The Avenger 24 - Midnight Murder Read Online Free Page A

instant.
    Benson’s hand flashed out and caught the fellow’s gun wrist; his other hand went over the man’s mouth to strangle an outcry. Dick twisted the guard’s gun from his hand; then his fingers pressed at the base of the skull.
    In a moment, the man sagged, rendered unconscious by the scientific pressure exerted against the great nerve centers by Dick’s deft fingers. Dick caught him in his arms and turned to the amazed MacMurdie.
    “Take him into the laboratory,” he said in a low tone. “He seems to have a brown suit on under this blue uniform of a General Laboratories guard. Maybe that’s all right, but maybe it isn’t. Find out.”
    Mac’s curiosity was so violent that he couldn’t wait till he’d got inside the building. He drew his tiny flash and sent its rays briefly over the unconscious man’s ankles. Then he saw what The Avenger had alertly noted in one instant in the car’s headlights while the man was approaching at the gate.
    The blue uniform pants were over other pants-brown tweed pants. The brown pants legs had been rolled up to hide their presence, but one had unrolled so that a fraction of an inch showed under the blue cuff.
    “Ye’ve got eyes like telescopes, Muster Benson,” Mac began. But the spot where The Avenger had been was vacant. He had melted silently into the darkness.
    Mac went on up the low step to the door of the lightless building and tapped for admittance.
    The Avenger, after half a dozen steps, took to the trees.
    In jungle growth, Benson, with his unusual muscular co-ordination and power, could swing through the tree branches faster than a man could walk. But this was a different proposition. These were trees of the temperate zone, not so close together, and with fewer branches interlacing; but he could move through the foliage twenty feet above the ground all right if he went slowly and carefully.
    He went from branch to branch, till he was back toward the gate about fifty yards. Then he stopped in a big fork, and listened. Ahead and to the right, he heard whispering.
    He drew a sort of stethoscope from his coat pocket and placed the tiny plugs to his ears. The instrument picked up sound and magnified it by about ten.
    Words of the whisperers came clearly:
    “We’ll have to get rid of those two. We can get ’em at the gate on the way out. Knives, or clubs, to keep it quiet.”
    “Molly says not.”
    There was whispered profanity, indicating the whisperer’s opinion of Molly’s common sense.
    Then: “Listen, when that Benson guy gets going on a thing, he never stops till it’s finished. And finished, to him, means wiped up for the other guy. He has stuck his nose in this business. We’ve got to get him out of the way—or else. And this is a swell spot to do it.”
    “O.K.; O.K.! But I’ll let you do the explaining to Molly.”
    Benson put the amplifier back in his pocket and went on, veering a bit so as not to cross directly over the spot where he had heard the whispering.
    At the base of an extra-large tree his pale eyes saw a sort of white blur that heaved around silently. He descended.
    A man lay there. To be more accurate, he tossed furiously there, trying to get to his feet. He couldn’t do that because he was bound. Also, he was gagged, which explained the lack of sound.
    He was in his underwear and must have been chilly. The night was warm, but it wasn’t warm enough to comfort if you wanted to lie around like that.
    He glared at the indistinct blob which was The Avenger, clad in dark gray. Benson lowered to him.
    “You’re one of the guards? Nod if you are.”
    The man nodded vehemently.
    “Don’t make any noise when I take your gag out.”
    The Avenger ripped the gag off, then slashed the man’s bonds. The man didn’t say anything. He began feeling around the ground, savagely.
    If he hadn’t found the thing he was feeling for so quickly, or if he hadn’t happened to have his back turned to Dick when he picked it up, everything would have