Read Online The Avenger 22 - The Black Death by Kenneth Robeson - Free Book Online

the middle of next week. And got ourselves knocked there, too.”
    Nellie patted his hand. “You don’t know that,” she soothed. “Anyhow, it’s done. No use worrying.”
    Smitty glared at her. Cole Wilson was extremely handsome, and the giant could be jealous even of him when the tiny blonde indulged in such gestures as hand pattings.
    “We did just as foolish a thing as you,” she said. “We came here to join you, with Dan Miller, and had hardly set foot inside when we were picked up by a young army with machine guns. We didn’t have a chance and were taken completely off guard. We let ourselves be surrounded like a lot of dopes and here we are.”
    “Miller?” said Cole.
    Nellie told who he was and a little about him.
    “Where is he now?”
    Nellie caught her red lip between her teeth. “I . . . I’m afraid he was seriously hurt. Maybe even killed. He tried to put up a fight and was clubbed down. The gang just left him lying on the ground when they herded us in here. He sure looked like a goner.”
    “By the way,” said Cole, “where is ‘here’? Are we in a basement?”
    “No,” said Smitty. “Garden house. This is a separate little building in back where they store hose and gardening tools and wheelbarrows and such—as you can see if you stop strangling Nellie’s hand and look around. It’s built of cut stone like the house. Regular fort of a place.”
    “Wonder why they shut us up in here instead of just knocking us off?” said Cole moodily.
    “Who cares?” said the giant. “We’re still alive, which is the main thing. I have the idea, though, that the only thing that saved us was that these guys seemed to have something else on the pan that didn’t leave them time to take care of us properly. They were too busy, just then, for a neat and noiseless mass murder— Look! He’s coming around!”
    The three stared anxiously at The Avenger.
    The colorless, glacial eyes, like polar ice in moonlight, had opened. They stared around the solid little stone house as widely as possible without a head movement. They went to Nellie’s face, Smitty’s, Cole’s.
    And the three felt icy fingers tear at their hearts, and Nellie cried out softly.
    In the pallid, deadly eyes there was no recognition, it seemed, and no intelligence. Only dreadful vacancy.
    “What’s . . . the matter with him?” whispered Smitty.
    But they all knew what was the matter. It was hardly necessary for Cole to say, “Those blows on the head! There is concussion or something. We’ve got to get him out of here. Got to get him to a hospital.”
    Nellie’s small hand went to Smitty’s vast paw now. That was where it was always to be found in times of real stress. But the giant released it after a second and strode to the door. He banged against it frantically with his shoulder.
    It was a very solid door, thick, of oak. But such was the big fellow’s frenzy that he might actually have rammed it down, given time.
    However, he wasn’t given time. The little door was still shivering when the answer came. A cold voice just outside said, “Hold it, pal. There are three of us here with Tommy-guns. And we’d be glad to use them.”
    Breaking down the door was out of the question.
    The Avenger seemed not to have heard the commotion. He didn’t even seem to notice Smitty. Dick simply lay there, staring with pale and vacant eyes at nothing.
    “We’ve got to get him out!” Cole repeated with a quiver in his voice.
    But there was no way to get him out. All they could do was stare at each other and at their chief for what seemed many dragging hours.
    The little door opened from the outside. A man spoke in a harsh and domineering voice.
    “All out. End of the line. But come slow, and come with your hands up.”
    “One of us is hurt,” said Cole. “I don’t think he can walk.”
    “He’d better walk,” snapped the man outside. “Nobody around here is going to carry anybody.”
    Smitty gently raised The Avenger to his feet.