“The nail,” said Benson.
“The what?” Wilson was almost dazed. He hadn’t seen the man with the deadly, pale eyes at work as often as the rest.
“The rusty nail I wedged next to the door, on the garage side.”
That didn’t mean anything to Cole.
Benson went on: “The trap was pretty obvious. Gasoline and gas fumes — explosion. Where? In the other basement, not the garage, because there was a ventilator in the wall with the blades inverted, which would draw fumes from the garage into the basement instead of, as normally, the other way around. And there was the wall, twice as strong as necessary, to protect anyone in the garage from an explosion in the basement. It was as clear as print what Farquar had in mind when he drew us out here.”
“But the nail—” persisted Wilson.
“The gas-filled air in the garage would explode as readily as the gas-filled air in the basement,” said The Avenger. “It would merely depend on which room produced the necessary sparks. I fixed it so it would be the garage. I wedged the nail next to the door and bent it, so that when the door was shut, its iron edge would strike against it”
“Good heavens! Of course,” said Josh. “But it had me going, too. I’ll admit it.”
Wilson said nothing. He stared with frank awe at the man who could devise such a thing. The cold genius who could trap a supercriminal and destroy his whole gang — with a rusty nail!
Benson said no more. The pale eyes were almost dull, as they always were at the conclusion of a battle. They wouldn’t brighten till the next battle loomed.
For the only thing The Avenger lived for was these deadly bouts with crime. That was the sole reason for his existence: the stamping out, wherever he possibly could, of the slimy creatures who injured society and innocent individuals in their murderous greed for power or wealth not rightfully theirs. He was more of a machine than a man — young and good-looking in spite of his perpetual icy calm, but old in crime-wisdom and resolve.
That was why he was called The Avenger — and would be called that till some day a deadly risk turned against him. And even then, that would be his epitaph—
The Avenger!