THE SPIDER-City of Doom Read Free Page B

riddling the door. Wentworth sprang back into the bedroom, reached the window in a bound.
    The cop on the fire-escape straightened, smashed in the window with his gun, sprang inside. But that man on the roof and those two in the alley still watched. Wentworth shrugged. It was now or never. Already the police were at the door of the bedroom.
    "Open up, Spider, " a man commanded. "We got you dead to rights this time. You're surrounded and you can't get away."
    There was jubilance in the voice, eager triumph. Wentworth's smile tightened. He whipped a length of silken cord from beneath his arm, cord that was not quite as large in diameter as a pencil, yet which had a tensile strength of seven-hundred pounds. He looped it over the steam radiator beneath the window, forked the sill and slid down the side of the building with the cord wrapped about arms and legs. He contrived to make a lot of noise doing it, kicked the window out of the room below the Collins' bedroom.
    The two policemen on watch in the alley heard and shouted rapidly. They ran down the alley with their flashlights questing over the side of the building.
    "Don't shoot!" Wentworth cried in terror-stricken accents. "For God's sake, don't shoot!"
    He pushed his feet against the side of the house and caused himself to swing from side to side. The cops ran down the alley until they stood below him but carefully away from the wall so that he could not drop upon them. Wentworth had descended another story now. He was only two floors above the ground and directly opposite the window of another apartment.
    Windows were flung open above his head and bedcapped heads thrust out. "We got him," the cops below sang out triumphantly.
    Wentworth was gyrating widely on his silken line now. His feet struck the window and crashed it inward. Then, abruptly, the Spider vanished. He swung into the window and out of sight. Guns blazed in the alley. Men shouted excitedly.
    Inside the room where Wentworth crouched, a quavering voice said, "Don't shoot me. I ain't got nothing you want."
    Wentworth crossed to the door in a bound, sprang across the room beyond and jerked open the outside door, slammed it again. Silently then, he slipped back to the kitchen. This apartment had exactly the same floor plan as the Collins' rooms and he had no trouble in finding his way. In the kitchen, he went directly to the dumb-waiter shaft. The cage itself was one story below and he hauled it quietly to his level and climbed inside. He was certain the basement would be guarded. There was still only a slim chance of escaping. He raised the dumbwaiter slowly until he was once more level with the Collins apartment. He listened intently, ear to the shaft door. There was no sound in the apartment and he eased into the empty kitchen.
    Then he could hear talking in the next room, Nancy Collins protesting vigorously that she knew nothing except what she had told. Wentworth peered into the room. Collins was standing with legs aggressively braced, his tousled head thrust forward. "I reckon you-all have asked enough questions now," the big man drawled quietly.
     
    There were two police inside, one in civilian clothes, one in uniform. Wentworth's spring into the room was soundless. The first warning the two men had of his presence was the flashing light within their skulls when his pistols slapped their heads. Collins half-started forward, but suddenly he was looking into the black muzzle of an automatic.
    "I don't want to slap you down, too," the Spider said softly.
    Anse Collins grinned slowly. "Reckon I don't want you to either," he smiled.
    Wentworth nodded. He stooped and snatched the uniformed man's cap, put it on and whirled back to the kitchen, clambered out on the fire-escape. The two police were still in the alley.
    "He went down the dumb-waiter!" Wentworth yelled at them. "The Spider's in the basement!"
    The two cops peered up and saw the silhouette of a police cap against the sky.
    "Get down in the basement,