_Secret Traffic_
If Delancy had stayed a little longer at the scene of his crime, he
would have learned that his premonition was founded in truth. The Black
Hood _was_ hard on Delancy's heels that night. Advance notice of the
stick-up at the Weedham plant had sifted up through the underworld
grapevine to come eventually to Black Hood's ears. It had been very
scanty information and late in its arrival--too late to enable the
master manhunter to block the plan. All that Black Hood had learned was
that robbery of the Weedham factory had been planned, which wasn't
anything very definite considering that the Weedham Industries occupied
over fifty acres of ground.
When all hell broke loose at the south gate of the factory, Black Hood
was actually at the north-west corner of the grounds. A cat could
scarcely have seen him, lurking in the shadows, his tall figure shrouded
in a black silk cape, his head and face hidden by his famous hood. But
his position did give him one advantage over those actually at work in
the factory buildings--he could distinguish the rattle of gun fire from
the racket made by the stamping mill.
At the sound of the first shot, Black Hood had climbed to the top of the
high wire fence to leap into the factory grounds. Lightning had seen him
streaking through the open areas between buildings--a weird figure in
yellow tights, night-black shorts and hooded mask, his cape whipping out
from his broad shoulders. He might have been mistaken for a man from
Mars or a devil out of Hell, yet beneath the grotesque garb beat a heart
that was warm and human.
Black Hood knew what it was to be a policeman with hands bound by red
tape or political intrigue. He knew what it was to be a criminal, to be
hunted as Delancy was hunted. Once he had been a young cop, determined
to work his way up in the police force. One of the most diabolical
fiends of the underworld had framed this cop for a crime. The frame had
stuck. In his efforts to clear himself, the young cop had taken half a
dozen lead slugs from underworld guns into his body. He had been left
on a lonely mountain road, apparently dead, later to be found by that
wise, gray-whiskered man known as the Hermit.
It was the Hermit's vast store of scientific knowledge that brought the
half-dead cop back to health. It was the Hermit who gave the ex-cop a
body with the strength of steel and a mind that was a veritable
encyclopedia of scientific knowledge. It was the Hermit who had sent the
ex-cop back into the world to live a useful life, to strike back at the
denizens of the underworld who had harmed him.
So the Black Hood was born to live in two identities. By day he was a
pleasant, mild-mannered young man known as Kip Burland to Barbara
Sutton, Joe Strong, and others of their set. But at night Kip Burland
became the Black Hood, man of mystery, hunter of killers. Police who did
not understand the unorthodox methods of the Black Hood suspected him of
numerous crimes. The underworld that feared him wanted him dead. He was
the hunter hunted.
Once the secret of his dual identity became known, he knew that he faced
either death from the hands of criminals or prison from the hands of
police. Barbara Sutton, who merely tolerated Kip Burland, was deeply in
love with the Black Hood, yet even Barbara did not know that Kip and the
Black Hood were one and the same person.
Black Hood was not the only person at the Weedham plant who had heard
the gun fire at the south gate. Joe Strong, newly appointed cameraman on
Jeff Weedham's newspaper, had been standing at one of the doors of the
stamping mill, smoking a cigarette when the hold-up had taken place.
However, it required a few seconds for his dull brain to comprehend just
what was taking place and from what direction the shots had come.
Joe Strong had been trying to develop a nose for news. When he finally
realized what was going on at the south gate, he decided that here was a
chance for some swell pictures that would prove to Jeff Weedham and
Barbara Sutton that he was a natural born news hound. He ran from the
stamping mill, his camera bobbing from the strap around his neck and his
tripod dragging behind him. He had heard that a crack news photographer
could adjust a camera on the run and he figured that he could do that
and also mount the camera on the tripod at the same time.
It was a very good idea except that like most of the ideas that sprouted
slowly from Joe's brain, it didn't work. He was within fifteen yards of
the scene of the crime when he tripped over one leg of his tripod and
fell flat on his face.
* * * * *
When he picked himself up, he saw something that knocked all ideas of
picture taking out of his thick skull. A brilliant blaze of lightning
showed him the unmistakable figure of the Black Hood bending over the
body of Joseph, the watchman. He saw Black Hood's gauntlet gloved hand
closed on the handle of the knife that was thrust into Joseph's neck.
Joe Strong had met Black Hood many times before, and, like the police,
Joe was convinced that Black Hood was a clever criminal. It occurred to
Joe in the darkness that followed the lightning flash, that it was Black
Hood who had stuck up the bank truck, slaughtered the guards, and was
just now in the act of finishing off Joseph, the only remaining witness
to his crime.
So natural was the position of old Joseph in his chair that Black Hood,
too, had made the mistake of thinking that the watchman was alive. He
had approached Joseph with the idea of learning something about the
escaping criminals. He turned, now, from the murdered gate keeper to see
Joe Strong bearing down upon him, fists balled, square teeth showing,
his wide, coarse-featured face a mask of determination. He knew that Joe
Strong, in spite of his clumsiness, could be a nasty opponent in a
scrap.
Joe closed in fast, led with his left fist in a blow that began way down
and ended exactly nowhere--nowhere, because Black Hood side-stepped both
the haymaker and Joe Strong.
"Gangway, muscle man!" Black Hood's voice rang out, and then like a slim
arrow unleashed from a taut drawn bow Black Hood sped up the tarvia
drive toward where the low slung roadster that belonged to Jeff Weedham
was parked.
Black Hood vaulted into the roadster without bothering to open the door.
Jeff Weedham had left the key in the ignition lock. The black gauntlet
covered fingers of the master manhunter gave the key a twist and at the
same time he plugged in the starter button. The motor responded
instantly. Black Hood brought the car around in a wide sweeping turn to
head back toward the gate, had to swerve to avoid hitting Joe Strong.
There were some of the admirable qualities of the bull dog about Joe
Strong. Once his one-track mind got to functioning on a certain
objective it seldom digressed. And at the present moment his was
determined to stop Black Hood. As the roadster passed, straightening out
of its loop turn, Joe leaped to the running board, seized the wheel in
one hand and tried to get Black Hood by the throat with the other. The
car left the drive as Joe yanked at the wheel. It bounded toward a round
bed of evergreens that beautified the factory grounds. Black Hood
released the wheel, stood up on the pedals, and at the same time slammed
Joe across the face with the back of his gauntlet covered left hand. The
blow, the sudden stopping of the car, combined effectively to give Joe
the shake. He went backwards, sailing through the air, to land in the
evergreen bed.
Black Hood let the clutch slap in and the roadster bounded back onto the
tarvia drive. Perhaps none but the steel-nerved Black Hood would have
tried to get through that factory gate, partially blocked as it was by
the crippled bank truck. But the master manhunter could have driven a
gas truck through Hell's own fire. Instead of slowing the car to squeeze
through the narrow opening, he tramped on the gas pedal and set his
teeth for the shock he knew was coming. Because he knew that the space
between truck and gate post was too narrow to allow the roadster to pass
unscarred.
The right front fender hit the brick of the gate post. There was a
scream of tortured metal as the fender was sheared from the body. The
impact dragged down on the speed of the roadster so that the rear right
fender was only crumpled by the brick work. But momentum was sufficient
to carry Jeff Weedham's roadster out onto the road.
Black Hood knew that the criminals had taken the road toward town. As
soon as he had reached the south gate he had ascertained this by a
glance at the gravel shoulder of the road. Whoever had been driving the
get-away car had started in a hurry so that one rear wheel threw gravel
in the opposite direction of travel. Just how much of a lead the rob and
kill men had on him, Black Hood did not know. But he did know that Jeff
Weedham's car was a gallant piece of machinery, capable of tremendous
speed and so nicely balanced that it could cling to sharp curves.
* * * * *
Actually, only a few seconds had elapsed between the time when Delancy
and his killers had hit the road and the time when Black Hood had
arrived at the south gate. The man called Shiv was driving Delancy's
get-away car at a conservative pace so as not to excite suspicion. In
this Shiv showed more wisdom than did Delancy.
"You think you're going to a funeral?" Delancy demanded when his
patience could endure the pace no longer.
Shiv said, "But you'll be goin' to one if I open dis crate up. You want
speed cops on your tail, Delancy?"
"To hell with the cops," Delancy snarled. "Step it up a little."
Shiv speeded up to forty miles an hour as he rolled to the top of a
little hill. A mile or so distant the lights of one of New York's
suburbs twinkled in the darkness.
"We got lots of time," Shiv said. "You're noivous, Delancy. You got
ants. Up here at this next town we slide into a filling station and get
us a new paint job and new plates, all in the space of ten minutes. Like
I said before, dis job is a pipe."
Delancy didn't hear Shiv. He was twisted around in the front seat,
looking over the heads of Squid Murphy and the two other gunsels in the
back seat. Through the rear window, Delancy saw twin swords of light
from the lamps of another car not so far behind them.
"We're tailed now," he said hoarsely.
"Aw nuts!" Murphy said from the back seat. "We ought to make you get out
and walk. Every time you see a car behind you, you get the ants."
Delancy drew his tongue over dry lips. He said, "Take a look for
yourself, Murphy. That guy behind is burning asphalt off the road."
Murphy and the other hoods looked backwards. The car behind was a
roadster, they could see in a sudden splash of lightning. And it was
traveling like the wind.
Delancy opened the glove compartment in the instrument board and took
out a pair of field glasses. He got to his knees on the front seat,
turned around so that he could sight out the back window. He tried to
hold the speeding roadster in the range of the glasses, and when the
lightning came again he thought he could make out the figure of the
driver at the wheel. He thought that he saw a sleek rounded head closely
covered by a black silk hood. He was almost certain that he saw a black
silk cape whipping out from the shoulders of the lone man in the car.
Delancy got cold all over. He gripped Shiv's shoulder convulsively,
nearly sending his own car into the ditch by so doing.
"Step on it, Shiv," he said hoarsely. "I don't like the looks of that
guy in the car behind us."
"So you don't like the guy's hair-do!" Shiv sneered. "And I should kick
the bottom out of dis crate just because you don't like the looks of
somebody behind us!"
Delancy passed the glasses back to Squid Murphy.
"See what you see, Murphy," he said quietly. Then he turned around,
hauled out his gun, and shoved it into Shiv's ribs. "When I said step on
it, I wasn't fooling."
"Gees!" Murphy said. "That guy back there's got a hell of a thing on his
head. Looks like a hood."
"A black hood," Delancy said. "And I don't think I want to have anything
to do with that guy, do you, Shiv?"
Shiv came down on the gas pedal and the car picked up speed. He said,
"All right, all right! I'm steppin' on it, ain't I?"
If Delancy's car hadn't speeded up, Black Hood in the car behind might
not have taken particular notice of it. But that sudden spurt of speed
on the part of the gray sedan was a dead give-away. Black Hood knew that
he was hot on the trail.
The big gray sedan carrying Delancy and his pals, hit the suburban town
at a scant seventy miles an hour. It ran by three red lights without
shaking the roadster piloted by Black Hood. The streets were slippery
with rain that was sheeting out of the black sky, and when Shiv tried to
negotiate the next corner, the big sedan turned completely around.
Delancy thought then that the chase was over, but Shiv had a trick or
two up his sleeve. He spurted, took the car half way down the block,
heading in the very direction from which Black Hood was coming. Then
Shiv whipped his wheel around for a short turn into the mouth of an
alley.
Delancy breathed again. He could see where everything was going to be
all right now. The gray sedan bounced over the rough alley pavement, cut
across the street at the next block, and rolled onto the concrete area
in front of a large gas service station. The overhead doors beneath a
sign which advertised car washing by steam ran up on their track as the
gray sedan came into sight. Shiv steered into the wash room, and the
doors dropped back into place.
Delancy got out, his body bathed in a cold sweat. The proprietor of this
gas station was in the employ of Delancy's boss who had planned every
step of the stick-up at the Weedham plant and the subsequent get-away.
Delancy had supreme faith in his boss. For the first time since he had
sighted that strange figure in the roadster that had followed them, he
began to feel a little bit secure.
Delancy entered the filling station office, followed by his mob. The
proprietor, a huge bear of a man in brown coveralls, scowled at Delancy.
He said:
"The way you came in here, it's a wonder you didn't bring a whole squad
of cops with you. What's the matter, anyway?"
Delancy didn't answer just then. The proprietor of the station wasn't
alone in his office. There was a dame. She was a tall, well-dressed
woman with wax-pale skin and black hair that was parted in the middle
and slicked back to a soft knot. She had peculiarly cold green eyes that
were tilted at the outer extremities. Her lips were full, soft and
brilliantly rouged.
Delancy jerked his head at the woman and asked of the proprietor: "Who's
that, Burkey?"
Burkey shrugged big shoulders. "She's from the boss. She's got a message
for you."
The woman was beautiful. But there was something about the chilly
expression in her eyes that made Delancy feel decidedly uncomfortable.
She did not smile as she opened a black purse and produced an envelope
which she handed to Delancy.
While Burkey was opening the steam valves that would spray hot vapor on
the car in the wash room, Delancy tore open the letter which the woman
had handed him. Inside was a slip of paper on which had been typed the
following:
"The bearer will ride with you into Manhattan."
There was no signature, but in its stead was the crude drawing of an
eye, formed by two bowed lines that represented lids and two circles,
one within the other, representing iris and pupil. Delancy knew that the
message was from that man he had never seen--the big boss, the man who
knew all the answers.
Delancy touched a match to the message. He looked at the woman with the
cold green eyes.
"What's the idea?" he asked.
"I suppose," she said in a quiet voice, "that it will look less
suspicious if you are seen driving a car with a woman beside you. Your
men are to get into the baggage trunk at the rear or else crouch down on
the floor of the rear compartment."
Delancy snorted. "That's nuts. There ain't any sense to this. It was a
clean job. We didn't mix with any coppers."
"No?" she said, elevating her eyebrows. "Nevertheless, you will carry
out the orders. The Eye knows what he's doing."