The Spider Strain | Page 4

the roadster. Suddenly, Warwick remembered! During his conversation with Silvia, he had forgotten about his belief that he was being followed and watched.
Now he was doubly alert as they walked back through the brush. He glanced around the grove as he helped the radiant Silvia into the roadster, but he saw nothing suspicious. He started the car, turned it into the road beside the river, and drove it toward the distant city.
Once more he maintained a conversation, a more animated one this time, but he was busy thinking and planning. He was driving at a good rate of speed when they went around a sharp curve in the road; then he stopped the car suddenly, backed it up, and waited.
Presently another car shot around the curve--a roadster as big and powerful as Warwick's. Only one man was in it. His faced flushed as he caught sight of Warwick and realized that he had been caught. He bent his head and drove on furiously.
"What is it?" Silvia had asked.
"Had an idea that chap was following us," Warwick explained, "I've been feeling it for a couple of hours. Thought I'd catch him by stopping quickly and letting him drive past."
"Who was it, John?"
"I have not the slightest idea my dear," Warwick replied. "But I'll jolly well find out, you may be sure! Can't be having unknown fellows following me around, what? My word, no!"
Chapter 2
Under Orders
ONE hour later, John Warwick was pacing the floor of the big living room in the residence of The Spider on American Boulevard.
Silvia Rodney was closeted with her uncle in his den on the upper floor of the house. Warwick was nervous. He dreaded his coming interview with the supercriminal, which he knew he would be forced to hold as soon as Silvia came down the stairs.
"Feel like an ass, what?" Warwick told himself. "Might be a silly college youth, and all that sort of thing! Peculiar how some things work out in this old world! Never seem to know what is going to happen next. My word!"
He paced the floor for nearly another half an hour, consuming cigarette after cigarette; and then a radiant Silvia came down the stairs and rushed into his arms.
"Everything is all right, John," she said. "And you are to go up immediately and see him."
"Think I'd better take a gun along?" Warwick asked.
"Nonsense!"
"Your jolly old uncle might turn violent, you know--me capturing his pet and only niece, and all that sort of thing. Might decide to have revenge, or something like that."
"I don't think you need fear him, John."
"Well, I'll toddle up the stairs and have the dreaded ordeal over with, at any rate. No particular use in postponing it, what?"
Warwick hurried up the stairs and knocked at the door of The Spider's den. A gruff voice bade him enter. Warwick did so and closed and bolted the door behind him, as was customary when holding a conference with the supercriminal in his office.
The Spider sat in the usual place behind his big mahogany desk, in his invalid's chair, his fat hands spread out before him, his flabby cheeks shaking, and his little, pig-like eyes glittering in a peculiar fashion.
"Sit down!" the supercriminal commanded; and once more he spoke in a gruff voice.
John Warwick sat down, and the Spider looked at him until Warwick began to feel uncomfortable.
"Say it, jolly old sir, and get it out of your system!" Warwick suggested finally.
"There doesn't seem to be much for me to say, Warwick. I want to secure the happiness of my niece, of course. It was a great shock to me to learn that she was aware of the nature of my business. I had believed that she was ignorant of it."
"Deuce of a shock to me, too, sir," John Warwick admitted. "I had no idea that she had guessed the truth."
"Perhaps it is for the best that things have worked out in this manner," The Spider went on. "She tells me that you will not marry while you are continuing your career of crime."
"Certainly not, sir--never think of it!" Warwick declared. "It wouldn't be fair to her." "I'm glad you look at it in that way. You have your fortune back now, of course, and can give her a good home. You need play criminal no longer--for you are playing at it! You are not a criminal at heart. I suppose that I shall have to release you as a member of my band, Warwick. All that you know, you will have to keep secret, of course, but I feel that I can trust you to do that. So I am going to give you your release, Warwick."
"Thank you, jolly old sir!"
"After you have attended to a couple more matters for me," The Spider added.
"Oh, I see! Something already planned--what?"
"Yes--two things.