Read Online The Avenger 35 - The Iron Skull by Kenneth Robeson - Free Book Online Page A

worry about walking for exercise.”
    He snatched the knitted cap off the nearest goon, then borrowed the man’s red mackinaw. Donning these, he rolled both of the slumbering men over behind a shaggy pine tree.
    The ax swinging at his side, he went trudging downhill.

    There was a wooden gate open in the stone wall. The gate his two lumberjack pals must have used. It was hanging open.
    Smitty walked onto the hospital grounds. “Wouldn’t like to be sick in a joint like this,” he decided. “It ain’t got what you call a pleasing prospect.”
    He encountered no one else as he made his way to the garages. The dark sedan he’d seen the plump Nevins arrive in was there.
    Smitty tiptoed into the dark garage. He knelt by the car, took a tiny tracking bug out of his trouser pocket, and attached it to the underside of a fender. “Guy ought to take better care of this crate, too much gunk caked up under here.”
    He heard footsteps now. He eased up and moved back toward the rear of the windowless garage. He stationed himself in a swatch of deep shadow next to a storage cabinet.
    Nevins came into the garage, breathing hard. He noticed Smitty not at all. “What kind of life is this?” he was saying aloud to himself as he climbed into his car. “Morons on one end and a madman on the other. I wasn’t meant for a life like this . . . a man of my intelligence. There’s got to be something better.”
    The engine came to life, and the car backed out into the snowy afternoon.
    When the car was gone, Smitty again resorted to his two-way buckle radio. “Hey, Nellie! Nellie, can you hear me?”
    Nellie’s familiar voice came out of the speaker. “We’re on our way to the hospital, Smitty. Turns out we were only about twenty minutes away. Are you okay?”
    “Yeah, it was a little tussle with a couple of lumberjacks that caused me to cut off before.”
    “Lumberjacks?”
    “Never mind that now. You got one of my tracking boxes in your jalopy, ain’t you?”
    “Sure.”
    “Okay, switch it on and see if you can pick up a signal from the dingus I just planted on a guy’s car.”
    There were several seconds of silence. Then Nellie said, “We’re getting it, Smitty. He’s heading our way.”
    “Follow him,” he told her. “Forget about me. I got no problems. This bird may lead you to the higher-ups in this whole business. I got a hunch he’s some kind of middleman. Okay?”
    “Righto. You sure you’re—”
    “Yeah, yeah. Soon as I poke around here a little more I’ll pick up the guy’s trail, too. Meet you and Dick wherever it leads. Over and out.”
    Okay, now the two goons in the woods would be out for a while. There were the other two, the warehouse boys, who were still inside the hospital. And no way of telling how many more heavies that pile held.
    Still, he wanted to check around a little, maybe find himself somebody he could ask questions of. “So let’s sneak—”
    Clang!
    A bullet had come in out of the afternoon and struck the rusty vise about three feet from him.
    “We don’t tolerate prowlers here!” shouted a voice outside the garage. “This is Dr. Steinbrunner himself speaking. Come out of there with your hands up, or I’ll mow you down. Do you hear me?”
    “Oh, boy,” said Smitty.

CHAPTER XVIII

Nosing Around
    The snow was falling faster, heavier.
    “That’s him,” said Nellie.
    They were parked in a little side road. Out on the main roadway a dark sedan went by. The tracking box indicated this was indeed the automobile Smitty had alerted them to.
    The little blonde shifted into gear and swung out onto the road. “Let’s hope he’s going to where they’ve got Cole and Josh and Mac.”
    “If Smitty’s hunch is right,” said the Avenger, “he will.”
    A howling wind was spinning swirls of snow around their car. The road was alternately slushy and glass-slick.
    “Our unknown chum,” observed Nellie, “is moving a bit faster than prevailing weather conditions call for.”
    “He