050 - The Terror in The Navy PDF

THE TERROR IN THE NAVY
A Doc Savage Adventure By Kenneth Robeson

Originally published in DOC SAVAGE Magazine April 1937
Annihilation strikes at the United States Navy fleet—

and only Doc Savage is able to find the hidden
menace as he smashes the power of
The Terror in the Navy

By KENNETH ROBESON
Complete Book-length Novel
Chapter I The other hissed, “I know it! But

WRECK! something’s gone wrong!”
“What? We’ve covered every angle.”
THE two seamen met in the “That nosey Lieutenant Bowen Toy!
darkness near the stern of the navy He’s haunting me. He’s shadowing me. If he
destroyer, under an awning. They were keeps it up, he may learn too much. He’s got
cautious. They stood for a long time listening, to be killed!”
and at last they were satisfied that no one There was no light and no sound to
was near enough to overhear. show that four other naval destroyers were
One growled, “The chief’s orders are steaming full speed in the wake of this one,
for none of us to be seen talkin’ together!” guided by a radio beam transmitted from this,
the leading craft.
2 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx DOC SAVAGE xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
“What put the bug in Lieutenant Lieutenant Bowen Toy stowed the
Toy’s bonnet?” asked one of the two furtive kris inside his belt, where it would evidently
seamen. serve as reserve weapon. He did not take his
“His brother, Captain Blackstone attention off the book, or, rather, off the name
Toy.” of the author, Clark Savage, Jr.
“How much do you think Lieutenant Abruptly, Lieutenant Toy left his
Toy knows about—well, tonight’s business, cabin and walked, with his hand always on
for instance?” his automatic and his eyes wary, to the
“I’ve got no idea how much he bridge, where he addressed the navigating
knows. All I know is that if he keeps on officer.
haunting me, he’ll learn too much!” “Where can Doc Savage be found?”
The other man laughed. asked Toy.
“What’re you laughing at?” the first “Doc Savage is well known enough
man wanted to know. that a telegram addressed to him in New
“I was just thinking that Lieutenant York City should reach him,” said the officer.
Toy will probably learn what it feels like to It was dark on the bridge, except for
die.” a subdued glow from the binnacle. The
“O. K. We take Toy at the first navigating officer had been intrigued by
chance, then?” something queer in Lieutenant Toy’s voice.
“First chance.” He now thumbed a cigarette lighter aflame
The two separated and left the and held it to throw light on Toy’s features.
vicinity. The utter terror he saw there startled him.
A moment after they had gone, a “Lieutenant!” he gasped. “What on
man swung down off the top of the awning earth is wrong?”
under which the two men had met and Lieutenant Bowen Toy, in his
secretly plotted death. He had heard every nervous excitement, drew the revolver, which
word that they had said. had been in one pocket, and held it in his
This man walked away, headed hand.
toward the lower deck. “I have just made an incredible
discovery,” he gulped. “The entire United
States navy is menaced! No telling how
LIEUTENANT BOWEN TOY went many ships will be destroyed! No telling how
directly to his cabin, closed the door, locked many men will be killed, before the thing can
it, and took out a revolver he had been be stopped! I’ll give you the whole incredible
carrying in an armpit holster. He went over to story in a minute! But first, I’m going to send
the mirror and looked at himself. He was a radiogram and ask this Doc Savage to get
pale. He held his hands up, first one, then the started on the New York end of it!”
other. He bounded off, eyes darting warily
“Shaking like an old woman!” he from side to side, the gun held ready for
snapped. Then aloud: “I’ve got to do defense.
something!” The navigating officer stared after
Lieutenant Bowen Toy went to his him and exploded, “I’ll be damned!
bag, opened it and got out a long-bladed kris, Lieutenant Bowen Toy has gone nuts!”
an ugly weapon which was evidently a The officer was blissfully unaware
souvenir of a visit to China. About to close that imminent events would convince him
the bag, his gaze fell upon another object in that he himself, if anybody, was losing his
it. An idea seemed to seize him. He lifted the mind.
object out.
It was a book.
LIEUTENANT BOWEN TOY went to
THE ARMOR PLATE VALUE OF the radio room, seized a blank and wrote:
CERTAIN ALLOYS
By Clark Savage, Jr. DOC SAVAGE
NEW YORK
It was a thick book, full of fine print HAVE DISCOVERED AMAZING AND
and intricate mathematical computations. TERRIBLE THING ABOUT TO HAPPEN
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx THE TERROR IN THE NAVY xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 3
STOP GO TO APARTMENT OF MY immediately take a sounding. The cry of the

BROTHER CAPTAIN BLACKSTONE TOY IN one who had dropped the lead overboard
PARKVIEW HOTEL AND GET NOTES came from forward.
HIDDEN IN PICTURE OF MYSELF “By the mark, two!” the voice yelled.
LIEUT BOWEN TOY “Solid rock!”
Lieutenant Toy gulped, “Only two
“Send this to a commercial station,” fathoms of water under the stern, and a rock
Toy directed, handing the operator the bottom! That’s impossible! Our course was
message. “And get that message out ten miles offshore!”
instantly!” The steersman gasped, “I tell you, a
“Yes, sir!” thing had this ship!”
Lieutenant Toy stepped out of the “Don’t be ridiculous!” snapped the
radio shack and walked warily toward the navigating officer.
bridge. The steersman said, sullenly, “I could
Then, with stunning suddenness, he feel the pull of the thing! It was drawing the
was flying headlong down the deck. He hit a ship through the water! I fought it. I put the
stanchion, glanced off that, fell and turned wheel hard over half a dozen times, but the
over and over. There followed a moment of vessel simply wouldn’t respond. I tell you,
brittle silence. there was a thing!”
The ship had been traveling at about Lieutenant Toy heard that, and his
thirty knots a moment before. Now it was at a eyes came wide and seemed about to pop
standstill. out of his head. “It struck this destroyer first!”
Bells began ringing. There was a he shrieked. “It’s real! It can destroy ships!” A
loud report amidships, followed by a shrill moment of terrible silence followed.
hissing. This meant a steam line had been “Those men—the two sailors I
broken. The destroyer rolled heavily as a overheard talking under the awning—they
wave hit it, and there was a grinding from know about it!” Toy howled. “Grab them
underneath the hull. before they can get away! Get them! Quick,
Lieutenant Toy gained his feet, I’ll point them out and tell—”
scrambled across the sloping deck, hauled The rest of his howl was lost in a
himself up a companionway and reached the terrific crash alongside. There was a rending
navigating bridge. and grinding noise. There was that peculiar,
The navigating officer’s face was uncanny screech made by steel plates being
pale and terrible. The helmsman was ripped apart. Men shouted wildly.
propped against his wheel, mouth open, eyes Lieutenant Toy grabbed a brass
weird. Both men looked as if they had just stanchion, and a ghastly expression came
seen a horned devil. over his lace.
“What’d we hit!” Toy shouted. “The other boats are hitting!” he
The navigating officer made feeble, gasped.
stabbing gestures at the helmsman. A second crash came, followed
“Tell what—what happened—again!” shortly by a third. A scraping rumble stopped
he croaked. The helmsman blinked. When he Toy’s forthcoming groan. It came from farther
spoke, it was in a tone that sounded, away. The last destroyer had piled on the
somehow, as if he did not believe himself. rock.
“Something—something—pulled the Rockets, parachute flares, began
ship through the sea!” he mumbled. “It just going up, and their light illuminated a
took hold of us and pulled us into whatever confused scene. Five sleek gray war craft
we hit!” with their bellies torn out on hard rock. They
rolled as big, greasy swells nudged them
about, and there was an almost steady
Chapter II grinding of steel hull plates on stone.
THE “POWER”! Officers on the boats’ bridges
megaphoned profanely at each other. They
NAVY men are well trained, and it blamed the lead destroyer for what had
was natural mat some one should happened.
The man’s superior officer sprang

THE confusion became more upon the gibbering helmsman, grabbed his
orderly. Rockets got answers from shore, arms and held him tightly, shouting at other
obviously not more than half a mile distant. sailors, “Help hold this man! He’s gone off his
The radio apparatus was used to secure nut!”
radio compass bearings, and from this it was The helmsman screeched, “I’m not
ascertained that the five war craft were piled mad, I tell you! It got Toy! It grabbed
up on a long, narrow reef which had deep Lieutenant Toy and pulled him under! I felt it!”
water on each side. “You what?”
Within fifteen minutes, one destroyer “I felt it’s pull!” screamed the
slid off the reef and sank. One sailor was helmsman. “It drew Toy under! It was
drowned. The others got away in lifeboats. something you couldn’t see! Oh, I know you
It became evident that the big swell don’t believe me!”
was going to jar the other unlucky vessels Nor did they believe him, even after
around until they also slid off the reef and they found Lieutenant Bowen Toy. But his
sank. And it was not going to be long before story sounded a little more credible after they
this happened. found Lieutenant Toy.
Other navy boats and two passenger Toy had been drowned.
steamers were heading for the scene of the
holocaust at full speed, but they stood little
chance of arriving on time. OF course, there was a hullabaloo
Officers on the wrecked destroyers along the beach, and a great crowd of
gave hurried orders. Lifeboats were landlubbers came to see the wrecked
launched, and the destroyers abandoned. warships and look at the wet, excited, dazed
Lieutenant Bowen Toy was ignored sailors. Newspaper reporters arrived and
in the excitement. No one had time to ask began to ask the sailors questions about
him questions. He moved about, doing his what had happened, and to snort
share, but all the time he kept a sharp watch, unbelievingly at the answers they got.
and his gun convenient. But long before anything about the
When he got into a lifeboat, disaster was put in print, two men in navy
Lieutenant Toy sat in the bow, where no one uniforms—uniforms of common seamen—
was at his back. The lifeboat lunged into the made their way ashore and skulked to a
surf breaking over the reef. telephone.
It was one of the two lifeboats which They were the same two to whose
were unfortunate enough to be overturned in furtive conversation Lieutenant Toy had
the surf. eavesdropped.
Lieutenant Toy was a strong They called a long-distance number
swimmer. The shore was not more than half in New York.
a mile distant. The remaining lifeboats were “Chief?” one asked.
full. Toy swam. “Yes,” said a dry voice.
Flares had burned out by now, and “Lieutenant Toy Sent a message to
the darkness was rather dense. Along the Doc Savage,” said one of the sailors. “We
shore, automobile lights and regulation weren’t able to stop the message or even get
marine flares were making a prominent a look at it.”
display. “This message went to whom?” the
The next thing heard of Lieutenant voice asked.
Bowen Toy was when a man—he happened “Doc Savage. Ever hear of him?”
to be the helmsman of the leading The “Chief” swore.
destroyer—came rushing madly to his “I’ve heard entirely too much about
superior officer, who stood on the beach him! How was this message sent?”
swearing at what had happened. “Radio. It’ll reach New York as a
“I felt it again!” the helmsman regular commercial message.”
shrieked. “I felt it, I tell you! It was something “Thanks,” said the distant speaker.
you couldn’t see and couldn’t touch, but it “We’ve got to do things fast.”
pulled you!” He hung up.
Chapter III walked to the door. He passed into another

CAUTIOUS CROOKS close and untidy room, in which six men lay
on cots.
THE man in New York did not One of the men on the cots opened
replace the telephone on its stand after an eye and said, “What a conscience you
hanging up. He held the instrument close to must have! Don’t it ever let you sleep?”
his chest and thought deeply. “Get dressed!” The snaky, hairy man
It was night, and the man was in bed. shook the others. “Get dressed, you
He reached over and touched a tiny Davids—we’re gonna sally forth after a
jack-switch concealed under the telephone Goliath!”
stand. This apparently connected the
telephone with a private wire. The man
jiggled the hook. HALF an hour later, they were tying
“Yeah, chief?” said a sleepy voice. shoestrings and ties and yawning, as their
“We have received what is car moved through downtown Manhattan.
sometimes called a bad break,” said the man The snaky, hairy man was talking, explaining.
in bed. When he finished, one of the others
“Yeah?” addressed him by what seemed to be his
“You have the file of information nickname.
which we gathered about Doc Savage?” “Fuzzy,” said the man, “this Doc
“Yeah,” said the sleepy voice, not so Savage is big-time poison.”
sleepy now. “But I still don’t see why we went “Keep your shirt on,” said the hairy
to the trouble of finding out so much about “Fuzzy.” “We’ll do this so Savage will never
Doc Savage.” know a thing about it.”
“Doc Savage is logically the one man The driver stopped the sedan, and
we have most to fear,” reminded the man in they all looked out. They saw a giant office
bed. “In short, we learned everything we building which hurled itself upward until it
could about him because he might menace was lost against the cloudy night sky.
our plans. I thought it would be a wise move. Fuzzy pointed a limber, hairy finger
Now I know.” almost straight up into the night.
“You mean that Doc Savage has an “Top floor,” he said. “Eighty-six
inkling of what we’re going to do?” stories up. Sort of an eagle’s nest.”
“Lieutenant Toy sent a radiogram to They got out and went into the giant
Doc Savage before he—ah—before Toy met building—it was admittedly the most
a mysterious fate, as the newspapers will put imposing in New York City. An elevator let
it. That is the bad break I mentioned. We’ve them out two flights below Doc Savage’s
got to stop that message before it reaches floor, and they climbed stairs, so as not to be
Doc Savage.” seen.
“Was it a radiogram?” On the last flight of steps, Fuzzy
“Yes.” waved the others back.
“Leave it to me!” said the man on the “Kind of erase yourselves,” he
other end of the wire, and listened until he directed. “Let me look the ground over.”
heard his chief hang up. Then the fellow put Fuzzy then ran up the final flight of
the receiver on the hook and began to stairs. There was a door which seemed to be
remove his pajamas. made of bronze. Letters on it were so
He was a long, snaky man with an unobtrusive as to be almost difficult to locate.
almost animal growth of black hair on his
chest and up and down his back. It is a Clark Savage, Jr.
popular theory that eyes have to be small to
be mean. This man’s eyes were big—and There was no knob on the door, no
mean. handle; it seemed to be just a slab of bronze.
When he had dressed, he glanced Fuzzy happened to know it was a slab of
about the close and rather untidy room, took armor steel, bronze-plated.
two nasty-looking flat pistols in holsters off a Repeated pressings of the button
wall hook, fastened them under his coat, and beside the door got no answer, and Fuzzy
went back to his men.
“Coast clear,” he grinned. “The Fuzzy hung up and gave every sign
bronze guy ain’t in.” of being ready to wait as long as necessary.
“How we gonna get into that place?” He wandered over to the window.
asked the pessimist. “It’s more burglar-proof In the night sky, some distance
than a bank vault.” away, blazed an electric sign advertising a
Fuzzy held out a hand to one of the little-known variety of beer. In fact, the variety
men. “Gimme that package I gave you to of beer did not even exist!
carry.” The sign was held in the air by a
The packet which the man handed balloon, which was in turn moored to a barge
over was the size of a pocket match box. in the Hudson River.
Fuzzy tapped it with a finger. Fuzzy waved both arms. The electric
“This holds a piece of radioactive sign on the balloon promptly blinked. Fuzzy
metal,” he said. “Watch what happens.” grinned. His men, with extremely powerful
He walked toward the door of Doc astronomical telescopes trained on Doc
Savage’s office. The door opened Savage’s office, had recognized their straw
mysteriously. boss.
“Hah!” said Fuzzy, pleased. “What’d I Some time elapsed before the
tell you? There’s a sensitive electroscope telephone rang. Fuzzy sprang to the receiver,
hidden beside the door. When a piece of lifted it, said, “Doc Savage’s headquarters!”
radioactive metal is brought near it, the “This is the radio office with a
electroscope causes a relay to close and that message,” the voice said.
makes a machine open the door.” The voice read Lieutenant Bowen
He walked through the door. Toy’s message.
“You guys wait outside,” he directed. “Thank you,” said Fuzzy. “Do not
bother to send a copy by mail, or by
messenger. It won’t be necessary.”
THE room in which hirsute, “Very well,” replied the radio office
serpentine Fuzzy found himself seemed to clerk. “We will not.”
be a reception room. Principal items of Fuzzy hung up, went out, let the trick
furniture were an enormous safe, a number outer door close behind him, and shoved his
of comfortable-appearing chairs, and a rather chest out triumphantly at his men.
remarkable-looking inlaid table. “That fixes it!” he said. “Doc Savage
Fuzzy ignored everything in the will never know a message was sent to him!”
room, and went into a library which held They walked toward the stairs.
thousands of tomes. A young woman came up the stairs.
Libraries are traditionally gloomy She pointed on old-fashioned six-shooter at
places, but this one was not. The windows them—a six-shooter with a barrel so big that
along one side were so large that the wall any man present could have put his little
seemed almost solidly of glass. finger in the barrel with ease.
Fuzzy looked at the windows and “They gave me this thing to cut my
grinned. It was by watching through these teeth on!” the girl said, jiggling the six-shooter
that a great deal had been learned about Doc in her hand.
Savage. The method employed had been
ingenious, and Fuzzy was particularly proud
of it because he had thought it up himself. THE men goggled.
He picked up a telephone and called The young woman would have
the office of the concern handling radio gotten a monopoly of male attention
messages. anywhere. She was tall and had every curve
He asked, “Has a message come for necessary to make an exquisitely moulded
Doc Savage, signed by Lieutenant Bowen feminine form. Her features were what the
Toy? This is Doc Savage’s headquarters. . . . old literary masters would have called finely
No? Will you telephone the message as soon chiseled, with an outdoor skin.
as it arrives? Do not send it by messenger. One remarkable quality was the
Telephone it. Thank you.” unusual bronze hue of her hair and the
almost matching color of her eyes. Or
perhaps her eyes tended more to golden.
Her frock and accessories—it was a she discovered she was sitting in a chair.
silver and white evening creation—were the She looked around.
ultra in fashion. “Oh!” she said. She sounded
Fuzzy gulped, “Who’re you?” exasperated. “I might have known you would
“Patricia Savage,” the woman said. happen around and catch me when I wasn’t
“Oh, you’ve never heard of me, probably. at my best!”
Doc Savage is my cousin. I have a beauty The giant bronze man standing
establishment uptown where I charge before her smiled faintly, which was a rare
outrageous prices, and the customers like it.” thing for him to do. Some persons had known
Fuzzy swallowed. The mouth of the him for years and had never seen him smile.
six-shooter seemed incredibly big. Not that he went around looking gloomy. His
“Uh—well—uh,” he mumbled. amazingly regular features, almost classic in
“You gentlemen look like a bunch of their firm handsomeness, simply had no
crooks to me,” Pat said brightly. “And why expression at all, most of the time.
were you pussy-footing around? While you He stood near the door, and it looked
think up some lies to answer, you can back doubtful if he could pass through it without
into Doc’s office, with your hands in the air.” ducking. Yet, when he stepped away from
A man appeared silently on the stairs the door, he seemed to shrink in stature, due
behind Pat Savage. He threw a gun which he to the remarkable symmetry of his
held. It hit the back of Pat’s head. development. There had to be something
Fuzzy, the others, lunged forward. around to which his size might be compared
Pat was dazed. She tried to get her gun up. before his full Herculean stature was
Fuzzy kicked it out of her hand. apparent.
Another man drew an automatic His hair was straight, a slightly
pistol. darker bronze than that of Pat Savage, and
“Let her have it?” he wanted to know. his eyes were gold, also, but of a different
“And get Doc Savage on our trail for nature. The bronze man’s orbs were like
murder!” snorted Fuzzy. “Don’t be like that! pools of flake metal, always stirred by some
Here! We’ll do this!” invisible force. They seemed also to possess
He picked up Pat’s big six-shooter, a weird, compelling power.
measured her, and hit her over the temple. The sinews in his neck were like
She fell. Fuzzy dropped her big six-gun hausers, the thews in the backs of his hands
beside her. like round files.
“Amscray, as Caesar would say!” he “Doc Savage!” Pat exclaimed
ordered. cheerfully. “You’re smiling! You’re actually
They went down some flights of becoming human!”
stairs, entered an elevator, and, looking very The remarkable-looking bronze man
innocent, rode down to the street. spoke. He had a voice that was arresting, not
As they got into their car on the so much because of the things that were in it,
darkened street, the man who had thrown the but because of the feeling of things that were
gun reminded every one, “It was lucky I saw left out, things the voice could do if called
this dame and hid me out while she passed upon.
me up!” “You happened along at an unlucky
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your time, Pat.”
bouquets!” said Fuzzy. The men did not drive Pat sniffed audibly. “I’ll have you
away fast enough to attract attention from know if it hadn’t been for me, you might
any cops who might be around. never have known some men had raided
your office!”
“Wrong,” Doc Savage said quietly.
Chapter IV “You’re not telling me I got hit on the
THE MAN OF METAL head for nothing?”
PATRICIA SAVAGE opened her gold

eyes and with her hands tried to help herself DOC SAVAGE walked into the
up off the floor. She sniffed indignantly when corridor. Despite his size, he seemed
remarkably light on his feet. He touched the
corridor wall, and an apparently solid section Doc swung a bookcase away from
opened, showing a recess large enough to the wall, disclosing a niche which held a
hold a man. machine.
Pat stepped into the niche and The machine was the bronze man’s
perceived there were obscure peepholes telephonic monitor. Attached to the telephone
from which could be seen, not only the lines, it recorded all conversations with
corridor, but the reception room, and library. immense fidelity of tone.
“You weren’t in here when those
men came?” she demanded.
“And when you got your clip on the DOC played the record back. It gave
head.” him the text of the radiogram sent by
“But why?” Pat gasped. Lieutenant Bowen Toy from the destroyer
Doc escorted her around and into the which had met such a mysterious fate—the
headquarters reception room. message directing Doc to go to the
“Notice the electric sign advertising apartment of Captain Blackstone Toy in the
beer in the sky beyond the window,” he Parkview Hotel.
suggested. “Do not stare noticeably at it, Doc played the record back again.
however.” He wanted to fix Fuzzy’s voice in his
“Oh!” said Pat, understanding. “A memory, so that he would know it if he heard
balloon! Telescopes! How long has this been it in the future.
going on?” The bronze man’s private speed
“For days,” the bronze man replied. elevator lowered him to the garage in the
“Who are they? What are they up skyscraper basement. Few persons knew of
to?” the garage.
“That,” Doc Savage said, “is what we The car he chose was a convertible
have decided it is time to find out.” coupé, discreetly dark, with a wheel base
Pat said cheerfully, “You figure longer than usual. The top was down, the
something is getting ready to happen?” windows up. Glass in the windows was of the
“Possibly.” type known as bulletproof. The steel boot into
“Big?” which the top recessed came up high enough
“That balloon cost a few thousand at the back to decrease the chances of being
dollars,” the bronze man reminded. shot from behind.
“Whatever is about to happen must be big The convertible coupé was equipped
before any one would spend that much with a two-way radio, and the bronze man
money just to get information on me.” switched it on.
“Good!” said Pat. “Great! Swell! I like “Renny, Long Tom, Johnny!” Doc
excitement, big excitement.” called into the microphone.
Doc said quietly, “You are not going Doc Savage had five aids, men as
to get involved in this—whatever it is—and remarkable, almost, as himself. The names
possibly get killed. Out you go.” he had just called belonged to three of the
“I won’t!” Pat snapped. “I won’t go!” aids.
But she did go. She made indignant “Holy cow!” rumbled an answering
noises as Doc propelled her out and shut the voice out of the loud-speaker. “Don’t you
door and locked it. ever sleep, Doc?”
There were small lights of “Anything new, Renny?” Doc asked.
appreciation in the bronze man’s flake-gold “Nope,” said big-voiced “Renny.”
eyes as he went into the library. Pat was his “Be with you in a few minutes,” Doc
cousin and she had many of his own told him.
qualities, not the least being her love for “So we’re gonna do something about
excitement. It was a rare week that passed this at last!” Renny rumbled happily.
without her asking to be let in on something. Doc drove toward the water front,
Doc refused as often as he could. and passed a newspaper plant from which
Too dangerous. But Pat was hard to late editions were being loaded. The bronze
discourage. man stopped, got a paper and studied the
page black with headlines.
NAVY PLANE CARRIER WRECKED! Renny had difficulty pitching his

CRASHES STEAMER! tremendous, rumbling voice in a low tone.
Doc said, “We’ll look into it now.”
The wreck of the aircraft carrier had They advanced through the murk,
occurred only a short time previously, near using care to avoid noise, and shortly came
Norfolk, Virginia. upon two other men crouched in the
In an adjacent column was another darkness on the river bank.
expressive headline. “I’ll be superamalgamated!”
whispered one of the pair, who was very tall,
NAVAL EXPERTS BLAME and thinner than it seemed a man could be
MYSTERY FORCE FOR FIVE and still live.
DESTROYER AND PLANE He was William Harper Littlejohn,
CARRIER WRECKS. eminent archaeologist and geologist, and an
inveterate user of big words. He was
Navy officials hinted tonight that commonly called “Johnny.”
some mysterious and unexplained influence “They’ve got one guy watching the
caused the five destroyers and the plane balloon cable winch,” said the second of the
carrier to run off their courses to disaster. two men.
This second man was not an
That was all of that angle of the impressive physical specimen. He gave the
story. Evidently navy officials had been afraid impression of having grown up some place
about hinting. It was enough of an inference, where it was always dark.
however, coupled with what was to follow, to He was Major Thomas J. Roberts,
set the entire country agog within the next electrical wizard, a man whose appearance
twenty-four hours. of being a physical wreck was deceptive. He
Doc Savage folded the paper slowly, had secured the nickname of “Long Tom”
his bronze features expressionless, and somewhere.
drove on. “How many in the balloon?” Doc
queried.
“Two,” said pale Long Tom.
RENNY gave the impression of “And one watching the winch,” added
being a walking pair of fists. His hands were Renny.
tremendous, each almost half a gallon of “Can you grab them?” Doc asked.
bone and gristle with the consistency of flint. “We can have a swell time trying!”
He had a long face, and habitually wore the grinned big-fisted Renny.
expression of a man going to the funeral of a “Question them,” Doc directed. “Find
good friend. out what connection their watching me has
Renny was Colonel John Renwick, with the wrecking of the destroyers and the
who loved two things: trouble and aircraft carrier.”
engineering. As an engineer, he was world- The darkness then absorbed him, or
famed. seemed to, so silently did he depart.
As an associate of Doc Savage, he
got his excitement.
Renny dropped out of a freight car Chapter V
near the water front. He had a newspaper in PERSISTENT PAT
his hand and he rustled it in the murk.
“Queer thing about the wrecking of DOC SAVAGE’S three aids—Renny,
them five navy destroyers,” he said. “I’ve just Long Tom and Johnny—looked at each other
been reading about it.” questioningly after their chief had gone.
“It is queer,” Doc agreed. “What’s he up to?” Long Tom
“Queer!” Renny tossed the grunted.
newspaper aside. “Say! Long Tom and “An interrogatory promulgation
Johnny and me have been watching them concerning what might be called an Ethiopian
guys in that beer-sign balloon for almost a enigma,” said Johnny.
week. How much longer do we have to keep
it up?”
“I’ll bet Doc already has this covered to drag it down with the gasoline motor,
from all angles,” said Renny. “He covers which would mean noise.
things like the dew.” “No other way, though,” said Renny,
“Doc,” said big-worded Johnny, “is a “unless we can talk Long Tom into climbing
compendium of Machiavellian callidity.” the cable after them.”
“He’s what?” asked Long Tom. “Don’t be silly!” sniffed the pallid
“A lad who doesn’t overlook any electrical wizard. “We should have Monk for
bets,” translated Renny. that.”
Long Tom snorted quietly. “Let’s give They started the motor, and the
that balloon our attention.” winch drum revolved, winding the balloon
They crept forward, and before long down.
could make out details. The balloon cable Doc Savage’s three assistants kept a
was of alloy wires wound around a core of close watch. They held flashlights and
two insulated telephone wires. The cable was peculiar machine pistols which Doc Savage
attached to a winch turned by a gasoline himself had perfected, guns firing
motor. The winch was mounted on a heavy, unconsciousness-producing “mercy” bullets
ancient barge which was moored securely to at a tremendous speed.
the end of a dock. The balloon seemed to get larger as
A watchman sat on a box, his back it came down. It was like a fat wiener, not too
against the winch. He was a blond man who well stuffed, with a basket hanging
looked as if he needed exercise. He was underneath. Its electric beer sign got brighter
having difficulty keeping awake. At intervals, and brighter.
he reached up and slapped his own face. “This is as simple as catching
The man was slapping his face when catfish!” Renny grinned.
Renny leaped soundlessly from behind and Then the wire cable came hissing
grabbed his arms. Long Tom clamped a down upon them, giving them a belaboring,
hand over the man’s mouth. They held the and the winch engine raced madly.
fellow helpless. The balloon bounded away into the
“We could double as spooks, eh?” night sky!
big-fisted Renny chuckled.
Tall, bony Johnny leaned close to the
prisoner. He used small words. THERE was noise and confusion
“What’s the idea of this balloon until Johnny, hopping about like a long-
spying business?” he asked. legged porch spider, got the winch engine
The man gritted, “You can kindly shut off.
go—” “Holy cow!” boomed Renny. “They
He did not finish, because Renny unfastened the cable!” Their prisoner, who
took the fellow’s whole face in one huge had regained his senses during the
hand. It was almost as if the big-fisted excitement, snarled, “You guys ain’t the
engineer had palmed an apple. Slippery Slims you thotcha was!”
“If I squeezed, I think it might pop like Renny promptly reached down, hit
a melon,” Renny rumbled, referring to the him, and the prisoner went to sleep again.
head. “Come on!” yelled Johnny, for once
“Let’s get that balloon down first,” using small words. “We’ve got to keep track
suggested Long Tom. of that balloon! Get a plane! Get an airplane!”
Doc Savage never used violence The balloon was drifting down the
where it could possibly be avoided. This was river, toward the bay and, beyond, the open
a characteristic of the bronze man. His five sea. But there was not enough wind to carry
aids, however, tended to the other extreme. it very fast.
They were not loath to use rough stuff Doc Savage’s three aids raced for
occasionally. their car, which was hidden in a near-by
They knocked their prisoner alley. Pallid Long Tom stopped, grabbed
senseless to save the bother of tying him up. bony Johnny, and gave him a shove back
They examined the balloon winch. toward the wharf.
There was no hand crank. They would have “You’re elected to stay and watch the
prisoner!”
Johnny yelled, “But it was me that “Who the heck can that be?” Long
thought of using a plane—” Tom exploded.
“A swell idea!” barked Long Tom. That was an airplane, a little
“And, as your reward for thinking of it, you streamlined trick which looked cute from that
stay where it is safe and watch that prisoner.” distance. From the manner in which it was
Bony Johnny made disgusted swooping back and forth in the heavens, it
noises, and the other two ran off in the could out-travel many a professional racing
darkness. Johnny liked excitement too well to job.
fancy the prosaic job of guarding a senseless The pretty little plane was visible
captive. because it was bathed in the glow from a
Long Tom, when he was out of parachute flare. The plane must have
hearing, chuckled, “We horsed that job off on dropped the flare directly above the balloon.
him slick!” Little whiskers of fire ran out from the
Which would have thrown Johnny nose of the plane.
into a spasm, had he heard it. “Machine gun!” Long Tom grunted.
Their car was one of Doc Savage’s “Riddling our balloon!” Renny
special machines. Renny switched the radio boomed.
on. It was an all-wave set, and happened to “Well, it’ll make it come down
be tuned on a local broadcast. quicker!”
An extremely late dance program The balloon, it appeared, was
had been interrupted, evidently, and a news sinking. The basket swinging beneath the
bulletin was being read. bag was in shadow, so it was impossible to
“A late national radio press flash,” tell what the occupants were doing.
said the announcer. “The United States Renny and Long Tom drove
battleship Oglethorpe less than fifteen recklessly down the Waterfront streets,
minutes ago struck a rock on the Pacific keeping under the bag. It became evident
Coast near San Francisco and is sinking. that the balloon was going to fall in the bay,
Hope of saving the Oglethorpe has been just off Battery Park, on the lower-most end
abandoned. Many lives are believed to have of Manhattan Island.
been lost.” “We gotta find a boat and get out
Renny and Long Tom were grimly there when they come down!” thundered
silent after that. “Holy cow!” Renny muttered Renny.
suddenly. “That’s the third major naval They failed to find a boat, excepting
disaster tonight!” a dory, which was padlocked and chained,
He moved the radio receiver knobs, and anyway, was minus oars.
shifting it from the broadcast band to the “We’ll swim!” Renny decided.
short-wave one, on which Doc Savage did All of Doc Savage’s aids were
his radio transmitting and receiving. excellent swimmers.
Long Tom was leaning forward, “We don’t want to be under the bag
giving the tuning his close attention, when a when it hits the water!” warned Long Tom.
bark from deep-voiced Renny startled him. They might have saved their
“Holy cow!” Renny rumbled. “Look! apprehensions, however, for the basket
What’n blazes is happenin’ to our balloon?” touched slowly, and the rest of the bag
The entire street suddenly became remained aloft for some time.
white with light. Renny and Long Tom swam to the
bag, impulsively grasped the dangling lines,
and hauled themselves up. They looked,
BOTH craned their necks out of the Renny swinging the beam of a flashlight, and
car. The machine promptly hopped the curb, both became very silent. They climbed into
grazed a telephone pole, and upset a stack the basket, peered around, then jumped out
of ash cans. and swam clear as the bag collapsed.
“Watch where you’re goin’!” Long “If they had been in there, they’d
Tom yelled. probably have shot us, anyway,” Renny said
Renny got the car back into the gloomily, treading water.
street, stopped, and they both looked out “But how’d they get out?” Long Tom
again. snapped. “Where’d they go?”
“Only one explanation,” Renny said. At last they found Johnny’s

“Parachutes!” somewhat shapeless hat lying in a dark spot.
“Parachutes!” Long Tom gritted. “We Long Tom picked it up. He dropped it almost
should’ve kept a spotlight on the balloon!” instantly, and held his hands out in front of
The little plane circled rapidly him.
overhead, went off down the river, and “Blood!” he said hoarsely. “On the
approached against the wind. It was hat!”
equipped with floats, and the pilot made a
skillful landing.
Renny and Long Tom trod water and Chapter VI
watched the plane approach. At the first sign THE TRAP
of danger, they intended to duck beneath the
surface. GAUNT, incredibly bony Johnny had
Pat Savage shoved her attractive blood on his hand, too. He was acutely
head out of the plane’s cabin when the craft conscious of this, the first thing as he
was closer and greeted, “Do you boys often awakened. He was also in a car. He opened
go swimming after midnight with all your his eyes, saw blackness, and something hurt
clothes on?” his eyeballs. Blindfolded, of course!
“Phooey to you!” said Long Tom. Somebody had banged him over the head on
the pier, he recalled.
“An unpropitious situation,” Johnny
PAT brought her plane alongside, said vaguely.
and they climbed aboard. “Yep!” said a harsh voice. “He must
“Where’d they go?” Renny wanted to be the one called Johnny. The one who uses
know. “The two in the balloon, I mean.” big words.”
“Mystery to me,” said Pat. A man groaned. Johnny reflected
“Hm-m-m-m.” Renny wrung water out that this one who groaned sounded about as
of his coat skirts. “Where’d you get this he himself felt.
plane?” “How you comin’, pal?” a voice
“Built it to enter races next summer,” asked the other sufferer.
said Pat. “I guess I’ll live,” mumbled the man
Long Tom snapped suddenly, “Look who had groaned. “Say, did you two guys get
here, Pat! Doc wouldn’t like to have you out of the balloon with parachutes, then
mixing in this! If Doc were here, he would tell come back and get me?”
you to clear out.” “That’s the idea,” said the voice. “We
“And telling,” snapped Pat, “is all the popped your bony pal, here, on his scholarly
good it would do!” head.”
“Look!” Renny grunted suddenly and “Where we goin’ now?”
pointed. “What’s them things?” “To get in touch with Fuzzy,” the
Two collapsed masses of silk were other replied. “He should be told that Doc
floating in the water, buoyed up by patches of Savage wasn’t as dumb as we figured. Fuzzy
air imprisoned under the cloth. Parachutes! can tell the chief, and we’ll get our orders.”
“That explains how they got out of Bony Johnny lay perfectly still. He
the balloon,” said Renny disgustedly. “Left it didn’t want them knocking him senseless
before you dropped those flares!” again. He wanted to stay awake and hear all
They gathered the parachutes he could. Maybe he could overhear enough
aboard, aware they might serve as clues. information to explain the mystery of what
Then Pat taxied her plane up the river. was happening to the United States navy
“Kinda head for that pier to ships.
starboard,” Long Tom said. They rode for a long time. Johnny’s
“We left Johnny there, guarding a blindfold was removed. He could see
prisoner.” They alighted on the barge and suburban streets.
looked about and called. “Just yell,” he was told, “and you’ll
Then they became alarmed. Excited learn what a dead man feels like.”
dashing about followed for some time. Johnny didn’t yell.
They drove into a neat driveway “Doc Savage will probably follow the
edged by green shrubbery and leading to a instructions when he’s finished his
trim bungalow with green shutters and a red examination, and when he does, that’ll be the
tile roof. The shutters were closed. A radio last thing he’ll ever do!”
played behind them. The car drove into an Shade, driving, was given an
attached garage, and Johnny was led up into address. It was a big house, alone in three or
the house. four acres of landscaping. The house was of
A snaky-looking man with a growth very dark red brick, with very white window
of dark hair on his person met them. frames and a tiny white porch.
“This is Johnny, one of Doc Savage’s A lean man with more than his share
men,” said one of Johnny’s captors. “We of nose met them at the door. He wore
thought we’d bring him to you, Fuzzy.” evening clothes, but looked much too wide
The snaky, hairy man shut off the awake. He grinned when he saw who they
radio, then yelled at the top of his voice, were, opened the door wide and dropped in
“What in the hell is this you’re telling me?” the crook of one arm a shotgun which he had
The story of what had happened held behind himself, out of sight.
came out in hurried sentences. Serpentine “Where’s Lieber Von Zidney?” asked
and hirsute Fuzzy heard it through in the Fuzzy.
manner of a man being told he has “In the library,” said the man who had
inadvertently exposed himself to a let them in.
contagious disease.
When the recital was ended, Fuzzy
walked toward the door. THE library had been filled with
“I’m gonna contact the chief and find books in neat red and green and blue
out what to do about this,” he said. matched sets. The furniture was mission, the
style popular when this type of house was
the kind of house to build in the suburbs.
FUZZY was gone perhaps ten One man was in the library, seated in
minutes, and came back looking more a wooden mission chair. He had a bright
worried than when he had left. blanket around long, big legs. His tall, large
“The chief sure warmed up!” he body was encased in a Chinese robe on
grunted. which a dragon was about to eat a man on a
Fuzzy turned toward a lean fellow horse.
who wore a coal-black hat with the brim “Ach!” he exploded irritably. “What is
turned down all around. it now? Is it no privacy at all that I get?”
“Shade, you get the bread truck “Things are kinda going wrong, Von
ready to roll,” he instructed. “We’re taking this Zidney,” Fuzzy said.
guy with us so as to bait the bronze guy.” Von Zidney sat up straight and
“Right you are, Fuzzy,” said “Shade,” popped his eyes a little. His eyes were baby
and left the room. blue.
A few minutes later, the others came “Is it bad for me?” he demanded
from the house, Johnny with them, and got sharply.
into the truck. Shade drove. The others rode His hair was reddish, cropped to the
in the rear, and talked. skin around the sides. His mouth was very
“What’s on the schedule?” a man big and filled with small teeth.
asked. Fuzzy grunted, “We need India
“Doc Savage, the chief figures, must Allison, your secretary.”
have learned what was in that radiogram “Eh?” snapped Von Zidney. “I do not
sent by Lieutenant Bowen Toy,” said Fuzzy. understand.”
“The message said for Savage to go to the “India Allison,” said Fuzzy, “is an
Parkview Hotel and look inside a picture of expert penwoman. We want her to do some
Bowen for something. Well, the bronze guy forging. Get her.”
ain’t had a chance to be there yet, because Von Zidney scowled, then got erect.
he’s checking at the place where the ships He was taller by a foot than the tallest man in
crashed.” the room. He banged on a door.
“So what?”
“India!” he called. “Our friend Fuzzy

and his men are here!”
“What do they want?” a sleepy INDIA ALLISON locked the door
feminine voice asked. through which she had passed. She stood
“Nothing nice, you may be sure,” Von there a moment. She was trembling, and she
Zidney said, in a dry voice. became very white.
The door opened, and a young She went to a writing desk, turned
woman came in. the light on and examined the note paper
Johnny, who had been brought closely.
inside the house, was not an impressionable “The old trick for eliminating a spy
gentleman where femininity was concerned. who was about to be caught!” she gasped.
But Johnny now emitted a gasp of admiration She glanced about, as if fearful of
worthy of the most susceptible youth. being observed. Then she pulled the writing-
The young woman was a knock-out! desk light down, so that it bathed only a small
She had Pat Savage’s figure, almost, except area.
that she tended a little more to nicely Outside, Fuzzy called, “Hey! We
rounded curves, whereas Pat was sinewy. haven’t a lot of time!”
She had soft, brown hair and a tremendous The girl made no answer, and Fuzzy
wealth of it. She had the most gorgeous eyes paced impatiently.
Johnny had ever seen. The bony geologist At last, the young woman came out
swallowed twice and felt younger than he and extended the bit of thick, porous paper,
had in years. which now bore writing, and the letter with
“What do you want?” “India” Allison the sample handwriting.
asked softly. “The chief won’t forget this,” Fuzzy
Fuzzy did not look at the young said, taking them.
woman. None of his men looked at her. The girl said nothing. Fear was in the
Johnny, staring for all he was worth, noted back of her soft eyes.
this, and was puzzled. They left India Allison and Lieber
Fuzzy drew a letter from a pocket Von Zidney in the big brick house and drove
and said, “This is a letter written by Bowen toward the Parkview Hotel.
Toy to his brother Blackstone. We stole it. It The Parkview was an imposing block
is a sample of Bowen’s handwriting.” of masonry in the Bay View section of
Fuzzy drew from another pocket a Brooklyn. The mouth of New York Bay and
sheet of peculiarly heavy, porous note paper, its parade of ships could be viewed from one
and grunted, “You’ll use this to write a note side and two ends of the hotel. It was in an
on, duplicating Bowen Toy’s handwriting.” apartment district. As a hotel, the Parkview
“What shall I write?” asked India flourished by renting apartments to naval
Allison. officers and their families, because it was not
Fuzzy said, still not looking at her, far from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“Write for any one who reads the note to go Fuzzy seemed to know what he was
to Captain Blackstone Toy for information doing. He went to an apartment on the fourth
about any one who might have been an floor, the name plate on the door of which
enemy of Lieutenant Bowen Toy. Then write read:
that the note must be burned immediately.
Underline that part about the note being Captain Blackstone Toy, U. S. N.
burned.”
India Allison took the papers, Fuzzy used what was evidently a
murmured, “I must be alone to do a good job skeleton key and let himself into a sitting
of copying the handwriting,” and went out. room which held, in addition to the usual
Johnny, looking after India Allison, hotel furniture, some fittings purchased by
reflected that she had the sweetest eyes he the occupant. The customary French prints
had ever seen, and that hidden deep in them were missing from the walls, and in their
was the light of an incredible fear. place hung personal pictures.
India Allison, who looked like
Michelangelo’s idea of an angel, was scared
stiff of something.
Working with speed, Fuzzy lifted “That makes it even simpler,” he

down a picture of Lieutenant Bowen Toy. He said.
pulled brads out of the back, and took out the “I don’t get it,” said the man. “I don’t
cardboard backing of the picture, disclosing see any death trap.”
three sheets of typewritten paper. He read Fuzzy chuckled.
these sketchily. “That piece of porous note paper is
“Hell’s bells!” he gulped. “It’s lucky impregnated with a chemical which, when it
we got these before Doc Savage put his is burned, releases a gas that will kill a man
hands on them!” instantly,” he said. “The minute Doc Savage
Fuzzy removed from a pocket the burns that paper, he will die.”
sheet of thick, porous note paper on which
the girl had written. He placed this where the
sheets of typewritten paper had been. THEY went down to the street. It was
He replaced the cardboard picture almost dawn. Shade, black hat brim bent
backing. He hung the picture back on the down over his eyes, waited behind the
wall. bakery truck wheel.
“That,” he said grimly, “will fix Doc He extended a newspaper.
Savage.” “Newsboy came past minute ago,”
“But I thought we were gonna set a he said. “I got a paper off him. Thought you
trap to croak the bronze guy?” a man asked. might be interested.”
“We have,” Fuzzy told him. Fuzzy took the journal. Headlines
“Huh?” were large.
Fuzzy pointed at the picture.
“The writing on that note says to burn FOURTH NAVAL DISASTER OF
it.” He pointed to a fireplace across the room. NIGHT. NAVY SUPPLY SHIP
“There’s a convenient place to burn it.” CRASHES IN PANAMA CANAL
As an afterthought, he went to the hint of mysterious force driving vessel into
fireplace. It was a gas log. He turned it on, locks rumored as navy has fourth disaster of
touched a match to it, and adjusted the flame night.
so that it was not too high.
“Four!” Fuzzy laughed heartily. “If The brown deposit was simply oily
they only knew what is coming!” film left by human hands, as acted upon by
They got into the truck. chemical reagents from the atomizer. An
A man glanced anxiously at the infinitesimal oily deposit is left by the touch of
apartment house and asked, “Are we gonna almost any human hand.
hang around and see if the trap gets Doc The nature and consistency of the
Savage?” film naturally changes with time. The oil
“Hang around and have the bronze vaporizes, dries up. The less the oily film had
guy spot us!” snorted Fuzzy. “Don’t be vaporized, the more intense the brown
naïve!” deposit. Thus, Doc could judge accurately
He pronounced it “navy,” then how long since hands had touched an object.
laughed over his own pun. They drove away. In the present case, he decided that
A man asked, “What about this fellow men had been in the apartment not more
Johnny?” than half an hour earlier, and had touched
“We’ll see how bulletproof he is, as the picture. Close examination showed that
soon as Doc Savage is done for,” Fuzzy said, the picture had been taken down from the
calmly. wall. There was no dust on it, and there was
never an ordinary housekeeper who dusted
behind pictures regularly.
Chapter VII Doc did not use his bare fingers to
INDIA ALLISON remove the brads holding the cardboard
backing of the picture. Brads can be
WHEN Doc Savage approached the poisoned. He used tiny pliers, also taken
Parkview Hotel, morning sun had flushed the from inside his clothing.
sky. A newsboy stood in front of the place, He got the piece of porous note
howling headlines. paper, and read it by the leaping flames of
The “newsboy” was perhaps fifty the gas fire in the fireplace.
years of age. He was plump, had gray hair
and a face that did not look very pinched by To whom it may concern:
care. His clothes were shabby, and he wore In case of this note being read,
glasses with enormous shell rims. something will probably have happened. My
Doc Savage bought a paper. He was brother, Captain Blackstone Toy, will be able
recognized. to give valuable information on the matter.
“You’re Doc Savage!” the newspaper Please burn this note and examine the
vender exploded excitedly. “Say, what’s ashes.
happening to all these battleships?” LIEUT. BOWEN Toy.
“Imagine a good many people would
like to know that,” Doc told him, and went into Doc Savage gave close attention to
the hotel. the last sentence, the one about burning the
A hallway directory gave him the note and examining the ashes. His glance
number of Captain Blackstone Toy’s went to the fireplace, to the flames leaping
apartment. A thin lock-picking probe let him merrily within.
into the apartment. He wore gloves. Doc strode over and touched a
Doc made a search of the place, corner of the note to the flames. The thing
found no one. burned rapidly. It gave off much smoke,
From inside his clothing came a tiny which curled up around Doc’s face.
atomizer device with which he blew fine The man of bronze fell to the floor
spray over the doorknob. This promptly and lay utterly still.
became crusted with a brownish deposit.
Doc went to the picture of Lieutenant
Bowen Toy. He sent a spray from the tiny AN electric clock in the room
atomizer over parts of the picture. The brown continued its noise of tiny machinery running.
deposit appeared again, not in a smooth film, The gas log in the fireplace hissed and its
but in scattered patches. flames sounded windy.
The window came up.
Doc touched a corner of the note to the flames. It gave off

much smoke, which curled up around Doc’s face.
“Oh!” choked a voice back of the Doc Savage, moving his metallic
window. “Oh!” hands only a short distance, caught her
The owner of the voice came in. It wrists.
was India Allison. More than ever horror was India Allison choked. “What—what
in her eyes as she flung across the floor and did—”
dropped beside Doc Savage. “It was harmless paper,” Doc Savage
“Why did it work?” she gasped. said quietly. “You substituted it for their paper
“What made it overcome you? I thought it impregnated with poison chemicals.”
was harmless paper?” “You knew that!” she gasped. “How?”
She reached for Doc Savage, as if to Doc appeared not to hear her query,
shake him. and put one of his own.
“Why are you here?” he asked. fantastic to think there can be a force—
“Listen!” she said rapidly. “When I something invisible—which can seize
heard they were afraid of you, I determined persons and hurl them about. Or which can
to get to you the first chance I could and ask grab one’s car and force it off the road, which
you for help!” is what happened to me at one time.”
Doc got to his feet. The young “The navy ships which met disaster
woman got up, also, and gripped one of his last night,” Doc reminded her. “There was
arms tightly with both her hands. talk of some mysterious force, according to
“They brought that piece of note the newspapers.”
paper to me, and I knew it was a death The girl gathered herself. “Two
instrument,” she said. “I decided they were weeks ago, a man with a sawed-off shotgun
going to trap you. They would use such a appeared. He said he was there to protect us
clever murder method only on some one against the mysterious attacks, and that we
such as you. So I exchanged a harmless were to stay inside and inform no one of what
piece of paper for the other one. Then I was happening. The man refused to say who
followed them here.” he was, why he was there, or what he was
She crowded closer to the bronze doing. He said he was there to guard us
man. against what he called—a horrible thing.”
“I climbed the fire escape, intending “I see.” Doc noted the exquisite
to wait until you came,” she continued. “You texture of the skin of the slender hand on his
were here, and just as I came, I saw you arm.
burn the paper.” “I am Von Zidney’s ghost writer,” said
Doc Savage walked to the window, the girl. “Von Zidney does technical articles
not because he wanted to see the window, for American journals on foreign trade. He is
but because he wanted to get away from the an importer of optical instruments. He is not
disturbing presence of the young woman. good with English, and I speak his native
There was a fire escape outside the language fluently, and can turn his work into
window. The street below was beginning to English. I am also his secretary.”
fill with traffic. “Continue, please.” Doc was aware
“What is your story?” he asked. of some of the young woman’s exquisite
Exquisitely beautiful India Allison curves, and of the warm grip she was
brought her soft presence close again and keeping on his arm.
took hold of his arm. “We had never seen the man who
“I’m scared!” she said. “We are walked in before,” said the girl. “He simply
menaced by something you can’t see!” took up his job of guarding us.”
“Why?” Doc asked.
“I don’t know.” The young woman
DOC SAVAGE looked at the hand on squeezed Doc’s arm. “And I don’t know why
his arm, and reflected that he had never seen the mysterious attacks were aimed at us in
a more perfectly shaped feminine extremity. the first place.”
“Five weeks ago, it started,” the girl Doc Savage reached out and almost
said. “First it was only—boxes and things patted the young woman’s small,
falling off shelves. Once, a piano upset. marvelously built hand, almost took it in his
Chairs turned over.” own bronze fingers. Then some solidity of
She gave the most violent shudder thought returned, and he drew in a breath
which Doc Savage had ever seen a young and stepped away, so that the shapely hand
woman give, holding onto his arm tightly as slipped from his sleeve.
she did so. “Know anything else?” he asked, his
“Then Lieber Von Zidney was seized voice vaguely stirred.
and—and hurled against a wall and badly “No.” The young woman gave the
bruised by something—something he could bronze man a glance which was nothing if
not see!” not disturbing.
“It sounds rather ghostly,” Doc “Does Lieber Von Zidney know what
offered. it is all about?” Doc persisted.
“You don’t believe me!” she said
wearily. “I didn’t expect you to! It’s too
“Not that he had told me,” India

Allison said, and looked as if she might get
disturbingly close again.
“Let’s talk to him!” Doc said hastily,
and moved toward the door.
The newsboy selling the newspapers
with the story of the five mysterious naval
disasters of the night was doing a big
business in front of the Parkview. If he saw
Doc Savage, he gave no sign, and yet he
could have hardly helped seeing the bronze
man and his enchanting feminine companion
enter the car at the curb.
Doc Savage stopped his convertible
coupé just before it came in sight of the big,
blocky house of Lieber Von Zidney. He
looked at a near-by clump by bushes.
“Monk!” he called.
The bushes stirred, and India
Allison—she had hold of Doc’s arm again—
emitted a soft, startled sound which would
have been an outcry had Doc not hastily
placed a hand over her soft lips. "Monk" is the chemist of Doc
A man had come out of the brush. Savage's little band of fighters. You
He looked like exactly the kind of man one couldn't tell from looking at him, for he
should expect to come out of brush. He looks more like the missing link, as his
would weigh in excess of two hundred and companion, Ham, would put it, than
fifty pounds. His arms were perceptibly anything else.
longer than his legs. But Monk is a chemist, and a good
He had a titanic chest and no hips to one. He is also a fighter—and if
speak of, and his mouth was big beyond all anything, a better fighter than a chemist.
sense; his eyes were small and almost lost in Moreover, he's one of Doc's com-
pits of gristle, and he was covered with panions—and that's enough to stamp
coarse, reddish hairs which looked as if they any man as the best in manhood!
might be clipped off, straightened out and
used by a carpenter for finishing nails.
Doc Savage said, “This is one of my “Nope,” Monk said, in his small
five aids, the world-renowned chemist, voice. “Lieber Von Zidney and that other guy
Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Mayfair.” with the shotgun are still around. Von Zidney
Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett is in the house. The other guy is mowing the
Mayfair gave the pretty young lady a big grin lawn.”
with a face that was so homely it was, almost “The man with the shotgun is one of
unbelievably, pleasant. the gang, left there to watch us,” said the girl.
“Them that ain’t afraid to, calls me “I managed to give him the slip.” Then India
Monk, miss,” he said, in a very small voice Allison gave Monk a sweetly angelic smile,
which sounded as if it belonged to a juvenile. and put her hand lightly on Doc Savage’s
“I’m not afraid of you,” smiled India sleeve.
Allison, and extended a hand. “Now I see how you knew about my
switching a harmless piece of paper for the
deadly one!” she said. “But how did you
“MONK” made his grin even bigger. happen to be watching?”
Monk was something of a connoisseur where Monk glanced at Doc. “All right to tell
feminine pulchritude was concerned, and he her?”
obviously rated this young woman high. “No harm,” Doc said.
Doc asked, “Monk, has anything
happened?”
“We’ve known Doc was being mower to which was attached a basket to
watched several days,” Monk explained. catch the grass.
“Doc had three men watching the balloon. The basket held the man’s sawed-off
The other two of us were posted downstairs. shotgun, where he could fall upon it without
The last two was myself and a guy who don’t delay.
count, named Ham. Anyway, we trailed that The man stopped pushing his
guy Fuzzy. We’ve been on his trail all the mowing machine when Monk appeared from
time.” the direction of the street. Monk carried his
“Oh!” said India Allison admiringly. own coat rolled under his arm.
Doc said, “We will talk to Von “Gotta de old clothes to sell,
Zidney.” meester?” asked Monk, almost unintelligibly.
“But what about the guard?” the girl “Get the hell offn this place!” yelled
asked anxiously. the grass mower.
“We can sort of collaborate on him,” Monk, wearing a big idiotic grin at
Monk suggested. which he was particularly adept, ambled
They advanced—and were almost closer.
immediately passed by a newsboy. He was a “De Englees me no savvy mucha,”
gray-haired newsboy, well fed, with an he said. “She no spik wit’ me so good
unlined face. neither. Me, I am buying with ol’ clothes you
“Paper?” he called. “Read all about got? Savvy? Me ol’ clothes feller. Me buy—”
the mysterious naval disasters.” But by this time Doc Savage had
Doc Savage stood looking after the come out of the lawn shrubbery with the
departing newsboy. silence of a ghost and had put his trained,
“What’s wrong?” Monk asked. corded bronze hands upon the man at the
“That newsboy was in front of the mowing machine.
Parkview Hotel!” Doc said. The man never made a sound loud
The newsboy walked around a enough to frighten birds out of the near-by
corner out of sight. bushes before he became senseless from a
“He’s kinda old to be hawking peculiar pressure which Doc Savage exerted
newspapers!” Monk grunted. “I’ll go round on his spinal nerve centers.
him up.” “That,” Monk told India Allison, “is
Monk went around the corner where what me and Doc call collaboration.”
the elderly newsboy had vanished, and was “I think you’re wonderful!” the young
out of sight three or four minutes. He came woman murmured, and Monk beamed like a
back with empty hands and a puzzled look. cat that had discovered cream in his
“Gone!” Monk grunted. “Funny, whiskers.
huh?” “Stay here,” Doc said, “and watch the
Monk now whistled softly. There was prisoner.”
a stir in the bushes near by, and an animal of “Sure,” Monk agreed, grinning at
remarkable appearance came out of the India Allison.
shrubbery and across the sidewalk. It had Doc walked toward the house. India
elephantine ears, legs of great length, and a Allison stayed behind.
snout built for inquiry into remote places. A
pig.
“Habeas Corpus—my pal,” Monk MONK shook the prisoner, got no
explained, indicating the pig. response, and thus assured that the fellow
Doc said, “We had better see Von was senseless, gave his attention to the
Zidney without delay. First, we will have to young woman.
take care of the guard.” India Allison was looking Monk over,
apparently with approval. She smiled
radiantly.
THE guard had a straw hat pulled “You’re terribly strong, aren’t you?”
over his long nose, and had donned overalls she asked.
and canvas sneakers, together with the look They were not making modest men
which a man who doesn’t like work wears the day Monk was created.
when he has to work. He was pushing a lawn
“Sure, I’m strong,” he grinned. “Did The two men had gotten into a car
you ever see these circus strong men take on a side Street. A fresh drop or two of oil
horseshoes and straighten them out?” from the car was on the paving.
“Oh!” gasped India Allison. “Can you Near by, in a clump of bushes, Doc
do that?” found hidden a lump of newspapers, all very
“I invented the trick,” Monk said. late editions.
India Allison pointed at the house. They were, Doc recalled, the same
“Look! Isn’t that something moving?” editions which the elderly “newsboy” had
Monk looked. “I don’t see—” been selling—the “newsboy” who had
He did not finish, for the simple appeared at the Parkview, then here.
reason that a good slice of the earth seemed Doc walked toward where he had left
to make sudden contact with the back of his Monk.
head. Five minutes later, he was
The intense blackness of completing a search which convinced him
unconsciousness enveloped him as he fell, Monk and the girl, India Allison, were gone.
and he was trying, trying to call out for Doc He had found the spot where Monk had
Savage, and failing. He wanted to tell Doc fallen when struck down; Monk’s apish frame
never to trust any woman, that this young had mashed down the grass perceptibly.
female, with her sweet face and her nice way Doc went to his car and switched on
of looking so flatteringly at a man, had hit him the radio, adjusting the wave band to the
over the head. short wave which he and his men used for
He did not feel the shock as he hit intercommunication.
the lawn. “Ham!” he called into the transmitter
microphone.
DOC SAVAGE reached the house,

listened, and heard nothing to indicate a
human presence. He went into the big
ugliness of the house and walked in gloomy
silence, looking for some sign of life, and
determining before long that there was none.
He used his atomizer. Brown deposit
was brought out darkly by the reagent on a
side door, indicating the presence of a hand
not more than five minutes previously. Doc
Savage passed through the door and studied
the ground.
Doc Savage did unusual things and
was obviously a unique personage, but in
truth he was much more remarkable an
individual than any one suspected. His
senses; his faculties, were developed to an
almost superhuman degree, thanks to a full
two hours of exercises which he had taken
"Ham" Brooks, whose mind, whetted by
each day since childhood.
careful legal training, was clever enough
Doc had learned trailing and tracking
to save a whole division in the War, was
from some of the world’s masters, and it was
not able to overcome the weighty
not difficult for him to see that one man had
evidence piled up against him in a case
come to the side door of the house, and two
of stealing hams from the commissary.
had gone away. Doc followed the trail of the
"Monk" still reminds Ham of that incident,
two. A bent blade of grass, one among
which is about the only thing that can
hundreds, disturbed dust on the leaves of
upset the impeccable, waspish Theodore
bushes, dew drops spattered and smeared,
Marley Brooks and his great legal mind.
showed him the way.
Ham's wit is as sharp as the point of the
sword cane he invariably carries.
“Ham,” was Brigadier General “I’d watch that dame, India Allison, if
Theodore Marley Brooks, the remaining I were you,” a man said.
member of Doc Savage’s group of five aids. “She’s doing what she’s told,” said
Ham was also the pride of Harvard law Fuzzy. “Don’t worry about her.” Fuzzy then
school alumni and was frequently nominated directed a man to make some coffee in the
by magazines of fashion as the best-dressed kitchen, after which he decided he’d get a
man in the United States. late newspaper. He walked out to the street.
“Ham!” Doc called, a rap of The newspaper boy who was fifty
imperativeness in his trained voice. years old was still there, and Fuzzy bought a
Ham had been assigned the task of paper and made some comments as he read
keeping track of Fuzzy and his gang. Doc it.
had directed Ham to keep in touch by radio “The whole dang navy is what a
at every opportunity. prissy guy would call ‘in a dither,’” he said.
“Ham!” Doc called again. “Boy—are they balled up and wondering
There was no response, nothing to what’s coming next!”
show how Ham was making out with his job In the house, Fuzzy laughed aloud,
of shadowing snaky, hairy Fuzzy and Shade then stopped and looked suddenly sober.
and the rest of the gang which had gaunt “Wonder what they’ll say when
Johnny a prisoner. Captain Blackstone Toy’s dawn patrol of
naval airplanes is destroyed this morning?”
He seemed about to elaborate on
Chapter VIII this, but there was a shout from outside. The
THE DEATH PATROL man designated as “Useless,” who had been
sent to look the grounds over, came
LONG, bony, big-worded Johnny slamming back inside.
was seeking to extract some vague bit of “Shade!” he bawled. “Shade!
information from his captors. Something’s got Shade!”
“This dilemma presents a The man who had driven the truck
labyrinthine physiognomy,” he murmured. was in the room. He looked bewildered.
“Truly a cosmorama infinitely—” “If anything’s got me, it’s the first time
“Whew!” muttered Shade, from the I knew of it!” he snapped.
driver’s compartment. “Have him speak Useless stabbed an arm at him.
English!” “This guy ain’t Shade! I found Shade stuck
“Shut up!” directed Fuzzy. “We’ll with a sword cane that was lying beside ‘im,
soon be home.” and there was dope of some kind on the
Shortly after this, Shade drove the sword cane’s point! The sword cane only
bread truck up the neat driveway edged by stuck ‘im in the arm, but it made ‘im
green shrubbery to the trim bungalow with senseless!”
the verdant shutters and tile roof the color of
blood. No one got out until the car was in the
attached garage. FOR a matter of ten seconds or so,
They all unloaded. It was a bit there was comparative silence.
gloomy in the garage. Somebody became choked and gave
Fuzzy selected a man with a finger a loud cough. It was as if he had fired a
and directed, “Useless, you go out and kinda starting gun.
gander around the place, just in case. I ain’t Shade—the fake one—whipped for
got no reason to think anything is wrong, but the nearest window. Some one skidded a
it never hurts to be careful—as the rooster chair in his path. He went down, rolled as he
said after he flew into the thorn tree.” fell, hands tearing at his coat.
The designated man went out. He brought from an armpit a gun like
Fuzzy led the others inside. He was a huge automatic pistol with a drum
in an expansive good humor. magazine. Some one hit him with another
“Doc Savage will find that note and chair. He yelled loudly and his black hat with
burn it,” he said. “That’ll be his end!” the yanked-down brim was knocked off. He
lost his queer gun.
Johnny looked at the embattled fake menacing a squadron of planes under the
Shade and recognized him. command of Captain Blackstone Toy?”
“Ham!” Johnny howled. “I’ll be “Kick his face in!” Fuzzy yelled,
superamalgamated! Ham!” pointing at Johnny.
Johnny promptly became a bundle of In the midst of the drubbing being
flailing arms and legs. Two men had kept given to Johnny, hairy Fuzzy heard
always close to him, but these had their something. His serpentine aspect was
attention distracted at the moment. Johnny enhanced, now that he was excited. He
knocked them both down. made a wild series of hissing noises, and
Fuzzy began jumping up and down finally got silence.
like a man having a fit. “Somebody comin’!” he croaked.
“Ham is one of Doc Savage’s men!” “This bird Ham outfoxed us and has probably
he squawled. “Ham put Shade out with a been keeping Doc Savage posted! This must
sword cane he carried and took Shade’s be Doc Savage comin’!”
place and none of us noticed it!” An automobile moaned up and slid to
Johnny kicked Fuzzy in the stomach. a stop in the driveway, tires squealing. Fuzzy
A gun went off. Ham was striking the faces of and his men put their guns and their heads
two men and trying to kick a third in the out of windows and examined the car.
midriff. The car held the man who had been
Another gun went off. Chairs were watchman at Lieber Von Zidney’s residence.
flying. A table came flying across the room Also in the car was Lieber Von Zidney
and Johnny dodged it. himself, the sweet looking girl, India Allison,
Fuzzy got his breath and squawked, and a prisoner.
“Get ‘em! Kill ‘em! If they get away, the The prisoner was apelike Monk.
boss’ll skin us alive!” “Well, I hope to be buried at sea!”
The uproar grew louder, the action Fuzzy gulped. “Monk! Say, we’ve got three of
more dizzy. Men were all over the floor. Doc Savage’s men! Not a bad score!”
Other men came running in. Then Fuzzy must have thought of
Johnny and Ham, outnumbered, something. He made a series of hissing
were seized and held helpless. noises in his wild haste to speak.
“This place is dangerous!” he
squawled. “This bird Ham has outfoxed us
FUZZY and his men did nothing but and has probably been keeping Doc Savage
pant for a few moments. posted! Savage may have the place
“Talk about—a merry-go-round!” one surrounded now! Come on! We’ll blow!”
gulped. “These two birds are the ponies’ They charged out, hauling their
necks!” prisoners, and got into their cars and drove
“You oughta be thankful—they wildly out of the grounds, their guns ready.
wasn’t Doc Savage himself!” another puffed. They were agreeably surprised when nothing
Ham—erstwhile Shade—said loudly happened to deter their flight.
and impressively. “You men are trapped! “What’re we gonna do?” a man
Throw your weapons down, give yourselves asked Fuzzy.
up and it will go easier with you!” “Contact the chief,” Fuzzy growled,
“Kick his face in!” Fuzzy directed. “then lie low until Captain Blackstone Toy’s
“He’s bluffing!” flight of planes is taken care of.”
Ham was soundly drubbed while “But what about Doc Savage?”
they held him. Ham had a high forehead, “He’ll never catch up with us now!”
piercing eyes, and a large orator’s mouth.
The piercing eyes were blacked and the
orator’s mouth was split in three places. Chapter IX
During this excitement, bony Johnny DOOMED FLIGHT
lay flat on his back, his hands behind him
and under him, with two men seated on his DOC SAVAGE approached the white
chest. He writhed about in a peculiar fashion. bungalow with the green shutters
Johnny asked suddenly and loudly, unobtrusively in his convertible roadster. The
“Did I hear something said about disaster
radio transmitter and receiver in the machine subjected to a reducing process, and shrunk
was turned on, and Renny’s bull-like voice to the height of his own knees, he would
was coming out of the receiver speaker. have looked remarkably like the animal which
“We’ll be with you in a minute, Doc,” now waddled into their presence.
Renny was saying. “Chemistry!” Long Tom exploded.
Doc parked and waited a bit, eyes “Ham’s pet what-is-it!”
roving, then got out and crossed the “I found Chemistry tied to a bush out
landscaped grounds. He walked slowly, and where nobody could be expected to find
there was nothing in his manner to show that him,” Pat explained.
he was more than ordinarily alert. “Where’s Ham?” big-fisted Renny
He wore gloves. He came to the demanded. “He probably tied his pet to the
door, opened it and went in. His sensitive bush while he played the part of Shade. But
ears and remarkably trained nostrils had told where is he now?”
him there was no one in the house. Doc Savage said nothing. He
The bronze man went over the room seemed to have lost interest in the
rapidly, then went to other rooms. conversation, and was moving toward the
A car drove up outside and a voice door. He went to the car and came back
called, “Doc!” shortly with a device which might be
It was Renny’s thumping tone, and a mistaken for a small old-fashioned magic
moment later, Renny came in behind the lantern.
ready snout of a supermachine pistol. He “Pull the shades,” he requested.
was trailed by Long Tom, who looked The shades were pulled. It became
infinitely more unhealthy by daylight than he gloomy in the house. Doc Savage pressed a
had at night. button on the side of the lanternlike device
“Holy cow!” Renny said, looking which he carried. Nothing visible happened.
around. “Who lives here?” Doc Savage turned the ultra-violet
Long Tom grunted, “I thought Monk lantern on the floor. Nothing happened in that
and Ham would be around!” room. But in the room where Johnny had lain
Then both of them began glancing on the floor and squirmed, writing sprang out
over their shoulders. in an unearthly fluorescent series of lines.
Doc saw the glances. “That’s the hen tracks Johnny calls
“Out with it,” he directed. handwriting,” Long Tom offered.
Renny opened and shut a pair of It read:
hands large enough to crack cocoanuts.
“It’s—well, we know it’s too Some danger menacing plane
dangerous to have anybody—” squadron of Captain Blackstone Toy. Hurry
A voice interrupted from outside, on this. They’ve got both me and Ham.
“Where is everybody? Look what I found!”
Pat, golden eyes alight, every “Doc!” Renny roared. “Do you know
slender inch of her alive and vibrant and on what airport this Captain Blackstone Toy flies
the trail of excitement, came in. She saw Doc from? Have you looked it up?”
Savage and stopped. “Yes,” Doc said.
“Oh!” she said. “The big bronze day “Well, hadn’t we better—”
of reckoning again!” “We had,” Doc said.
Renny jabbed a hand at Pat. “That’s
it!” he said.
If Doc Savage heard, he gave no CAPTAIN BLACKSTONE TOY was a
sign. navy man, and he was assigned to a training
school temporarily established near New
York City. It was the purpose of the school to
PAT SAVAGE said again, “Look train flyers for the highly exacting business of
what I found!” and snapped her fingers, as if landing on the restricted decks of aircraft
she were calling a dog. carriers, to teach them about catapults, and
An animal waddled into view. It was to give their aërobatics and formation flying a
a remarkable animal in appearance. If the final polish.
missing apish chemist, Monk, had been
The airport was a large civilian one A sailor came in with a paper. The
built during the boom days, and now under commanding officer read it.
lease to the navy. It was approached by a “Incredible!” he muttered. “Look here,
fine concrete road. Savage, are you working on this infernal
Doc Savage’s car rolled along the mystery of what is happening to our navy?”
road toward the airport. “You mean the matter of five
Pat said for the fourteenth time, destroyers, the aircraft carrier, and the supply
“Now look, Doc, where’s your chivalry?” ship?” Doc queried.
Doc Savage continued a complete “That’s not all!” the commander
silence. yelled.
He stopped the car when the sentry “No?”
challenged them at the gate. The commander groaned, “More
Pat said, “Doc, your own cousin! You than ten different accidents, all of an utterly
wouldn’t deny her a little innocent mysterious nature, occurred last night! In
excitement?” each case, there was unbelievable talk about
Doc Savage said, “Renny, keep her a mysterious force or something causing the
out of my sight or some one’s health may accidents!”
suffer.” A sailor came to the door and said,
Renny escorted Pat to the rear, “Captain Blackstone Toy’s squad of planes is
looking very gloomy, as he did when he was in sight, sir!”
tickled at something.
Doc Savage talked to the sentry at
the gate. It seems to be a rule that military MODERN fighting ships of the United
establishments must have a sentry at the States navy, the breathtakingly speedy little
gate, although there may not even be a fence jobs which operate from plane carriers, are
around the rest of the place. probably the equal of any fighting craft in the
Reaching into a hip pocket, Doc world. Captain Blackstone Toy’s dawn patrol
produced a black case which held, among had six of them. They flew in close formation.
other things, a document given him by the U. Naval air combat strategists having
S. navy as a gesture of appreciation for somewhat abandoned the idea that the
presenting the United States government fastest fighting planes can be built if only one
with a device which would guide a torpedo to man is carried, these ships each carried two
any ship afloat within an area of miles, a men, both trained pilots and observers. Each
contrivance that enabled submarines to plane was fitted with six machine guns, a
launch torpedoes that would hit enemy ships rack for bombs, and the latest thing in aërial
without even being aimed at them. The cameras.
document would do a great many things “Nice crates, what?” remarked the
besides get Doc past a navy sentry. commandant of the air base.
Five minutes later, Doc was talking The airport was situated near the
to the commandant, who was in a dressing sea. The water at this point was deep and
robe, rubbing his eyes, it still being early in always in motion, due to a strong tidal
the morning. current.
“I wish to speak with Captain Wind direction required that Captain
Blackstone Toy,” Doc said. Toy lead his flight in a swing out over the sea
“He is in the air now with the dawn to come in properly upon the runways.
patrol,” the commandant explained. They were hardly over the sea when
“Radio Captain Blackstone Toy to something happened. The foremost plane
return immediately and exercise every suddenly put its nose down and headed
possible precaution against danger in any straight for the sea! The others did likewise!
form,” Doc directed. The pilots, it could be seen, were
The commandant looked startled, doing everything they could to resist! The
then glanced at the document which Doc had ships began to spin. One actually leveled out
shown the sentry. for a short distance, but almost immediately
“Yes, sir!” he said. went into another fall.
He gave the necessary orders. Crash-boat sirens began howling.
Doc Savage and his aids managed to spring
aboard one of the crash boats. They the usual expedient of knocking the man
crouched in the enclosed cockpit, amid first- senseless.
aid equipment and pumps for removing water “You’ve saved Captain Blackstone
from the lungs of drowning aviators, as the Toy!” an ensign yelled as Doc and the other
boat darted away from the wharf. man were hauled aboard a minute later.
Captain Blackstone Toy’s plane had “Better get him under a pulmotor,”
been first to start down. It was first to crash. Doc advised. “He took in quite a bit of water.”
Yet, with what appeared to be marvelous The crash boat was busy for the next
skill, Captain Toy fought it level just above few minutes. All the planes had sunk by now.
the surface, so that it hit on the fuselage, Some aviators were swimming. One of these
glanced, hit again, and turned over. drowned before he could be saved. It was
An instant later, the other planes necessary to dive for two more.
were down. They hit hard enough to vanish One man was moaning as they
beneath the surface almost at once. Only two hauled him out of the water.
remained on top. They promptly burst into “Something seemed to grab my
flames. plane—to pull it down!” he gasped
Captain Toy’s ship was one of those hysterically.
that burst into flame. It sank quickly and
Captain Toy was carried down, still in the
cockpit. HALF an hour later, Captain
Doc Savage, when the crash boat Blackstone Toy was able to talk. He
was near enough, dived after Toy’s sinking addressed his first words to Doc Savage.
plane. “There is no question but that you
saved my life!” he said earnestly. “I hope that
I shall never be so ungrateful as to forget
THIS water was bitterly cold. It was that, and I hope that my chance shall come
full of tiny whirls and rushing up-and-down to repay you in whatever measure I can.”
currents, for this was a tide rip so vigorous Pat, in the background, murmured,
that it was avoided even by yachtsmen “A right nice speech, I call that.”
sailing this part of the coast. Doc Savage asked, “What
The moving water tugged at the happened, Toy?”
bronze man, pummeled him. He had to swim Captain Blackstone Toy became
violently to reach the sinking plane. very still on the cot on which he lay. He bit
The sinking craft was deep now. The his lips doubtfully.
streamlined fuselage offered few handholds. “In the face of being called a liar, I
Doc reached the observer’s cockpit. It was will say that something unseen simply
empty. He hauled himself forward. seemed to grab the plane,” he said finally. “I
The other cockpit was occupied. The fought the controls. It was no use. I put forth
slide hatch had jammed in some fashion, and my most Herculean effort just before we
the pit’s occupant had been unable to break struck the water, but although the ship came
out. Doc tore at the hatch. level, I do not think I could have held it so.”
The plane was sinking fast. It was “What, exactly happened to the
down so deep now that there was darkness plane?” Doc persisted.
all around. The pressure had become terrific. “Some force seemed to seize it!” said
Doc’s wrenching got the hatch loose at one Captain Blackstone Toy.
corner. The efforts of the man in the cockpit Another man offered, “It is exactly
helped. such statements that the other disaster
The flyer was about exhausted, survivors make!”
probably more than half drowned. In addition, There was silence in the hangar
terror seized him, and he grabbed frantically where the men were gathered.
at Doc Savage, as drowning men, however “What’s happening to the navy?” a
strong their will power, will. man asked hoarsely.
Doc held him off without much “Whatcha mean?” another grunted.
difficulty, the bronze man’s developed “These disasters!” the man said
strength making it unnecessary to resort to slowly. “What is wrecking these ships?”
Doc Savage studied Captain overheard talking,” said Blackstone Toy.

Blackstone Toy, then asked, “What do you “One steward said: “The preparations have
know about this affair?” been in the making for years. Now everything
Captain Toy pondered, then said, is ready. We will wipe out the American navy
“Nothing.” before we can be stopped. Then our nation
“I’d like to speak to this man alone,” will attack.’”
Doc announced. Captain Toy paused as if probing in
his memory for further details.
“My brother heard the other steward
Chapter X answer, ‘Our warships are already off the
ZEPHYR! United States coast ready for the attack.’ The
steward had a newspaper when he said that.
THERE was some hesitation, for Doc We did not get a glimpse of the newspaper,
wore no insignia to show the navy men why so we do not know what foreign navy was
any order he gave should be obeyed. The meant.”
commandant, however, issued a sharp Doc Savage directed, “Show me the
command, and a moment later, Doc was stewards who were overheard talking!”
alone with Captain Blackstone Toy. Even Pat Captain Blackstone Toy made a
was escorted, indignant, outside. helpless gesture.
Captain Toy was watching Doc “They deserted the next day,” he
Savage. He seemed to read something in the said. “They must have learned my brother
bronze man’s manner. and I suspected them.”
“What’s wrong?” Captain Toy Doc Savage said quietly, “This is not
demanded. After a minute, he added, “I can very much information.”
take it!” “I know it’s not,” said Toy. “And I’m
“Your brother,” Doc Savage said, “is sorry. I think my brother knew, or had
dead.” overheard, other things after the incident
Captain Toy wet his lips. “I knew it. I here at the flying field. Unfortunately, I do not
got the news last night.” know what he did overhear.”
“Before he died, he sent a message Captain Blackstone Toy was a
to me, asking to get something from behind sturdily built man with lots of chest and jaw,
his picture in your apartment,” Doc Savage which might or might not mean anything with
added. regard to character. He wore a military
Captain Blackstone Toy got off the uniform, and all military uniforms look rather
cot. He collapsed almost immediately, much alike. His hair was curly, looked as if
holding his head in his hands. he used a good grade of hair oil on it. He had
“I knew of the stuff behind the eyes which looked somewhat as if they were
picture,” he mumbled. “Didn’t you get it?” cast out of file steel.
“No.” The pause was broken when Doc
Toy absently picked at his insignia of Savage got up suddenly. He had been
captain in the navy. standing where his gaze could range through
“It was a typewritten account of what the small side door of the hangar, and sweep
my brother, Bowen Toy, had overheard, or a line of bushes which paralleled the flying-
thought he had overheard,” he said. “Would field edge at some distance.
you care to hear about it?” Skulking in the bushes was the
“Go ahead,” Doc directed. elderly newsboy who had haunted the
“My brother was visiting me at this scenes of action thus far.
naval airport,” said Captain Blackstone Toy.
“He chanced to overhear something which
led him to believe there was a plot underfoot DOC SAVAGE barely glimpsed the
against the navy.” fellow. The bronze man made no move to
“Just whom did he overhear?” Doc show that he was particularly interested.
Savage asked. Instead, he strolled to the big outer hangar
“It was two mess stewards, little door, humming under his breath.
fellows who look like foreigners, that Bowen
The humming became louder, and and the rest of our gang speaks. You know,
turned into words of some exotic, guttural the one you all learned when you had that
song in a foreign language. fantastic affair in the Valley of the Vanished
The song was not unmusical, and in Central America.”
the interesting quality of it was enhanced by “What were the orders?” Renny
the power and depth of the bronze man’s thumped.
voice. Then he stopped singing, the song Pat smiled sweetly. “Boys, you
having apparently lost interest, and went should have been close enough to hear the
back into the hangar. orders when Doc gave them. Of course, Doc
“There is nothing more that you can is too swell a guy to raise Cain, but you’ll feel
tell me?” he asked Captain Blackstone Toy. bad about it, won’t you?”
“I have been racking my brain,” said “Come on!” Renny growled. “What’d
Captain Toy. “There is nothing. And I’m Doc want? Out with it!”
terribly sorry.” Pat’s smile grew more sugary. “Look,
He paused and rubbed the palms of you two boys be nice and help persuade Doc
his hands on his khaki-breeched thighs, then to let me have a part in this excitement, and
put out his prominent- jaw. I’ll tell you.”
“Look here, Savage! Some kind of “Chiseler!”
devilish organization of spies or sabotage “Blackmailer!”
agents from a foreign power has apparently “No helpee, no tellee.”
killed my brother! I will do anything in my Long Tom and Renny tried to scowl
power to secure vengeance! May I offer my her down, but had no luck.
services? May I take your orders until the “All right,” they agreed.
devils are brought to justice?” “Doc sang in Mayan that there was
Captain Toy looked grimly an elderly man skulking in the bushes near
determined as he waited for Doc’s verdict. the road,” Pat explained swiftly. “The old
There was also a plea in his eyes. fellow has been playing the part of a
“Help is something no one ever has newsboy, and has appeared often enough so
too much of,” Doc Savage said quietly. that his actions are suspicious. Doc wants us
Which statement would have to get on the other side of the bushes, and
surprised Renny, Long Tom, Pat and the grab the old fellow when he’s frightened
others who knew Doc Savage well, for the toward us.”
unusual bronze man was noted for his lone- “Come on!” Renny roared.
wolf manner of doing things. Doc rarely They took up their positions, not so
accepted aid from any one outside his circle hastily as to attract suspicion, being careful
of acquaintances. to keep out of sight of the bushes in which
“Then I can work with you?” Toy lurked the elderly newsboy.
demanded. They had hardly gotten themselves
“Yes.” stationed when Doc Savage came out of the
Then Doc Savage seemed to be hangar. He was running—straight toward the
waiting for something to happen outside—as bushes.
in truth he was. “Stop that old newsboy!” Doc yelled.
Naturally, the elderly news vender
was frightened into flight. He popped out of
PATRICTA SAVAGE, walking briskly the bushes, head cocked over one
on high heels and looking pleased with shoulder—and ran straight into Renny’s big
herself, came up to big-fisted Renny and hands.
invalidish-looking Long Tom. What happened next was something
“Didn’t you hear the orders Doc gave that Renny put into his autobiography.
you a minute ago?” she demanded.
“Huh?” grunted pale Long Tom.
“Holy cow!” said Renny. “No! What’d THE old newsboy calmly put two
Doc say?” fingers in both of Renny’s ears. An ordinary
“He gave you orders,” Pat said. “He man could never have done that
came to the door of the hangar and sang successfully. But this old fellow was no
them in Mayan, that language that only Doc ordinary man. He was as fast as lightning.
Renny squawked. The old man DOC SAVAGE went over and took
kicked. A thunderbolt seemed to strike Renny from the dazed Renny’s hands the coat
in the midriff. Funny lights and things got in which the big-fisted engineer had managed
his eyeballs, along with pain. to shuck off the superannuated newsboy.
The old man jerked away. Renny “He was wearing this?” the bronze
clutched madly, got hold of a coat. The old man asked.
man jerked, slipped out of his coat. “Yeah,” Renny admitted.
Renny got a terrific smash on the Doc Savage went through the
head. It must have been a fist, but he had pockets of the dark-gray coat, which was
never felt a harder fist. And Renny’s neatly pressed. He brought out a package of
experience with fists was not exactly limited. gum, a candy bar, a nickel, one penny, and a
He went down. He was dazed. Ringing filled telegram. He went through the rest of the
his head. pockets and found nothing else.
Through the ringing, he heard “That telegram had better furnish us
smacks and pops and grunts and hisses and with something!” Renny thumped.
frantic scuffing of feet. Doc opened the telegram. It was
Once, Pat said, “Why, he’s no made up of gummed paper teletype strips
gentleman! He’ll hit a lady!” pasted on a blank, and read:
There was more noise, then the
racket abruptly ceased. LIEBER VON ZIDNEY
Renny rolled over on his face, got DAWN GARDENS
some of the ringing out of his head, and tried JAMAICA LONG ISLAND
to see. The gouging fingers had practically AIRSHIP ZEPHYR IS MAKING A FLIGHT
blinded him for the moment. THIS AFTERNOON FROM LAKEHURST
“I’m glad you could hold him!” he STOP EVERYTHING ARRANGED WITH
said dizzily. REGARDS TO HER
“Hold him!” Long Tom yelled. INDIA
“Yes,” echoed Pat weakly. “Who held
him?” Startled exclamations came from
Renny recovered some vision, Doc Savage’s aids.
looked about and made a discovery which “The Zephyr is the navy’s new
completely punctured the poor balloon that Zeppelin type airship!” exploded Renny.
remained of his vanity. “Isn’t Lieber Von Zidney the guy who
The old newsboy was gone. owns the white bungalow with the green
A car’s motor started in the distance. shutters—the place where Ham was seized?”
It went away with great rapidity. Long Tom grunted.
“That’s him,” Pat enlightened. “And a girl named India Allison
“Gone!” claimed to be his secretary,” Pat said dryly.
Doc Savage came running up. The “Was she good-looking, Doc?”
bronze man had been so far away, that it had Doc Savage gave an excellent
been impossible for him to take a hand in the imitation of a deaf man. After a bit, he tapped
fight. He looked at them. the telegram, and said, “The fact that the
He said nothing. His metallic features dirigible Zephyr is taking a flight today—”
did not show the slightest emotion; no An orderly in a neat uniform trotted
accusation, no wrath, no criticism. up and interrupted, “Mr. Clark Savage, Jr.?”
Pat said gloomily, “I know some “Right,” Doc admitted.
people that I wish would raise old Jake when “The secretary of the navy has
they’re mad.” requested your immediate presence,” said
She squinted at Doc. the orderly. He clicked off a salute. “I am
“Or maybe you’re not human enough asked to advise whether you can grant the
to get mad?” she asked. request for an interview.”
Renny said, “You better quit deviling Doc Savage said, “The answer is
Doc, or you won’t have no posterity.” ‘yes.’”
Chapter XI NATURE, AND NOTHING ON THE SEA,

SOMETHING TO SELL UNDER IT, OR IN THE AIR, CAN RESIST.
I AM THE INVENTOR OF A
THE incumbent secretary of the MACHINE WHICH GENERATES A FIELD
United States navy was a not-too-fat well- OF FORCE NULLIFYING THE ONE WHICH
dressed man, with about the proper amount IS CAUSING ALL THE DAMAGE.
of gray hair for his years. He had a nice I WILL TURN THIS NULLIFIER
manner, a mellow voice and a way of getting MACHINE OVER TO THE UNITED STATES
what he wanted done without insulting any GOVERNMENT. BUT FIRST, ONE
one or leaving them with the idea that he had CONDITION MUST BE MET. BEFORE
been gypped. He was a swell fellow by THAT CONDITION IS MET, THERE MAY BE
reputation. SOME BARGAINING NECESSARY. I WILL
He sat at the head of the table. NEED AN INTERMEDIARY, A GO-BE-
The men who sat around the table TWEEN.
were, to all intents and purposes, the United I WANT DOC SAVAGE AS MY GO-
States navy and a good part of the United BETWEEN. GET IN TOUCH WITH HIM. IF
States government. There were senators and HE WILL SERVE, PUBLISH THE FACT IN
congressmen present, members of a naval THE NEWSPAPERS.
appropriations committee. THIS IS NOT A CRANK LETTER.
Doc Savage, escorted in by a page, TO PROVE IT IS NOT, I AM GOING TO
recognized them all and bowed slightly. He TELL YOU WHERE THE NEXT DISASTER
did not smile or glad-hand any one, but yet WILL STRIKE. I HAVE MY AGENTS
he managed to convey a feeling of good SHADOWING THE OPERATIVES OF THIS
fellowship. He seemed to emanate a FOREIGN COUNTRY DOING THE
completely likeable personality, without DAMAGE, AND I KNOW THEIR PLANS.
making any undue effort to do so. THE NEXT DISASTER WILL BE TO
After preliminary introductions, the CAPTAIN BLACKSTONE TOY’S DAWN
secretary of the navy took the floor. He PATROL OF NAVY PLANES.
addressed his words directly to Doc Savage. AUGUST ATLANTA BRAUN.
“We are calling you here, Savage, to
make a request,” he said. “It is an unusual The secretary of the navy said, “We
one. This letter will explain it.” thought it a crank letter, until it called the turn
He handed over a letter. It was on the Toy disaster.”
typewritten, all in capital letters. Doc Savage laid the letter down. He
said nothing.
SECRETARY OF U. S. NAVY: “Will you serve as intermediary?” he
LAST NIGHT, NUMEROUS was asked.
DISASTERS BEFELL SHIPS OF YOUR “There is, naturally, only one
NAVY. WHAT CAUSED THESE answer,” Doc Savage said. “Yes.”
DISASTERS IS A MYSTERY TO YOU.
THESE DISASTERS WILL
CONTINUE. THEY WILL AFFECT CRAFT PALLID Long Tom Roberts, the
OF THE U. S. NAVY IN THE AIR AND ON electrical wizard, Pat and Renny met Doc
THE SEA. Savage outside the ornate governmental
THEY WILL CONTINUE UNTIL A building where the conference had occurred.
CERTAIN FOREIGN POWER FEELS IT IS “I got a feeling things have taken a
SAFE TO ATTACK THE UNITED STATES. queer twist,” Long Tom said.
THE BEST EFFORTS OF YOUR “They have,” Doc admitted, and told
INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS AND ALL him about the demand to serve as an
YOUR PRECAUTIONS WILL NOT STOP intermediary.
THE DISASTERS. ONLY ONE LIVING MAN “Holy cow!” exploded Renny, who
KNOWS HOW TO STOP THEM. had listened.
THE DISASTERS ARE CAUSED BY Pat said, “So my famous cousin is
AN INFERNAL MACHINE. IT THROWS OUT going into the brokerage business. Or would
AN INVISIBLE FIELD OF A PECULIAR you call it agent?”
They bought a newspaper on the The driver was a lean man. The hair
way to the airport to take a plane back to on the back of his neck, below his hackman’s
New York. cap, was long, and the skin underneath had
Headlines in the paper indicated that a different color. A wig, of course. By
two more U. S. battleships had sunk, for no reaching forward, Doc could have grabbed
good reason that could be explained. the man’s face and turned it around to get a
“Gosh!” grunted Long Tom. “A war look at it. He did not.
would hardly knock off destroyers and They drove southward, then out on
battleships that fast!” Long Island, and to the south shore, which is
They rode a regular passenger line low and marshy. It was a long drive. The
plane to Newark airport, and took a taxi from chauffeur said not a word.
there. Long Tom, a frugal soul, sat in front They got in a little flat-bottomed,
and grumbled about the expense of taking a canvas-covered boat fitted with an outboard.
taxi. He had once asked half a million dollars Doc saw the guide’s face then.
to superintend a hydro-electric project in It was a face easy to remember. The
Africa. face was round, but the nose wasn’t, and the
They bought another newspaper in ears were big, attached flaps. Doc could not
Manhattan. recall ever having seen the man before, and
It said that Doc Savage had been had he, he would have remembered him.
appointed as representative of the U. S. navy The water was shallow. The boat ran
in a certain secret mission. rapidly, the driver guiding it with a practiced
When they reached Doc’s ease. Noise of the outboard motor frightened
skyscraper headquarters, the telephone was up birds. The salt water grass all around
ringing. Doc lifted the receiver. them was thick and tall. They saw no
“This is August Atlanta Braun,” said a humans other than themselves.
pleasantly robust voice over the wire. “In the They came at last to a small
street in front of your headquarters, a taxi is seaplane. The wings and fuselage were
waiting. It will look like an ordinary taxi until painted green, and from the air it was
you notice that a piece of bright-red string is doubtful if it would attract attention. It was
tied to the right rear wheel, the wheel next to anchored. Moored to one seaplane float was
the curb. You will get in. The driver will do the a tiny outboard racing hull which could
rest. No harm will befall you, unless you probably do fifty miles an hour.
neglect to come alone.” On the seaplane wing stood the
At the start of the conversation, Doc elderly newsboy.
had switched an amplifier and loudspeaker He had changed his clothes, was
into the circuit, so that all in the room heard wearing a pair of greenish coveralls and a
the voice. neat white helmet, new looking, with the ear
Captain Blackstone Toy, who was flaps turned up. He displayed a big grin.
along, exploded, “But you won’t go!” “I’m August Atlanta Braun,” he said.
“Of course,” Doc told him quietly. “Are you surprised?”
“But it may be a trap!” the naval Doc Savage said nothing.
officer argued. “Probably is!” “I had better explain some things
Doc Savage said, “Clues, leads to before I do anything else,” said ex-elderly
what is behind this affair, are too scarce to newsboy August Atlanta Braun, in a
warrant the exercise of too much discretion.” pleasantly cultured voice. “I was shadowing
The man of bronze walked out, and our enemies—the gentlemen representing
the others, attempting to follow him, found that foreign power which is doing our navy so
the door locked in some unexpected and much damage. They have lady
mysterious fashion. representatives, too, one of whom you met—
the charming and clinging India Allison. As I
say, I was watching the gang, and that is how
THE taxi was like a thousand others, you happened to see me. Have you any
except that it had a red string tied to the questions to ask about that?”
spoke of one wheel. Doc Savage walked Doc Savage did not speak.
straight to the machine and got in. Without a “Of course,” said Braun, “I fled when
word, the driver put the cab in motion. you tried to seize me, because I do not wish
to give up my liberty. Oh, no! You will notice Japanese yen and Argentine pesos. I intend
that I have at hand here the means to escape to travel a bit after I am paid off. And,
by air or by water. I would not advise you to anyway, it would be almost impossible to
dive into the water in hope of reaching me pass one hundred million dollars in American
before I can do anything about it. Look, and money.”
you will see the reason.” “You seem to think you will get it,”
Doc had already looked at the water. Doc Savage said.
It was covered with some kind of liquid film “I know I will,” Braun said more
which floated on top, and which was not oily. quietly. “Otherwise, the United States navy
“An acid,” said Braun. “Deadly will be destroyed. I have a tiny machine
poisonous. If it gets on your skin, you would which will save the navy. I invented it. When I
die very shortly. So I do not advise you to try offered to give it to the navy, knowing what
to swim to me. You see, I am a very cautious was coming, they laughed at me as a crank.
man.” Now they will pay me one hundred million
dollars. Go tell them that!”
Doc Savage was silent.
DOC SAVAGE said nothing. “Go tell them that!” Braun howled. “I
Braun asked, “Is the navy convinced will get in touch with you and find out what
that a foreign power is really wiping it out?” they say!”
Doc made no reply. Doc Savage said quietly, “I can tell
Braun scowled blackly, then twisted you right now what they will say.”
his lips into a thin smile and said, “As I said, I “What?”
am not going to be seized! I have a bone to “That you are foolish to think the
pick! Indeed I have!” United States government can be black-
He began to look angry, and jacked in any such manner as this.”
apparently what he was thinking about made August Atlanta Braun laughed loudly
him angrier and angrier until his jaw was out, and nastily.
his lips were off his teeth. He looked ready to “Before long, the United States will
spit sulphur. awaken to the realization that a hundred
“A year ago, I took my invention to million is a cheap price to pay for the safety
the United States government!” he yelled. “I of the United States,” he said. “This foreign
offered it to them free! Did they take it? No! nation is afraid to attack us if our navy is
I’ll say they didn’t! Instead, an incompetent intact.”
nincompoop of a clerk insulted me! The nitwit “What nation is it?” Doc asked.
as much as said I was a crank, a nut! Braun laughed again. “You probably
“My dear Doc Savage, they will pay have a good idea. I am not going to say
for that. Now that they need my invention, anything. After all, I don’t give a damn if the
now that they have to have it, they will pay nation does go on sinking United States navy
through their dear sweet nostrils for battleships. I’m not very patriotic where one
insinuating I was a goof!” hundred million dollars is concerned.”
He was all but shaking in his rage. “Obviously,” Doc agreed.
He stopped yelling and began cursing Uncle “This concludes our interview,” said
Sam. Braun. “You will return alone. No doubt, you
“My country, is it!” he squawled. can run an outboard motor boat.”
“Damn my soul, they’ll pay me for being a The pilot of the motor boat climbed
patriot! They’ll pay me one hundred million off onto the pontoon of the plane. Doc had no
dollars!” chance to make a move. Braun had drawn a
Doc Savage spoke for the first time. gun.
One word. “I’ll get in touch with you later,” said
“What?” Braun again.
“One hundred million dollars!” August
Atlanta Braun howled. “One hundred million
dollars! In cash! In French, Italian, English DOC SAVAGE did not move for
and German money, as well as small United some time, made no gesture at departing.
States greenbacks. You will remember that, “What about the Zephyr?” he asked
please! They may even include some suddenly.
Braun was startled. It showed on his The remarkable part about this story
face. But he shrugged. was that it stated the inventor, Braun, was
“Nothing.” sure the navy would refuse to pay a hundred
“You are interested in it, Braun!” million for salvation.
Braun looked puzzled for some Braun, in his statement, insinuated
moments before a light of understanding the navy was just dunce enough to lose all of
came upon his face. its ships rather than pay the sum, which was
“The coat your man Renny snatched only equal to the cost of a few battleships.
off me!” he said loudly. “Of course, it had that “That kinda puts the navy in a bad
message about the Zephyr from one of the light,” Renny said thoughtfully. “The public
foreign operatives to their chief. I filched that will give ‘em hell for turnin’ down this guy’s
telegram from the foreign crowd. It interests invention, and maybe a lot of people will
you?” secretly kinda sympathize with this Braun
“It does.” lug. Nobody likes to be called a nut.”
Doc waited, still looking Long Tom demanded gloomily of
unconcerned, and showing no sign of Doc, “Any sign of Ham, Monk or Johnny?”
departing. A gull, unafraid of men, dipped “No sign,” Doc said.
close to pick up something floating in the film They drove into New York City.
on the water. The gull’s beak made a little
splash dipping beneath the surface. The bird
did not fly far before it turned, end over end, THEY were fired on in front of Doc
squawling, and fell dead on the water. Savage’s skyscraper headquarters. The firing
“You see,” said Braun, “the stuff on was done with a high-powered rifle, evidently
the water is quite potent.” equipped with telescopic sights and a
Doc knew it was. He went away, and machine rest, for the spot from which the
the minute he was able to reach a bullets came was proved to be a full half mile
coastguard station, planes were in the air distant.
and boats were speeding into the salt marsh. Doc and his party conducted a brisk
But August Atlanta Braun had made search, aided by policemen, but the snipers
his get-away. had taken flight. Descriptions, however, by
Doc Savage was joined by his aids people who had seen them, indicated beyond
and Captain Blackstone Toy. any shadow of a doubt that they were Fuzzy
“The navy department has assigned and his gang.
me to assist you in any way I can,” said Finally, Doc and the others entered
Captain Toy. “That takes care of the official the skyscraper aërie on the eighty-sixth floor.
end of it.” Pat looked around curiously.
Big-fisted Renny had a newspaper, a “The windows,” she said, “look kind
late edition. of different, somehow. Is it some new kind of
“Look here, Doc,” he said. “This bulletproof glass you’ve put in? About time!”
came out while you were conferring with “There’s been bulletproof glass in
August Atlanta Braun.” these windows for a long time,” pale Long
Doc looked at the headlines: Tom reminded her. “Ever since some guys
on the tower of an unfinished skyscraper
NAVY ONCE REFUSED TO CONSIDER tried to shoot Doc, almost three and a half
“NULLIFIER” MACHINE WHICH years ago.”
WOULD SAVE SHIPS NOW. “Then what’s wrong?” Pat
demanded. “The windows look different.”
Inventor with grudge now wants “They’re a new type of glass.” Long
hundred million. Demands huge Tom explained. “You can see out, but you
price for device. can’t see in. In other words, it’s one-way
glass.”
There was a story under that, “Do tell!” said Pat. “Who invented it?”
obviously mailed to the newspapers before “I dunno,” Long Tom told her. “But
Doc Savage went to the marsh meeting with Doc did a lot of work to perfect it, and
August Atlanta Braun. between you and me, he’s got two factories
working twenty-four hours a day making it.
It’ll be a big hit for windows in houses. And She carried enough machine guns to
it’ll make plenty of money—” whip a flotilla of fighting planes, and
Doc Savage said, “We have one clue thousands of machine-gun bullets through
to work on in this affair. Only one.” her vitals would not bring her to the ground,
“What?” rumbled Renny. because she was made like a honeycomb,
“The new dirigible, Zephyr,” Doc with countless cells. The only way she could
said. “We know that the enemy was be vanquished was by being blown apart by
interested in knowing when it was to make a a bomb, and blowing her apart would not be
flight.” easy, because she could fly as fast as some
Captain Blackstone Toy said, “I war planes.
advance the idea that we be aboard when She was the marvel of her age. Who
the Zephyr takes off this afternoon.” had designed her, the world did not know.
“My plan,” Doc Savage said. “As The navy department had announced that
soon as we telephone August Atlanta the name of the designer was being kept a
Braun’s ultimatum to Washington, we will secret so that his life would not be in danger,
leave for Lakehurst.” since any enemy nation contemplating war
on the United States would naturally seek to
eliminate a designer of such genius.
Chapter XII The truth was that Doc Savage
THE BIG DEATH wanted to avoid publicity wherever possible,
and had requested that his connection with
BATTLESHIPS are popularly the designing of the ship be kept a secret.
supposed to be the most expensive war “She’s a darb, this Zephyr!” said big-
machine put together by modern man, but fisted Renny, as they got out of a plane
the Zephyr had cost more than any battleship which had landed them at the Lakehurst
afloat. Not all of the millions charged against dirigible airport.
her cost sheet had gone into actual materials Doc Savage said nothing. Neither did
and labor in her construction. She was the Pat, who was wondering when she would be
product of years of experimenting, and requested to clear out. Long Tom and
experimenting with dirigibles is expensive. Captain Blackstone Toy were gloomily silent.
The Zephyr was longer than a Captain Toy wore a black band about his
battleship, and she was the attempt of the uniform sleeve in memory of his brother.
United States of America to show the rest of Doc’s flake gold eyes came to rest
the world that lighter-than-air craft are on Pat, who was getting out of the plane. Doc
practical. lowered a large suitcase he was carrying.
If the Zephyr crashed any time within “You needn’t trouble to land,” he told
the next year or two, aviation as centered Pat. “You are taking our plane back to New
upon lighter-than-air craft would receive a York. The Zephyr, you know, is flying to
setback from which it was just possible it Roosevelt Field, on Long Island. You can
might not recover. meet us there.”
The Zephyr was all metal. There was Pat put out a nice-looking jaw. “I’m
not a stitch of fabric in her. She was so going along!”
strong that the makers claimed she could fall “Do you ever get tired of persistently
a mile and not be damaged so badly that she trying to get yourself killed?” Doc asked
could not fly. There was a catch to that, of wearily.
course. A ship as light for her size as the “No!” Pat said. “Neither do you!”
Zephyr could not fall very fast. Big-fisted Renny put in gingerly,
The Zephyr had accommodations “Doc, you know Pat has been through some
equal to those aboard a liner. She could pretty fast action in the past, and has always
carry enough poison-gas bombs to kill every come out all right. If she’s so set on coming
man, woman and child in any city in the along, why not—”
world, and she could fly so high and so “So she worked some trick to get you
silently that there was only a chance in a to take her part?” Doc said abruptly.
thousand of enemy war planes finding her. Renny blinked. “How’d you know
that?”
“Every one knows Pat,” Doc said. Down on the ground, Pat had settled
“The only way of getting rid of her is to tie her things, at least to her own satisfaction, by
up.” putting her nose in the air and walking to the
“Or marry her off to somebody!” Long neat little gangplank that led up into the
Tom put in. dirigible cabin.
“That would do no good,” Doc told Doc, Renny, Long Tom and Captain
him. “The husband isn’t built who could keep Blackstone Toy followed Pat to the ship. Doc
Pat at home when there’s excitement carried his big suitcase.
around.” Doc Savage stopped the
Two hundred yards away, big ground commandant of the airship.
tractors backed the Zephyr out of her “I am conducting an experiment,” he
revolving hangar—revolving so that the said. “You have orders to coöperate with me
mouth could always be made to face away as long as it will not endanger the safety of
from the wind. the airship, have you not?”
“Yes, sir,” said the Zephyr
commander.
HIGH up in the body of the dirigible, “I am experimenting with the malady
several men lay and swore at their luck. known as airsickness,” Doc said. “As you
“Of all the damn things that had to know, a cure for airsickness—a sure cure,
happen!” one groaned. effective on every one—has not yet been
“To have this Doc Savage show up!” found.”
One man yanked at the brim of his “Yes, sir,” said the commandant,
navy cap, as if anxious to get it over his eyes. puzzled.
The man was Shade. “I want every man aboard the airship
Fuzzy, who lay near by him, said, to take a spoonful of this preparation which I
“Don’t let your pants get full of ants. This will have with me,” Doc said. “Have your men
go through all right.” line up and pass by for their spoonful of
Fuzzy looked more snaky and hairy medicine, and have your crew list checked so
than, ever in his uniform of a naval officer that no one will be missed.”
attached to aviation. He glared at his men. “It’s unusual,” said the bewildered
“Don’t you let this bronze guy get you commandant. “But the admiral said I was to
all iced up!” he gritted. “The boss has given do as you wished.”
his orders, and I, by Harry, am going to see
‘em carried out! Doc Savage and his crowd
won’t come back from this flight!” THERE were many humorous
A man tried a laugh, to show that he comments from aërial sailors who did not
was confident and wasn’t at all scared. The care for the taste of the concoction which
laugh sounded something like the last noise Doc fed them.
a small cat makes when caught by a big “Phew-w-w!” complained one
bulldog. bluejacket. “That stuff must have been
“Gleeps!” muttered Fuzzy. “If you brewed by a witch!”
gotta make a noise like that, do it some other “Or by a marine!”
time. Don’t get scared. Doc Savage, in a few The business of dosing the dirigible
hours, will be as finished as this dirigible that crew delayed the takeoff almost an hour, but
the world thinks is such a nifty!” finally the Zephyr took to the air. She lifted
“Doc Savage is to be killed,” a man rapidly, driven forward by her multiple
said. “It’s simple enough. He’ll get his when motors, so that much of the lift, or planing
the dirigible is destroyed.” effect, of the air was taken advantage of.
“That’s the talk,” said Fuzzy. The shape of the gas bag of the
“Everybody will lay low here. We managed to Zephyr, as a matter of fact, was an
get aboard by pretending we were inspectors innovation suggested by Doc Savage, in his
making a final exam, and stowed away. They capacity of anonymous designer, to take
won’t be using these catwalks, so we’re safe advantage of the lift secured by a wing of
until we get ready to spring the job.” aërofoil design.
They prepared to wait. The giant gas bag, instead of being
cigar-shaped—the conventional style—had
more the contour of an airplane wing cross- and she held her breath as long as she
section. could. But at last, she had to inhale.
The Zephyr’s flight was to take her An incredulous expression came
out over the Atlantic, the object being to fly over her face.
extremely high and test the efficiency of an “Oh!” she gasped. “Ha, ha, ha! I don’t
intricate device which was intended to locate, see—ha, ha!—what—ha!—ha!”
in absolute darkness or the most intense fog, She went off into a fit of laughter.
any enemy plane, airship, or even a Big-fisted Renny shook his head
battleship or submarine, in the vicinity. slowly.
When the corrugated surface of the “Pat has her moments, but I never
Atlantic was below, Doc Savage picked up thought she’d go off this way,” he said
the suitcase which he had brought aboard. gloomily. “There’s nothing to laugh at around
He climbed a spidery, extremely lightweight here, what with the navy being wrecked and
staircase to the catwalk, which ran from the Johnny, Monk and Ham maybe dead.”
bow to stern of the dirigible. “Ha!—ha!” gurgled Pat. “I’m not—
Renny, Pat and Long Tom, looking ha!—ha!—laughing—ha!”
interested, followed the bronze man. They Doc Savage said, “It’s the gas.”
knew Doc well enough to know that “The what?” Renny thumped.
something was about to happen. “A new type of laughing gas,” Doc
answered. “It’s harmless, but it throws the
victims into paroxysms of laughter which they
DOC carried his suitcase to the nose cannot help. It affects the muscles and
of the dirigible, and stopped near the intakes nerves of the throat.”
of the big ventilators. These ventilators kept “But I’m not affected!” Renny
the catwalks and runways inside the giant boomed.
gas bag free of seepage gas which might “The strong-tasting liquid given you
overcome a man at an inopportune moment. and the crew was an antidote,” Doc
Doc Savage opened the suitcase. It explained. “Had Pat taken hers, she would
held four metal tube containers fitted with not be affected.”
petcocks. Doc took these tubes out. “Ha!—ha!” gurgled Pat. “I hope—
“All of you took that concoction which ha!—ha!—somebody hangs for this!”
was given the crew before departure?” he “But I don’t get the idea!” Long Tom
asked his aids. exclaimed.
Renny, Long Tom and Captain Toy “If there are stowaways aboard,” Doc
nodded. pointed out, “we can now hear them.”
“I didn’t,” Pat said. “I didn’t care for
its taste! Any time I down something as rank
as that stuff, I’ve got to know the reason AT Doc’s command, the engines, the
first!” generators, the air compressors and other
Doc said, “This must be your machines aboard the Zephyr were stopped.
contrary day, Pat. Fortunately, the results of Squads of sailors began searching the
your not taking the concoction, while not catwalks and inspecting tunnels, stopping
pleasant, will not necessarily be fatal.” frequently to listen for laughter.
Pat snapped, “Say, what do you They heard it before long, audible
mean?” mirth. Cackling, whooping, gagging mirth.
Without answering, Doc held one of Armed sailors made for the sounds, which
the metal tubes inside a ventilator intake and were aft, near the stern.
opened a petcock. There was a hissing, and “Them guys are what you might call
a gas came out of the tube container. The laughing themselves into a hell of a pickle!”
vapor was blue in color. said a bluejacket.
The rush of air carried it through the “Laughing themselves to death, if
ventilating ducts. In a few moments, it would they’re the ones who have been sinking navy
penetrate throughout the dirigible. ships!” grated another.
Pat Savage happened to be standing “They couldn’t have sunk all the
where some of the gas enveloped her. She ships,” corrected the first. “Some sank on the
had a suspicion all was not going to be well, Pacific coast, thousands of miles from here.”
Doc Savage was in the main control whipped along the catwalks to the mid-ship
room when word came to him that laughter portion. These catwalks were roomy, unlike
had been heard. The Zephyr was equipped the old ones on such earlier crafts as the
with telephonic communication to all her Macon and the Los Angeles.
remote portions. He came to the enclosed hangars in
“Commander,” Doc Savage said. the belly of the airship. Three of them, one
“Keep every bit of machinery aboard stopped behind the other, each holding a small
until you hear from me. If necessary to spend pursuit plane.
ballast, do so with the hand controls. Do the Doc took a seat in one of the planes,
same if gas must be valved off.” touched the starting controls, and the motor
“Yes, sir,” said the commandant, began turning over. He reached up and
looking bewildered. grasped a lever.
Doc Savage ran toward the stern, “You had better follow in the other
followed by Renny, Long Tom and Captain two defense planes,” he called to his men.
Toy. They overhauled the searching sailors. “There are only these three planes aboard.”
“The stowaways are right ahead,” The Zephyr was able to carry almost
said the man in charge of the searchers. a score of small fighting planes, but these
“Hear them laughing.” were her wartime complement, and never
They could be heard. Fuzzy and carried in peace time, except during war
some others. They sounded as if they were maneuvers. On ordinary cruises, she carried
having a high, hilarious time of it, and they but these three.
didn’t want to. Doc hauled the lever. Efficient
Doc went forward. The navy men machinery clicked, and the plane was
followed him. suddenly plunging down toward the sea. The
The catwalks were equipped with bronze man let it dive for some distance, so
loud-speakers at intervals, making it simpler as to get clear of the dirigible underbody.
for orders to be given. The loud-speakers Then he came back on the stick.
now bellowed out an alarm. Both wings tore off!
“Men are leaping out of the stern There was nothing particularly violent
with parachutes!” about its happening. Simply a squeal of pins
Doc Savage whipped to a lookout sheared through, and the wings, which were
port, from which a view could be secured of the modern detachable type, came away
downward. Men, attached to white para- from the fittings and fluttered away like big
chutes, were falling. Fuzzy and his gang! leaves in a wind overhead.
The men swinging from the Doc did not look at the sea, or at the
parachutes all laughed heartily as they fell. loose wings. He heaved up in the cockpit.
But they did not look happy. The cushion was a seat type parachute. But
“They knew they were trapped!” pale a moment was required to swing it out. He
Long Tom snapped. “They’re trying to make did not buckle on the harness, but depended
a get-away! There’s a plane. They must on the cabled strength in his hands to hang
expect it to pick them up!” on. He plucked the ripcord.
The plane flew close to the sea. To The parachute opened with a pop!
look as large as it did from this height, it must and a ripple—the ripple being torn strips of
be a large craft. It swung over toward the ‘chute fabric. For the silken lobe had been
men descending by parachute. It was a ripped by a knife!
seaplane.
DOC let go the harness. There was

Chapter XIII nothing else left to do. Not enough of the
CRACK-UP! parachute remained to break his fall.
He turned slowly as he fell and
DOC SAVAGE listened, and there fought at his coat. The sea had been nearly a
was no sound of laughter, which meant the mile and a half below at the start of his fall. It
entire gang had quitted the Zephyr by was much nearer now.
parachute. The bronze man whirled and It is possible for a man falling free in
the air to control himself by kicking, by
thrusting out his arms, by flipping them about Doc sank with great speed. He had
violently. Doc kept himself falling feet been shot at from planes with machine guns
downward. At the same time, he removed his before.
coat. Doc swam down, and also to one
He was wearing, under his coat, a side. He swam violently. They could see him
flat parachute of unusual light and strong from the plane, of course. And if they had
chemical-product fabrikoid, a filmy stuff bombs—
infinitely stronger and lighter than the best of They had. A great weight seemed to
silk. This fabrikoid had been perfected by the compress the sea. Despite his best
chemical genius, the apish Monk. resistance, air was driven from Doc’s lungs,
The parachute of fabrikoid came and he felt all but crushed. His head
near opening too late. Doc hit the water with pounded; strange lights came and went. He
more force than he relished; it was barely stroked weakly to the surface.
possible that an individual whose physical A few drops of water were still falling
strength was less might have died from the back. The bomb had expended most of its
shock. force upward. The plane was circling, coming
The bronze man went very deep, back. Machine-gun slugs from it, badly
and when he had gained the top, he spouted aimed, fell into the sea, not close enough to
some water and lay still on the surface, not worry about.
entirely knocked out, but also not A fish came to the surface and
enthusiastic about immediate activity. floated, white stomach uppermost. It had
His flake gold eyes were open. He been killed by the explosion. Doc’s giant
could see the dirigible. Trapdoors to the frame ached from head to foot.
plane compartments were open, but the Then something happened up
other two planes had not been released. above. The giant dirigible Zephyr began a
Renny and Long Tom must have seen the steady, awful dive toward the sea—all the
wings come off Doc’s ship in time to stay camouflaged hundreds of feet of her, the
themselves from taking a chance in the other most modern air machine devised by man.
crafts. The plane slanted toward Doc. He
Doc, lifted on a wave, saw one wing changed position rapidly on the surface, at
of his plane floating near by, and swam to it. the same time digging inside his clothing,
The bolts in the fittings which held seeking a certain pocket in the remarkable
the wings to the fuselage were clever vest which he wore—a vest with many
imitations made out of lead. The plane had pockets holding the innumerable gadgets
been tampered with. which he frequently found occasion to use.
Doc swam toward the spot where There was a pocket in the vest for
Fuzzy and his gang would have fallen with smoke bombs, but they were gone, the
their parachutes. There was not much wind, pocket split open by the force of his fall. The
but there had evidently been a blow not long man of bronze dived, stroked to the left
ago, for the swell was considerable. It was madly.
like swimming up and down small hills. The bomb explosion came again.
The big seaplane was now landing to Worse, if possible. He did not come to the
pick up Fuzzy and his gang. surface again immediately. Instead, he
Savage was fast in the water. But he slipped out of his outer clothing, and left it in
was not fast enough to reach the plane the water. Soaked as it was, it would not rise
before it got Fuzzy and the other men to the surface immediately, and it might be
aboard, and took to the air. The unknown mistaken for his body.
pilot did some nice flying. The ruse worked. Savage swam far
Doc, watching the tremendous away, and showed himself on top only
waves, somewhat doubted if he himself could momentarily for air, keeping the rest of the
be sure of getting a plane off such a sea. The time well beneath the surface.
plane banked, came toward him. Sput!— Of course, from the plane, they could
sput!-—sput!—sput!—and a series of see a surprising depth beneath the surface.
splashes spouted around the bronze man. But they had expected the bomb to kill Doc,
They might have been raindrops, falling hard and seeing his clothing, thought it had, so
and fast. they dropped no more bombs. Then the
dirigible came arching down and distracted It would riddle enough of the
their attention before they discovered the honeycomb cells of the dirigible so that it
bronze man. would sink.
The Zephyr was going to crash! After a bit, the seaplane flew away
and lost itself in the afternoon sun, landward.
DOC saw it hit. The manner of its

crash was uncanny. It was going almost full DOC SAVAGE swam about the
speed, all motors roaring, when it hit. The Zephyr, what was left of her.
Zephyr was strong, but not strong enough for He aided some of the wounded. And
that. The nose caved—caved back full a two finally he found his aids, Renny and Long
hundred feet, as if the water were a solid Tom, riding in a motor gondola lifeboat, along
wall. The backbone of the air giant broke in a with Captain Blackstone Toy. Pat was near
dozen places. by in another of the queer craft, with the
Big, invisible hands might as well dirigible commander.
have taken it and mashed it between them. Pat was no longer laughing.
Hands a mile across the palms, perhaps. “What happened?” Doc Savage
Men sprang into the sea, wearing life asked.
preservers. The crash had apparently not “We started the engines, intending to
killed a great many. They could get life aid you,” the commandant of the dirigible
preservers because they were handy said, in a horror-stricken voice. “After that,
everywhere about the great dirigible. They something incredible happened! The ship
were fabrikoid containers, honeycomb, filled would not answer to her controls! The motors
with helium, and were lighter than air, hence would not stop! We could not shut them off!
helped to lift the dirigible. And before we could do much, we had
The motor nacelles of the Zephyr, crashed!”
the lower halves of them, were lowered away “You do not know what really
into the sea, and became lifeboats. They happened?” Doc persisted.
were designed for that purpose. The commandant wet his lips. “I hate
Doc Savage swam toward the ruined to say that an invisible something seemed to
dirigible. His metallic features were grasp the craft!”
expressionless, but that did not mean he had Doc Savage said nothing. He did not
no feelings. He had worked for months, he remind the commandant that he had
and a crew of the world’s leading experts, suggested that the dirigible’s engines not be
designing that airship. started until orders were given to that effect.
Nor was that all that was going to It was almost dark when the first of
happen. The big seaplane which had taken the destroyers arrived to pick up the
Fuzzy and his men aboard was circling, survivors. The captain of the destroyer
getting above the dirigible. Now it dived. It sought Doc Savage out.
swept the length of the mangled Zephyr, not “Confidential radio message for you,”
more than fifty feet above the great bag. Out he said.
of the plane poured a stream of tiny objects. The message read:
The objects hit the back of the
dirigible, burst into white flame. All of the air SUGGESTION THAT UNITED STATES PAY
giant seemed to blaze. And the Zephyr was HUNDRED MILLION FOR GADGET TO
supposed to be fireproof from stem to stern! PROTECT ITS NAVY PREPOSTEROUS
Doc Savage was sufficient of an STOP PROPOSAL ABSOLUTELY
expert on incendiarism as applied to military REFUSED
purposes to know what had happened. This
was thermit, the same kind of stuff used in It was signed by the highest of
military incendiary bombs to set fire to enemy authority.
factories and cities. The stuff burned with a “Well,” rumbled big-fisted Renny
terrific heat, would melt metal, would sputter when Doc showed him the message, “what’s
and scatter and go on burning. the outcome gonna be?”
“The outcome,” Doc Savage said, “is “How,” asked Pat, who had heard
going to be unpleasant for quite a few the story of India Allison and had recognized
people.” her from Doc’s description, “did you and
Monk happen to get captured?”
“Oh!” said India Allison. “Monk and I
Chapter XIV were knocked senseless!”
CHAOS “Oh!” echoed Pat. “I was under the
impression that you knocked Monk senseless
A NAVY destroyer landed Doc and turned him over to this mysterious gang
Savage’s party at the Battery, on the lower we’re fighting.”
end of Manhattan, that night. There was a India Allison frowned at Pat. “Were
crowd of something like thirty thousand you there?”
people there to see the arrival of the first of “No,” Pat had to admit, “but it
the disaster survivors, and half the crowd appeared—”
seemed to be newspapermen and “Don’t draw conclusions about
cameramen. something you don’t know anything about!”
Newsreel planes had harassed the snapped India Allison.
destroyer coming up the river, trying to take Pat looked indignant.
pictures with the new infra-red method by Renny whispered to Pat, “I guess
which photos could be taken in the dark, she got you told!”
provided the proper sources of infra-red Pat gritted, “If people keep on
projection was handy. abusing me, I’m going to collect myself some
Doc Savage, Renny, Long Tom, Pat heads!”
and Captain Toy made a flying wedge and Doc Savage, since he could hardly
got through the crowd. The subway was loosen India Allison’s frightened embrace
fastest, so they took that uptown. Doc was with anything less than violence, resigned
besieged by autograph seekers. He was rude himself to having an extremely attractive
to no one, although Captain Toy became young woman hanging onto one arm. He
exasperated and threatened to crack a head had, for once, some expression on his
or two. bronze features. It was not a comfortable
They stepped out of the elevator on expression.
the eighty-sixth floor of their headquarters “Mr. Savage!” gasped India Allison,
skyscraper, and a voice said, “Oh! At last!” in a frightened voice. “They turned me loose
It was a woman’s voice. They stared to tell you that Monk, Ham and Johnny would
at the owner. be killed if you made any further effort to
“India Allison!” exclaimed Pat. interfere with their plans!”
India Allison, looking gentle and She paused and held tighter to the
utterly terrified, huddled against the corridor bronze man, and Doc looked a bit more
wall, back in a corner, and she held, with two uncomfortable, but very interested in what
hands which shook, a big army automatic, she had to say.
pointed at the floor. She laid the gun down “They told me to tell you something
gently, as if she were afraid of it, and came else,” she said rapidly. “They will kill Monk,
toward Doc Savage. Ham and Johnny if you serve as go-between
Doc, who was always wary of the for this August Atlanta Braun in an effort to
feminine sex, stepped back, but there was a sell his machine to the United States
wall in the way, and in a moment, India government for one hundred million dollars.”
Allison had her arms around the bronze “The skunks!” interjected pale Long
man’s right arm. She hung on tightly. Tom.
Pat stood in the background and “Monk, Ham and Johnny will be freed
looked as if she wanted to say something if you can capture August Atlanta Braun and
catty. turn him over to the representatives of this
“Mr. Savage!” India Allison gasped. foreign nation,” said India Allison.
“They turned me loose! They released me so
I could—”
THERE was a pause while that
soaked in.
“I think,” said Captain Blackstone UNKNOWN NATION WIPING OUT U. S.

Toy grimly, “that this proves the importance NAVY IN PREPARATION FOR ATTACK!
of August Atlanta Braun’s protective
machine. Personally, I am a patriotic man Big-fisted Renny boomed, “This thing
with a respect for my government, but I think is getting bigger and bigger!”
the United States is foolish not to buy the Pretty, sweet-looking India Allison
contraption.” sank into a chair and took one of her
Pat said nothing. She was smiling shapely, suede-shod feet in soft-looking
wryly as she watched India Allison clinging to hands.
Doc. “I do wish I could faint or something,”
“A hundred million is a lot of money,” she said weakly. “I’m so terrified.”
Renny muttered. “Where were they holding you?” Doc
“And I don’t like the way this August asked.
Atlanta Braun is going at it!” added Long “I don’t know!” she gasped. “They
Tom. kept me in a car, blindfolded, for a long time
“August Atlanta Braun deserves after we left the place where they were
hanging!” snapped Captain Toy. “But a holding me.”
hundred million would be a cheap price for She sighed, and fumbled with her
the lives that have already been lost!” suede foot covering.
Pat asked India Allison, “Where did “When they led me out of the place
you get your gun, dear?” where they had been holding me, I stepped
“I ran home for it!” India Allison said. in something and got my shoe full of it,” she
“It was my father’s. Why?” said. “It feels like sand, and hurts!”
“I just wondered,” Pat said. She tugged off her suede slipper and
They went into Doc Savage’s office, upended it. A stream of grayish, hard-looking
and Doc, more to get himself disengaged particles ran out.
from India Allison than for any desire to know Doc Savage picked up some of the
the late news, went over to a teletype, or particles and examined them closely.
printing telegraph machine, which had been Long Tom asked sharply, “They
installed in his office and connected to the mean anything, Doc?”
leading national news agency. “Probably,” Doc Savage said, “they
The teletype was rattling its keys will result in our finding Monk, Ham and
rapidly, clicking out the latest news of the Johnny.”
nation. Some of the items were interesting: “Holy cow!” Renny boomed. “What is
the stuff?”
FLASH! “Salt,” Doc Savage said. “Common
U. S. WARSHIP IN ORIENTAL WATERS rock salt.”
REPORTED SUNK BY MYSTERY FORCE!
A bit further on, there was another AN hour later—it was still dark now,
one: of course—Doc Savage rolled his big, armor-
plated, bulletproof-glassed sedan through a
FLASH! section of Long Island City devoted to
NAVY PLANE CRASHES IN CALIFORNIA! manufacturing plants, and kept a sharp
lookout through a powerful pair of magnifiers
There was another: of the type commonly called “sportoculars.”
Suddenly, a strange sound filled the
FLASH! big sedan. It was an exotic sound. Small, so
PANAMA CANAL REPORTED BLOCKED vague as to be nearly unnoticeable at first; it
BY SINKING WARSHIP! mounted in volume and became a fantastic
cadence which filled all of the sedan.
Then, possibly most alarming of all: It was a trilling, although so eerie as
to be almost indescribable. It might have
FLASH! been a wind filtering through some far,
CONGRESS CALLED FOR SPECIAL denuded jungle, or the song of some tropical
SESSION! WAR DECLARATION FEARED!
feathered creature as yet uncatalogued by

ornithologists. THE abandoned power plant was a
This weird sound was a relic of a day when street cars were the most
characteristic of Doc Savage, a small popular form of transportation. It looked as if
fantastic thing which he did in moments of at least five years had elapsed since
mental stress. Frequently, he went for long electricity had flowed from the place.
intervals without making the sound. Again, it Boards had been nailed over the
came often. Always, he was not conscious windows, and were still in place, but
that he was making it—although he could appeared ancient. Four tall brick chimneys
stop making it, or start, at will. had originally stood in the back, but one had
“Hey!” barked Long Tom, color fallen down. There was a brick wall around
coming into his pale face. “What’d you see the place.
that caused that?” “Wait here,” Doc Savage ordered.
Doc Savage said nothing in reply, The bronze man was gone before
which was another small, peculiar and the others could object, or ask questions. So
frequently aggravating habit which he had. silently did he move, there was not often a
The big sedan ran on, and after a stirring of shadows to show when he passed.
while, turned into an alley. Doc got out. The It was dark. The river was not far
others did likewise, because they knew of away, and a tugboat was going up it with a
nothing else to do. heavy tow, making considerable noise, what
“Holy cow!” rumbled Renny. with the rattling of the exhaust and the boiling
“Sometimes I like to know what I’m doing.” of water heaved up by the propellers.
“What else can you expect out of Doc waited, watching a cloud sneak
Doc?” Pat asked. nearer the moon, and when it was darker, he
They moved forward, following the went over the fence, then worked forward
bronze man. through a litter of bricks and rusting
Renny grunted at Pat. “What’ve you machinery, looking for signs of life.
got it in for Doc for this time? You’ve done A man on lookout stood near the
nothing but squawk at or about him.” base of one of the big chimneys. He betrayed
Pat said, “I resent his idea that a his position by knocking dottle out of a pipe.
woman cannot take care of herself as well as Doc crept toward him.
a man! Any woman is as entitled to Then some one screamed in one of
adventure as a man! Why, look at the ancient the darkened streets near by. It was a
Amazons, who—” piercing scream, not of terror or fear, but of
“Quiet,” Doc Savage said. “Please!” alarm.
He stopped, pointed, and the others “Watch it!” the voice shrieked. “Doc
suddenly knew why they were in this part of Savage’s crowd!”
town. Doc Savage whipped toward the
“The only factory of its kind near the sentinel. But he was too late. Alarmed, the
city,” Doc explained. guard whisked into the power plant and
The electric sign which the bronze banged a big iron door shut.
man had indicated was a small one. It read: Doc hit the door. He knew instantly
that he might as well have saved his effort.
Acme Salt Co. The door was too solid.
Inside the old power plant, there was
“Rock salt shipped in and later excited shouting. A man was crying out,
refined,” Doc explained. “The salt which wanting orders.
came out of Miss Allison’s shoe was of a type “Von Zidney!” the man was
which this factory alone handles.” screaming. “Von Zidney! What’re we gonna
“That means they led her through the do about this?”
salt storage yard when they took her away
from their hiding place,” Renny grunted.
Doc said, “There seems to be only THERE was no doubt about it. The
one logical hiding place in this neighborhood: man’s voice was distinctly understandable.
that old power plant to the north. Come on.” “Von Zidney!” he was shouting. “Doc
Savage is here! What’ll we do?”
There was dull response from within looked into the room into which he had
the plant somewhere. broken.
“What’d you say?” the door guard “We scared him away!” they decided,
howled. mistakenly.
The voice within sounded louder, They ran back the way they had
“We’ll take the underground route! Hurry up!” come. Some one shouted at them from
It sounded like Lieber Von Zidney’s below.
voice. “Come on!” said the voice. “We’re
“What about the prisoners?” the blowing!”
guard shouted. It sounded rather like Lieber Von
“We’ll take them, too,” said the Zidney.
muffled voice which sounded like Von After a moment, things became
Zidney’s. unexpectedly quiet.
“And what about the rest of the Doc Savage ran downstairs,
men—the ones in the next block—” producing a big flashlight, and roving its
“Never mind!” shouted the Von beam. He saw no one, and there was such a
Zidney voice. “They’ll attack Doc Savage’s litter of junk, such a labyrinth of old power
crowd from the rear!” rooms, that a thorough search would take
Doc, distinctly overhearing this, possibly a quarter of an hour.
thought at first that it was a bluff, a ruse to Suddenly Doc left the old power
draw him out of the vicinity, so that the house. He vaulted the fence encircling the
enemy might effect an escape. But an instant place, and ran toward the near-by river.
later, he knew it was no bluff. Shortly before he reached the river,
Shots crashed in the streets near by. he heard noises. Men moving. Men talking. A
A man howled. It was Renny, whose howl voice.
was something not hard to recognize and not The voice said, “Hurry up and get
easy to forget. them into this boat!”
Then came a brief whoop of sound Doc Savage had guessed what had
that was remindful of a violent note from a happened. There was a big, old pipe running
great bullfiddle. This would be one of the tiny from the river to the plant. Originally it had
supermachine pistols perfected by Doc carried waste, but now the men were utilizing
Savage and carried only by the bronze man it for escape, and they must have a boat
and his aids. anchored at the river end.
Long Tom’s voice yelled, “Doc! We Doc went over the river bank with a
can take care of this! Go on with what you’re great leap.
doing!”
Doc Savage leaped, caught the sill of
a window, and an instant later was standing THE attack was reckless, but it was
on the sill, tearing at the boards over the dark enough to make recklessness safe. It
aperture. would have helped, of course, if Doc Savage
The thick boards, the big nails, had managed to alight on the back of some
seemed no more than lath and brads under one. But he didn’t.
his strength. He got the window bared, and a He did, however, land close enough
blow from a sleeve-covered elbow sent the so that his first swing sent a man flying away
glass inward. into the water. The water was shallow here,
Darkness was inside. The bronze and they were standing in it, loading their
man listened briefly, and used his trained boat. The man who had been hit yelled.
nostrils. No one seemed to be in the room, “Savage!” some one choked.
but men were running toward the chamber— Doc hit the man who had spoken, hit
men who shouted a great deal. him guided by the voice sound alone.
Doc whipped inside. He bent low, “Doc!” piped out a squeaky voice.
hands out before him, feeling his way. His That would be Monk. He was to the
trained eyes aided. An instant later, he was right. Doc made for him, arms striking. It was
in a wide hallway—and eased away from too dark to see anything. Some one fired a
men who charged up with flashlights and gun. The red flash was too momentary to
show much.
The thing became a mêlée. Fists hit Doc. He struck back.
The thing became a mêlée. Fists hit that he grunted, which drew a man upon him,
Doc. He struck back. Once a gun blew off so but Monk kicked the fellow far out into the
close to his face that his flake gold eyes were river, where the water was several feet deep.
powder-burned. The boat’s engine got going. Men
He found Monk. The homely chemist yelled at other men to get into the boat, and
was bound. Doc grasped him, heaved him up the other men yelled back to get out of the
on the bank, and Monk landed so painfully boat and fight.
Doc located Ham next. He got Ham “Sure,” Monk said. “She’s too pretty
away from three men who were trying to hold a little thing to be given such bad news. I
him, and threw him up on the bank beside don’t think she has an inkling of it. Von
Monk. Zidney has fooled her into thinking he is just
Both Monk and Ham seemed to be a persecuted old man.”
tied hand and foot. “Poor little girl!” Ham sniffed. “I
Then some one hit Doc over the wouldn’t be too sure she’s so innocent!”
head with a rifle. The blow was unexpected, “You shyster!” Monk grunted.
something that could not be avoided. Doc “You’ve dealt with crooks for so long as a
sank, recoiled, made no sound to show that lawyer, that you’ve gotten the idea the world
he was hurt, or where he’d crouched. His is full of crooks.”
head sang and for a little while it seemed “Listen, you exaggerated monkey
blacker than before, and sounds were faint. model!” Ham began. “I’m telling you that—”
There was a great deal of splashing, Doc left them and went forward and
after which the motor boat went away. found the frightened, trembling India Allison.
Doc got out of the water finally and “It was awful!” she gasped. “We were
used his flashlight. There was no one in attacked. They carried off Pat!”
sight, except Monk and Ham, up on the bank. “What?”
“Some fight!” said the dapper lawyer, “They took Pat away!” The girl clung
Ham. to Doc. “Renny and Long Tom and Captain
“Doc,” grunted the homely Monk, Toy fought valiantly. They’re over here.”
“they had Johnny, too. Did you get him?” She led the way down an alley, and
“No,” Doc admitted. “They seem to Doc, peering in the murk, made out three
have gotten away with him.” figures. Two were senseless; one was
“That’s too bad,” Ham said, grimly. stirring a bit. The latter was Long Tom.
“Their chief was with them.” “Where’s Pat?” Long Tom gulped.
“Who?” Doc countered. He was grimly silent when told what
“Lieber Von Zidney,” said Ham. had happened to Pat.
“How do you know that?” “That bird Fuzzy was heading this
“Why, they made no secret of it,” gang,” Long Tom said at last.
said the lawyer. “They telephoned him for Doc Savage worked over Renny and
orders, and we heard him giving them orders Captain Toy, and they revived eventually.
in the next room.” Renny had a bullet hole in an arm, but
“Lieber Von Zidney is the big shot, all insisted it would not put him out of
right,” Monk agreed. commission. Doc, examining the wound,
“Come on,” Doc said. “There is agreed.
another fight in the street near that Monk, not at all ruffled by the recent
abandoned power plant.” excitement, watched his chance, and shortly
They ran for the plant. India Allison found herself clinging to the big
chemist rather than to Doc Savage.
Monk was a great admirer of
THERE was no fight. There was only feminine pulchritude, and lost no opportunity
silence. to afford it attention wherever he found it.
Not until they were in the street, and Strangely enough, his frightful homeliness—
had listened to automobiles in the distance, Ham, at least, called it frightful—was an
going away at a great speed, did they asset, apparently, instead of a liability.
discover any sign of life. Then it was a “The ladies can always tell a man’s
feminine voice calling from some distance. man when they see one,” Monk was wont to
“Mr. Savage!” the voice called. “Mr. explain it. “They want hair on their menfolk’s
Savage!” chests.”
“India Allison!” the homely Monk The dapper Ham, who was not bald,
grunted. “Does she know Von Zidney is the and certainly not unhandsome, could not
big-shot crook—the head of this ring of explain it. True, the hair on his chest was
foreign sabotage agents?” moderate.
“No,” Doc said. “And do not tell her.” They did not find a trace of the gang
who had seized Pat and fled.
Doc Savage, when they gave up the They came in. Ham was carrying a
search, had one question. box, a very large box, which seemed about
“Who,” he asked, “gave the alarm all he could carry. The apish Monk, who
back at that abandoned power plant? Who looked much bigger and stronger than the
yelled that I was at the plant?” lawyer, was carrying a few ounces of letters.
Big-fisted Renny closed and “We matched to see who would carry
unclosed his fists. the box,” Monk explained. “He lost.”
“That’s kind of a mystery, Doc. We “I was gypped!” Ham yelled. “He
heard a noise behind us. We separated to used that trick nickel with heads on both
investigate. Then came that yell. I—well, I sides!”
don’t know how we were discovered.” Doc Savage tore off a letter which
India Allison said hoarsely, “I hope was fastened to the outside of the box with
I’m not suspected!” adhesive paper.
Doc Savage said nothing, but he “Who left this box here?” he asked.
made, for the briefest of moments, his “Somebody,” Monk said, “who gave
strange, exotic trilling noise. the name of August Atlanta Braun.”
Doc Savage looked at the
assembled naval men and the politicians, two
Chapter XV of whom he recognized as senators on the
TRIAL appropriations committee.
“Who advised you there would be a
NEARLY a dozen men sat stiffly box here for you?” he asked again.
around the reception room of Doc Savage’s “August Atlanta Braun!” said one of
skyscraper headquarters. None of the men the senators.
was young. Some of them wore uniforms, “It is the nullifier machine,” said a
and the others looked as if they belonged in high naval officer.
uniforms, except for two or three, who were “We are to be permitted to give it a
obviously big-time politicians. trial,” another man, his uniform bearing the
One, evidently the spokesman, got designation of a rear admiral, offered.
up when Doc Savage came in. “I suppose,” Doc Savage said
“We were told you would have a quietly, “that you know where an attempt to
package for us,” he said. sink a navy ship will be made, so that you
There was always about the man of can give the machine its test under fire?”
bronze a dignity and a reserve. It was not “Yes,” the other replied. “The
upset now, although this was the first he had message from August Atlanta Braun told
heard of a package. where the enemy will strike next.”
“Who advised that I would have a “What enemy?”
package for you?” he asked “This foreign power that is reducing
At that moment, Monk, who had our naval force in preparation for war,” the
stopped off downstairs for the mail, could be rear admiral said stiffly.
heard outside, insulting Ham, who had also “Do you know what power it is?” Doc
stopped off for the mail. queried.
“Ham, you shyster,” Monk said, The rear admiral wet his lips, pulled
“suppose you open this box before you take at his regulation tie—or, at least, it looked
it inside. Sure, go ahead. Take it in the regulation.
corner, there, and open it.” “No,” he said. “We don’t! We have
“It might be a bomb!” Ham objected made an effort to find out. Unfortunately, two
loudly. of our secret agents, who were on the point
“Sure,” said Monk. “That’s what I of getting valuable information, were found
thought of.” killed.”
“You accident of nature! How awful “Where?” Doc queried.
your mother must have felt after she looked “Near the edge of the city, not far
at you and seen what had happened!” from a plant dealing in the refining of salt,”
Doc Savage requested quietly, “Will the man replied. “We searched the salt plant,
you two come in here?” but learned nothing.”
“You might have tried the abandoned When no one smiled or answered,
power house near by,” Doc said. “But it is too Monk took the big grin off his homely face.
late now.” Doc Savage said, “So August Atlanta
The bronze man examined the Braun tipped you of an attempt to be made to
boxlike package. sink a ship, in order that you would have an
opportunity to try out the protective
machine?”
THE affair was almost as large as a “The battleship Missouri is to be sunk
trunk. It was covered with heavy brown as it sails from New London harbor tonight!”
paper, wrapped around with twine almost as the rear admiral replied.
large as rope. Doc Savage said nothing in reply,
“The thing is heavy,” Ham offered. but his small, eerie trilling noise seemed to
Doc Savage untied the cord, stripped come into being somewhere in the far
off the heavy brown paper, removed distance, and, after a bit, to go away without
cardboard protection covering which was coming much closer.
underneath, and exposed a box which The naval men and the politicians
seemed to be covered with heavy canvas, surrounded the box. They handled it, peered
stitched and cemented. at it closely, and seemed on the point of
On the top was a little lid. Doc lifted closing the switch experimentally.
this. A switch was revealed, and tied to the “Maybe this thing is a bomb intended
switch, which was open, was a tag. Words to blow up navy big-wigs!” offered homely
were typed on it: Monk. “Of course, anybody’d know a lot of
big shots would be around when it was
When effect of enemy’s device is felt opened, so the thing would naturally kill—”
or expected, close this switch. This puts Two minutes later, every naval
machine in operation. It will operate for about officer and senator had made a dignified
a hundred hours on the power contained departure.
within. Doc Savage faced his men.
“We will have to work fast,” he said.
A navy official stepped over, “We want every bit of information available
examined the tag, and murmured, “Ah! The on August Atlanta Braun.”
device must be of electrical nature, and has “Where’ll we look first?” Long Tom
batteries that will run down!” wanted to know.
Monk, in the background, sniffed, “The newspaper files,” Doc said.
just loud enough that the navy man did not “Scientific journals. The naval records.
hear. Monk was an army booster. Everywhere.”
Ham casually kicked Monk’s shins,
and scowled, “The man was right in his
deduction, you funny-looking thing!” NEW LONDON is a seaport town on
Monk snorted, “But his deduction the Connecticut shore, where the Thames
was so childishly obvious. Electrical in River makes a deep harbor. Once it was the
nature! Hah!” whaling capital. Today it comes nearer being
Doc Savage turned the box over. A the submarine capital, what with a big
legend, a warning, was painted on one side. submarine base and shipyard engaged in U-
He turned it again. The same warning was boat construction.
printed on all four sides and the bottom. It The navy officials and politicians,
read: seeing no reason why they should risk their
necks by flying to New London, had gone by
WARNING! train.
Doc and his party had delayed in
An attempt of any kind to examine New York until the last minute, digging up
this case will have dire consequences! what they could on August Atlanta Braun.
Now they were flying to New London in Doc’s
“That ‘dire consequence’ sounds real big tri-motored speedplane, which was
melodramatic, don’t it?” the homely chemist probably the fastest aërial conveyance of its
chuckled jeeringly.
size in the world. Pale Long Tom handled the The Missouri’s electric donkey
controls. engines cranked up her anchor, and she
Doc and his party did not have pushed out of the harbor mouth. She got up
August Atlanta Braun’s machine in his box. It enough speed for steerageway and no more.
had gone to New London on a train, in a The strange canvas-covered box of
special car, in custody of some marines. The August Atlanta Braun, the contraption he was
marines had not been told the thing might trying to sell to the U.S. government for a
blow up, and might not have cared, anyway. hundred million dollars, was set up on top of
Big-fisted Renny was fingering some a gun turret, where it was figured the thing
notes. could blow up, if it was going to blow up,
“August Atlanta Braun has had an without killing anybody but marines, who
eventful life, according to what I dug up,” the were going to close the switch with a long
big-handed engineer reported. pole.
“He was in the navy for almost ten What happened next all came very
years. He got kicked out. His dishonorable swiftly.
discharge was handed him for taking graft. “She’s swinging!” the helmsman
You see, he was in charge of buying stores, bawled suddenly, wildly.
and let concerns hand him a cut for buying “Something’s pulling her!” he added
from them.” an instant later.
Renny continued, “Braun is a lucky Every one could feel the sharp
one. He moved to Europe and became a swerve of the war giant of the seas. Men
citizen of a country over there. Now that yelled. Signal bells jangled.
helps him a lot. If he was a citizen of the “Turn on the protector!” the
United States, the government could do commander squawled at the turret.
things to him. As it is, his status is that of a There was an instant of silence.
foreign inventor trying to sell something to “Protector on, sir,” came from the
the country.” turret. The big battleship straightened back
“Anything else?” Doc asked. on her course.
“Nope,” Renny said. “There’s no
record of Braun’s whereabouts for the last
few years, as far as I could learn, except that Chapter XVI
he is listed as a citizen of this European TRICK!
country.”
Long Tom brought the plane down GREAT happenings are usually
on New London harbor, and anchored it up following my moments of silence. This one
by the coast guard academy, where the was. The same thought was probably in
guardsmen could watch it. almost every mind. The U. S. navy was
Doc Savage said, “Renny, you’ll stay saved!
with me. The rest of you go on ahead aboard “I think,” said an officer, “that this
the Missouri. Renny and myself will join you.” calls for a cheer!”
The Missouri was quite a few So, in a boyish spirit generated by a
millions’ worth of alloyed armor steel, guns feeling of infinite relief, gray-bearded
and gadgets. She was chunky, her funnels admirals and commanders sent a series of
and masts had an alert rake, and she looked, huzzahs ringing, frightening away the
somehow, as haughty as a European seagulls which were flying close in the dusk.
dictator. Doc Savage was already at a
secluded spot back of the bridge. Here, big-
fisted Renny and pale Long Tom crouched
PRETTY India Allison, Long Tom, among a forest of delicate electrical and
quarreling Monk and Ham, all got a nice engineering gadgets.
enough reception aboard when they arrived “Your instruments register anything?”
with Captain Blackstone Toy. Doc asked.
Doc Savage and Renny were not “Nothing,” said Long Tom.
very late. About fifteen minutes. They offered “No trace of a magnetic field?” Doc
no explanation of what had made them late. persisted.
“None,” said the pale electrical warnings for the contents not to be
wizard. “And, brother, I’m here to tell the examined.
world that my instruments are sensitive Doc Savage exchanged his box for
enough to get one, if there had been any!” the one which August Atlanta Braun had
Doc asked Renny, “What about furnished.
variations in gravitational balance?” The guards seemed not to see nor
“Zero,” said Renny. realize what was going on.
“Presence of gyro influences beyond
ordinary?”
“Also zero,” rumbled Renny. DOC SAVAGE picked up the guard
“Good,” Doc Savage said, and went who had fallen. The fellow’s muscles were
back to join the naval potentates and the rigid, and when he was placed upright,
senators who virtually ran the appropriations leaning against the binnacle in the proper
committee of the Congress. position, he remained there.
Captain Blackstone Toy was saying, Doc Savage walked away, carrying
“Gentlemen, it breaks my heart to think of the genuine box, and the guards did not
paying this man Braun a hundred million make any attempt to follow him, nor indicate
dollars for his machine.” in any way that they had seen him.
“It is not your position to criticize the Renny, Long Tom, Monk, Ham, India
decisions of your superior officers!” an Allison and Captain Blackstone Toy met the
admiral said stiffly. bronze man. They all looked at Doc
Doc Savage asked, “So Braun has somewhat as they would look at an individual
sold you his machine?” carrying a can of nitroglycerine into their
“If you care to put it that way, he midst.
has,” was the reply. “The efficiency of the “But the guards didn’t interfere with
device has just been demonstrated.” you!” gulped Captain Toy. “What is wrong
The battleship put about and with them?”
reëntered port. The homely Monk took it on himself
“The machine must be protected,” to explain, “Doc and me, working together a
said an admiral. “We will keep it aboard.” long time ago, fixed up a gas that causes
After the Missouri had anchored, temporary periods of absolute
they brought the canvas-covered box onto unconsciousness. A guy inhaling some of
the bridge, and sentries took up positions this gas goes to sleep for a minute or two,
guarding it. and never knows exactly what has happened
The high-ranking officers retired to to him.”
the conference chamber and chart room to “So you used that gas?”
send a telegram to the navy department, and “Doc did,” Monk told Captain Toy.
also to draft statements to the press. From a spot aft, they watched the
The sentries guarding the box were guards on the bridge. They all awakened
alert, fully aware of the importance of their about together, and, although there was
task. The canvas-covered box containing the some exchanging of furtive looks of
machine stood on a table in plain sight of puzzlement, they did not mention, any one of
every one. The vicinity of the bridge was them, having felt queerly a moment earlier.
comparatively deserted, except for the Doc had depended on this
guards. psychological trait which makes a man,
Suddenly, mysteriously, one of the somehow, too proud to complain about his
guards fell to the floor planking of the bridge. small ailments, especially fainting spells.
He had been leaning against the binnacle, A bit later, Renny went ashore, got a
and he fell quite heavily. launch, brought it alongside, and the canvas-
The other guards paid not the covered box was lowered overside without
slightest attention. any one being the wiser.
Doc Savage walked onto the bridge. It was taken to Doc Savage’s big
In his arms, he carried a box, canvas- seaplane, which they had left anchored
covered, which was an exact duplicate of the before the coast guard academy.
one being guarded. It even bore the same
“You stay outside and watch, to “No,” Doc said.

make sure no one comes around,” Ham “Then I’ll tell the world you stole it!”
directed Monk. yelled Captain Toy. Renny said, “I guess I’m
“Who you giving orders to?” Monk gonna have to give him a dose of knuckle
demanded indignantly. “You try to push me anaesthetic!”
around, and I’ll walk the length and breadth Doc Savage said nothing. He was
of your puny chest bone!” arranging the big X ray machine and the flat
Doc Savage suggested, “Suppose container which held the huge film.
both of you stay outside and watch.” Captain Toy stood very still for some
Ham and Monk sat outside in the moments, and it was plain that he was
boat, insulting each other enthusiastically in thinking deeply. Then he shrugged,
whispers. apparently in resignation.
Captain Blackstone Toy asked Doc “Well,” he said, “there is nothing I
Savage, “What was the idea of stealing can do about it.”
Braun’s device from the navy? What are you He changed his position a little,
going to do with it?” casually. It brought him near the door. And
“See what is inside it,” Doc said. suddenly, with a headlong dive, he was out
“But the warnings on the outside, of the cabin of the plane into the bay.
instructing not to attempt to examine it!” Monk and Ham, caught flat-footed,
“We’ll X ray the thing,” Doc said. “We sputtered and abused each other. Then they
brought X ray apparatus and big produced flashlights and spurted the beams
photographic films along for just that over the water.
purpose.” “There he is!” Monk exploded. “Start
Captain Toy considered. His face in the motor, Ham!”
the vicinity of his jaw became more solid. His Monk cast off. The launch drifted
eyes hardened in their expression. away with the tide. Ham fought the motor,
“As a United States navy man, I must which did not seem to want to start. Monk
warn against it!” he snapped. “I do not know lumbered aft.
what possessed me to let the stealing of this “Why not turn on the fuel?” he
device go as far as it has!” gritted.
Renny displayed his two big fists “Well, why don’t you, you simp?”
prominently. Ham demanded.
“It wouldn’t be too good an idea to try They got the launch going. By this
to upset Doc’s apple cart now!” Renny time, Captain Blackstone Toy was swimming
rumbled ominously. some distance away.
Monk and Ham sent the launch
toward him. They would not have had the
CAPTAIN BLACKSTONE TOY did slightest difficulty in overhauling Toy, except
not seem to be the type of man easily for what happened next.
bluffed. In the murk some distance away—it
“If that means a threat of bodily was quite dark now—a powerful motor boat
damage, I don’t scare worth a damn!” he started. It came closer. The engine made a
yelled. “I’m not going to stand for this. I shrill buzz.
demand that you return that device!” The stranger craft came within range
Doc Savage said, “My movements of Monk’s flashlight. It held four men. Two
are aimed at meeting out justice to the leaned over the side, arms extended, hands
murderers of your brother.” reaching to clutch Captain Toy. One of these
Captain Toy acted as if he had been was hairy, snaky Fuzzy.
struck with something solid. He grew They grabbed Captain Toy, hauled
perceptibly paler, moistened his lips, then got him out of the water and aboard without the
a grip on himself. speedboat more than swerving in its wild
“I have followed you, taken your charge. Fuzzy nearly fell overboard, but
orders, so far!” he snapped. “I thought you didn’t quite.
had at heart the best interests of your “Help!” screamed Captain
country. Now I do not think so. I demand that Blackstone Toy. “Help! Help!”
you hand that box back to the navy officials!”
The speedboat took him away. Monk “I guess,” Monk said gloomily, “that
and Ham, trying to follow, lost ground swiftly you got this all figured out.”
in their infinitely slower boat. “Something like that,” the bronze
man agreed. “Our next move is to examine
the Braun machine.”
“AT least,” Monk yelled, “Captain Toy
didn’t want to be rescued. Did you hear him
howl for help? That shows then—” EXAMINATION of the Braun
Monk fell silent. From the cabin door machine necessitated rearrangement of the
of Doc Savage’s plane had spouted a round X ray device and the big photographic film.
string of light. It picked up the fleeing They did the rearranging in New London
speedboat. Fuzzy was standing in the craft, harbor, near the yacht club.
looking back. “The coast guard might ask
But it was not the powerful hand questions about that shooting if we anchored
searchlight Doc wielded that particularly in front of the academy again,” Doc said.
interested Monk and Ham. It was the big- The bronze man, it was to be noted,
barreled rifle which the bronze man held, and set his X raying device up near the door of
was aiming. the plane. He did the work painstakingly, and
The rifle exploded. Once, twice, at last stepped back.
three times. “All set,” he said. “Long Tom, you
A storm of bullets came from the turn the current into the X ray apparatus.”
distant, fast-traveling speedboat. Monk and Long Tom nodded and threw the
Ham, for safety’s sake, both jumped into the switch. The results gave every one plenty to
river. Doc whipped back inside his plane, think about.
which had a bulletproof cabin. There was a popping noise inside
“We can catch ‘em in the plane!” the canvas-covered Braun box, then a burst
Monk howled. He swam noisily to the aircraft of flame. A blinding glare filled the plane
and hauled himself inside. “Doc, ain’t you cabin. The entire top of the box had become
gonna chase ‘em?” like a molten cauldron of iron ore.
“No,” the bronze man said. Doc Savage’s quick action—and his
“What?” Monk all but choked. foresight in placing the box near the door for
“No,” Doc Savage said. “Let them the test—saved the plane. He lunged, hit the
go.” box with a foot. It fell out of the plane cabin
Monk groaned, “It’s too bad your rifle into the water.
shots missed ‘em!” Sinking, the box gave off a startling
“They didn’t,” Doc Savage said. “At amount of light, so hot was the flame which
least, it is fairly certain they hit.” consumed it. Even after it was a score of feet
The homely Monk muttered, “I don’t down, the glow suffused the water for many
see the idea of lettin’ them guys get scat yards in every direction.
away when we might try to follow ‘em?” “Huh!” Renny boomed. “That’s the
“We will make a gesture at chasing same stuff that damaged the Zephyr.
them,” Doc said. “But we will be sure not to Thermit!”
find them.” “Exactly,” Doc Savage admitted.
They started the motors of the big “The stuff can be purchased in the open
plane, and taxied down New London harbor market.”
with the wingtips searchlights turned on. “But what set it off?” Renny wanted
They took to the air, and with the searchlight to know.
which gave such a narrow thread of a beam, “Braun, when he made up that box,
raked the water front—but not too thoroughly. was clever,” Doc said. “He put inside it a
Monk, who knew the plane held device sensitive to X rays. The moment X
flares which would make all of New London, rays passed through the box, this device
and most of Long Island Sound over to Long caused the thermit to be released, destroying
Island, only a little less brighter than full the contents of the box before an X ray
daylight was puzzled. Doc, it seemed, didn’t picture of it could be secured.”
want to find the speedboat. While they stood there, with the glow
of the burning box still discernible in the
depths—water seemed to have no effect on Monk waited a few moments, until

the thermit—the battleship Missouri passed, Doc Savage chanced to move into the rear of
farther out in the bay, heading for the open the plane cabin. Monk leaned closer to the
sea. girl and whispered:
“Guess they’re putting to sea, “Don’t get worried, Miss Allison,” he
perfectly sure they’re safe with that fake box advised. “I’m willin’ to bet that Doc knows just
of ours aboard,” Renny said gloomily. “Holy about all there is to know about this affair.”
cow! Only they don’t know it’s a fake box!” “He hasn’t shown many signs of it,”
Long Tom suggested, “Suppose we wailed the girl. “He tried to examine that box,
bring up what’s left after the thermit burns out and it burned, so that he lost his only chance
and see if it will tell us anything?” to learn what was inside it. Now—”
Doc Savage came from the rear of
the plane cabin. He was carrying an object of
THEY did this. So potent was the considerable size, wrapped in heavy paper.
thermit that a considerable interval of time “Renny, can you watch the young
elapsed before it became cool enough to be lady?” Doc asked. “Take care of her while
handled and brought to the surface. Monk, Ham and myself go ashore.”
A thorough examination told them “What about me?” pale Long Tom
nothing. asked.
A motor boat approached. It was a “You will stay here with Renny and
naval craft of the type ordinarily called a the girl,” Doc advised. “Keep a sharp lookout.
“captain’s gig,” and was occupied by naval Our lives are in danger every minute.”
officers. “Holy cow!” boomed Renny. “Won’t
“The Missouri ran on a reef outside nobody pull anything on us!”
the harbor!” an officer yelled. “No one was The plane was equipped with a
killed, but the Braun machine proved collapsible boat for use as a dinghy, and Doc
worthless. It was opened by angry navy Savage, Monk and Ham rowed ashore.
officials immediately after the crash. There Habeas Corpus, the homely pig, and
was nothing inside but some scrap iron and Chemistry, the grotesque monkey which bore
excelsior waste!” such a resemblance to Monk, were aboard.
“That,” Doc Savage said, innocently, Doc, when asked if there was any reason
“is unfortunate.” why they should not be brought, had said
“Fortunate, I should say!” snapped there was none that he could see.
the navy man. “Braun will never sell his Once ashore, the bronze man led his
worthless device to the U. S. navy now!” rather unique little caravan into the yacht
club, where they got a good deal of
attention—until they departed furtively by a
Chapter XVII back door. Doc still carried his package.
LOTS OF LUCK—ALL BAD They went, without attracting
attention, to a commercial airport on the
THE navy men went away in the outskirts of the city. At Doc’s instruction,
captain’s gig. Big-fisted Renny said slowly, “If Ham, who looked less striking than Doc and
the navy ever gets wise that we stole the Monk, went forward alone, showed his
genuine machine, we’ll be lucky if they only transport pilot’s license, and rented a plane,
skin us alive!” a six-place cabin job.
“I do not like it either,” said Ham. He taxied it down to the end of the
“Phooey!” grunted Monk, disagreeing field, under the pretense of getting ready to
with Ham as usual. “I’m not worried!” take off into the wind, and Doc and Monk
Pretty India Allison wrung her hands. loaded aboard hastily.
“I’m so worried!” The plane took the air.
Monk grinned at her. “We’re perfectly Monk and Ham were still in the dark
safe.” as to what it was all about. They had not
“I don’t feel that way!” she asked questions thus far, because Doc
murmured. Savage had a habit of not answering
questions unless he wanted to.
More often than not, he did not and splashed on it. We should be able to
answer them for a good reason, though. But spot the boat, wherever it is, by the glow it
now curiosity got the best of Monk and Ham. gives off.”
“Why all this business of hiring Ham flew the plane above the
another airplane when we had a perfectly seashore, not too high. Doc Savage used the
good seaplane in the harbor?” Monk asked. infra-light spotter. The rays, of course, would
“A seaplane, I might add, which can fly rings be invisible to the naked eye, but Monk
around this ark.” stared overside anyway.
“Our enemies will be watching our They were well up the Thames River
plane,” Doc said. “They will if they have a when Doc said, “There!”
fraction of the sense we credit them with. Then he passed the device to Monk.
And if we had taken off and flown over the Monk looked. At first, he saw only
city, it would have looked suspicious, and blackness. Then he spotted a tiny, flickering
might have warned them before we could dot of greenish phosphorescence. He got a
find their hide-out.” bead on the thing, then jerked his eyes away
“Oh!” mused Monk. “So we’re looking from the viewing contrivance and decided
for their hide-out now, huh?” where the launch was lying below.
“Right.” “Right alongside that patch of electric
Monk looked overside. It was very lights,” he said, “on the river bank.”
dark. Due to the lateness of the hour, “Exactly,” Doc said. “Now we’ll land
alternate street lights had been turned out. and return to the seaplane.”
“Fat chance we’ve got of seeing They took the plane back to the field
anything in the dark!” snorted the homely from which they had rented it. Half an hour
chemist. later, they were standing on the shore near
the spot where their seaplane was moored in
the river.
DOC SAVAGE plucked the paper “Ahoy the plane!” Doc called, and his
from the object which he had brought along. trained voice carried surprisingly without
It was long—about three feet—made of being loud.
metal, composition and glass. It was There was no answer from the plane.
equipped with handles for holding, and an “Ahoy, Renny, Long Tom!” Doc
opening at the back to take a man’s eyes and called.
forehead. This opening was edged with black “Ahoy, Miss Allison!” piped up Monk.
cat fur. The thing looked like an aërial “Always got a woman on your mind!”
camera, fitted with a stereopticon back. Ham said scathingly. “You would call her—”
Monk said one word loudly. “Oh!” “Look!” Monk howled. “Something’s
Which meant that he understood the dragging the plane under!”
nature of the device. It was a contrivance
perfected by Doc Savage, its inner
mechanism consisting in effect of a film DOC SAVAGE was in the water
which traveled in front of a lens in the bottom when Monk’s excited howl ended. The
of the device, then traveled around and homely chemist and the dapper lawyer dived
passed in front of the eye of the observer. after the bronze man closely.
The film was coated with a chemical They could see the plane. It was
which caught and preserved for a moment in moving out toward deeper water, and at the
fluorescence any trace of certain wave same time, slowly going under. There was,
lengths of infra-light. Thus, a user of the as far as they could see in the darkness,
device could observe, from a great distance, nothing attached to the craft. It simply moved
certain wave lengths of invisible light. in uncanny fashion.
“I don’t see how we’ll spot ‘em yet,” “Renny!” Ham shrieked. “What’s
Monk said. wrong?”
“Remember the shots fired by myself No answer.
with the rifle?” Doc asked. “Miss Allison!” Monk squeaked.
“Huh!” Monk exploded. The plane fuselage was half under
“The cartridges were shells filled with the surface now. It was the type of craft
chemical,” Doc elaborated. “They hit the boat
which had no floats, but alighted upon the the shipyard where the construction of new
belly of the fuselage. United States navy submarines is being
There was a great gurgling as it went pushed day and night.”
down deeper. The fuselage vanished Ham picked up his homely pet,
completely. Chemistry.
“Long Tom!” Ham shrieked. “You better leave that pest behind,”
Only wings of the plane showed now. Monk advised.
One of these dipped under. Then the other. “What about your hog?”
Only a boil of water, a great gurgling turmoil “He’s a well-behaved hog,” Monk
of rising bubbles, showed where it had gone growled. “Furthermore—”
under. Doc said, “The launch seemed to be
“Careful!” Doc shouted. down this way.”
Monk either did not hear, or didn’t The bronze man found the launch
care, for he kept on swimming and Doc had without much labor. It was tied up to an
to overhaul him, to hold him back. Monk was ancient dock, and there was no one near,
very fast in the water, but Doc seemed to nothing to show what had become of the
have not the slightest difficulty in overhauling men who had seized Captain Blackstone
him. Toy.
“Long Tom—Renny—India Allison!” “We’re not a heck of a lot better off,”
Monk croaked. “They’re in there!” Monk complained.
“Stay back!” Doc rapped, and by way “Never satisfied!” grunted Ham.
of making sure that his command was Doc Savage said nothing, but
obeyed, gave Monk a clip that rendered him studied their surroundings. Downstream a bit
dizzy for the next few minutes. was the submarine building shipyard, a huge
Then Doc swam forward. He dived, plant, one of the largest in the world.
swam down and down until it seemed certain Upstream was a large naval wharf.
that his lungs would burst. It was very dark in There seemed to be no craft tied to this,
the depths. He could see nothing. Only the although it was impossible, because of the
swirl of water showed him which way the darkness and the angle of view, to see the
sunken plane was being dragged. seaward side.
He endeavored to follow the craft, Doc said, “There is only one
but the effort was useless. He could not explanation of why the launch came—”
overhaul the plane. And at last he lost all He fell silent, listening. He had
trace of it. trained his ears since childhood with
With Monk and Ham, Doc swam complicated exercises, and they were now
back to shore. registering sounds which Monk and Ham
“But it was incredible!” Monk gulped. could not hear.
“I’ve really been kind of skeptical of this “Some one coming,” Doc said.
mysterious something business up until now, After a time, feet shuffled down the
but I’m here to tell you I’ll now bet anybody shore. Two men were coming!
my shirt there is such a thing!” “Me, I think the boss is nuts to sink a
“It was the happening of something good speedboat that we just bought!”
that couldn’t happen,” Ham said grimly. complained one of the men.
Doc Savage offered, “We had better He was Shade, the fellow whose
hurry to the launch which we spotted from place Ham had supplanted so skillfully for a
the air.” time.
Ham said gloomily, “It was near a “The chief thinks there was
patch of bright lights on the riverbank.” something phony about the rifle shots Doc
Savage fired at us,” complained the other.
“He thinks maybe Savage marked the
Chapter XVIII launch, and he wants it sunk.”
TORPEDO ROOM! “He’ll get it sunk!”
They climbed down, swore at each
HALF an hour later, Doc Savage was other, and after a time, got the seacocks in
saying, “The patch of bright lights, Ham, is the launch open. They climbed out and stood
for a long time on the old wharf.
“Well, it’s sunk!” Shade said, and from the dock piling. A faint glow of light
turned away. came out of two hatches, and out of a door in
They moved off into the night. the side of the conning tower.
Doc Savage and his two aids kept Waves made small noises on the
close on their trail. Shade and his companion gravel of the beach. A buried clam squirted
went upstream, striding along a footpath water with an audible sound. A dog barked.
which led through weeds and some scrawny Across the river in town, a clock struck.
shrubbery, and around rocks and old masses Automobile horns honked abruptly in the
of machinery. distance, then were silent.
“A typical sample of industrial And suddenly, Doc Savage stopped.
America,” whispered Ham. “An ugly waste of He listened. A tiny noise had come to his
trash and weeds and—” ears, a click-click-click. He waited, but it was
“A heck of a time to start a lecture on not repeated.
natural beautification,” grunted Monk. He went on, veered over into darker
Doc Savage held out an arm and shadow, then abruptly wheeled and crept
halted his two aids. They waited, listened, back the way he had come. He had not-
and the destination of the two men they were doubled back far when he heard the click-
following became apparent. click-click noise again. He came upon the
“Huh!” Monk gulped. “They’re going balls of his feet.
back to that big dock. And say! There’s a An instant later, he had a man’s neck
submarine anchored off the end of the dock! I in his corded bronze hands. He did not do
can see it now!” anything lethal to the fellow—merely exerted
“Exactly,” Doc said dryly. “They pressure on certain spinal nerve centers
brought the launch here because they have which caused the man to be seized with an
their headquarters aboard that submarine.” unconsciousness that was like a paralysis
Monk craned his neck. and would not wear off for some time.
“Can’t see the flag,” he said. Then Doc felt around. He found it
“They don’t fly flags at night,” Ham quickly. A telegraph key! The man had a
reminded. sounder headset on his head. Doc hurriedly
“All right, wise guy!” Monk muttered. appropriated it.
“I’m tryin’ to see what nationality this The wire, small and unnoticeable in
submarine is. Cinch it ain’t American. Must the darkness, led toward the submarine. It
belong to some foreign power, the one that’s had been tossed up on the brush to get it out
causin’ all this trouble.” of the way.
“I hate to admit it, but you must be “A m-i-s-t-a-k-e h-a-s b-e-e-n m-a-d-
right,” Ham agreed. “I’d give a lot to know e,” Doc Savage tapped over the key slowly.
what nation it belongs to.” “E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g i-s a-l-l r-i-g-h-t.”
Doc Savage said, “You two wait Which might not be the truth, but was
here.” not an outright lie, either.
“But, Doc—” “B-e m-o-r-e c-a-r-e-f-u-l,” the
The bronze man, however, was sounder headset tapped back.
already gone, merging with the night as if his “O-K.”
nature partook of the blackness itself. Doc waited. There was no more. He
put headset and key down and worked
forward. This was the old army method of
DOC SAVAGE worked through equipping an outpost so the fellow could
weeds and shrubbery and around big rocks telegraph back an approach by the enemy.
and got close to the water. Sure enough, the The system enabled a suitable reception to
tide was out, and there was a patch of bare be prepared.
sand and stone along which he could creep. Doc came closer and closer to the
The moon was in such a position that the submarine. He decided to slide into the water
narrow beach lay in intense shadow. and swim beneath the surface to the
He could distinguish the submarine submarine, and began removing his clothing.
more distinctly now. She was a big craft, There was some noise aboard the
enormous for an undersea vessel. She submarine. He waited. It was casual noise,
floated high, fenders out to keep her away such as men might make moving about. Doc
got his outer clothing off. His undergarments Monk and Ham did not fight for long.
were of a type which could double easily as a Almost immediately, they were overwhelmed
bathing suit. He waded out furtively. by sheer force of numbers.
From the submarine came an
unearthly howl. Big-fisted Renny’s voice! Big-
fisted Renny himself popped out of the THE obviously best thing for Doc
conning tower hatch. Savage to do was to go to the aid of his two
assistants, to help them fight clear. But Doc
made no move. In the first place, there was a
RENNY was whooping at the top of really excellent chance of getting shot. In the
his voice, which meant he was probably second place, he had another idea.
awakening the residents of Noank. The way He glided along the beach, entered
he crossed the gangplank to the dock was a the water where the shadows were black,
miracle. At every jump, he emitted a howl. and sank beneath the surface. He swam
Men piled out of the conning tower underwater, swiftly at first, then more slowly
hatch. The darkness outside, after the light when he knew the submarine must be near.
within the submarine, seemed to baffle them. The painted steel hull of the submarine did
Renny gained ground. not have many barnacles on it.
Then Monk and Ham, down the Doc worked toward the bows, with
shore, came charging recklessly to Renny’s the idea of clambering quietly upon the diving
rescue, whooping at the top of their voices. rudders, then gaining the deck and ducking
“Renny!” Monk bawled “Stick with down a hatch, to hide somewhere in the
‘em! We’ll be helpin’ ya in a minute!” depths.
Renny heard the reassuring shout. He managed it with even less
Its effect on him was exactly the opposite of difficulty than he had expected. The entire
what might have been expected. He came to gang seemed to be outside, capturing Monk
an abrupt stop, threw back his head, and and Ham. But surely not the entire submarine
emitted a warning howl on his own account. crew! Doc was puzzled on that point.
“Go back!” he squawled. “They The bronze man noted one thing in
turned me loose!” creeping across the deck to the hatch. The
“It don’t sound like it!” Monk roared, hull was very wet. Below, it was warm, and
in reply. the air had that odor and heaviness which it
“They let me get away!” Renny has in a submarine which has lately been
bellowed. “Now I see why! They wanted to beneath the surface.
trick you guys into showing yourselves. They Forward seemed the logical place to
musta known you were near. They got remain hidden, so Doc moved in that
sentries out with telegraph wires!” direction. He moved with certainty, for he
Whether Monk and Ham heard all knew a great deal about submarines, having
that or not was doubtful. And, anyway, it was possessed one himself, which he had
too late. For armed men suddenly arose designed. He knew, of course, the layout of
behind Monk and Ham and rushed upon this big, modern craft.
them. He concealed himself in the forward
Doc Savage, crouched in the torpedo room, under a pile of heavy canvas
shrubbery near the water, knew that he was which was evidently a weather cloth and an
observing the springing of an almost perfect awning which were put up when the
trap contrived by the enemy on the spur of submarine made long surface cruises. With a
the moment. tiny hole torn in the canvas, he could observe
The sentry Doc had overpowered what went on.
had telegraphed a warning, and Doc’s later Feet tramped on deck as men
attempt to quiet any alarm had failed, but returned aboard. They came clattering down
they had let it seem that he had succeeded. the hatches, and there was some swearing
Then they had sent men out into the and fighting as Monk and Ham were hauled
darkness, furtively noiseless, and had below. The two prisoners, both resisting
released Renny to draw Doc and the others stubbornly, were yanked forward into the
into the open. torpedo room.
Doc Savage remained perfectly Doc carefully extricated himself from

quiet. This was a bad break, for more and beneath the pile of canvas, and eased to the
more men crowded into the torpedo room. If bulkhead door. Shade and another man were
they should attempt to move the canvas— standing on the metal ladder which led up to
Fuzzy, Shade and the fellow once a hatch in the adjacent compartment. They
designated as Useless came in, along with were talking.
others. Shade sat down on the canvas—on “Boy, this is our lucky night,” Shade
Doc’s knee and foreleg to be exact. The remarked. “That fight a minute ago don’t
bronze man gave no sign, made no seem to have attracted any attention.”
movement, and Shade failed to detect the “What about the sentry we found
difference. senseless down the beach, the one who
Fuzzy did the talking. But first he gave the alarm by telegraph?” The other man
glared at the prisoners, Monk and Ham, as if asked.
he intended eating them. “He’s coming out of it,” Fuzzy said.
“Where’s Doc Savage?” Fuzzy “He don’t know who grabbed him, or who he
growled. saw, but he thinks it musta been that big
Monk gave back a glare as fierce as gorilla guy, Monk.”
Fuzzy’s own. “How come he figure that?”
“Don’t kid us!” snarled the homely “From the way he was mauled
chemist. “You’ve got Doc already!” around.”
“Oh, yes?” Fuzzy said, sarcastically. A voice came crackling from forward.
“Yeah!” Monk gritted. “Doc Fuzzy! He was giving orders. A moment
disappeared! We know he was lookin’ for later, the exact text of what he was saying
you, and you musta grabbed ‘im! We was became understandable.
prowlin’ along the shore huntin’ for ‘im when “Orders were for this submarine to
this mess started!” sail for a test run an hour before dawn,”
Fuzzy stared narrowly at his two Fuzzy said loudly. “The chief says it’ll look
captives. Ham’s rather handsome features suspicious unless we sail, so we’d better be
were inscrutable. Monk’s homely face, getting under way.”
however, was absolutely earnest. Monk was Doc Savage listened. There was
acting out the whopper he had just told, and noise of hatches being closed and dogged
doing a good job of it. down. This was done only to the forward
Apparently satisfied, Fuzzy jerked his hatches, over which seas might break when
head. “Put them with the prisoners.” the submarine was outside. The conning-
Monk and Ham were carried out. tower hatches could be left open for
ventilation.
Lines were cast off, hauled aboard
Chapter XIX and coiled down in recessed steel deck
BURIAL AT SEA lockers. It became evident from the slowness
of the preparations and the amount of
SHADE got up off Doc Savage’s leg, swearing and galloping about that not all of
turned around, and with a display of ill the men handling the craft were submarine
temper, gave the canvas a kick. experts. Indeed, there appeared to be not
“That’s a damned hard seat!” he more than half a dozen experienced pigboat
growled. men aboard.
Doc Savage gave no sign, although Getting under way from the wharf
the skin on his leg was broken and the spot required some time. There was also difficulty
began to ooze a bit of crimson. in starting the Diesels. The engines fired off
All of the gang moved out of the bravely enough at first, but some one had
torpedo room, which was at best an ill- forgotten to turn on the fuel from the tanks,
ventilated place, but had the advantage of and after the oil in the lines was consumed,
having only one entrance and exit, which was the motors stopped.
why the two prisoners had been questioned In the silence which followed, Doc
here. Savage distinctly heard Monk’s voice, loud
and startled.
“Blazes!” Monk was saying. “For the “Leave a guard over them,” ordered
love of little fishes! This thing ain’t no foreign Fuzzy. “But get everybody else in here. The
submarine! It’s an American submarine!” chief has some things to say.”
A volley of profanity from the engine “Is the chief aboard?” some one
room drowned out Monk’s voice. asked, in an awed voice.
“An American submarine!” Monk’s “Yeah,” said Fuzzy. “Things are
voice came again, a bit later. getting kinda critical, so he’s decided to keep
Then they got the Diesels started. out of sight. He’s in the skipper’s cabin, and
he’ll join us in a minute.”
There was much scuffling as men
THE submarine passed out of the entered the torpedo room. The air became
harbor at a very slow rate of speed, with at close. There was some coughing. One of the
least half a dozen men on the conning-tower prisoners created a commotion, and ended
bridge, arguing about which were channel by getting himself knocked senseless.
lights. There was profanity in profusion when Then abrupt silence fell. It was the
they nearly ran down a buoy. kind of silence that reigns in a radio
Doc Savage heard two men come broadcasting studio the instant before the
into the adjacent compartment. He chanced program goes on the air.
a brief glance and saw that they carried “The chief!” said Fuzzy. “I guess you
Monk and Ham’s two pets, Habeas Corpus all know who he is.”
and Chemistry. Evidently the animals had “I’m here to have a little talk with you
been captured before the submarine sailed. men,” said a new, authoritative voice.
When the submarine was well out Doc chanced lifting the canvas a bit
into the open water, Fuzzy came below. He again. But the leader was standing where it
called several of his men and they all started was impossible to see him.
for the torpedo room.
It was a bad moment for Doc
Savage, for it seemed they had discovered THE submarine engines made a
him. But no. They merely wanted to talk in good deal of noise, and there was vibration.
the torpedo room, because it was the Electric fans whined, sucking air down
quietest place aboard the submarine. through the ventilators, and generators and
Doc Savage concealed himself compressors added to the general din.
under the pile of canvas. He could overhear, “Close that door,” the leader
but could not see, for there had been no time directed.
to locate the tear through which he had It was quieter, but not a whole lot,
observed proceedings earlier. after the door was closed.
“Bring the crew of the submarine in “We have all five of Doc Savage’s
here!” Fuzzy ordered loudly. assistants aboard as prisoners,” said the
There ensued much activity. Doc. leader. “We have, also, the girl, Pat Savage,
listening, could tell by the sounds that bound and the other girl, India Allison, together with
men were being carried into the control room the stupid ignoramus who is her boss, Lieber
and arrayed along the wall. These men Von Zidney.”
swore heartily at their captors. There was a pause while a man
Doc took a chance and lifted a opened the door, put his head in, and said,
corner of the canvas. He could just barely “We’re clear of the island. What course, sir?”
glimpse two of the prisoners. “East by south,” directed Fuzzy.
They wore the uniforms of submarine “That O. K., chief?”
men, U. S. navy. “We want to take the submarine into
“That’s all of ‘em,” some one said deep water and submerge her,” replied the
finally. leader. “Then we will expel these navy men
“All right,” Fuzzy snapped. “Get through the torpedo tubes in water so deep
everybody in here that’s not needed to run that the pressure will kill them. Not one of the
this pigboat.” sub crew will reach the surface alive.”
“What about the other prisoners, Doc “That’ll be simple,” said Fuzzy. “But
Savage’s crowd and—” what about the other prisoners?”
“The Doc Savage crowd will be shot reef,” the leader said, after the momentary
when we are at sea, the bodies weighted and confusion had subsided. “This we could do
cast overside,” said the leader. because our man happened to be steering
“Well,” grunted Fuzzy, “that takes a the leading destroyer. The other ships ran on
weight off my chest.” the reef because they were following in the
It sounded at this point as if every radio beam sent back by the leader.”
one prepared to leave, thinking the He paused and laughed.
proceedings were ended. “The men who told the story about a
“Wait!” rapped the leader. “I have a thing pulling the destroyer off her course did
few additional words. What I have to say now a very good job,” he continued. “That was
is intended to restore your confidence and exactly what we wanted. Later, when it was
show you how absolutely foolproof is our necessary to drown Lieutenant Bowen Toy,
scheme to make a hundred million dollars.” the men who drowned him told a convincing
Silence fell in the torpedo room. story about something invisible being the
Silence as far as the men were concerned, actual killer. Another excellent bit of lying.”
although the machinery kept on making The waves sloshing over the deck
noise. made distinct gurgling noises.
“My plan started out as a plot for “And so it went,” continued the
revenge upon the United States navy for leader. “Our men struck in U. S. navy ships
disgracing me,” said the leader. “But as it all over the world, running them into reefs,
progressed, I thought of the hundred million.” causing collisions, opening seacocks and
He paused to laugh. It was a causing them to sink. In each case, the work
perfectly intelligent, but greedily fierce, laugh. was attributed to some fantastic force.”
“I started working almost five years There was general laughter.
ago,” the leader continued. “I assembled my “Oh, it was excellent acting,” the
men, picking them carefully, and got them to leader said grandly. “The unfortunate point
enlist in the navy until I had men in every was that Lieutenant Toy had managed to get
branch of the service. By careful an inkling of what was going on, and was
maneuvering, my men managed to get instrumental in getting Doc Savage involved.
themselves stationed in strategic positions. That was unlucky. We had to fight Doc
They became steersmen on battleships and Savage.”
destroyers. They became aviators. Some of The mention of the name of the man
them even became airship men.” of bronze brought silence. Evidently it was
He paused while Fuzzy went to the not a pleasant subject for thought.
door and ordered the course changed a little. We locked the controls of the
The submarine was beginning to heave and dirigible Zephyr and disconnected the
roll to a marked degree, indicating she was throttle-closing controls,” continued the
heading out into the open sea. leader. “When they opened the throttles, the
“Everything,” continued the leader, ship dived, and crashed before they could
“was done according to probably the most stop it.”
clever and audacious plan ever organized.” He laughed.
He paused for effect. “Perhaps our best touch was in
“The plan,” he continued, “of making hooking this submarine to Doc Savage’s
the navy think a foreign power with a plane and dragging it beneath the surface,
mysterious force, capable of drawing ships after we had captured the bronze man’s
out of their course, was wrecking the United assistants,” he said. “That touch, I am sure,
States fleet.” completely confused Savage.”
He paused again. The sub rolled more heavily.
“The deceit has gone over,” he said. “The navy, I am sure, is absolutely
“I think we have fooled every one.” convinced that there is a mysterious force,”
the chief resumed. “It is now up to us to sell
them the protective device, the sale of which
THE submarine gave a pitch, and is really behind this whole plot.”
several men staggered about, off balance.
“Our first gesture was to maneuver
the grounding of the five destroyers on a
THERE was a commotion on the will make it seem that the mysterious
floor, among the bound sailors. This was invisible monster or force drew the
stopped with a series of cruel blows. submarine to its destruction.
“Doc Savage put quite a crimp in the “Then we will keep the craft in a
sale of the protective device when he stole hiding place, to take away the money, and to
the thing and gave the navy a box full of furnish a method of escape should we need
junk,” said Fuzzy. it. As for the crew, the ordinary navy men, we
“True,” admitted the leader. “That shall soon be in water deep enough—”
was a smart move on the bronze man’s part. One of the men sitting on Doc lifted
But he did not learn that the actual contents the canvas and looked at the bronze man’s
of the box he had seized, the genuine box, face.
were as worthless as the one he had
substituted for it. He did not learn that thanks
to the precautions we had taken against the Chapter XX
box being opened or X rayed.” TUMULT UNDER THE SEA
“How are we gonna convince the
navy the protector is really worth a hundred WHAT happened next probably
million?” Fuzzy wanted to know. “That’s escaped a number of the men in the torpedo
what’s worryin’ the boys.” room. Some of them saw the bronze man,
“And it is to allay your fears that I am and realized he had been discovered in their
going over the whole affair so thoroughly,” midst, but others didn’t.
the master mind replied. “We will free Doc made no effort to scramble from
Captain Blackstone Toy, who will explain that under the canvas. That might have meant
Doc Savage stole the genuine device.” getting entangled with it. He simply exploded,
“What about the girl, India Allison, heaving the canvas up and throwing it at
and that cluck, Lieber Von Zidney?” Fuzzy Fuzzy and the others. The canvas filled the
asked. air like a great cloud, and they ducked wildly
“They will be used as was intended from instinct, and became confused.
all along,” replied the leader. “Guilt has been In a flash, Doc was out of the
pointed at them. They cannot prove they are torpedo room.
innocent, cannot prove that we have had a Fuzzy and the others fought the
man following them around with a gun for canvas off their heads and looked around
days, forcing their every move. And, too, wildly.
thanks to certain clever stunts we have “I musta dreamed I saw ‘im!” Fuzzy
pulled, they actually think there is a foreign gulped, not discovering Doc Savage.
power with a mysterious force machine. They “You did in a cat’s eye!” a voice
do not suspect the truth.” snarled. “He went aft!”
Fuzzy said, “I guess maybe we will They charged aft, through crew
get that hundred million after all.” quarters, and storerooms, and into the
The other said, “There is not the control room.
slightest doubt of it. We already have the “He’s been here,” Fuzzy said, looking
entire navy of the United States shaking in at two senseless men lying on the control-
their boots.” room floor. He glanced upward at the open
“But what about Doc Savage?” conning-tower hatch. “Maybe he went out
“That, admittedly, is a dangerous and jumped overboard!”
point. First, we must find the fellow—” A man screamed near the stern.
At this precise moment, which might “Nope,” Fuzzy groaned. “No such
be called the dramatic one, the sub gave a luck!”
much more violent roll than ordinary, and two The man who had screamed was a
men sat down on Doc Savage. guard who held a pistol, but who had had no
The bronze man did not move. chance to use it. Doc Savage took the man
The leader did not finish his by the arms first, and got the gun, then
statement about Doc Savage, but, instead, grasped the fellow’s neck, and the man
said, “It is fortunate we had a good number of became unconscious. He was a thin man
our own men in the crew of this submarine,
so that we could seize it without difficulty. We
and he made a rattling sound falling on the compartment. There was a box of tools near
steel floor-plates. the door.
There was yelling behind the bronze Doc and his men stood in the door
man, a series of enraged howls. and threw wrenches and hammers until they
“Monk, Ham!” Doc yelled. had taken the engine room, except for one
“In here!” piped Monk’s voice from a man, whom they had to pull out from behind
cabin to the right. a generator, where he tried to hide. They
Doc wrenched at the dogs, got the knocked him senseless.
door open, and not only Monk came tumbling They got Pat inside and closed the
out, but also Ham, Renny, Long Tom, Johnny engine-room door. Bullets smashed against
and Pat. the door from the direction of the control
Pretty India Allison and Lieber Von room. None of the lead got through.
Zidney, the latter with his big mouth open “This type of submarine can be
and frightened, showing all of his small teeth, handled completely from inside the engine
also appeared. room,” Doc Savage said. “We can submerge
“Ach!” gasped Von Zidney. “Vat a her, and when the water comes in the
cruel world, this one!” conning-tower hatch, they will very soon
Doc said sharply, “We’ll take the decide to give up.”
engine room.” “But they’ll close the conning-tower
Monk scooped up the gun which the hatch!” Monk exploded.
guard had dropped when Doc seized him. “Not,” Doc said, “if we can work a
“No shooting if it can be helped!” Doc trick on them.”
warned. The bronze man scrambled aft to the
“Sure,” grinned Monk. “This is just for engine-room hatch. It was closed, and he got
sound effects!” With which he fired the it open, then fished about in a locker and
weapon and missed, by not more than two came up with a length of rope.
inches, shooting through the forehead a man “Won’t do,” he decided, and tossed
who came charging from the direction of the the rope aside. “Get ready for a crash dive!”
control room. He scrambled up through the hatch.
In some manner, Pat had managed The deck was slippery. The sub, taking one
to get ahead of Doc Savage in the direction wave after another, was wet. Doc worked
of the engine room. Doc had delayed briefly forward and found one of the lockers which
to warn Monk, who frequently became so held the wire ropes used for mooring
enthusiastic as to forget about Doc’s rule purposes. They were stiff, heavy.
against taking life, even under the most He tried to make as little noise as
extreme circumstances. possible, and hauled the rope out of the
Pat was only a yard or so from the locker. He worked forward, reached the
engine-room door. conning-tower hatch, and listened. There
Captain Blackstone Toy came out. was a lot of cursing and shouting below, but
“Help us!” Pat shrilled at him. “We’re no one had thought of coming up to see what
trying to retake the submarine!” was happening on deck.
Captain Blackstone Toy swung a Doc took a turn over the conning-
terrific blow which knocked pretty Pat Savage tower hatch with the wire-rope end. He drew
senseless. it tight, then tied it—a granny knot so that it
would be hard to untie.
It was a stiff job, the tying of the wire
THE next instant, Doc hit Captain line, even for his corded muscles. He had a
Blackstone Toy. The blow could be heard suspicion that it would take several men
over all of the engine room, and the engine some time, or a cutting torch, to get the wire
room was not quiet. Captain Toy went up in rope off so the hatch could be closed.
the air and came down and lay like a big rag They heard him toward the end. He
in the corridor. dived back toward the engine-room hatch.
The men in the engine room were “Crash dive!” he barked, as he
perspiring and hot, and were not wearing dropped down the hatch.
their guns, because there was not much Monk, an experienced pigboat man,
room for guns in the cramped engine put the sub into a dive with the engine-room
controls, which he had disconnected from the “I can’t feel sorry for that guy,” Renny
master controls in the control room. rumbled grimly. “He kept right on working
Doc got the hatch shut then ran to with the gang that killed his own brother.”
the bulkhead door admitting to the forward They did not find any more bodies
part of the submersible. that night.
“Give up, and we’ll keep you from About dawn, Pat came to her
drowning!” he called. senses. She had been, she admitted,
Profanity answered. That and shots. knocked as thoroughly senseless as at any
Then men yelled. They screamed, as men time in her eventful life. She looked terrible;
will scream when they feel cold death she admitted she felt it.
washing down upon their heads and “I don’t know, Doc,” she admitted
shoulders and slopping at their shanks. gloomily. “Maybe you were right all along
There was more shooting. about these little parties of yours being too
Finally, a man beat at the door. rough for a woman.”
“Don’t drown us!” he squawled. Which, coming from Pat herself, was
“Please! They’re gone!” proof she did feel terrible.
“BRING her up,” Doc directed. THE newspapers got the story. Doc
Monk sent the submarine back to the Savage let the newspapers get the idea that
surface. They ran the bilge pumps for a time, he had a list of the entire gang of plotters.
then opened the bulkhead door. Some water During the next day, there were
came in, but not much more than enough to scores of desertions from the U. S. navy.
wash inside some men who had their hands Only by these desertions did the authorities
in the air. know who had been involved in the plot, and
They were the sailors, the men who who had not.
had been seized by the plotters. “This gang had undermined our
“What happened?” Doc demanded. navy,” said a high official, “more thoroughly
“They decided to swim for it!” gasped than we believed any foreign power could.
the sailor. “They’re all gone! They managed This will be a lesson to us. Suppose it had
to get overboard. Let the control room fill with been a foreign power! We will be more
water, and when it stopped coming in, they careful!”
swam out.” And they were. It became very
“The durned ignoramuses!” Monk difficult to enlist in the U. S. Navy.
grunted. “Didn’t they know they’d drown?” Some days later, a number of bodies
“They have very little chance in this had drifted up on the coast, an indication that
sea, even if they did reach the surface,” Doc most of the plotters had drowned.
said. “We must be miles from land by now.” There was quite a hullabaloo when
“I guess they didn’t care to stick the body of August Atlanta Braun was found.
around and face a surefire chance of getting For, thanks to the newspapers, the
hung,” replied the sailor. “After all, they’re American public now knew that August
guilty of murdering every man who has been Atlanta Braun had been behind the whole
drowned or otherwise killed in all of these thing.
naval disasters.”
Doc set Monk to work attempting to
revive Pat, who was still senseless from “BRAUN sure was a clever fellow.”
Captain Toy’s blow. Going on deck, the This came from Monk, who had been reading
bronze man directed the sub put about, and the facts concerning the finding of Braun’s
used the searchlights in an effort to pick up body. “He almost had navy big shots
swimmers. believing they were seeing things and that
There was practically no chance of some nation was knocking at our navy. In
finding any one in the darkness and the high fact, I almost fell for it myself.”
seas. “Nothing remarkable about that!”
But, strangely enough, they did find snapped Ham from his chair. “With a brain
one body in a life preserver. It was Captain like yours, a child could convince you the
Blackstone Toy. He had drowned. earth is flat!”
There was a roar from Monk as he

bounced from his chair. “You fashion plate!”
he howled. “I’ll make you see things in a
moment, as soon as I get my hands on you!”
Monk was going to regret that last
crack.
THE END
MAD EYES
Something was wrong. People who were otherwise sane and normal were
beset by the strangest, weirdest sights. Eyes which functioned normally, all of a
sudden changed in their task and almost drove people crazy. Even Doc and his
companions fell prey to this strange malady—and all the things that went with it,
until a smashing climax cleared eyes and atmosphere of foul schemes!
Read the complete novel in the next issue of
DOC SAVAGE MAGAZINE

TEN CENTS—AT ALL NEWS STANDS

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THE TERROR IN THE NAVY

A Doc Savage Adventure By Kenneth Robeson

Annihilation strikes at the United States Navy fleet—

The Terror in the Navy

Chapter I The other hissed, “I know it! But

STOP GO TO APARTMENT OF MY immediately take a sounding. The cry of the

The man’s superior officer sprang

Chapter III walked to the door. He passed into another

PATRICIA SAVAGE opened her gold

NAVY PLANE CARRIER WRECKED! Renny had difficulty pitching his

“Only one explanation,” Renny said. At last they found Johnny’s

“India!” he called. “Our friend Fuzzy

Working with speed, Fuzzy lifted “That makes it even simpler,” he

Doc touched a corner of the note to the flames. It gave off

“Not that he had told me,” India

DOC SAVAGE reached the house,

Doc Savage studied Captain overheard talking,” said Blackstone Toy.

Chapter XI NATURE, AND NOTHING ON THE SEA,

DOC let go the harness. There was

DOC saw it hit. The manner of its

“I think,” said Captain Blackstone UNKNOWN NATION WIPING OUT U. S.

feathered creature as yet uncatalogued by

The thing became a mêlée. Fists hit Doc. He struck back.

“You stay outside and watch, to “No,” Doc said.

depths—water seemed to have no effect on Monk waited a few moments, until

Doc Savage remained perfectly Doc carefully extricated himself from

There was a roar from Monk as he

Read the complete novel in the next issue of

DOC SAVAGE MAGAZINE

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