The Black Bat Strikes Again (1939) by G. Wayman Jones by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII - Busy Bus Boy

FLASHLIGHTS broke the darkness, swept the whole office and then the lights were turned on. A uniformed man eyed Luddy with a critical eye. There was no one in the office. A window was open about an inch, but no human being could have crawled through that space. "W-what happened to him?" Luddy gasped. "He--he was right over there The lights were out. He put them out. I had him covered, but he got the best of me."

"Sure, sure," the sergeant said soothingly. "Now just what did the Black Bat want of you?"

Luddy looked up eagerly. "He said that I had--"

There he stopped. His face was bathed in perspiration. He dry-washed his hands until they hurt. If he ever tried to explain, they'd lock him up, probably charge him with murder, involve him in this huge ring that was killing off victims to collect on their insurance.

Something, whipping swiftly, like a snake leaping out of a coil, struck the window. The police rushed over to it.

They saw nothing and turned back.

"Well?" the police officer demanded.

Dr. Luddy looked at the rug. "I--I guess I must have been wrong. My nerves, they're ready to break. Please leave me alone. I--I'll be all right. I'm a doctor. I know about these things."

The blue coat jerked his head toward the door.

"Plain nuts," he whispered to the other men. "If he wasn't such a big shot, I'd drag him in. But he doesn't look violent. We'll take a chance and let him go."

They descended to the lobby, walked back to where the police car was parked at the curb. The driver got behind the wheel. Then his eyes grew round. He pointed with a finger that trembled slightly. There was the miniature image of a black bat pasted in the middle of the windshield.

"Back to Headquarters," the police officer snapped. "This job belongs to Sergeant McGrath. He's the baby who likes to get on the Black Bat's trail. Me, I'd rather monkey around with a buzz saw on my left and a man eating lion on my right. Let's go!"

From the nearby doorway, the Black Bat watched the police car rush off. He was still panting slightly from the exertion of his escape. In the darkness he had used a coil a light, but strong, silk rope to effect his escape. By passing it around a radiator pipe, he had quickly lowered himself to the alley, then whisked the rope out of the window, leaving no trace as to how it had been done.

A bitter rankling in his heart for Dr. Luddy's deliberate doublecross made his plaster that sticker on the windshield. It would start things going, announced the fact that the Black Bat was still working against Dr. Luddy.

The Black Bat entertained something far stronger than a hunch that Luddy could have told more than he did. His actions made him a definite suspect. Who could plan such murder any more smoothly and easily than a doctor? Luddy would bear some further investigating on the Black Bat's part.

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