The Spider Strain | Page 4

sure that
it will be all right."
"You'll marry me, if The Spider releases me?"
"Of course!" she said. "So we--we are engaged, now?"
"I suppose so--provisionally."
"Well--" John Warwick faced her again, and saw her smile and her
trembling lips. He took her into his arms quickly, and kissed her. "Let
us hope and pray that The Spider will be merciful!" he said.
They got up and started walking back through the woods toward 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