The Plague, Pestilence & Apocalypse MEGAPACK™

by Robert Reed

  Dick seemed to be trying to infuriate the man . If he would forget her

  for an instant, she might strike him from behind! She felt his fingers

  loosen, and relaxed her muscles for the test . A chuckle trickled from

  behind the mask. The steel fingers thrust Nita toward the bed, held

  her while he tied her .

  “Yes, you are clever, Spider,” the man said, “but not quite clever

  enough. It is a pity — ”

  He crouched and snarled suddenly, whirling toward Wentworth,

  helpless in his shackles of steel — “a pity you must die.”

  Slowly, while Nita watched with horror- widened eyes, he drew

  from his pocket the automatic she had tried to snatch .

  “You were right, Wentworth,” he said . “I only wanted the girl

  here so I could kill her with you . There was just the slightest chance

  that you might have struck some trail that pointed to me and con-

  fided your suspicions to her.

  “But — ” the gloating laughter cackled out, “ — the Black Death

  leaves only dead behind . There will be no tales told .”

  He raised his gun .

  “No, no!” Nita said, “No, not that! I’ll do anything, anything, but

  please!”

  The masked man did not even turn his head . The softness was

  gone from his voice now and it grated harshly like rusty iron .

  “You are hardly in a position, my dear, to make promises . It is I

  who shall dictate, you who shall obey. But first — ”

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  The gun snapped up. Wentworth dropped to the floor as lead

  whined past . He seized the shackle about his ankle, and it came

  loose in his hand!

  He sprang toward his enemy . But in mid leap he checked and

  twisted aside . Behind him, he heard the snarl of an animal raging .

  The curtains before the window were whipped aside and a tawny

  shape hurtled across the room straight at the throat of the Black

  Death!

  Wentworth rolled aside, shouting, “Get him, Apollo!” and Nita

  jerked to her feet, shouting excited encouragement to the great dog .

  But the masked man whirled like a flash, and the upswung movement

  of his gun and the crash of its explosion were almost simultaneous .

  Apollo’s leap sent him crashing against the man’s chest, sent the

  crook reeling backward across the room with arms waving franti-

  cally to recover his balance . But Apollo, great Apollo, plunged to

  the floor and lay quivering, helpless to move a muscle of his power-

  ful body .

  The Black Death brought up heavily against the wall, partly

  dazed . His gun came up slowly .

  And now Ram Singh burst into the room, knife gleaming in his

  right hand, drawn back to throw . For a single instant the masked

  man wavered, then turned and fled.

  Ram Singh’s hand flashed forward, the knife glittered in the air.

  The door clapped shut, and the blade ground its point upon that

  metal barrier, and crashed futilely to the floor.

  “A gun . Ram Singh!” Wentworth cried sharply .

  The Hindu caught one from his pocket and tossed it to him .

  Miraculously Wentworth’s hands were free of the shackles, and he

  caught the weapon, raced across the room and snatched open the

  door .

  WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 157

  Chapter 11

  Virginia’s Clue

  Gun flame lanced at Wentworth. His answering shot was light-

  ning fast and drew a curse of pain .

  “The lights, Ram Singh,” he shouted .

  Darkness shut down like a lid. Gun din filled the hall, and lead

  chunked into the door at the Spider’s elbow . Suddenly then he

  groaned aloud, threw himself noisily to the floor and rolled silently

  toward the gunman .

  He heard muttered obscenity:

  “Got the damned idiot!”

  Wentworth grinned thinly and fired upward at the voice. A scream

  began and choked . A body slammed against the wall, slithered to

  the floor. The Spider rose. The pencil beam of his flash showed the

  broken-nosed man, shot through the mouth, dead .

  The Black Death had fled, leaving his henchman to kill his foe!

  Wentworth padded swiftly down stairs, then checked sharply,

  a curse of disappointment on his lips . Police whistles! Either the

  Black Death had given the alarm, or the shots had been heard .

  Wentworth smiled and raced upward, almost slammed into Ram

  Singh coming down .

  “Quick!” he snapped . “The police . Carry Apollo!”

  He darted into the apartment where he had been held prisoner .

  Apollo stood on trembling legs in the middle of the floor, a bloody

  tear across his skull . Seeing Wentworth, he tried feebly to wag his

  tail .“Stout fellah!” cried Wentworth, “Good dog!” He clapped the

  dog on the back, snatched out a knife and freed Nita and Virginia

  Doeg . He shook the drugged girl, fought to rouse her from her stu-

  por . While they worked Nita asked swift questions .

  “How in the world, Dick,” she demanded, “did you get those

  handcuffs off? How did Ram Singh find you and — ”

  WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 158

  Dick smiled grimly as he worked . “It’s all your doing, darling,”

  he said .

  “But, I — ”

  “Shhh,” the Spider silenced her . “You did it . I let drop a hint to

  the Black Death that you knew as much as I did about this business,

  and you did the rest . He called you up, and I pretended to be wor-

  ried. Then, when he left to meet you, I used a file I had hidden in

  these shoes — ” he pointed to the thick, soft rubber soles — “when

  I knew I had to walk into his trap. But the filing took so long that

  the Black Death’s car was at the door before I was free . I just had

  time to phone Ram Singh — whom I had told to await my call near

  here — and to put the cuffs back on, when you entered. I was hoping

  to capture him . And I put off the showdown as long as possible, try-

  ing to learn something about his plans . But even when he thought he

  was going to kill me certainly, he was too cautious to talk .”

  He straightened and gazed down at the still stupified Doeg girl.

  “No use working on her any more,” he said . “She can walk if

  she’s led .”

  He turned toward Ram Singh and found the Hindu crouched be-

  hind the metal door . He spun toward the door, but found no danger

  threatening there . Frowning, he puzzled over Ram Singh’s apparent

  fright .

  Then he realized for the first time that Ram Singh was not wearing

  his turban, that his close- shaved head was bald! That, to a Hindu,

  was shameful . The Spider found his own hat and gave it to Ram

  Singh, being careful to hide the laughter that lurked behind his eyes .

  “How is it,” he asked in Hindustani when Nita, leading Virginia

  Doeg had started toward the door, “that thou hast lost thy turban,

  Ram Singh?”

  The man answered with extreme dignity in the same language .

  “Oh Sahib, it was in thy service . I feared to enter by the door lest the

&n
bsp; noise of it should cause thy captor to shoot . So disgraced one that I

  am, I used my turban to lower that unclean beast whom thou callest

  Apollo to the fire escape so that he might avert the tragedy which

  WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 159

  threatened here. That is why it was that beast which was first to enter

  the room and not thy servant, Ram Singh .”

  Wentworth placed his hand upon his man’s shoulder . “Verily oh

  Ram Singh,” he said, “thou art a man, and through all India it shall

  be sung how Ram Singh bared his head that he might save his mas-

  ter .”Pride gleamed in Ram Singh’s eyes and he stood no longer

  ashamed .

  The sirens of police radio cars echoed in the streets now . There

  was need to hurry . Wentworth caught up the body of the man he had

  slain and, with it over his shoulder, led the way swiftly downward

  until they reached the first floor.

  They heard then the shouts of policemen, the battering of axes on

  the door below . Wentworth laid the body of the man at the head of

  the steps, gun in hand. Then, smiling grimly, he affixed the seal of

  the Spider upon his forehead .

  “That will stop them a while,” he murmured to Nita . Quickly he

  unlocked an apartment, and sped to a window which opened on the

  back .

  Suddenly Nita quit the other girl and grasped his arm .

  “The cigarette lighter, Dick, the one that man planted on you .

  Throw it away!”

  Wentworth laughed softly as he raised the window .

  “A souvenir of the Black Death!” he whispered . “I wouldn’t lose

  it for the world!”

  “But — ” the girl started to protest.

  The Spider kissed her swiftly on the lips, smothering the words,

  helped her over the sill and lowered her by her hands to the ground .

  It was a drop of only a few feet . Rapidly he lowered the others after

  her . Then he and the great dog sprang down themselves .

  The Spider and those with him faded into the shadows .

  The rising sun was red in the sky as Wentworth and his tired

  company threaded the city . But even at this early hour the streets

  resounded with the shouts of newsboys, crying the toll of the Black

  Death . A hundred killed!

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  Wentworth’s jaws locked . A hundred dead! The Black Death was

  striking more savagely . While Wentworth battled futilely against his

  traps, sought frantically for some clue to the man’s identity, the black

  wings of the Plague were sweeping the city, as its purple flower of

  pain blossomed on scores of throats .

  But Wentworth had the girl, Virginia Doeg, at least . When she

  had thrown off the drugs, he would question her . Desperately he

  hoped for a clue from her .

  Later, when she had slept off the narcotic, safe in his apartment

  with Nita, he went to the girl .

  Though his eyes were grim with the thought of the ravages of

  the Black Death ever at the back of his mind, he was gentle with

  Virginia Doeg as he insisted upon her answering the question that he

  had put to her a few hours ago. A smile twisted his lips — it seemed

  like years .

  When last he had asked that question, fear had gleamed for a

  moment in her eyes . Then a man with a gun had interrupted their

  conversation . It was that fear which had led the Spider to believe

  that she might hold some clue to the identity of the Black Death .

  “Who besides yourself,” he asked again, “had the opportunity to

  substitute the forged bonds for the genuine?”

  And once more the girl evaded his keenly questioning gaze .

  Wentworth frowned . “Surely now,” he said, “you must realize the

  importance of answering that question . Your failure to answer it

  was the reason for all that has happened . Your kidnapping by that

  masked man .”

  “Oh,” she shuddered, “that horrible Spider .” Bewilderment

  clouded Wentworth’s eyes. His sharp glance flicked to Nita, and he

  saw a sly smile about her mouth .

  Then suddenly he understood . Nita had convinced the girl, whose

  drug-dazed memories were befuddled, that the man who had kid-

  napped her was the Spider .

  Wentworth had believed it necessary to reveal to this girl that the

  Spider and Wentworth were one . And now Nita cleverly had kept

  WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 161

  the secret . His eyes gave her silent thanks, as he picked up the thread

  of thought that the girl’s cry of revulsion had revealed .

  “Unless you want the Spider to come again,” he said sternly,

  “you had better answer my question at once .”

  The frightened girl looked up at him, large- eyed and pale, beneath

  the glowing red shower of her hair . “Oh,” she said, “he couldn’t

  have done it . Not my Jimmy!”

  “Jimmy?”

  The girl spoke rapidly now . “Yes, Jimmy . He could have done it,

  but I know he didn’t . He loves me . We are to be married . And he is

  not the only one. Any official of the firm could have done it.”

  “What’s Jimmy’s name?” Wentworth said softly .

  “But he isn’t guilty,” the girl protested . “I know he isn’t .”

  “Of course not,” the Spider reassured her, “but I would like to

  know the name of — ” he smiled — “the lucky man.”

  Virginia Doeg blushed, and dropped her eyes . “Jimmy Handley,”

  she said .

  “Ah, yes,” said Wentworth, remembering then MacDonald

  Pugh’s mention of the man . An intelligent youth, Pugh had said, one

  who was “going places .” Was it possible that the girl was Handley’s

  dupe, that he had substituted the forged bonds and given the germs

  to her dog, so that when the time came he could direct suspicion

  upon her by claiming that the bonds had been stolen to finance the

  start of this monstrous crime?

  Wentworth nodded swiftly to Nita, signifying that the girl could

  go now, and left the room hurriedly . He glanced at his watch . It was

  late, nearly four o’clock .

  He caught his hat and cane from Jenkyns’ ready hand, strode into

  the hall, and a moment later a taxi was whisking him through the

  late afternoon traffic to the offices of Pugh & Works, Inc. on Wall

  Street .

  Straight down Broadway they whirled until that famous thorough-

  fare became a narrow street that belied its name, until the graveyard

  that marked one end of Wall Street hove into view, and they whirled

  into the narrow canyon that was the money center of the world .

  WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 162

  The taxi jerked to a halt . Wentworth tossed the driver a bill and

  climbed out . A two-seated green Ford with P .D . printed on its side, a

  radio patrol car of the police, was parked ahead of him .

  The devil! Was he going to run into some new crime at every

  turn of the trail that the Black Death left? He told himself that he

  was foolish, that the police car had no connection with his errand .

  But when he thrust into the elaborate offices of the brokerage firm

 
; of Pugh & Works, he found the two policemen from the patrol car

  there before him .

  And MacDonald Pugh himself, his high shoulders stooped, his

  forward-leaning bald head nodding emphasis to his words, was talk-

  ing to them .

  Wentworth caught the tag end of what he was saying . “There is

  no doubt about it,” Pugh was declaring positively . “There is a short-

  age in his accounts. He left the office early yesterday and he has not

  returned .”

  “And what’s his name, sir,” one of the officers demanded.

  MacDonald Pugh looked up with dark eyes from beneath his

  almost white brows, saw Wentworth and raised a hand in affable

  salute . “Just a minute, Dick,” he said, and turned back to the police-

  man .

  “The man’s name,” he said, “is James Handley .”

  Chapter 12

  Wentworth Views the Plague

  James Handley, the man Virginia had said could not be guilty! The

  man she was to marry! There was a shortage in his accounts — and

  he was missing!

  Wentworth was keenly interested . But no hint of it showed in

  his face. He flicked ashes from his cigarette and lounged about the

  office, inspecting the oil paintings which hung upon its walls as if

  totally disinterested in the conversation between Pugh and the two

  policemen .

  WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 163

  But the name apparently had been dismissal for the two officers.

  “We’ll put out an alarm for him, sir,” one of them told Pugh . “And

  you may depend, sir, that we’ll pick him up very shortly . They can’t

  escape our dragnet .”

  “Fine,” said MacDonald Pugh heartily, and the policemen left .

  “Good of you to call, Dick,” Pugh said to him, and Wentworth

  turned smiling from the inspection of a portrait .

  “You have atrocious taste in paintings, Mac,” he said, “but you

  have managed to get one good piece here . Undoubtedly a Millet .”

  MacDonald Pugh smiled . “You didn’t come here, Dick, to criti-

  cize my paintings, I’m sure .”

  “No,” Wentworth told him . “I was down this way, thought of you,

  and recalled that promise of a fishing party some weekend. The tuna

  are running off Montauk, you know . A bit early, but I understand

  some large ones have been taken .”

  “That’s damned nice of you,” Pugh said . “But I don’t see how

  I could possibly get away . The stock market is doing tricks these