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Doctor Zero and Others
Paul Chadwick
CONTENTS:
DOCTOR ZERO
MISTRESS OF SNARLING DEATH
THE THING THAT KILLED
SKYSCRAPER HORROR
CROSS WORDS FOR CROOKS
DOCTOR ZERO
The night glowed purple! From the black vault of the heavens came a hissing ball of purple light. As if possessing uncanny human intelligence, it rocketed straight for the victim it had marked. The police were helpless before that sinister sphere of Doctor Zero's. And now, Wade Hammond, explorer and criminal investigator, had stepped into the eerie glow of the Purple Peril.
CHAPTER I
DEATH'S MESSENGER
"WHAT'S that?" Detective O'Conner's voice was a nasal bleat. His eyes bulged under the brim of his soft felt hat. His dank cigarette slipped from trembling fingers. He stared off into the darkness across the wide lawn of Gordon Munn's suburban house.
A fellow dick, one of a cordon thrown around the place to protect its owner from the mysterious menace of "Doctor Zero," shook his head. He also was staring in amazement.
"It looks like a rocket," O'Conner went on. "No--it's coming nearer. Hell, we ought to warn Munn."
He started off across the lawn at a lumbering gallop. The sky behind him had turned into a vivid violet. There was a strange, hissing sound in the air. A fantastic ball of eerie purple light was descending toward the house. It moved as though some unseen power were directing it--moved with horrible certainty toward the window of Munn's study.
O'Conner waved his arms and shouted. At that instant the ball of purple fire touched the window