The Avenger 11 - River of Ice by Kenneth Robeson Read Free Book Online

all’s well in the caves.”
    “That’s what it sounds like,” nodded Benson, pale eyes like polished agate as he stared at the marked map on the table.
    “And the sister,” said Nellie sympathetically, “isn’t at her radio to hear.”
    “No,” said The Avenger.
    “Do you think she has been murdered?” asked Joshua Elijah Newton. The gangling sleepy looking Negro was another of Benson’s aides.
    “No,” The Avenger answered his question, “I don’t think Lini Waller has been killed. That radio message came from quite a distance, didn’t it, Smitty?”
    “Yes,” nodded the giant. “But from just what distance I can’t say, of course.”
    “Could it have come from the British Columbia coast?” asked Benson, pale eyes on the map.
    “Sure!”
    MacMurdie put down the earphone. “Well, ye overgrown mass of muscle,” he said to Smitty, “I guess there’s nothing more to hear, at that. The other end’s gone dead and stays dead.”
    “Wish I could have heard a little more, to check my direction,” said Smitty. “But I guess I got it pretty exactly . . .”
    At the door of the great room, a red speck glowed. “See who’s downstairs, Josh,” said Benson.
    Josh went to another smaller table. Here was a small radio set, reflecting perfect, if very shortrange television pictures. It showed whoever was in the vestibule downstairs at the street entrance. Josh looked surprised. “Why, I think—” he said. “I think it’s the girl you’ve been talking about, chief! Her looks tally with your description.” Before the words had ceased, Benson was staring into the television set. Then his finger pressed the button that released the door catch.
    In a moment Lini Waller came in through the doorway.
    She walked up to Benson, while the rest stared in amazement. The chief had just told them how this girl had been taken away somewhere and was probably in grave danger. But here she was, visiting the Bleek Street headquarters alone and unharmed. At least, it seemed that she was unharmed. “Mr. Benson,” she said to The Avenger, “I have changed my mind about your offer.” Her manner was different than it had been at the Wittwar Foundation office. It was hard to spot that difference. Her voice seemed a shade mechanical; her eyes were a little duller; her face held less expression. The eyes of The Avenger were as brilliant as ice in moonlight as he studied that slight difference.
    “You offered to help me—to guard me,” Lini said. “I would like to accept that kind offer now. Something has happened that makes me know I really am in danger.”
    “The offer still stands,” said Benson, eyes like diamond drills as they probed her stolid face. “I was afraid you were already beyond help. I visited your hotel a short time ago, and it looked very much as if you had been kidnaped.”
    “I was,” said Lini, with no fear in her tone. “Some men drugged me and took me away. I regained consciousness in an automobile. I got the door open and jumped out when the car stopped near a traffic officer, and the men didn’t dare to stop me. I came here at once. May I stay here with you and your friends?”
    “You poor kid,” said Nellie Gray impulsively. “Certainly you can stay here. And all of us will see to it that nothing more happens to you.”
    “First,” said Lini, looking at Benson, “there is something that ought to be done. You saw the manuscript I left with Mr. Wittwar and the others as a sample of the relics in the caves my brother and I discovered. Well, there are some other ancient things I brought too. I have them in a suitcase at a rooming house on Twelfth Street. I rented the room just to keep the things in; and I haven’t been back to it since for fear someone would trail me there. Would you have someone get those things and bring them here?”
    “Of course,” said Benson. Lini thanked him and murmured an address.
    “I’ll go, Muster Benson,” said MacMurdie.
    “Perhaps,” said Lini,