Alien Minds by E. Everett Evans Read Free Book Online

scanning of the gangster's mind that he now felt relief that Yandor had not been investigating him through Hanlon.
    But the young SS man had been reading the impre sario's thoughts as best he could, as well as hearing what he was saying. He felt that he knew now how to handle this agent.
    "As Auldin said, I'm not stupid, and I am on the make for my fortune. I knew the only way was to check first and talk later. So I asked seemingly innocuous questions here and there—and I'm wise enough never to ask more than one from any one person. That way I found out a lot. I do know something about the entertainment business and can hold up my end of the performance. But I also know the really big money is in the other things you control."
    Yandor did gasp at that. His face grew black and he half-rose and opened his mouth to say something—but Han lon beat him to it.
    "Incidentally," Incidentally," he lowered his voice but still kept it penetrant as he leaned forward confidentially, "there's some one in the next room, listening through that door there, to what we're saying."
    At Hanlon's quiet words, Ino Yandor's eyes opened wide, while Ran Auldin barely repressed an exclamation. Neither guessed, of course, that the stranger was looking through the eyes of Yandor's pet roch which, in the course of its investigation of the house for Hanlon's benefit, had come to the open doorway of that adjoining room, and had seen the man kneeling there, his ear pressed against the door-panels, listening intently.
    Now Yandor reached into a sort of pigeon-hole in his table-desk and quietly took out a flamegun. Tensing him self, he suddenly swung his chair about and leaped to the door. Flinging it open he found, indeed, another man there, before that other could rise and run.
    Grabbing the spy's collar with one surprisingly strong hand, Yandor yanked him to his feet and into the light.
    "Ondo!" he exclaimed. "Well now, what in the name of Zappa were you doing?"
    The small man cringed. "Pardon, nyer, I was was only trying to make sure that no one was attempting to harm you . . . and . . . and standing by to help you if they were."
    "I think he's lying," Hanlon said, knowing from his quick probe into the other's mind that lie was. "I'll bet he's a spy for someone."
    This last, he knew however, was not correct. Ondo was regularly employed by Yandor as a houseman. But he was one of those intensely curious and inquisitive people who always try to find out everything that goes on in any house they happen to be working in.
    "By Zappa, you'll never spy again," Yandor's face grew livid. "You know better'n to cross me. You know it isn't healthy."
    And before anyone could guess what he was about to do, the raging impresario chopped down with the butt of his flamer, and Ondo fell unconscious to the floor, blood welling from a gash in his forehead. The furious entre preneur was swinging the weapon into firing position to kill the fallen man when Hanlon leaped forward and grasped his arm, holding him back.
    "Wait, nyer. Don't cinder him," he said almost in a tone of command. "It wouldn't look well for a man of your public position, if word of it ever leaked out."
    "I say kill the snake," Ran Auldin spat. "There's no sense taking chances with a man we know is a spy."
    "No!" Hanlon was still quietly determined to save Ondo's life. He spoke as impressively as he could. "Such a killing, with a body to dispose of, would most certainly be traced back to you in time, nyer, and you would lose much of the respect the public holds for you. Your success in your . . . other . . . endeavors is largely due to the fact that everyone knows you for such a high-principled, public-spirited citizen, that no one suspects you of being anything else. Don't take chances on spoiling that reputation."
    Yandor was swayed by this impassioned appeal, it was plain to be seen. His respect for Hanlon's quick good sense and sound judgment mounted, and he looked at the young man with new