The Avenger 32 - The Death Machine by Kenneth Robeson Read Free Book Online Page A

small public square. “Excelsior!” he said aloud. “There it is up there, still standing. And with lights burning in the windows.”
    Two seagulls came walking across the cobblestone square. One of them, with a skittering hop and a few flaps of its wings, rose up and perched on the hood of the rented coupé.
    “Makes rather an attractive hood ornament,” said Dr. Heathcote. He began walking. To reach the Pirate Castle you had to cross the town and then climb up a narrow road which cut up the hillside. Since Wollter’s Landing consisted of only four square blocks of low wood and brick houses the crossing of it was only a matter of minutes.
    “A seagull decoration,” reflected Uncle Algernon as he started up the hill. “Yes, it would be a conversation piece surely, especially in seaside towns. If one could make the wings flap now and then . . .”
    The hillside was thick with oak trees and scrub brush. He paused to wipe his forehead with the tail of his tie. The restaurant building was visible through the trees now: a once stately Victorian house, gabled, three stories high, decorated with intricate wooden gingerbread. Three windows on the second floor glowed with light, one on the ground floor.
    “My nephew will no doubt be envious when he learns that his doddering old uncle is capable of stealth and subterfuge himself,” Heathcote thought.
    He didn’t actually have any plan in mind. And the thought crossed his mind that he should perhaps have left a note for Smitty.
    “Faint heart never won fair maiden,” he decided, stopping a dozen yards from the wide front porch of the house.
    There was a new sign hanging over the arch of the porch. It was not quite complete and read Pirate Cast.
    “Amazing how a person such as myself, not overly familiar with woodlore, can approach through a forest and make not a sound,” Uncle Algernon told himself. Hidden from the house by a tree trunk, he watched it. “That would indicate to me that ones brilliance in other areas can be transferred to a new—”
    The thought was never completed.
    Something had cracked against the back of his skull.
    Dr. Heathcote fell over into the brush and thought no more.

CHAPTER XI

Trouble in Paradise
    The Avenger and Smitty both moved at once, in opposite directions.
    This caused Dr. Friessen to hesitate a few seconds before firing his newly produced revolver.
    An unfortunate hesitation.
    As Benson threw himself toward the cottage door, the unique .22 pistol he called Mike appeared in his hand.
    Friessen’s first shot zinged through empty air to thunk into the far wall.
    Smitty had dived toward the sofa. He was behind it now, clutching his own revolver.
    The Avenger’s gun spoke next.
    The doctor screamed. His fingers let go of the butt of the revolver and he staggered backwards, thudding into a shelf of urns. Three of the urns hopped from the shelf, bounced on Friessen’s head and shoulders, scattering a powdery ash.
    Dr. Friessen sucked at the bleeding rut Benson’s shot had made across the back of his hand. “Oh, the poor doggies,” he lamented. “Just look what you’ve made me do to their last earthly remains.” He made a shimmying motion, trying to shake off the ashes that clung to him.
    Out behind the cottage a motor started up.
    “Somebody trying to lam.” Smitty went bounding for the back door.
    There was a big garage out back. A hearse came roaring out of it and went squealing around a driveway toward the road out.
    “Hey, you jerks!” Smitty bellowed. “Stop right there.”
    The escaping hearse paid him no mind.
    Smitty held up his gun, steadied it with his other hand and fired twice.
    Two whomping explosions followed.
    The giant hit both the front and rear tires on this side of the vehicle.
    The hearse went wobbling along the road, climbed up into the burying ground and came to a smashing stop against a dog tomb.
    Nobody climbed out of the halted machine.
    Gun ready, Smitty moved through the night fog.
    He was up among