Justice, Inc.

CHAPTER XIX Three Against Crime

In the hospital, Hickock lay dying. At police headquarters, Buell, a gibbering wreck, was listening to his talk with Carney, from a dictograph planted in their office by Benson. Then he raved a confession. But Benson was not there to listen. He was at the hotel. The gray man already knew the main outlines, if not the entire details, of the murderous affair.

It had been Hickock’s plan. Buy Tap & Die stock, and loot the big cash reserve. If anybody refused to sell under threat — take him to Thornacre Island and make him sell, by torture if necessary. It had been necessary with all save John Lansing, who had discreetly surrendered and sold with the first threat of death.

It was Hickock who had thought up the clever scheme of carrying the victims to the hideout in an ordinary transport plane, whose regular trips would not arouse the possible comment that the frequent appearance of a private plane might have done.

But in the actual kidnappings lay the greatest risk of eventual detection. The dummy Tap & Die set-up might be penetrated at some future date, and the names of the men actually profitting be discovered. So Hickock acted in advance to kill any possible future suspicion.

He had taken the hazardous “kidnap” trip himself, with not even the gangsters knowing he wasn’t the victim he seemed to be. That is, all but Farr, leader of the gang. To Farr, Hickock had appealed secretly when he found himself running out of insulin which, as a diabetic, he must have—

“That nailed him,” said Benson, staring at the hotel-room wall with pale eyes in which was no triumph but only a great weariness. For after all, the main goal had not been accomplished. A gang had been mopped up, and their crafty, undercover leaders nabbed. But no trace had been found of Alicia and little Alice. “The call for insulin put the finger on him at once.”

MacMurdie shook his Scotch head. “I don’t see—”

“The gang didn’t care anything about the health of its victims,” said Benson. “Once they got the signature on the ‘sell’ order, nothing mattered.

“But when Hickock needed insulin — that was different! Immediately a hurry call went out. Why the solicitude for his health? What did they care whether Hickock had medicine or not? The only possible answer was that Hickock had a tie-up with the crooks.”

“Well,” said MacMurdie somberly, “the mon paid for it. And so did Carney, and so will Buell. Thanks to you, Muster Benson.”

The gray fox of a man stared at the wall.

“Ye didn’t want to kill them yourself because, as ye said, you’re no executioner. Ye didn’t want them arrested because they might buy their way out with their power and their money. So ye arranged for them to eliminate themselves.”

Still Benson said nothing. But the Scot, knowing the genius now of the pale, steely figure, was sure in his knowledge of what had really happened.

“When ye planted that dictograph, ye also planted a duplicate letter you had Mrs. Martineau write, and the postcard with a little additional message on it which ye wrote yourself. Planted it in the desk of the partner that also had a gun in it, which happened to be Buell’s.

“Ye knew when the two had got to their office, Muster Benson. Ye knew that Buell would go wild when he saw he’d been framed. And ye knew about when Hickock would come scurryin’ to tell of the slip in plans. Knowing all that, ye made their fates for them.” The Scot’s bitter blue eyes flamed. “So crooks kill crooks, and it’s perfect justice.”

Still Benson said nothing. The man who had moved super-criminals to their own destruction, like a master chess player moved pawns and rooks, could not feel the grim elation felt by Smitty and the Scot. He had only one thought in mind.

“Could my wife, my little girl be still alive?” he said at last.

Smitty stirred, and his eyes took on a great pity. He’d have liked to encourage Benson’s hope, but in justice he couldn’t. It is no favor to encourage a delusion.

“They were dropped from the plane over the middle of Lake Ontario,” he said, as gently as possible. “I was dropped, too. Same place, same way, for the same reason. And I was dropped without a parachute — as far as they knew.”

Benson stared at him, gray eyes terrible. But the giant went on.

“Is it likely that… they… had parachutes put on them, any more than I did?”

For a second it looked as though the steely-gray figure would flash on the giant. And if it had, Smitty would have stood still and taken all Benson cared to give. But finally Benson relaxed.

“I suppose you’re right. But I will always hope—”

Then MacMurdie reluctantly voiced what both he and the giant were thinking.

“The job’s done, Muster Benson. Me and this overgrown chunk of muscle here have helped as well as we could. So now I suppose we’ll be sayin’ good-bye and good luck to ye.”

“Oh, no,” said Benson quickly.

The Scot stared. Benson went on more slowly, face dead and immobile but pale eyes flaming like ice in the dawn.

“I’ve been thinking it out, Mac, Smitty. And it comes to something like this: I’ve suffered a terrible loss. But others have suffered as greatly — and still more are doomed to suffer in the future. You two are cases in point. You, Mac, lost as much as I have. You, Smitty, spent a year in jail on a false charge. Now, having suffered myself, I would like to help others in the future.”

The two were still, hardly breathing, as they listened to the slow words slip from the dead lips.

“There is much work to be done that the police can’t handle. I’d like to do that work. I’d like to devote the rest of my life, and my fortune, and what talents I possess, to fighting crime of the sort that has made my own life barren and meaningless. I’ll need help. Would you two… like to stay on with me and administer justice — our way?”

Smitty’s vast shoulders, swelled exultantly. “Of course, chief!”

MacMurdie’s bitter eyes burned blue flame. “With the greatest of pleasure, Muster Benson.”

“Right,” said Benson. “You, Smitty, will be a personal assistant. You, Mac, will have a nice drugstore in payment for your help.” He held up his steely, slim hand as the Scot would have protested at the inactive course suggested. “It will be a special kind of drugstore, Mac. It will be equipped, as no drugstore ever was before — to fight crime. We’ll settle in New York, I think. As that’s the biggest city, it is frequently the headquarters for criminal activities as well as more legitimate enterprises.”

The pale-gray eyes ceased to focus on the two and stared through them.

“You can go now, if you don’t mind, and leave me to work out the rest of it.”

Gently, the two left, almost on tiptoe. For they knew that the thoughts he wanted to be alone with were not of the future.

They were of the past: of a woman with tawny-gold hair and brown eyes, and a little girl who was her image.

On into the dawn the steel-gray man with the pale and deadly eyes sat with his thoughts. Roused by the loss of all that made life worth living, he had been a terrible force. But he had still been a man.

Now, he was hardly human. He was a shining, sinister machine. An engine of destruction, forged unwittingly by crime, created by an underworld which henceforth was destined to shudder at mention of the thing he had become.

The Avenger!