The Avenger 10 - The Smiling Dogs Read Online Free PDF Page A

“I am here to ask about someone else. That is, Senator Cutten.”
    The psychiatrist’s eyebrows went up a little. He was silent, studying his visitor’s paralyzed, dead face.
    “I happen to know that Senator Cutten was just in here.” The Avenger didn’t bother to explain that he knew because he had trailed Cutten to Fram’s door. “His visits to you have worried me a little. I have wondered what he came here about. People who come to you are usually in trouble of some sort.”
    Fram laughed. It was a pleasant, honest sound. He waved a well-kept hand reassuringly. “Your worry is needless, Mr. Benson. Your friend is no more in need of professional advice than you are. He came about the matter that brought me to Washington—my proposed new bill. Have you heard of it?”
    Fram hitched his chair forward, and his eyes began to glow as do the eyes of an enthusiast launched on his pet subject. “Do you know that one and a half percent of all the people in the land are doomed to insanity through heredity? That means that we have two million potential lunatics at large in the United States. Now, these people can be put in institutions when their affliction gets dangerous to the public in general. But as matters stand, there is nothing on earth to stop them from marrying and bringing more children of doubtful mental capacity into the world. I have come to Washington to urge a simple law on the land. That is, that every couple be obliged to take a rudimentary sanity test before they are allowed to marry. Think of the suffering that would prevent; the expense and the terror that would be avoided!”
    “It sounds like a good bill, but a dangerous one politically,” commented Benson evenly. His eyes were as steady as steel on the psychiatrist’s eager face.
    “Senator Cutten is politically a brave man,” retorted Fram. “He is willing to think over my idea, even though it might have a dubious effect on the voters. It was about this bill that he came to see me a few minutes ago.”
    Fram laughed again, softly, pleasantly, and moved back in his chair. “When I get on my favorite subject,” he said, “I am apt to become a bore. But now you know why Cutten was in here. His visit has nothing to do with himself. You can dismiss any worries along that line.”
    “This is a relief,” said Benson. He took the slim, well-manicured fingers in his grip again, and went out.
    As he left the private office, with seeming absent-mindedness, he slid the double doors shut behind him. They were thick. A voice could not be heard through them if it were not pitched too loud.
    The Avenger asked a question of pretty Nan Stanton in a tone that did not seem furtive, yet was controlled so that it had little carrying power.
    “I suppose other representatives come to see Dr. Fram about his proposed bill?”
    “Oh, yes,” said Nan. “Others have come here frequently. Besides Senator Cutten, Senators Hornblow, Burnside, Wade and Collendar have visited Dr. Fram. Quite a bit of interest has been roused in that sanity test idea.”
    “It would seem so,” murmured Benson, pale eyes like polished agate.
    He left and went to the Senate Office Building. He found Senator Burnside there. Burnside did not know of The Avenger. But it didn’t matter. The deathly still face, the colorless, indomitable eyes, won respect—and something more than respect—for Benson everywhere.
    “I understand you have called on Dr. Fram several times,” Benson said.
    Burnside had been smiling. The smile stayed in place, but abruptly it was not repeated in his eyes.
    “Yes, that is right,” he nodded. “I have seen him about his suggested sanity test bill.”
    “Isn’t that apt to arouse political repercussions?” said Benson. “I should think such a bill might be very unpopular with the voters. A lot of people would be very angry, indeed, at the announcement that they couldn’t marry, or their children couldn’t marry, unless they took some test that would