THE SPIDER-City of Doom Read Free Page A

damned foreigner who had his finger in Jim's pie."
    Nancy Collins' quiet voice broke in. "Mr. Alrecht was very nice to us, Anse," she said. "He got Jim his job at the plant and he was going to finance the invention when Jim got it finished."
    "Sure, for a lion's share cut of the profits," Anse Collins drawled. "And you can't tell me he was just being nice to Jim. I always did think the skunk had his eye on you."
    "Anse!" The girl's voice was distressed.
    "It's a fact," Anse Collins said stubbornly. "Alrecht was dead set on marrying you."
    A thunderous fist beat on the door. Wentworth sprang to his feet. "That's the police," he snapped. "Listen, the crooks who held you up came from New York. If you want to find Jim's murderers, you can go there and register at the Kennillworth Hotel on Forty-Sixth Street. I'll get in touch with you."
    He reached the kitchen door in a bound—checked short. Crouched on the fire-escape was a policeman. The cold light from the window glinted on his badge and on a gun in his hand. So that was why the police had delayed! They had surrounded the building before knocking. The fist battered at the door again.
    "Open up," a man shouted. "It's the police."
    The fire-escape and door were blocked. That policeman on the fire-escape prevented any use of the dumbwaiter in the kitchen. And here on the floor lay the bodies of two men with the seal of the Spider upon their foreheads. What did it matter that they were criminals? The Spider had killed them, and the law could not consider motives.
    "If you don't open up in one minute," the rough voice bellowed from the hall, "we'll break the door in!"
     
     

Chapter Two
Ram Singh Falls
    THE TWO, Nancy Collins, and her brother-in-law, were staring at Wentworth with worried frowns. Unconsciously, the girl drew the blanket more tightly about her. There was a wary light in Anse Collins' eyes.
    "Look here," he shouted gruffly. "I'm an officer of the law, too, even if I haven't any authority here. Reckon you better get out of here damned quick."
    Wentworth laughed softly. "That's right. Stall them as long as you can."
    He darted into the bedroom, slapped the door shut and locked it. He heard the reverberations of more pounding on the outside door, heard Collins' gruff voice, but couldn't make out the words. He reached the window with quick strides. It was already raised and he peered furtively toward the man on the fire-escape. The cop was still poised there with gun in hand, peering into the kitchen.
    A glance above and below showed still another uniform cap thrust over the edge of the roof, two shadows that were men in the alley below. Wentworth's smile became grim. It was almost as if these men knew that the Spider was here and were taking no chances on his escape. There was a fifty-thousand-dollar reason for him—the rewards piled upon his head by communities he had flouted and mocked in his swift and deadly pursuit of evildoers.
    It did not matter at all that Wentworth had done these things only in the name of justice, that he killed only when justice was served by death. A dozen different states were ready to hang or electrocute him—if they could once identify him as the Spider. And in the other room there was evidence enough of that, besides the two persons who knew he had affixed the mocking crimson seal to the dead men lying there.
    If he failed to escape, not only was his life forfeit, but perhaps with him would die the chance of capturing criminals who, through their wide scientific knowledge, could ravage from banks all over the nation the hard-earned savings of thousands of honest men and women. Even as he thought this, he wheeled, reentered the living room. There was one slim chance of escape, but he would have to act quickly.
    Collins and Nancy jerked about as he opened the door. "Stand clear," he ordered them gesturing toward the portal where police hammered.
    Collins sprang back and Wentworth fired twice into the ceiling A fusillade answered,