House of Death by Kenneth Robeson

Author:Kenneth Robeson [Robeson, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Action & Adventure, Pulp Action
Published: 2009-08-24T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER X - Answer in Arabic

The second Shan Haygar, who had had the first clubbed and stabbed to death under The Avenger's cold, pale eyes, was not at all a fool. Before binding Benson, he had had a man search him.

The man, gingerly going over the average-sized body that had proved so amazingly strong, had come across Mike and Ike.

The two little weapons, so deadly in Benson's slim, steely hands, did not look like much by themselves.

"Nothing but a funny little gun," said the searcher, sliding Mike back into the slim leg holster, "and a small knife with a peculiar handle." He slid Ike back, too. Want me to -- "

"Leave them in place," said the tall leader indifferently.

"We might as well throw them overboard on him as by themselves."

For, after all, what could a man with his hands bound behind his back do with any amount of queer small weapons?

Probably no other man could have done much. But the moment Dick hit the water and was dragged under, he bent his strong body backward like a spring.

He could touch the back of his head with the soles of his feet, like a contortionist. But he didn't bend that far. He arched his spine till his bound hands could touch Ike, below his left knee.

All this time he was being dragged swiftly down by the section of iron rail. There was already a drumming at his ears and a tight feeling like a band around his head.

Thirty-five or forty feet, he judged it, from an adventurous past in which, for a time, he had been a pearl diver. He sawed at the tough rope from ankles to iron.

At sixty feet, there was a sensation of colored lights bursting behind his eyeballs, and his body ached. Even he could not take much more.

The rope parted, the iron went on down, and Benson began slowly to rise. He was not yet in distress for oxygen; be could hold his breath a little over three minutes, if it were imperative.

He did not try to accelerate his rise to the top, just went up at the slow pace, natural to a sunken body with air in it. And meanwhile he worked at the rope around his wrists.

He held life literally by a hair in his fingers in the shape of the little throwing knife. If he ever dropped Ike from his awkward clasp, it was the end!

He didn't try to saw through the cords. He maneuvered the knife till he got the point and then the edge up under the bonds and between his wrists. After that he just pressed, and was thankful for the hair-splitting edge on the fine steel blade.

He was beginning to want air, so he kicked his bound feet to speed his ascent a little before cutting the rope from his ankles. He sheathed Ike, saw dim pink as the surface was almost reached, then saw it blotted out, and felt his head strike something firm but yielding.

His pale eyes probed the water.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.