Day of Doom: The Complete Battles of Gordon Manning & The Griffin, Volume 2 by J. Allan Dunn Page A

you. That is all?”
    “All, for the present.”
    Manning bowed and left. The wallah took him down in the elevator. After the door had closed he rang the bell of Pelota’s apartment, hoping the woman had not left. If she had, he must make other arrangements. But he had noticed in the studio certain ladders and trestles that Pelota had used in painting his big canvas. They would be convenient for what he had in mind, a private survey and investigation of Zerah’s private activities.
    Zerah had lied. Manning knew from the insurance company that he had called up, three weeks before, to know how much might be borrowed on the policy by a full beneficiary. No doubt he had been disappointed. The policy was only three years old, the loan value was not very great.
    The Italian housekeeper was still there. Her face was wrung with grief.
    “I may find the man who killed your maestro,” Manning told her. “Will you help me?”
    She regarded him earnestly, then caught his hand, and kissed it.
    VIII
    Manning stood on the top round of the platform he had set up on the terrace and peered through the curtained windows of Zerah’s temple. There was light inside and the interior was fairly plain to his view.
    The black drapes were drawn. There were crimson lights on and about the altar. On it were images of Siva and Parvati, his wife, in their most diabolical aspects. Two servants knelt, one on either side. Incense smoked. In front of the unhallowed shrine Zerah officiated.
    It was plain to Manning that Zerah, as ever, was the dupe of the heathen rituals he practiced. Now he was offering a placation, a sacrifice. He was appealing to the gods he had falsely served to rescue him from the situation, brought about by his own greedy lusts, which now threatened him.
    Dimly the sound of a gong came through the window panes. One of the wallahs left and returned with a salver on which was the skinned carcass of some animal. Manning could not see it clearly and it did not matter. It might be dog, rabbit or cat, so long as it was full of blood.
    He waited tensely. These were French windows, long, opening inward, but the panes were not large. He had cut a small square in one of them, next to the latch. He had smeared on a section of flypaper to which he had attached a handle of twine with adhesive, long since dried. Now he waited for the chill of the November night to set the gluey surface so that he could snatch the cut segment free—when he was ready.
    It was not going to be long. Not after that blood-filled sacrifice, that offering to Kali, had been brought in.
    He saw Zerah approach the altar, step on a pedal, saw the top of the altar lower. Then a cage appeared, elevated, resting at last on a level Manning thought was maintained by the re-arising of the altar top. It was square, made of light but strong wiring, about two feet square.
    In it squatted a fearsome object. Mottled, crouching. Manning caught the gleam of avid eyes. The Thing was furred. It seemed to bristle at scent of the blood of the flayed offering.
    Zerah lifted the front of the cage, stepped back. Manning caught the faint sound of music that grew louder as he yanked free the square of glass, softly set it down and released the latch. Some one was playing on a pipe. The kind of pipe and the sort of music used by the snake charmers. The Thing heard it. It crept out of the cage.
    Manning had all he wanted to know. He released the window latch and stepped in and down. Under one arm he carried his steel cane. His right hand was in his side pocket.
    Zerah whirled. The Thing was still crawling from its cage, intent upon a feast.
    Zerah rapped out a crisp command. He felt in his belt and from it a tulwar flashed, a curving knife of steel, inlaid with gold. But he left the first attack to his two servants. Manning had entered through the window. Zerah knew well enough what that meant. His appraisal of Manning was now definite. Here was an enemy—and he meant to destroy him before he