Robert J. Hogan - The Secret 6 #4: The Golden Alligator

A Secret 6 Mystery Novel

By Robert J. Hogan

When King found a man buried alive he knew he was on the trail of his strangest case. But it wasnt until the second murder had been committed before his very eyes that he realized he was pitted against a clever enemy a master criminal who was gambling for fabulous stakes in a game of golden death!

IT WAS midnight. Along the north shore of a Long Island highway a car sped at sixty miles an hour. It was the light sedan of the Secret 6, and its only occupant was King, the leader of that little group of crime breakers whose name had in the past few months, become notorious among the police and the lawless alike.

King raised a hand from the wheel and slapped his face twice to keep from falling asleep. Thank the Lord it wouldnt be long until hed be back in the snug cabin that the secret band called their jungle home.

His head nodded a little again. For a split second sleep overtook him. The car swerved gently to the side of the road. Tires crunched on the gravel.

The sound caused him to snap wide awake, but he was too late. The car had already struck something. Bang! There was a loud report as the air left his right front tire.

King jammed on the brakes not too hard, so that he wouldnt be thrown farther into the ditch.

Wham! Crash! His headlights had shown him a culvert at the side of the road. He had tried to avoid it too late. He felt the whole right front corner of the car crumbling as it struck.

The axle and wheel were folding back. The car was plowing down into the ditch. It stopped with a final jolt that threw him against the wheel, but without injury. With a groan of anger he opened the door and climbed out.

Well, fella, he said after he had inspected the damage, it looks as if its your turn to walk. This would happen right here in the loneliest spot of the whole road.

He stood up and surveyed the whole situation. The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed that a tire should blow out, because both of them were new.

He walked around to the side of the car, reached into the pocket and took out a flashlight. Then he went back to the right front corner.

The wheel was torn off and crumpled and had been pushed back under the side of the car. He fished it out, found the tire was badly mashed where it had hit the culvert. He shook his head.

That tire hit something else, he decided half aloud. Im sure of it. Yes here it is. Say, thats a nasty looking hole! Just as though somebody had socked it with an axe.