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WINGS OF THE BLACK DEATH
By Grant Stockbridge
This page formatted 2004 Blackmask Online.
http://www.blackmask.com
CHAPTER ONE The Spider Returns
CHAPTER TWO "Spider, You Must Die!"
CHAPTER THREE Flight- and Challenge
CHAPTER FOUR "Shoot to Kill"
CHAPTER FIVE The Black Death
CHAPTER SIX The Spider Unmasked
CHAPTER SEVEN Through the Flames
CHAPTER EIGHT The Plague Again
CHAPTER NINE The Voice on the Wire
CHAPTER TEN Great Apollo
CHAPTER ELEVEN Virginia's Clue
CHAPTER TWELVE Wentworth Views the Plague
CHAPTER THIRTEEN A Shot in the Dark
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Wholesale Death
CHAPTER FIFTEEN "Is That a Confession?"
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Nita Cries Vengeance
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Cave of the Pigeons
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Doom of The Plague
CHAPTER NINETEEN Kirkpatrick Is Generous
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Originally published in the Dec. 1933 issue of The Spider
A complete replica edition of this work, including the original illustrations, is published by Girasol Collectibles and available through Vintage Library.
The Wings of the Black Death hovered over plague-stricken New York- and Richard Wentworth gambled life itself to save the city which cursed his name- fighting a desperate struggle against the vicious, twin attacks of the law and the underworld!
CHAPTER ONE The Spider Returns
Richard Wentworth, immaculate in evening attire, wandered with swift, deceptive carelessness among the night blackened shrubs, stealing away from the Police Commissioner's stately mansion. Behind him rang the gay laughter of society at play, but in Wentworth's eyes was only grimness and an alert watchfulness.
If those revelers knew as he did the fearful skeleton that leered at their feast, their laughter would turn to screams of horror!
Suddenly Wentworth checked his advance, halted behind the spire of an arborvitae. He merged with its shadow, quick hands turning up satin lapels to hide the white glimmer of his shirt. Just beyond the tree loomed the pacing figure of a policeman swinging a nightstick. But without pause, or glance toward the arborvitae, the bluecoat plodded on with heavy, heedless feet.... He would never know the Spider had passed in the night.
A wry smile twisted Wentworth's mouth as he catfooted on. This man was a guardian of the law. Because justice must wait on such men, Wentworth tonight had turned his back upon gayety; leaving the side of the woman he loved, to grope through the vicious underworld in hopes of grappling with that mocking skeleton at the feast; risking his life once more that the tentacles of crime might be kept from the throat of the city. Because of this, Wentworth tonight again became the Spider!
Silently as his namesake, the Spider sped on. A four foot wall of stone blocked his path. He rested his hands lightly on it and vaulted clear. A moment later he appeared beside a Lancia limousine parked at the curb. The chauffeur turned a turbaned head, and white teeth flashed in a dark face.
"Sahib," he murmured.
"To the address that you know, Ram Singh," Wentworth ordered and sprang into the back.
The auto muttered smoothly away, and, drawing the curtain, Wentworth fingered a button under the left side of the seat. The entire section- cushioned back, seat and all- swung forward. The back revolved and a neatly hung rack of clothes was disclosed by a small shielded light.
Wentworth's movements were deft. Off came the tail coat, stiffly exact shirt, collar, tie. He quickly donned a dark tweed suit, set jauntily on his black hair a dark fedora whose brim shadowed his eyes. He strapped beneath his arm a compact kit of chrome steel tools. At another touch of the button, the seat swung back into place, and the Spider was ready.
Wentworth caught the speaking tube and spoke precisely in Hindustani to Ram Singh.
"It is now," said Wentworth, glancing at his watch, "half past ten. At exactly ten minutes of eleven, Ram Singh, phone the police and tell them that the jewels stolen in the Racine case are in the possession of John Harper, the pawnbroker. Tell them then that the back door will be unlocked when they get there and that without a search warrant they may invade his office and catch him with the stolen goods."
Jewels. They had led many to their doom.
But Wentworth had scant concern with them tonight. His wide information had brought him this knowledge, that Harper had the stolen goods. That bit of knowledge would serve to bring to justice a smooth criminal- and to prevent pursuit when the Spider had paid his visit.
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