laboratory helper of the dead man was seen by someone just before the murder. For, of course, each was murder. A league of four ex-laboratory workers, it would appear, conspired in the deaths of the four scientists. After that, the scene shifts entirely to this country.
“On a Utah salt flat, a car was burned and the wreckage carefully hauled away in a closed van and hidden. The car must have been at the flat for a test of some sort. The test must have been a remarkable one, which certain interests wanted to be sure would be kept forever secret. So the test car was blotted out. Also, it is almost certain, the driver who conducted the test was killed to stop his tongue, forever.
“Quite near the salt flat, at about the same time, a plane was similarly being put through tests. A rancher has reported that he thought he saw a plane fly at a faster speed than he had ever seen one go before. And shortly after that, the plane exploded and rained to earth in unrecognizable bits—some of them stained with the blood of the pilot. Again, a test so remarkable must have been performed that certain interests utterly destroyed the plane and test pilot to insure secrecy.”
Smitty cleared his throat. It sounded like the rasp of a sandblaster. Mac and Nellie glared at him. The giant colored a little and spread his huge hands in an apologetic way.
“The four scientists, to get back to them, seemed to have been poisoned. Yet no laboratory has found a trace of any known poison. This poison, it seems, is explosive. At least, the sample taken quickly from Sodolow’s stomach exploded at a spark, in my laboratory. And the sample from Veck’s stomach may also have been, because the Montreal police laboratory went up in smoke and rubble about the time the lab men were due to work on the sample. But—how could any man with a normal sense of taste be induced to swallow enough of any known explosive to be burst like a bomb by it later? And why is the stuff they seem to have swallowed sometimes explosive and sometimes not explosive?”
Benson’s voice grew softer and yet, in a curious way, even more grim.
“Three more pieces remain to the puzzle bits, each containing smaller riddles:
“First, Lorens Singer’s home is utterly destroyed by something seeming to have filled every water pipe in the building, and eighteen people are killed. Singer was not in the building; so he was uninjured. He did not know who annihilated his home in an effort to kill him. He did not know why. I am certain he did not know. I have never seen such ruthless, cold anger as he displayed when he swore to get the people responsible.
“Second, a house is discovered in New Jersey that is elaborately heated and lighted, yet into which seems to run neither oil lines nor electric cables. Josh and Mac saw a half-inch pipe leading into the base of the furnace, but it would not seem to have been an oil line. Oilburners need electric motors to function, and there was no apparent electricity in the house. Josh later saw a similar pipe at the bank of a near creek, leading back in a way suggesting that that was the pipe that entered the house. During their search, they meet Xisco—a former laboratory helper of the late Veck—who says it is his home. Later, after the house is destroyed by fire, Xisco disappears. At the same time, the private detective, hired recently by the Henderlin Corp., who guided Mac and Josh there, dies with flame coming from his mouth and nose. And a car, occupants unseen, is heard driving away.
“Third, Henderlin’s bath is blown up in a manner to suggest that he had been soaking in gasoline or nitroglycerin instead of water and that a match had ignited the stuff. But a sample from his bath is—plain water.”
The dominant, cold voice stopped. Benson turned back from the window.
“Get me Warsaw, Poland, on the phone, Nellie.”
The musing of The Avenger was over. It was time for action again.
His aides were sure that behind the pale, awesome
“On a Utah salt flat, a car was burned and the wreckage carefully hauled away in a closed van and hidden. The car must have been at the flat for a test of some sort. The test must have been a remarkable one, which certain interests wanted to be sure would be kept forever secret. So the test car was blotted out. Also, it is almost certain, the driver who conducted the test was killed to stop his tongue, forever.
“Quite near the salt flat, at about the same time, a plane was similarly being put through tests. A rancher has reported that he thought he saw a plane fly at a faster speed than he had ever seen one go before. And shortly after that, the plane exploded and rained to earth in unrecognizable bits—some of them stained with the blood of the pilot. Again, a test so remarkable must have been performed that certain interests utterly destroyed the plane and test pilot to insure secrecy.”
Smitty cleared his throat. It sounded like the rasp of a sandblaster. Mac and Nellie glared at him. The giant colored a little and spread his huge hands in an apologetic way.
“The four scientists, to get back to them, seemed to have been poisoned. Yet no laboratory has found a trace of any known poison. This poison, it seems, is explosive. At least, the sample taken quickly from Sodolow’s stomach exploded at a spark, in my laboratory. And the sample from Veck’s stomach may also have been, because the Montreal police laboratory went up in smoke and rubble about the time the lab men were due to work on the sample. But—how could any man with a normal sense of taste be induced to swallow enough of any known explosive to be burst like a bomb by it later? And why is the stuff they seem to have swallowed sometimes explosive and sometimes not explosive?”
Benson’s voice grew softer and yet, in a curious way, even more grim.
“Three more pieces remain to the puzzle bits, each containing smaller riddles:
“First, Lorens Singer’s home is utterly destroyed by something seeming to have filled every water pipe in the building, and eighteen people are killed. Singer was not in the building; so he was uninjured. He did not know who annihilated his home in an effort to kill him. He did not know why. I am certain he did not know. I have never seen such ruthless, cold anger as he displayed when he swore to get the people responsible.
“Second, a house is discovered in New Jersey that is elaborately heated and lighted, yet into which seems to run neither oil lines nor electric cables. Josh and Mac saw a half-inch pipe leading into the base of the furnace, but it would not seem to have been an oil line. Oilburners need electric motors to function, and there was no apparent electricity in the house. Josh later saw a similar pipe at the bank of a near creek, leading back in a way suggesting that that was the pipe that entered the house. During their search, they meet Xisco—a former laboratory helper of the late Veck—who says it is his home. Later, after the house is destroyed by fire, Xisco disappears. At the same time, the private detective, hired recently by the Henderlin Corp., who guided Mac and Josh there, dies with flame coming from his mouth and nose. And a car, occupants unseen, is heard driving away.
“Third, Henderlin’s bath is blown up in a manner to suggest that he had been soaking in gasoline or nitroglycerin instead of water and that a match had ignited the stuff. But a sample from his bath is—plain water.”
The dominant, cold voice stopped. Benson turned back from the window.
“Get me Warsaw, Poland, on the phone, Nellie.”
The musing of The Avenger was over. It was time for action again.
His aides were sure that behind the pale, awesome
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