by Robert Reed
back to Nita’s ears, as she lay helplessly straining at her bonds, the
coarse laughter of the two men . It was lewd, suggestive .
Nita’s eyes were wide with fear, and her face burned .
Chapter 18
Doom of The Plague
RANSOM PLANE TO FLY AT DAWN
In New York city, miles from where Nita van Sloan struggled in
terror against her bonds, thousands read the headlines and sighed
WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 203
with relief . It meant that the city had been forced by the threat of
the Black Death to borrow a billion dollars from the banks, to place
that money in a plane and start it off along the line the Black Death
had charted .
If any other plane took the air, the Plague Master proclaimed, he
would loose death upon the city .
So at Floyd Bennett field, out on what had been barren filled
land beyond Brooklyn, men who moved like stooped gnomes in
the weird, searchlight-cast shadows, fueled a black plane with sil-
ver wings . Suddenly the men whirled, staring off toward the long
straight road that stretched to the city .
Sirens were purring there . One-eyed motorcycles droned, and be-
hind them came swiftly a long line of armored cars . Troops patrolled
the field, bayonets gleaming on rifles aslant their shoulders. One
by one the armored cars rolled up to the black plane with its silver
wings . The doors clanged open, and while men stood with drawn
pistols, bundles of currency were transferred to the plane .
A billion dollars that would fly into the dawn sky to ransom a city
from man-inflicted plague! The false dawn already showed in the
east . In an hour would come the take-off .
And back in the cavern where the plague pigeons kept up their
everlasting murmur, Nita van Sloan, who alone knew the secret of
the cave, struggled futilely with her bonds .
Masked in shrubbery, on a field not far from the entrance to that
dread cavern, waited another plane, a ship that, mockingly, was
painted all black, the plane the Black Death would fly. It was fueled
and ready, a few moments of warming up, and it would bear the
monster into the sky .
A billion dollars ransom…
In the close, murmurous darkness, Nita was suddenly still, strain-
ing listening ears . Was she overwrought from long waiting in the
blackness, or was that a furtive footfall in the shadows? She scarcely
dared to breathe . It would not be death that crept upon her . Death she
could face, but those men .…
WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 204
More frantically than ever she sawed upon her bonds, tugging
and straining . On came the footsteps . They had entered the main
chamber of the cavern where she lay now and still they came on,
softly and steadily. If the walls had not caught up and magnified
the sound, if her ears had not become accustomed to the pigeons,
learned to hear through their cooing, she would not have detected .
But, hearing it, there was nothing she could do but lie helplessly
and wait . The footsteps were quite near now, almost beside her . In a
few moments she would know . A scream rose in her throat, but she
choked it down . A foot struck her leg .
Abruptly white light slapped her in the face. Her eyes flinched
shut from the glare . From above came a gasp, and—
“Nita, Nita darling!”
The girl caught her breath . That voice . It couldn’t be! It was!
“Dick! Oh, Dick!” she sobbed .
Strong arms caught her up in the dark, a kiss brushed her lips,
competent, swift fingers worked on the ropes that bound her. Loosed
were her wrists, her feet .
“Dick,” babbled the girl . “A light, I must have a light . Let me see
you .”
In the darkness Richard Wentworth laughed softly, and a match
flared. A candle took slow flame and he crossed back to where she
still huddled on the floor.
“I’m sorry, darling,” he murmured into her hair, holding her close
against him . “I’m sorry, but there was no other way . I was afraid,
was sure the police would be watching you in case they were not
convinced of my death . Even the newspapers did not prove any-
thing . Kirkpatrick might have told the reporters he knew I was dead
so that he could capture me again .”
Nita was sobbing unrestrainedly now . She had no words but his
name .
“Shh! Stop now, dear,” he soothed her . “You must get out of here
at once .”
WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 205
Slowly she stifled her tears of happiness, smiled at him tremu-
lously with wet eyes . She got up on numb feet, rubbing her rope-
chafed wrists .
“I’m ready,” she said . “Come on .”
The Spider’s smile was still on his face, but it fled from his eyes.
“I can’t go, dearest . There’s work to do .” He touched a black valise
that stood beside his feet, which she had not noticed before . “But
you must . Hurry, now . The Black Death and his men will be here
any minute .”
Slowly the girl crossed to him . She put a hand upon each of his
shoulders .
“Dick,” she said, “I’ll never leave your side again until this Black
Death is beaten, or until — until we die together.”
Wentworth peered deeply into her blue eyes . There was no fear
there, only a great love and a vast determination . He did not argue
with her longer for he knew it would be useless .
“Very well then,” he said . “Help me turn loose these pigeons .”
He strode toward the nearest coop . Nita hung onto his arm .
“But the Black Death!” she gasped .
Wentworth turned and stared at her, then laughed softly .
“They haven’t been given the germs yet,” he told her swiftly .
“The plague acts on them much more quickly than on humans . They
will be infected only just before they are freed .”
The pigeons were stirring restively in the light of the candle . Out-
side, the night was still pitch black . But already, distantly, a rooster
was crowing, and there was a sleepy first twittering of birds. Went-
worth picked up a coop, shouldered it and carried it out of the circle
of light to the open, tore off the door and hurried back . Nita, at his
side, told him how she had happened to be captured .
Wentworth nodded. “That explains the rifle shot I heard in the
woods this afternoon,” he said. “I couldn’t figure what the man was
firing at. But I followed him and found this place. I went back home
to get this valise…”
“We must have passed in the woods!” Nita cried .
WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 206
Wentworth stopped on his way back for the third coop of pigeons,
placed his hands on her shoulders .
“Darling, won’t you go?” he pleaded . “Believe me there is more
danger here than there was when I sent the car diving off Brooklyn
Bridge, hung on to the wheel and let it drag me down .”
Nita smiled at him, made a little moue . “You know damned we
ll
I won’t,” she said quietly .
Wentworth shook his head, still smiling, but there was grave fear
in his eyes . He knew that at any moment the super-criminal would
come, and he must remain . He turned and strode into the cave again,
Nita beside him .
“How far did you swim under water?” she demanded . “That was
terribly dangerous, Dick .”
“Dangerous?” A thin smile twisted his lips . “Yes, of course . Well,
the current helped, dear . But if Kirkpatrick or his men had thought
to investigate a crate that was floating down stream about fifty yards
from them, they’d have found the Spider’s head on the other side . I
was lucky, Nita .”
As he lifted another coop of pigeons, a grating laugh broke out
behind them . It echoed horribly in the cave, and Wentworth, drop-
ping the coop before him as a guard, whirled, but he saw at once
that the shield was useless, for the masked man held a high-powered
rifle that would drill through that frail covering like a sword through
cheesecloth .
The man was high-shouldered, and a black hat drooped over his
forehead . When he spoke it was with the evil, taunting politeness of
the Black Death .
“You used the right tense, Wentworth — or do you prefer to be
called the Spider? — I refer to your last sentence. You were lucky,
but that — ” he laughed horribly — “that is all over now.”
Wentworth let the coop slide to the floor. He straightened, with
his arms hanging at his side and his right foot pressed against the
side of the valise that lay on the floor. Nita saw and hoped there was
a weapon there — some new device of Dick’s clever friend, Profes-
sor Brownlee .
WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 207
But nothing happened, nothing except that Dick, speaking sharp-
ly, in a voice Nita hardly recognized because of its harsh vehemence,
snapped out:
“Why do you continue to hide behind that mask? Do you think I
am a complete fool? Can you imagine that the Spider doesn’t know
that the name of his enemy is — ” Wentworth paused, laughed short-
ly, — “is MacDonald Pugh?”
The man snarled behind his mask .
“That knowledge will do you no good, Mr . Spider . I do not intend
to leave any witnesses to accuse me of the Black Death .”
Slowly he raised his left hand and took off his black hat, ripped
off the mask. Nita expected Dick to fling himself forward then, dur-
ing the instant the man’s eyes were covered . But Wentworth made
no move, only stood with his gleaming eyes fixed on the face of his
erstwhile friend .
Wentworth smiled calmly .
“I know all about you, Pugh,” he said in his harsh, accusing
voice . “Know how you framed that girl, Virginia Doeg . Know how
you involved young Jim Handley. Know why you — ”
“Brilliant, positively,” sneered the man behind his rifle, and his
usually pleasant face was twisted into a mask of hate . “You astound
me, Spider. You’ve learned much since we met in Harper’s office.”
Wentworth laughed tauntingly . “And I fooled you there . Have
you figured yet how I called the police and escaped?”
Pugh flung back his laughter at him. The sound was abnormally
loud in the enclosed space. “Have you figured yet, how I managed to
get away after putting your ridiculous Spider seal on the foreheads
of those police?”
Nita stared from one of the men to the other . Why in heaven’s
name was Dick standing here bandying words with this criminal?
Was he playing for time? Was help on the way? She felt a small thrill
of hope .
Wentworth’s revelation that Pugh was the Black Death had star-
tled her, but now she saw the entire trail plainly . The forgery had been
committed in Pugh’s office. The earlier conflicts had centered about
WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 208
the girl, Virginia Doeg . And when the Spider finally had wrested her
from the super criminal, there had been another trail from the same
spot, the trail of Jimmy Handley…
“… Jimmy Handley,” Wentworth was saying . “I know that you
framed him lest I should suspect you when I traced Virginia Doeg .
But what I don’t see is how you managed to kidnap that girl from the
Marlborough, killing those three policemen…”
“It is enough that I did it,” MacDonald Pugh snapped . “Enough
of this talking! I have work to do .” He raised his voice . “Bill! Dan!”
The two ruffians who had overpowered Nita came in now and
at Pugh’s orders rapidly bound Nita and Wentworth to a huge rock .
Pugh placed an empty coop in the middle of the cave, and from each
of the other crates against the wall extracted two birds which he
placed inside this one wired cage .
He was in high glee, chuckling as he went about his work . As
soon as he had taken two birds from a coop, the men dragged it
outside . It was still dark there, and the pigeons moved restively but
did not take wing .
“You get the idea, don’t you, Spider?” he jeered . “Surely your
brilliant mind can follow me. From each flock I take two pigeons,
the others I turn free. But when these two fly to join them — ” he
stroked the head of one of the pigeons in his hand, “they will carry
with them the virus of the Black Death . What a welcome they will
get!”
Finally the work was completed, and Pugh came to gloat over his
two helpless captives . He smiled at them gently .
“Ah, love,” he said, and laughed like a fiend. “I want to leave you
with something to occupy your minds, lest you grow weary with
waiting for death. When I fly to collect the ransom money, I shall
carry with me the pigeons from each flock. And when I have the
billion dollars, I shall release them!
“I am afraid the city will be too busy fighting the plague to give
much thought to pursuing me .” He snarled suddenly . “America,
bah!” he spat out . “How I hate it . But this plague will help to humble
WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 209
it, and in the end, when my own land whistles, America will come
to heel .”
“Your country?” Wentworth asked slowly . “And what is that?”
The man threw back his head and laughed . “America will learn,”
he said .
Nita shuddered at the sound of his mirth . It was unholy .
“But surely,” she said, “Surely, you would not doom an entire
city…”
Her voice trailed off . She knew he would . Pugh turned his vul-
ture-like head toward her .
“There is another pleasant thought for you to wait with,” he
snarled . “Your dog is not dead . He recovered consciousness last
night, but rather than kill him I drugged him for a few hours . Any
moment now, he will wake up . He will be very thirsty . But see what
an humanitarian I am! I have left water for him, a full pan of it!”
Wentworth frowned up at the tall, shoulder-hunched fig
ure. What
was the madman driving at?
“Ah, but I see I puzzle you, Spider,” Pugh said, smiling terribly .
“Very well, I will explain . Primer English for primer minds . When
the dog wakes up the dog will be thirsty . The dog will drink the
water which the man has left for him . And when he has drunk the
water he will look for his master . And he will come to his master and
lick the master’s face . The dog will not know that the water he has
drunk has in it — ”
Pugh paused, gloating over the two . Wentworth’s eyes widened
slowly with horror . Words struggled to his throat .
“Not that,” he pleaded . “Or kill me that way if you will, but not,
not — ”
“Not the lady?” Pugh supplied . “Ah, but you would deprive your-
self of her company for many hours . Once more I must point out to
you, Spider, that you are scarcely complimentary to the young lady .
The Black Death, you know, takes about twenty-four hours to kill .”
Nita cried out, “The Black Death!”
“Yes,” smiled Pugh . “The dog will not know that the water has in
it the germs of the Black Death .”
WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH, by Norvell Page | 210
He turned and strode from the cavern, laughing, and the walls
echoed with the horrid sound . It rang in the ears of the two who lay
waiting for the Black Death .
Outside the paean of the birds increased . The mouth of the cavern
faced the east; and Wentworth, raising his head, could see the first
gray edge of the day thrusting palely above the horizon . He saw
something else, too, saw the huge, hunched body of a great dog, of
Apollo, reel up with drooping head .
Wentworth turned to Nita, looked at her with eyes that smiled
tenderly .
“Darling,” he said, “I begged you to go . You refused, even, you
said, if it meant your death .”
The girl met his gaze bravely .
“Yes, Dick .”
Wentworth’s smile grew twisted .
“The time has come,” he said with slow words, “for the Spider to
die . Out there Apollo has wakened . He must be drinking the germs
now . You know that if I order Apollo to stay away, he will do it . And
presently he will crawl off to die, and eventually you and I would
go free .”
“Yes, Dick, I know that .” The girl’s voice was grave . A coura-
geous smile was on her lips .
“You know, too, dear, that if I call Apollo here, his sharp teeth
