“I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
At the door, the questing finger came within a quarter of an inch of finding the bolt, missed, explored again. The Avenger, pale eyes flaring at Rann, went on.
“Four of Poland’s greatest scientists discovered a new product. A ‘life-saving drug,’ as Singer said? Hardly! It was bigger than that. They discovered a substance which would make fuel out of water. Some substance which would break down the hydrogen and oxygen of H2O and make them explosive. Ordinary water! They would be the world’s greatest benefactors, producing light and heat and power almost for nothing. They came to America for money, and they got a promise of it from a wealthy New Yorker. But the man wanted to exploit humanity by charging high prices, and they wanted to benefit humanity by very cheap ones. Because he wouldn’t change his mind, they simply went off again and hid.”
Rann rubbed his shoulder and sneered. There was an odd air of triumph in his eyes.
“You came along. Disguised four ways, you had served as helper for each of the four men. You knew the share each had in the final product. You said you could produce it — and would sell the secret for a big price. But first, the four originators had to die. While they lived, they could always undercut the market by manufacturing the stuff themselves. So you murdered them!”
“I seem to remember something about indigestion in the death of each,” said Rann silkily.
“Yes. Caused by the very product they had invented. Water, made explosive by the chemical, became a poison as well as a fuel. You alone, knew the four scientists. You saw to it that some substance they took into their systems contained some of the chemical, of which you had a small supply. Tested for poison, the substances showed negative, because the chemical by itself isn’t poisonous. But combined with a glass of water, or wine, it became highly explosive in a man’s stomach. He dies in convulsions. If he chances to be smoking at the time, the fumes ignite and he breathes flame. And yet so volatile is the fuel that it loses all its combustive properties when exposed to air. So stomach contents of the dead man showed no trace of what happened unless tightly corked the instant they were withdrawn — as I corked the sample from Sodolow’s stomach, and as the Montreal police evidently did with Veck.”
The finger in the lock hole touched the bolt.
“You’re mad,” said Rann, voice tinny with excitement. He could see the finger even though Benson could not. “The discovery has nothing to do with fuel—”
“A car tested and destroyed. A plane tested and destroyed. A house heated and lighted with a pipe running to the clear water of an ordinary creek. It was obvious enough. The things that happened at the house told a lot about you, by the way, Xisco, Rann, whatever your name reaily is.
“You took your secret to Singer. You also took it to the Henderlin group. They promptly shut down — no use producing oil and coal when water might come in as universal fuel. They also tried to eliminate Singer. Till the end, you played them both. Meanwhile, you proved the value of the chemical to both. One proof was the house. At that time the Henderlin group thought you’d definitely rejected their offer. They wanted the discovery publicized and investigated. They couldn’t go to the police; so they sent a man to lead my group to it. They went — and then you decided to switch to the Henderlin interests. You raced there, killed the detective and burned the house.”
There was a click as the door bolt completed its opening, and a heavy voice spoke as the door snapped open.
“Quite interesting, Mr. Benson,” the voice said. “So interesting that I think it very fortunate you will not be left alive much longer.”
“Singer—” cried Diana, whirling as Benson did.
But it wasn’t Singer.
The man standing in the doorway with hands unexpectedly empty of all weapons, had heavy eyebrows, like little cupolas, a too-heavy jaw and a mole on the left side of his nose.
“My heavens, it’s Henderlin,” whispered the girl. “But Henderlin is dead—”
“Not in the bathtub when it exploded,” said Benson, eyes like ice in a polar dawn. “Rann went to kill him, when Singer guessed Henderlin was behind the wreck of his home. And it was then that Rann finally decided to throw in with Henderlin. A terrific price must have been offered. Rann helped Henderlin fake his own death; then he went to the New Jersey house. But he still, for the sake of appearances and to keep Henderlin informed, hung around Singer. And he trailed any Henderlin men he saw approaching Singer, to be sure he wasn’t double-crossed.”
“Quite fortunate that you won’t live much longer,” murmured Henderlin. “You know too much. Or can guess — which is just as bad.”
The Avenger’s eyes were bits of ice. His face was as expressionless as the frozen wastes of Antarctica.
“Too bad you weren’t astute enough to know that Rann did not know the final and completed process, Henderlin,” he said.
That was a bomb in the tense air. It jolted both Rann and Henderlin. They snarled together.
“You’re mad!”
“In the bottom of the vat in which was blended the work of the four men,” said Benson, “there was a certain amount of some unspecified chemical — before the four ingredients were mixed! You didn’t know that, did you?”
Rann and Henderlin stared at each other with slack jaws. Then Henderlin snorted:
“Rubbish! Rann does know the completed process and he and I will be the richest men on earth when you’re dead.”
“So?” said Benson softly. “And why don’t you kill me, Henderlin?”
“I ordered the removal of the four scientists, and of anyone interfering with the tests of the car and the plane,” said Henderlin. Diana cried out in quick fury at that. The coal and oil baron didn’t even look at her. “But I do not kill myself, Benson. Thus the electric chair will never get me. I—”
There was suddenly pandemonium on the stairs. The sound of blows and shots.
“What’s happening?” yelled Rann, paling. “Henderlin — trouble—”
The door snapped open and Josh, Smitty and Mac leaped in. Josh had a puffed eye that would have showed black around it. Mac had a lump on his jaw. Smitty was unmarred but ripped of coat and collar.
“Bunch of eggs on the stairs tried to stop us,” Smitty said. “So here we are. We’d better get out—”
Mac’s yell cut across his words. Mac was staring at Henderlin with popping eyes.
“Whoosh! It’s a ghost we have wi’ us! That mon’s dead—”
“I told you there was trouble,” wailed Rann to Henderlin. “Benson’s won—”
And Henderlin smiled.
“Oh, no! He hasn’t won. The men on the stairs had orders to let these three through.”
“They — what?”
“I had an idea Benson might send for his helpers,” said Henderlin. “So when a man of mine, warned by the hole in the door where a lock should be, reported to me, I got all the others and brought them here with me. They’re on the stairs now. And in here are the four men who are all that stands between us and the biggest fortune on earth.”
His eyes, under the cupola eyebrows, rayed over Mac and Josh and Smitty and Benson.
“You are going to call those men in to shoot us down?” said The Avenger evenly.
There were scuffing sounds and subdued steps in the hall.
“I am,” said Henderlin, quite calmly. “Lives are cheap when a billion dollars is at stake.”
“I wouldn’t call them if I were you,” said Benson.
Henderlin stared, then laughed.
“Every super-murderer I’ve encountered,” said The Avenger, eyes as cold as glacier ice, “has destroyed himself when thinking to destroy me. I would advise you to bolt that door and keep everyone out.”