The Avenger 31 - The Cartoon Crimes by Kenneth Robeson Read Free Book Online Page B

pounding, but nothing else.
    After a few seconds he saw lights—down through the woods, lights that appeared to float at the edge of the cliff.
    “Lewing’s studio.” He headed into the trees. “Could be it’s only him, drawing his funny papers or whatnot. But I better get me a look.”
    Before Smitty reached the studio he saw the flying man.
    He wasn’t difficult to spot, since he was glowing faintly. A masked man, dressed all in scarlet. A cape fluttering out from his shoulders. He was circling in the darkness out over the cliff side.
    “Holy moley,” said Smitty. “Now I’m seeing guys in trick suits.”
    He commenced trotting for the studio.
    Gil was down there. The studio door flapped open, and he came bounding out. “When are you guys going to give up?” he shouted out at the darkness. “I’m not crazy. You’re not going to drive me crazy with your cheap tricks!” He started to work his way through the black trees, making for the edge of the cliff and the seemingly flying man.
    “They must know they can’t drive him cuckoo,” reflected Smitty as he trotted nearer. “Then why— Hey!”
    He saw something else, only for a second when the moonlight caught it just right. A wire. A wire strung across the edge of the cliff. If Gil didn’t see it when he went running for the flying man, he’d trip. Trip and go falling straight down two hundred feet to the rocky beach below.
    “Hey!” shouted the giant. “Stay put, Gil! Don’t move!”
    Gil ignored him. He was in the clear now, running across the scrubby grass, only a few hundred feet from the drop. “I don’t need any help,” he called out. “I can handle these guys.”
    “A wire!” yelled Smitty. “A trip wire!” He put on the speed and cut down the distance between him and the cartoonist.
    Gil didn’t stop. “That’s not even a real man up there,” he was saying. “Just a dummy on wires. You’ll have to do better than that. Hell, I can grab it right out of the—”
    “Geeze, you’re a tough bird to convince.” Smitty hit him in the side with his big shoulder and deflected him away from the edge and the drop.
    “Damn you, Smith. I want to—”
    “Look here, hothead.” Smitty reached out and caught hold of the trip wire. “Did you happen to notice that?”
    Gil was on one knee. He sat all the way down now. “No,” he said in a small voice.
    “They didn’t want to scare you this time, pal. This was a trick for keeps.”
    Gil let out his breath slowly. “Well . . . thanks. I feel sort of stupid,” he said. “I came down to try to work, couldn’t sleep at all.”
    “Yeah, they probably counted on that.” Smitty had been watching the woods all around them. He squinted up at the circling dummy now. “They set up this thing and took off. I don’t see no sign of them in the vicinity.”
    “This is all beyond me,” said Gil. “In a way it made more sense when I thought I was seeing things.” He poked a finger in the direction of the caped dummy. “That guy’s the villain from the next issue of the Wonderman magazine, the bimonthly. I flatly don’t get this.”
    Smitty helped him up. “They wanted to make you goofy,” he said. “When that didn’t work, they changed their play. Figured to goad you into taking a fall. If it had worked, there wouldn’t have been no sign of wires or dummies when you were found down on the rocks tomorrow morning.”
    “Guess I’ll go back up to the house,” said Gil. “I don’t much feel like drawing, after all. I’ve heard that success is tough on some people, but I never expected anything this rough.”
    “I’ll see you get up there okay,” said the big man. “Then I want to do some more snooping back here.” He patted the new tracking device that rested in his pocket.

CHAPTER XII

Under the Rose
    The bald-headed man kicked MacMurdie.
    Mac went right on sleeping, sprawled on the stone floor where they’d dumped him.
    “The simplest thing,” said the bald man, kicking