Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 215 by Maxwel l Grant

Author:Maxwel,l Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

CHAPTER XI

DEATH ON THE WING

IT was pleasant on the sun porch of Roy Fayle's suburban home. Leon Elgard

seemed to enjoy the sunny afternoon as much as any of Fayle's guests.

Elgard was relaxed in a big chair near a hammock, his shoulders resting well back. The Wasp had found that position the only comfortable one, in his forced pose of Elgard.

The sun was settling past the trees that lined Fayle's lawn, and the host suggested that his guests drop their talk of business and take a stroll in the garden. Only Elgard declined; he was too comfortable in his easy-chair.

He seemed half asleep as the others left the porch, but he was watching them with his lazy eyes. The moment they were gone, the Wasp's pose ended.

First, he relaxed fully, by practically doubling his body in the chair.

Then, his head tilting above shoulders that had suddenly become spindly, he listened for a sound that he heard outside the screen.

It was the drone of a wasp.

Not the heavy drone of a human voice, the sort that the Wasp himself used.

This was the buzz of an actual insect, and the wasp, itself, was in sight just beyond the porch screen.

Quickly, the Wasp unfastened the hinged frame and pulled it inward, as an invitation for his namesake to visit him. The insect obliged; it flew in a darty circle about the Wasp's head.

With a swoop of his own, the Wasp brought out an insect spray gun from beneath the wicker table and gave his buzzing friend a series of blasts. It took repeated efforts to down the big insect, but the winged visitor finally succumbed.

The Wasp darted a look toward the open screen, as his ears detected another buzz. He spied a second wasp on the ]edge outside the porch.

Intent upon his prey, the Wasp waited until the insect lifted itself again; then, leaning over the sill, he supplied enough shots from the sprayer to carry the wasp into the porch.

Hearing footsteps, the Wasp slid the screen shut, shoved the spray gun beneath the table, and was back in his chair, half asleep, as the servant came on to the porch.

The servant's name was Patrick, and he served Fayle both as butler and chauffeur. At present, his job was to collect empty glasses that guests had left on the porch. Patrick noted the odor of insect spray in the air, but supposed that Fayle must have used the sprayer before leaving for the garden.

Thinking that Elgard was asleep, the servant tiptoed back into the house.

Immediately, the Wasp began to dissect one insect and vivisect another.

One wasp was dead, the other still alive, as he pulled the wings from their bodies. Those wings were precious to the Wasp. They were the talismans through which he could recall his former workers into new service.

When the group came back to the porch, the Wasp accepted Fayle's invitation to join them and pay a visit to the cellar laboratory.

THE laboratory looked very much as it had in the photograph, except that some of the lesser equipment had been removed.

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