"Avenger - 4305 - Cargo Of Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Avenger)

An Exciting Novelette
by Kenneth Robeson

A child's voice appeals to The Avenger,
and leads him to the deadly trail of the

CARGO OF DOOM


CHAPTER I.
DON'T CALL THE POLICE!

Smitty was away in Washington when the phone call came in at Justice, Inc., and the other
members of The Avenger's staff were dispersed over the four parts of the world, so that only Benson
himself and Nellie Gray were on hand. The voice over the phone was that of a child. Benson, as he
answered the call, estimated that she was barely more than nine or ten. She talked with a
Scandinavian accent in which was mingled the training of a good English private school.

"Are you Mr. Benson, sir, please?" she asked anxiously. She seemed to be hurried and perhaps
frightened.

"Yes, my, child," Richard Benson replied in a kindly voice.

"You are the one they call The Avenger, sir?"

"Yes."

There was a tinge of sudden relief in that lost, childish voice. "Then everything is all right.
Mamma was worried and afraid that I wouldn't be able to get you. She was afraid I might not be able
to use the American telephone. Please, Mr. Avenger, will you help my mamma and me?"

"Of course--"

"Then you must go at once to the Suydenville Hotel. Mamma is afraid they will kill her--and me,
too. Please say that you are Mr. Foster, and ask for a message at the desk. Mamma has gone out, but
she dares not ring you up herself for fear that she is followed. I must ring up now because those
men are coming back. I hear them in the hall." The child's voice became more hurried. "Good-by now,
and may God bless you for helping us!"

There was a click and the line went dead.

Richard Benson hung up with a frown, and looked at Nellie Gray, Nellie was shutting off the
automatic recorder, which she had turned on at a signal from him, It had recorded the conversation,
a thing that was always done at Justice, Inc., whenever a call came in that was out of the routine.

"What do you think of it, Nellie?" Benson asked.

Nellie Gray, slight, diminutive, was as efficient and as daring as any of the male assistants of
The Avenger. "It might be a trap, of course, Dick!" she said thoughtfully. "Your enemies are not
above using a child to bait a death trap for you."