from afar and cannot rule out that she is not Diana. He then meets with Savarna and asks her to go to sea with the India Voyager, because if the prisoner really is Diana, he will need Captain Savarna there.

Next, the Phantom takes the place of one of the mounted prison guards that the prison warden has especially assigned to guard "prisoner Cole". After a closer look at "prisoner Cole", the Phantom recognizes her way to walk as being that of Diana and he is finally convinced that he has found her!

The Phantom rides up to her and when she recognizes him, he takes her up at the horseback, then he tries to silently take her away. However, the prison warden, having found the knocked-out prison guard, realizes that something is wrong and the Phantom and Diana ends up being surrounded by prison guards. Diana tries to buy the Phantom's life by agreeing to come with them, but the Phantom has no such plans. Suddenly, there is an explosion in the prison.

It is Savarna who is shelling the prison from the India Voyager II. As she continues shooting, the Phantom rides to escape, Diana sitting behind him. After the escape, they head for Mawitaan.

To be concluded

Appearances

                  THE GRAVELINES WARDEN.

When Diana arrives at Gravelines Prison, she is welcomed by its Warden, a mannish-looking woman of Afro-European appearance who emerges as an important figure in the tetrology. The Warden has no name and appears to have closer allegiance to the terrorist movement than to the Rhodian state.

She is in a state of continual terror and rage, fearing that her "doom" will come in the form of Chatu if she lets Diana escape or die. Diana realizes this and taunts her, saying that she (the Warden) is more Diana's prisoner than the other way around.

Strangely, the only instance of physical brutality between the two women is when Diana assaults the Warden through the bars of he cell.

The Warden may be juxtaposed with the bright, positive character of Savarna: both wear unflattering uniforms, both interfere in the Walker marriage and both women are comfortably at home in the masculine world of guns and terrorism.




Recurring characters

One-time characters

  • Rhodian Security personnel

Real-life characters

Locations

Boats

Tribes


Trivia

Related stories

Refers to

Reprints

This story has been published in the following publications:

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