Read THE SPIDER-City of Doom for Free Online Page B

buildings and the streets are roped off for twelve blocks around. Ram Singh collapsed and was shipped to a hospital."
    Wentworth swore. "I'd forgotten his wound. He was too eager to help to mention it. That man deserves a medal if anyone . . ." He broke off, rigid in his tracks. A shivering groan filled the air about them. A thin white snow of plaster sifted through the air and before their eyes, a crack gaped in the wall of the stairs. A man behind them screamed and bolted downward.
    Wentworth pivoted and smacked him down with a right to the jaw.
    "Hold it," he ordered sharply, shouting at the men streaming past. "Panic will only jam the stairs and prevent anyone from escaping. Take it easy."
    White-faced men were darting down the steps. Panic glistened wildly in the eyes of a few, but Wentworth's blow had had a sobering effect on them. They went more quietly. Wentworth swung the man he had slugged to his shoulder and they went down. When the man recovered, he set him on his feet and allowed him to make his own way. They had reached the fiftieth floor when a policeman stopped them on the steps.
    "All the women out, sir. Three cars waiting here," he reported.
    Men jammed toward the door with eager shouts. Wentworth drew a deep breath. They had won that many from the maw of death. He turned tensely to Kirkpatrick.
    "You get aboard, Kirk," he said. "You've got to direct that bunch downstairs or they'll be trapped."
     
    Kirkpatrick smiled faintly, opened his mouth to speak then shut it again as an abysmal moan of twisted structure beams made deafening noise in the confined stairway. He looked up, watched a hunk of ceiling plaster detach itself and smack to pieces on the floor. When the noise had died, he spoke above the bedlam of terror it caused. His voice was hoarse, tight with enforced calm.
    "You're needed, too, Dick," he said quietly. "Don't forget that this is only the beginning of the battle. As usual, I'll be hampered by the confounded laws. We ought to take this Devil Hackerson and torture the truth out of him."
    Wentworth pulled up his lip corners with an effort. Death had spoken to all of them in that last groan.
    "Quite," he murmured with assumed nonchalance. "Let's recommend it to the Spider. "
    They went into the hallway and squeezed in behind the last of the men into an already overloaded elevator. They dropped down swiftly. In the lobby, police had formed close-ranked lines and men—all the women had already left—were herded through at a run. If anyone slowed, an officer's nightstick rapped him smartly on the thighs and he speeded up again. The faces of the police were set and grim. Their eyes lifted time and again to the ceilings and the walls that at any moment might come in upon them.
    A man ran up to Kirkpatrick. He was in civilian clothes and his face was distraught. "Four main supports of the south side have given away," he reported excitedly. "We can't do a damned thing toward bracing. One more hard gust . . ." He choked off as a terrific cracking roar thundered through the hall. A crack gaped in the ceiling, then slowly, deliberately, half the mosaic ceiling swung down, hinged at one side, and crashed to the floor. Three men went down under it and police instantly leaped to clear them.
    A constant stream of men poured from the elevator banks.
    "How many floors to clear?" Kirkpatrick barked.
    "Fifteen," the starter shouted.
    "Two floors cleared every minute," an officer said curtly beside Kirkpatrick. "Seven more minutes to go. Think it will hold off, sir?"
    There was strain in all their voices, a strain they tried to hide. Others had heard that question and many eyes were riveted fearfully, hopefully on the engineer's face.
    The engineer shook his head dubiously. "I wouldn't guarantee one minute," he said. "These walls are strong, but it's steel that holds them. When that goes, everything will crumple. And it's going damned fast."
    A ringing clang as if a cracked bell of enormous size had been