"Avenger - 4303 - Calling Justice, INC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Avenger)

and seized her hair in one hand and thrust the cigarette at her eyes.

But the glowing end of the cigarette never reached its goal, for, suddenly, the lights
blinked out and the room was plunged into total darkness. Only the cigarette glowed in the black
void.

Someone cursed and Haggard raised his voice, calling to the men in the outer room. "Gurko!
Put a fuse in--"

But someone called to him. "It ain't the fuse. Haggard. Someone snipped the power line
outside--"

A window smashed somewhere in the room and a powerful searchlight played on the occupants,
rested a split second on Nellie, then swung to cover Haggard and the other two. Almost as if the
beam of light were a signal, a heavy automatic began to bark, following the searchlight around
the room from one man to another. The gun barked only three times, each shot a bull's-eye.
Haggard went down with a bullet in his lung, the other two with slugs in their stomachs.

Nellie's eyes lighted with relief and a sudden surge of hope. "Dick!" she shouted. "The
Avenger!"

From the other room came a frightened shout: "The Avenger!"

It was drowned by the thunderous roar of another gun out there. Meanwhile, Dick Benson leaped
in through the window and helped Nellie up from the chair.

"Thank God!" he said fervently.

The shooting was still going on in the next room, but, by the time Benson reached the door it
had stopped. He shouted, "O.K., Smitty," and yanked the door open. His flashlight beam crossed
Smitty, illuminating the shambles which the room had become. In the door the huge, powerful
figure of Algernon Heathcote Smith stood, like an avenging god out of the Norse tales, a smoking
gun in his hand. And on the floor was the evidence of his shooting.

"What about Nellie?" he demanded.

"Safe!" said Benson.

He swung around and Nellie nodded toward the figure of Haggard, Iying on his back, with blood
frothing at his mouth. "That's Royce Haggard," she said. "He has the key to these handcuffs."

Benson knelt beside him, went through his pockets and found the key. Swiftly he released
Nellie Gray, and Smitty came over and patted her on the shoulder, speechless with relief at
seeing her alive and unharmed.

Haggard was dying fast. He spat blood and tried to speak. "Before I die . . . tell me . . .
where you hid . . . the Zaharoff treasure!"

Nellie knelt beside him. She felt no resentment now, only a coldness. "In the clothes hamper
in the broom closet," she told him. "It was the simplest place I could find."