087 - The Boss of Terror

THE BOSS OF TERROR
A Doc Savage Adventure By Kenneth Robeson

Originally published in DOC SAVAGE Magazine May 1940
A Complete Book-length Novel
by KENNETH ROBESON
Doc Savage and his pals fight
creepiness with brains and brawn.
Chapter I “The stork that brought you,” he

THE LOONS said, “should have been arrested for
smuggling dope.”
THE ambulance was traveling about The driver grinned. He looked
fifty when it took a corner and missed a startlingly like an ape when he grinned—
lamp-post scarcely more than a quarter of and before he grinned, for that matter.
an inch. The ambulance lined out on a
The passenger spoke to the driver. straight stretch through the park and the
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speedometer climbed up to seventy. The THERE was more noise than

siren made a lot of cat-on-the-fence noise. damage, really, although there was some
The passenger—he rode in the front shock, too—enough to pile ambulance
seat with the driver—was wasp-waisted driver and passenger against the
and wide-shouldered, with an orator’s windshield, and enough to knock the
mouth. He wore striped afternoon trousers, uniform cap off the limousine driver.
a cut-away coat, a pearl-colored vest. In The driver got out of the limousine
other words, he was dressed fit to kill. He obviously with just one intention, which was
balanced a neat black cane on his knees. to fight. He looked as if he could give an
The driver yanked the wheel. The account of himself, being practically seven
ambulance took a corner on two wheels, feet tall and built along the symmetrical
tires howling in complaint. proportions of a circus acrobat. It was a
“From the way you drive this case of no particular part of him being big—
ambulance,” the passenger said, “one he was all big. He jerked open the
would think you owned it.” ambulance door.
The driver snorted. “Well,” he said, “Come out of there, you mutts!” he
“nobody knows we stole it—yet.” ordered angrily.
Nothing more was said for some The ambulance driver and his
time. The ambulance dived out of Central dapper companion sat perfectly still,
Park, which occupies the middle part of glancing at each other out of the corners of
New York City like a great lung, and veered their eyes, but not saying anything.
sharply north on the street that runs along “Come out!” The giant limousine
the west side of the park, Central Park driver grabbed the ambulance door and
West. shook it—shook the whole ambulance.
The driver came near being as wide “Come out, you skulls!” he bellowed. “I’m
as he was tall. Standing on his feet, he gonna ruin you both!”
could scratch his knees with his fingers From the corner of his mouth, the
without bending over. There was a good dapper man whispered, “Gosh, he’s big,
deal of reddish hair, of the nature of rusty isn’t he?”
shingle nails, on all exposed parts of his Also from the side of his mouth, the
person. His face was something to frighten ambulance driver agreed, “He wants to play
babies with; yet babies usually weren’t rough, too.”
frightened by him. There was something “So you won’t come out, eh?” roared
pleasantly fascinating about his the limousine pilot. “O. K. I’ll take you out.”
homeliness. He reached in and got the dapper
The driver pointed with one hand. passenger by one leg. The well-dressed
“Isn’t that it?” he asked. man yelled, “Wait, you fool! I wasn’t driving
He was indicating a limousine—a this thing!” This remonstration did no good;
long black limousine that looked like at he was dragged out anyway. “Run into me,
least seven thousand dollars recently will you!” said the giant. He knocked the
invested. It was empty, except for the dapper man flat on his back in the street.
chauffeur. He said, “That’ll teach you.” He reached in
“That’s it,” the dapper man admitted. and grabbed the apish man by the leg.
“Sure it’s it,” said the driver. “I told “Now wait a minute,” said the apish
you we could head it off by cutting through man hastily. “Let’s talk this thing over.”
the park.” “Talk, hell! You ran into me. What’s
“The way you’ve been driving,” there to talk about?”
complained the other, “you could have “People run into other people every
headed off Eddie Rickenbacker in an day. What’s there to argue—”
airplane.” “They don’t run into them on
This seemed to enrage the purpose. Not into me, anyway.”
ambulance driver. He gave the wheel a The limousine chauffeur then hit the
jerk. The ambulance crashed into the ambulance driver with his fist. The
limousine. There was a great deal of noise. ambulance driver staggered, but not as
much as might have been expected. He
emitted a howl, the noise being somewhat
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx THE BOSS OF TERROR xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 3
like the sound made by a bull when one of ambulance drivers or the pilots of extremely
his horns is being sawed off by a cowboy. swanky and shiny limousines, so he had
A fight ensued. If the street had not remained in the background. He thought
been paved with asphalt, the brawl would the thing was rather evenly matched. He
doubtless have raised quite a cloud of dust. liked a good fight. But now he thought he’d
Soon the big limousine chauffeur hit the better stop it.
pavement alongside the dapper ambulance “Hey, you!” he barked. “What’s
passenger, and sat there, his breath going on here?”
temporarily knocked out. Monk and Ham glanced at each
“Hit him, Ham!” puffed the apish other. The glances were not happy.
ambulance driver. “There was an accident,” Monk said.
“Nothing doing,” said the dapper “Yes,” Ham added. “And we came to
man. “He might hit back.” get the injured man. We just put him in the
“Fine help you are!” said the apish ambulance.”
man. He took in a deep breath, then rushed “You’re not kidding me,” the officer
his dazed opponent. He received a left said. “I saw the whole thing.”
hook between the eyes that made him He was a large, square officer,
stagger back. He rushed again. This time, general color reddish. He looked as if he
he clipped the big limousine chauffeur on might have been partially constructed of the
the jaw, dazing him and knocking him roots of oak trees. He was twirling a club
down. almost as long as his arm. There was a
“Nice going, Monk,” said the dapper noticeable bulge under one of his coat tails
Ham. “Too bad you didn’t have a sledge that was probably a revolver.
hammer.” “It was this way, officer,” said Monk,
The apish Monk puffed for breath moved by inspiration. “The poor fellow is
and surveyed the size of his momentarily demented. His mind has been affected.
stupefied opponent. Probably it is the heat—”
“I know what elephant hunters feel “It’s been cold for a week,” the
like now,” he remarked. officer said.
The dapper man nodded. “The heat of nervous strain,” said
“You’ll know what a hamburger feels Monk, “caused by driving in this New York
like—if he gets up once more,” he said. “I traffic. At any rate, his mind isn’t right. We
don’t believe you can knock him down were going to take him to the hospital for
again.” observation.”
“Help me throw him in the back of Ham nodded emphatically. “Yes,
the ambulance,” Monk ordered. that’s it. We think he should be observed.”
“Not me. He’s your bird.” “He’s worth observing,” the cop
“Give me a hand, or I’ll ram that said. “Particularly, the way he swings a
cane down your throat.” right hook.”
The apish man and the dapper man “His mind—”
laid hold of the arms of the limousine driver. “There’s nothing wrong with his
The latter was still dazed, but he could get mind,” the policeman growled. “Anybody
words out, after a fashion. would get mad the way you two fellows ran
“What’re you gonna do?” he into his car. Probably his boss will give him
gasped, trying to struggle. hell.”
“Why, we’re going to give you a Monk and Ham looked hurt.
loving kiss,” Monk said. “Officer, I’m afraid you don’t believe
They heaved the big limousine us,” Ham muttered.
chauffeur into the back of the ambulance At this point, there was a violent
and locked the doors. beating on the rear doors of the ambulance.
“Let me out of here!” a voice
squalled.
A POLICEMAN arrived. The cop twirled his club ominously
The cop had seen the whole thing, and scowled at Monk and Ham.
but it happened that he, as an individual, “Turn him loose,” he ordered.
did not hold any excessive love for either “But—”
DOC SAVAGE AND HIS PALS
Never before has there been such a ever turned out; a faultless dresser, and
group of altruistic adventurers as Doc as adept with his ever-present sword
Savage and his five companions. Raised cane as he is with words. Monk, his
from the cradle for his task in life, Clark "sparring" partner, though he looks like a
Savage, Jr., goes from one end of the gorilla, is actually a most learned
world to another, righting wrongs, helping chemist—Lieutenant Colonel Andrew
the oppressed, liberating the innocent. Blodgett Mayfair, one of the foremost
With limitless wealth at his command if he chemists in the world. Renny, or Colonel
needs it, Doc has the best of scientific John Renwick, is a leading engineer. And
equipment and supplies. He maintains his his huge fists enjoy knocking through
New York headquarters as a central point, wooden panels. He likes a fight better
but in addition has his Fortress of Solitude than a slide rule. Long Tom, the electrical
at a place unknown to anyone, where he wizard, and Johnny, the geologist and
goes at periodic intervals to increase his archaeologist, complete the group.
knowledge and concentrate. His "college" Johnny is William Harper Littlejohn; Long
in upper New York is a scientific institution Tom is Major Thomas J. Roberts.
to which he sends all captured crooks, for All of this group are famous in their
there, through expert treatment, they are own name, yet they find more joy in
made to forget all of their past and start helping others than in adding to their own
life anew. wealth. Under the guidance of Doc
Fighting these battles with Doc Savage, they form a perfect band of
Savage are his five companions. Ham is adventurers whose lives are one thrill
Brigadier General Theodore Marley after another.
Brooks, the most astute lawyer Harvard
“Turn him loose!” The policeman “You want to prefer charges against
fished out a pair of handcuffs. “The Clancys these two?” the policeman asked him
don’t tell you twice. Either you turn him hopefully.
loose, or—” He twirled the bracelets “I’ll get ‘em!” the driver growled
suggestively. ominously.
“I’ll let him out,” Monk said with “You can have them arrested,” the
haste. cop explained.
“And I’ll get ready to run,” Ham said “Yes, and we can have him
uneasily. arrested, too,” Ham said. “It’s a horse of
Monk unlocked the rear doors. The one color and a donkey of the same.”
limousine chauffeur stumbled out onto the The officer scowled at Ham. “How
pavement. One of his eyes had turned come you know so much?”
black—it was remarkably black, considering “I’m a law—” Ham swallowed. “I
the short time that had elapsed—and there studied law one time.”
was some damp red fluid on his fists, as if The limousine chauffeur blocked out
he had skinned them. He appeared mad his fists and glowered at Monk and Ham.
enough to give off sparks.
the wheel before the accident. There had

been a change in limousine drivers.
Chapter II
THE HOUSE OF WORRIED FOLK
THE limousine was composed
about fifty percent of hood, the power plant
being a sixteen-cylinder motor that was
constructed with the care of a fine watch, or
so the manufacturer claimed. It ran very
quietly.
The chauffeur took the first
opportunity to turn into a side street. He
stopped. Producing a handkerchief and a
small mirror, he repaired his appearance.
He wiped off the black eye. It was a
“I’ll get you guys!” he said. “You just smudge of dark grease paint.
wait!” He mopped up the red stains on his
Having rid himself of that threat, he fists. These were a crimson-dyed syrup
stamped over and climbed into his which did not leave permanent
machine. discoloration.
“Hey!” called the cop. “Don’t you The next stop was at a place which
want to prefer charges?” made a specialty of quick body repairs.
“Go jump in the lake!” the chauffeur “Had a little accident,” the chauffeur
said. explained. “Can you fix it up?”
The limousine had not been greatly He stood around while they put a
damaged by the collision—there was a thick coat of grease on the bent fender to
somewhat crumpled fender, but the wheels keep the paint from cracking, then went to
and the chassis were intact. work with a small straightening machine
The chauffeur drove off in the and returned the fender to an appearance
limousine. very close to its former one.
The cop stalked around to the back “Thanks,” said the driver. “What do I
and looked into the ambulance, and started owe you?”
when he discovered a figure lying on a “A dollar eighty— Say, you’re sure a
stretcher inside, swathed in white sheets. big guy, ain’t you?”
“You got a patient in this thing!” he “Yes.” The driver paid up and drove
barked in astonishment. the limousine to the home of John R. Smith,
“Oh, him,” Monk said. “He’s just an which was where it belonged. It was John
emergency case we was rushing to the R. Smith’s limousine.
hospital.” Out-of-town visitors to New York
“Emergency case!” The cop looked frequently walked along upper Fifth Avenue
blank. Then he gave Monk a poke with his and mistook the John R. Smith home for a
billy club. “You idiot! Get in that thing and museum, a bank, or even a modernistic
get going. The poor feller might have died church. Native New Yorkers often made the
while this tomfoolery was going on.” same error. It was a white marble edifice—
Monk and Ham climbed in the ”edifice” was the word—on the more
ambulance and disappeared up the street. swanky section of the Avenue.
The cop stared after them. The cop The chauffeur drove into the garage.
was well satisfied with himself. He inspected himself in the small mirror
Of course, the officer was not aware before he left the machine. The glass
that the present driver of the limousine was showed him a dark-skinned face, furry dark
not the same chauffeur who had sat behind eyebrows, crow-black hair, and a scar—it
was a long, thick scar that arched down
from the corner of his left eye almost to the “I’ll find John R. Smith and save you
edge of his nose—which was his most the trouble,” he said. “I don’t believe you
distinguishing feature. belong in this house at all.”
He made sure that the collodian He walked away from the young
compound out of which he had woman with an air of determination. But he
manufactured the scar was sticking tightly did not go far. He stopped around the
to his skin. Satisfied it was, he entered the nearest corner, and looked back cautiously.
house. The well-dressed young woman was
The interior of the house was a in flight. She literally ran out through the
miniature of Grand Central Station—not so front door and fled down the street.
miniature, at that. It was a long way
between pieces of furniture, and the
furniture was huge. THE chauffeur accosted the butler,
It was a house full of strange-acting asking, “You let that girl in?”
people. The chauffeur became aware of “Why, yes.“
that by degrees, his first encounter being “What name did she give?”
with the young woman who was walking “Annie Spain, I believe. Yes—Annie
backward. Spain.”
The young woman came down a “Ever see her before?”
hallway. She was on her tiptoes; also she “No,” said the butler, “I haven’t.”
was moving backward. Her behavior “Then how come she got in?”
seemed strange, almost eerie, for a “The master,” replied the butler
moment; then the chauffeur realized she stiffly, “seemed to be expecting her. He told
was retreating from someone and did not me to show her in, which I did.” The butler
wish to be seen or heard. lost his formal manner, and inquired, “What
The chauffeur reached out rather the hell business is it of yours? You don’t
brazenly and took her arm. The young belong in this part of the house. Go back to
woman—it would have been natural for her the garage.”
to emit a frightened yelp, but she didn’t— The chauffeur said, “Keep your shirt
turned her head and looked at him coldly. on,” and walked away from the butler. But
She also moved one hand close to the he did not return to the garage. Instead, he
large handbag she was carrying. sauntered through the house. He carried
“What do you want?” she asked. his uniform cap in his hand, and seemed
“I was afraid you might stumble,” the greatly interested in everything.
chauffeur said mildly. Finally he found the electrician.
“Get out of this part of the house!” The electrician was a rather
the young woman said. “You’re a servant. scrawny-looking fellow who had a
You don’t belong here.” complexion that would have blended well
She was a slender young woman with unbaked dough. He was standing on a
with dark hair, charcoal-black eyes and a chair in the west-wing library, tinkering with
remarkably fine-textured skin of olive tint. It the mounted moose head that was over the
was almost as if her skin was made of silk. fireplace—that is, he was doing this up until
Her clothing—neat blue-serge street suit, he heard the chauffeur coming. Then he
high-heeled black Oxfords and a tricky little gave a great jump and reached one of the
black hat—was obviously expensive. She air conditioning controls, with which he
was a completely smart person, and very began to fumble.
much an eyeful. The big chauffeur walked up and
“Do you belong here?” the chauffeur stood beside him.
asked. “Is the moose head air-conditioned,
“What?” too?” he asked.
“Do you belong here?” “I was just looking at it,” the
“You insulting dog!” said the young electrician said. “Big one, ain’t it? Good job
woman. “I’ll find John R. Smith and have of mounting, too.”
you discharged.” Nothing was said for several
The chauffeur grinned. moments, during which interval there was
an air of stiffness in the room.
“Don’t you recognize me, Long JOHN R. SMITH was one of the
Tom?” the chauffeur asked suddenly. industrial powers of the United States—
The electrician gave a start, then more properly, of the North and South
stared unbelievingly. Americas—and therefore frequently in trade
“Good grief—no!” he exploded. magazines and confidential reports
“Say, that disguise is all right.” emanating from the New York and Buenos
“It fooled the butler, so it seems that Aires stock exchanges, although on the
it might get by.” other hand neither his pictures nor news
“I didn’t know you.” about his personal doings were often seen
The chauffeur pointed at the moose in the daily newspapers, this last being true
head. “What were you doing over there?” not so much because he was a modest
“Rigging a microphone in the ear of man, but rather for the reason that too
the moose,” Long Tom explained. “Makes a much newspaper publicity does very little
first-class spot for it. The ear of this moose for exceptionally rich men other than set
was acoustically designed by nature for the them up as a target for moochers and skin-
purpose of picking up sound. With that game artists. John R. Smith was certainly
microphone deep in the ear, and the wires not modest. No man could be as rich as he
run under the moose hair and through a had become and be truly modest. To get as
hole in the wall—there’s a closet nobody much money as John R. Smith had, you
uses in the back, and I’m taking the lead- needed to be convinced in your heart that
out through that—I should be able to make you were a greater organizer than
a phonograph recording of everything that Napoleon and gifted with unparalleled
anybody says in this room.” courage.
“Nobody suspects you?” John R. Smith was more often
“Why should they? I’m supposed to called Radiator Smith. Almost no one,
be checking over the air-conditioning except the people who worked for him,
installation.” called him anything else. Persons in his
“How many rooms have you wired employ were afraid to call him Radiator
for eavesdropping?” Smith.
“About half of them. The ones they But Radiator Smith he was. He was
use the most. This is the last one I intend to Radiator Smith in the John Smith Club to
wire.” which he belonged. The John Smith Club
The chauffeur was silent a moment. had as members only men whose names
He might have been thinking. were John Smith, and the John Smiths
“Do you know Annie Spain?” he were designated with nicknames according
asked abruptly. to their professions—there was Insurance
“Who’s she?” Long Tom shook his Smith, Bank Teller Smith, Broker Smith,
head. “No, I don’t know anybody by that Sailboat Smith, and a lot of other Smiths in
name.” the John Smith Club. John R. Smith was
“A very pretty dark-haired, dark- Radiator Smith because manufacturing
eyed girl who wears a blue tailored suit so radiators happened to be his principal
plain that it must have cost two hundred business.
dollars.” Radiators made in Radiator Smith’s
“I still don’t know her.” plant were used the world over in
“I see. Have you seen John R. automobiles, airplanes, air-conditioning,
Smith yet?” and in whatever fashion radiators are
“From a distance only.” employed.
“How is he?” Like many rich men, Radiator Smith
“Scared green,” said Long Tom. had a no-good son. The son was named
“Annie Spain is apparently well Maurice, and he and his father were the
acquainted with John R. Smith,” the sole occupants—if one didn’t count thirty-
chauffeur said thoughtfully. seven servants—of the huge mansion on
The two men parted. upper Fifth Avenue. The other Smiths of the
Radiator Smith clan had all passed on to
the other world.
Radiator Smith liked to sit in royal at Doc Savage, explained, “We’ve got
privacy in the south-wing library—this some kind of a crook here.”
library was larger than either the west-wing The butler, Jonas, made no move.
or the north-wing library, and more He opened and shut his mouth, trying to
impressive—during his leisure at home. He speak. He was as pale as a regulation
made sure that he had one hour of leisure ghost is supposed to be, and had been that
each day. He took it as he took his way when he opened the library door.
exercise, without fail. “Master Maurice,” the butler finally
Radiator Smith was sitting in the managed to gasp. “Your son, sir.”
south-wing library with a cigar when the big “What about Maurice?”
chauffeur walked into his presence. “He just died, sir. Under—er—most
Radiator Smith jumped nervously. peculiar circumstances.”
“What do you want?” he demanded.
“I just wanted to let you know we are
on the job,” the chauffeur said. Chapter III
“Job?” Radiator Smith stared. “What THE QUEER DEATH
job?”
“The one you called us in on.” RADIATOR SMITH had had a long
“What?” career as a money chaser during which he
“You telephoned this morning. had ruined quite a number of men
Surely you have not forgotten that soon.” financially—those in close association with
“Say!” Radiator Smith sprang to his the radiator magnate had been known to
feet. “Who the devil are you?” whisper that at least four suicides marked
“Doc Savage,” the chauffeur said. the wake of Radiator Smith’s activities in
Radiator Smith peered at the garnering one of the world’s great
chauffeur. He rubbed his jaw, then fortunes—so the master of wealth should
scratched his head, giving an excellent have been inured to shocks. But he didn’t
picture of a man completely baffled. act like it now.
“I never heard of you,” he said. “Doc All of the muscles in his body
Savage—no, never heard of you.” seemed to jerk rigid and he made a
A trace of a peculiar expression coughing sound. He became pale slowly,
came over Doc Savage’s features. “That’s then the paleness turned to a blue-green
queer,” he said. kind of hue. His breathing resolved into an
In the house—not in this library, nor unpleasant rattling noise, and he upset; he
anywhere near it, but still somewhere in the would have struck the floor quite heavily
house—there was a loud rap of a noise. had Doc Savage not caught him.
Sharp. Somewhat like the sound of a shot, Doc put the man in the handiest
but not quite that either, because it was a chair, began loosening his clothing at the
longer noise. It did not have enough volume tighter points.
to excite either of the two men in the library, “Get the medicine kit,” Doc ordered.
or distract their attention from each other. “I’ll call a doctor,” the butler gasped.
The moneybags suddenly became “Get the medicine kit!” Doc said. “I’m
irritated. He yelled, “What kind of a trick is a doctor.”
this?” The rattled butler yelled again, “I’ll
“Don’t start shouting,” Doc Savage call a doctor!” and dashed out of the room.
said quietly. The electrician—the man named
“Shout? I’ll shout if I want to. Help! Long Tom—dashed into the library,
Police!” He ran for the door. “You’re an demanding, “Hey, what’s going on? What
intruder! I’m going to have you arrested!” ailed that butler?”
Just as Radiator Smith reached the “He was going after a doctor,” Doc
library door, the door opened and the butler explained.
appeared. Radiator Smith collared the “Doctor?” Long Tom stared. “Why,
butler. the damned fool! Don’t he know that you’re
“Jonas!” he shouted. “Get the one of the world’s leading physicians and
police!” He waved a hand over his shoulder surgeons?”
“He was excited,” Doc said. wouldn’t be arrested as thieves. They

Long Tom pointed at Radiator should be back now.”
Smith. “That’s the money magnate “Right,” Long Tom said, and
himself—I’ve seen his pictures. What ails vanished.
him?” Doc Savage concluded it was safe
“Shock,” Doc explained. “His to leave the financier for a few moments.
machinery just stopped working. He will be He left the library, walked down the hall and
all right in a moment—or at least he is not passed two footmen who were carrying a
likely to die.” maid. It appeared the maid had fainted.
“It would be tough if he died,” said Maurice Smith had been a long
Long Tom, “before he could tell us what young man who carried a great deal of
kind of a mystery he wanted us to loose flesh on his body. Too much wine
investigate.” and song and not enough sleep and
“Something changed his mind.” exercise had put pouches under his eyes
“Eh?” that were nearly the size of tobacco sacks.
“He has decided he doesn’t want us He was not in a pretty condition. His
investigating,” Doc explained. “Further than coat was ripped down the back and down
that, he seemed to want me completely out one sleeve. Both of his shoes were off his
of the way—in jail.” feet and lying nearby—the shoes had not
A commotion was growing been unlaced; the laces had burst, as if a
throughout the house, an uproar made by terrific force had wrenched off the shoes.
servants running and shouting to each He sat in a chair—the chair was a
other in alarmed voices. huge thing with arms, so he had not fallen
“What’s the fuss about?” Long Tom out—before a desk. The desk was a heavy
asked. one made of mahogany. The top was
“The butler,” Doc advised, “said ripped across in a gigantic splinter-edged
something about Maurice Smith being furrow which pointed toward Maurice
dead.” Smith’s body. A number of splinters from
“The old man’s son?” the top of the desk lay on the rich-looking
“Yes.” rug.
“From what I’ve heard, it’s small The odor in the air was the most
loss,” Long Tom said. “I’ll go see.” He ran ugly thing in the room—probably it was the
out of the library. cause of the maid’s fainting. It was the one
Doc Savage worked over Radiator smell that men never forget once they have
Smith. As a matter of fact, he was saving encountered it—the odor of a burned man.
the wealthy man’s life. The shock suffered The room was a large one. Doc
had been paralytic in nature and almost immediately noticed a difference from other
complete, inducing a stoppage of heart rooms—the windows were triple; there
function which would have been fatal were three windows in each opening, one
without quick work—very skilled work, too, outside another. Not two, as in the case of
since there was no stimulating adrenalin or storm windows, but three. Also there were
other chemicals immediately at hand. doors, and they were sealed with rubber
Long Tom came back, almost flying. around the edges.
He was wild-eyed. “What kind of a room is this?” Doc
“This is the darnedest killing you asked.
ever heard of!” he exploded. The butler had come in, and he
answered. “It is soundproofed,” he said.
“There are a number of soundproofed
DOC said, “Block the doors. Let rooms in the house. That is to keep out the
nobody in or out. Monk and Ham will be traffic noise of Fifth Avenue.”
hanging around outside. Tell them to help This Doc found to be the truth, so
watch the house.” that the fact the room was soundproofed
“Will Monk and Ham be back yet?” had no significance, other than it explained
“They had to borrow that ambulance why the report heard earlier—the rap of a
in a hurry—no time to rent or hire one. They noise like a shot, but longer—had been no
were to return it at once so that they louder.
“I . . . I saw it huh—happen,” the miniature scale, it was almost fantastically

butler volunteered weakly. complete. The homely Monk—he was one
“Saw what killed him, you mean?” of the world’s greatest industrial chemists, a
Doc asked. fact that his apish looks belied—had
“It was lightning.” lavished a great deal of careful work on
“Lightning?” creation of the laboratory, and he carried it
“Yes.” around with him whenever he was working
Doc Savage went to the windows— with Doc Savage.
they were not open, nor could they be Doc Savage went to work with the
opened without tools. He could peer laboratory. He took samples first. Samples
upward and see a patch of sky in which of the air, of the shattered desk top, of the
there were no clouds. He felt moved to dead man’s clothing. He made tests, both
voice an apparent fact. with litmus paper and with chemical
“There couldn’t have been any sprayings.
lightning,” he said. He was remarkably composed while
“It was lightning,” the butler said. “It he worked. If he found anything interesting,
must have run into the room on something.” his expression gave no indication of the
Doc Savage walked around the fact.
body. There was no life left in it, and no The butler had started staring at
hope of bringing back any; he was sure of Doc Savage. He had discovered Doc was
that. Furthermore, it did look like lightning. not the chauffeur; it had made him intensely
“What makes you so sure it was suspicious.
lightning?” he asked the butler. “I’m going to call the police!” the
“I was almost struck by lightning butler barked suddenly.
once,” the butler said. “I know how it is.” “Why haven’t you called them
“When was that?” already?” Doc asked.
“Ten years ago. No, eleven.” The butler looked surprised and
Doc made a wider tour of the room. sidled toward the telephone.
He paused to moisten his fingers and “Not that phone,” Doc suggested.
carefully removed small colored-glass caps “There might be fingerprints.”
from his eyeballs. These caps had been the The butler left the library.
part of his disguise that made the color of Long Tom had been standing in the
his eyes dark, and they hampered vision door. After the butler departed, the
somewhat. His eyes, after the caps were electrical expert moved over to Doc.
removed, showed a peculiar flake-gold “That butler don’t know who you
color, and were almost hypnotically intense. are,” Long Tom said. “Apparently Radiator
He paused and ran his fingers over Smith didn’t tell anybody he’d called us in.”
the furniture. The furniture—the wooden The electrical wizard pointed at the dead
parts of most of the pieces in the room— man. “What killed him?”
was coated with a thin layer of oil. But not “The butler thinks it was lightning.”
all the furniture showed the film, he Long Tom frowned. He had the
carefully noticed. He smelled the stuff. reputation of being one of the most brilliant
Shellac cut with alcohol; he concluded—the electrical experts who had developed in the
mixture that refinishers used to give old decade since Steinmetz.
varnish new gloss. “Lightning,” he said. “Where in the
“Long Tom!” he called. dickens would lightning come from?
Long Tom appeared. “Nobody in or There’s no lightning outside.”
out yet,” he said. “The doors and windows “That is one of the strange points.”
are watched.” “Well, it would have had to come
Doc said, “Will you go get Monk’s from somewhere. People don’t carry
portable chemical laboratory for me?” around lightning bolts and shoot ‘em at
“Sure.” other people like you shoot bullets.
Long Tom returned in a few minutes Therefore, it wasn’t lightning.”
with the portable laboratory. The thing was “Take a look.”
contained in a case not as large as a small “Eh?”
trunk, and while everything it held was on a “Examine the body.”
With no taste for the job whatever, the apish Monk Mayfair. He had never been
Long Tom began scrutinizing the corpse. known to make a civil remark to Monk, a
But suddenly his interest became so favor which Monk had returned. Theirs was
aroused that he forgot his squeamishness. a strange sort of squabbling—each had
“It was lightning!” he croaked. risked his life to save the other on assorted
“It was,” Doc agreed, “according to previous occasions.
every indication.” Doc Savage followed the man who
There was a commotion in the had slipped out of the Radiator Smith
hall—a machine-gun rattle of footsteps, a mansion.
rasping sound as the runner slid to make The fugitive was long and thin
the turn into the room—and the homely enough to be made out of fence rails, but
Monk popped inside. he had a round face that was rather
“Some guy makin’ his getaway, babylike, except that it was wrinkled. An
Doc!” Monk exploded. “Takin’ a sneak elderly grapefruit would be a fitting article to
through a windowl” compare to his head. His nose was
“You didn’t seize him?” negligible, although his mouth was ample
“Thought you might want to follow and his eyes large and innocent. He wore a
him,” Monk said. suit of coveralls, and carried under one arm
“Nice idea. You fellows stay here a canvas bag that was somewhat shabby.
and explain to the police.” The fugitive crossed Fifth Avenue,
“But how’ll we explain it? We don’t entered Central Park, and quickened his
know what it’s all about.” Monk looked pace enough to show that he had a definite
helpless. destination. He hugged his canvas bag
tighter.
The sky was darkening, for the sun
Chapter IV had descended behind the thicket of
THE FURNITURE POLISHER skyscraper spires across the park to the
west. It would soon be dark. The street
THE man had climbed out of a third- lamps along the park driveways and
story window and slid down a drainpipe, sidewalks had already been turned on. The
thinking he was unobserved, and had nurses and their baby carriages had
crawled across a narrow strip of concrete disappeared for the day. There were a few
driveway to the basement window of an bums with newspapers, looking for soft
adjacent house—this structure was an benches.
apartment building—which he had opened. The man Doc was following traveled
He had vanished into the basement, walked faster. He seemed to be walking about as
through, and eventually found his way out fast as he could.
the front door of the apartment house, as He stopped and bent over beside
innocent as could be. He walked down the the walk, ostensibly to tie his shoe, but
street, careful not to hurry. actually to pick up a rock and put it in the
Doc Savage spotted the man—he canvas bag.
and Ham were idling across the street, at
the edge of Central Park—as soon as the
fellow appeared. DOC SAVAGE got off the sidewalk
“You stay here,” Doc told Ham. “See and kept behind trees. Doc was not a
that Monk doesn’t get in trouble with the conspicuous figure. He was still partially in
police when he tries to explain this.” disguise, of course—his hair was stained a
“I’ll do what I can”—Ham sounded black that contrasted greatly with its usual
hopeful—”to see that the homely mug gets bronze hue, and his skin was also stained
in jail.” so that it was somewhat sallow instead of
Ham Brooks—his full name was being a bronze that nearly matched his
Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks, hair—so he was not recognized. Had he
and he was one of the country’s leading not been thus partially disguised, there was
lawyers, as well as a Doc Savage aid— strong likelihood that some park loiterer
conducted a kind of perpetual quarrel with would have recognized him. The bronze
man was much better known than he would “No. The world is full of Smiths, you
have liked to be. know.”
Newspaper and magazine articles “Yes. What were you doing in
had publicized him as that strange and Radiator Smith’s house?”
remarkable individual who made a business “I was hired to polish the furniture.
of righting wrongs and punishing evildoers I’m a furniture repairman and refinisher. I
who happened to be outside the law. also have a small shop dealing in antique
Doc continued to follow the lathy furniture. The butler—Jonas is his name—
man with the worn canvas bag. will tell you that he hired me.”
The fugitive came to one of the “Why did you flee the house?”
lagoons in Central Park. Oxalate Smith twisted his hands
He threw the bag as far out in the together. His face was frightened.
water as he could pitch it, when he thought “I was polishing the furniture in the
no one was watching. library when Maurice Smith came in. I was
The man went on. Doc let him get a little over half done polishing, but Maurice
out of sight, then waded out in the lagoon— Smith ordered that I leave the room, so
it was not deep; the depth of most of the naturally I did so. He told me I could come
little lakes in Central Park is deceptive— back and finish my polishing later. I went
and located the bag, got it and carried it upstairs to work in one of the guest
ashore. parlors.”
The bag contained the kind of stuff “And then?”
used by a furniture refinisher. Among the “And then I heard that Maurice
contents was a bottle of shellac and a bottle Smith had been murdered in the room
of alcohol. where I had just been working.”
“Murdered? Who told you it was a
murder?”
THE long, thin fugitive gave a “The girl—Annie Spain, she said her
nervous jump when Doc Savage appeared name was.”
from behind a bush and stood suddenly in “Annie Spain?”
his path. Doc said, “Just a minute, if you “She came to me upstairs. She said
don’t mind.” that Maurice Smith had been murdered,
The fugitive stared at the canvas and they were accusing me. She said that
bag—the one he’d thrown into the lake— they had found that potassium cyanide had
which Doc was carrying. been mixed with my furniture polish, and
“What’s the idea?” he demanded that it had killed Maurice Smith. She said
uneasily. they were going to have the police arrest
Doc said, “A little over half the me. She advised me to flee. I . . . well, I
furniture in the room where Maurice Smith was terrified. I did as she suggested. I took
was found dead had been freshly polished my bag along, and threw it in the lagoon in
with shellac and alcohol.” Doc moved the the park, because I didn’t want the police to
canvas bag pointedly. “There is shellac and find the potassium cyanide in my furniture
alcohol in here.” polish.”
“Why, I . . . well—” Doc Savage shook his head slowly.
“Also,” Doc added, “you climbed out “You don’t know much about
of the Smith house through a third-story potassium cyanide, do you?” he asked.
window and slid down a drainpipe.” “I’ve always heard it was a deadly
The man swallowed. “It looks rather poison.”
bad for me, I’m afraid.” “It is. But you could hardly kill a man
“It sure does.” by putting it in polish then applying the
“I shouldn’t have taken anybody’s polish to a piece of furniture which he
advice,” the man muttered. “I should have used.”
stayed.” “Then I didn’t—”
Doc said, “Suppose you tell a “Furthermore, Maurice Smith wasn’t
coherent story.” poisoned. He was killed by what apparently
“My name is Oxalate Smith.” was a bolt of lightning.”
“Smith? Any kin to Radiator Smith?” “But—”
The fugitive gave a nervous jump when Doc

suddenly appeared and stood in his path!
“You come back to the Radiator “No. We don’t know ourselves, do

Smith house,” Doc said. “If your story we?”
checks out, you will probably be turned “Only that Radiator Smith got in
loose.” touch with me by telephone, almost
hysterical with fear, and wanted us to help
him—and be very careful that no one knew
THE police had arrived at the Smith we were helping him.”
mansion and taken over. Monk, Ham and “I didn’t tell the police anything.”
Long Tom were left with nothing to do. Doc said thoughtfully, “I had better
They met Doc Savage and Oxalate Smith remove the rest of this disguise, or the
on the sidewalk in front of the house. police will get suspicious and take up our
“What do the police think?” Doc time asking us a lot of questions for which
asked. we haven’t got answers. Where did you
Monk said, “They don’t know what leave your car, Monk?”
to think. They’re in there trying to figure out “Two blocks south, just off Fifth.”
what killed Maurice Smith. We told ‘em it Doc Savage walked to the car, a
was a lightning bolt, and they threw us out. large sedan which was average-looking in
They think we’re crazy.” size and color—only a close examination
“Did you tell them why we are would show that the machine was armor-
here?” Doc inquired. plated and had bullet-resistant glass—and
climbed into the rear. Monk had returned
his portable chemical laboratory to the come back and never tell anyone I had
machine. Doc mixed various chemicals and been there.”
used the resulting paste to smear his The dapper Ham said, “It looks that
hands, face and hair, after which the dye way.”
rubbed off readily. “Annie Spain must be the killer,”
The natural hue of his skin was a said Oxalate Smith triumphantly. “She must
deep bronze, the product of exposure to have been afraid I could furnish
tropical suns—the fact that his hair was a incriminating evidence against her.”
bronze color only slightly darker gave him a “Can you?”
striking aspect. “I think so,” Oxalate Smith said
He rejoined Monk, Ham, Long Tom grimly. “I saw her sneaking through the
and Oxalate Smith. house, trying to let no one see her. I think
“Anyone found a trace of a girl she was following Maurice Smith.”
named Annie Spain?” he asked. “In that case, it looks bad for Annie
Ham shook his head. Spain,” Ham said.
Oxalate Smith said nervously, “If the Doc announced, “You may go.”
police find out about me fleeing, I’m afraid “I’m free, you mean?” Oxalate Smith
they’ll throw me in jail on general asked.
principles.” “Yes. You appear to be innocent.”
“If we are convinced you are “Gosh, thanks.”
innocent,” Doc said, “we will turn you
loose.”
“But can you—” Chapter V
Monk told Oxalate Smith, “Doc OXALATE SMITH
Savage and the rest of us hold high
honorary commissions on the police force.
AND THE FOOTPAD
If we turn you loose, it’ll be all right.”
Doc suggested, “Monk, you go IT was very dark now. Oxalate
through Oxalate Smith’s canvas bag of Smith’s round, wrinkled face was beaming
furniture-refinishing equipment and see if in the street-light glow as he insisted on
you find any potassium cyanide.” shaking hands with Doc and each of the
The big bronze man himself walked others in turn, before taking his departure.
a block east of Fifth Avenue—this part of “I’m grateful to you. Everlastingly
Fifth Avenue was a little too snazzy to grateful,” Oxalate Smith said. “If you want
permit the presence of anything so plebeian me, you know where my antique shop is. If
as a store—and found a corner cigar place I’m not there, I’ll either be working or out in
with a telephone. the country trying to buy some antiques
He looked in the telephone book. cheap. Anything I can do for you, don’t
There was an Oxalate Smith, Antiques, hesitate to call on me.”
Repairing, all right. It had a Second Avenue “That is nice of you,” Monk said.
address. He called the number. A rather “You’ve done me a great favor. I
coarse voice answered. would have been a fugitive from the law if it
“It is very important that I get hold of hadn’t been for you. Good-by.”
Oxalate Smith,” Doc said. “Good-by.”
“He ain’t here,” said the phone Oxalate Smith walked away,
voice. “He’s refinishin’ some furniture at the heading in an easterly direction toward his
home of Radi—of John R. Smith. You might shop. He walked slowly, holding his
get him there.” handkerchief in his hand and mopping his
“Thank you,” Doc said. face. The relief of which he had just spoken
Monk reported, “No cyanide in that was intense and genuine, and it was the
bag. No poison of any kind.” nervous sweat that follows an intense strain
Oxalate Smith took a deep breath. that he was blotting off his features.
“The truth has just occurred to me, I Madison Avenue and Park Avenue
think,” he said. “That girl, Annie Spain, were brightly lighted—all of the north and
wanted me to flee that house and never south streets in this section were busy and
brilliant ones—as he crossed them. He
continued on crosstown. The cross streets Oxalate Smith made his voice thick
were darker, and as he came nearer the and uncertain, like that of an intoxicated
East River, they took on a slum character. man.
The abrupt change from bright “Jush one lil’ drinky too mush,” he
lights, rich apartments, regal homes, to a said. “All of sudden, feel shleepy.”
dismal slum section was typical of This was perfectly reasonable to the
metropolitan New York, where rich men cop. He encountered drunks every night.
and beggar rub shoulders in the streets, His practice was to throw a scare into them
and their homes do the same thing. so they would go home.
There were unpleasant odors, there “I’m gonna call the wagon,” the
was gloom, and the sidewalk was none too patrolman said, “and toss you in jail.”
smooth. “No, no,” said Oxalate Smith wildly.
The club came out of a darkened “Lemme go home.”
doorway. Maybe it was a fist. Oxalate Smith The cop made a business of
didn’t see it, so he was not sure; later, scowling and considering the point.
when he examined his bruises on his jaw “Beat it,” he said. “If I find you again,
and found several marks that might have I’ll run you
been made by knuckles, he suspected it Oxalate Smith heaved to his feet
was a fist. and stumbled away. He was very glad to
Something came up and hit him escape.
very hard. It was the sidewalk. He’d had enough of the police this
A shadowy form—the individual who night.
had put the slug on Oxalate Smith— “Ugh!” Oxalate Smith groaned, and
unblended from the darkness of the held his stomach. His stomach felt terrible.
doorway, and doubled over the He rounded a corner, slowed up and
unconscious man. Oxalate Smith was lifted. explored in his pockets. The reason for the
He was carried down the sidewalk a few attack puzzled him. But it became clear
yards to an unlighted car and dumped when he discovered his pockets were
quickly inside. empty. His billfold was gone, among other
The assailant stood by the car for a things.
time, watching and listening, but there was “Some damned footpad,” he
no alarm. The assailant climbed into the complained. “As if I didn’t have enough
back seat of the machine, where Oxalate trouble!”
Smith had been dumped.
Chapter VI
IN time—it must have been about THE TRAILING OF ANNIE SPAIN
half an hour later, he afterward
concluded—Oxalate Smith regained his JONAS, the butler, looked over the
senses. A policeman was shaking him. upturned end of his nose and said, “The
“Here, here,” the policeman was master does not wish to see you, sir. He
saying. “You can’t sleep on the sidewalk asks that you kindly leave the house, sir.”
this way.” “He does, does he?” Doc said
Oxalate Smith opened his mouth, thoughtfully. “And why? He seemed very
then shut it. He clenched his teeth, trying to anxious to have us out here when he called
clear his head. The interior of his skull felt on the telephone this morning.”
as if several blacksmiths were at work upon “Begging your pardon, sir. But the
it. His stomach didn’t feel so good, either. master says he never sent for you. It must
“You sick, or something?” have been someone else.”
demanded the patrolman. “You was layin’ Doc Savage walked past the butler,
here. Maybe I better call an ambulance.” and the rather officious servant made a
Oxalate Smith got his wits move to seize the bronze man, but Monk
organized. got in his way and exhibited a large hairy
“No,” he said. “I don’t need an fist which had the properties—color and
ambulance.” hardness—of a brickbat. “You just keep
“What ails you?”
your shirt on,” Monk advised. “We want to “Killed by lightning,” a man said
talk to this Radiator Smith.” gloomily. “Now it’s up to someone to
The creator of the Smith radiator explain how lightning got into the room
fortune was seated in one of the upstairs without leaving any marks, on a day when
sunrooms. He looked up dully when they there wasn’t any lightning.”
entered. He was pale; perspiration stood on There seemed to be nothing more
his forehead as if he had a fever and it was that Doc Savage and his three aids could
breaking. The sinews were ridged out on do. They were stymied. There was a
his hands as they gripped the chair arm. perplexing mystery, but no clues, no leads
“You!” he said shrilly. “I told the they could follow.
police and the servants to keep you out of “We might as well go get some
here.” sleep,” Monk said glumly.
Doc said, “You have recovered from They walked to the sedan and
your shock sufficiently to talk. We want to climbed in. Doc drove. The car was parked
know why you called for us.” on a one-way street, and they waited at the
“I didn’t,” the wealthy man said flatly. junction with Fifth Avenue, at the corner
“You have a distinctive voice,” Doc nearest to Radiator Smith’s great house, for
said quietly. “We made a recording of your the traffic light to change.
telephone call, so we can let you listen to It was quite dark and clouds hid the
your own voice if that would refresh your stars. There was some traffic, not as much
memory.” as usual. Across Fifth Avenue, on the wide
“It wouldn’t—” Radiator Smith sidewalk that paralleled Central Park, there
swallowed. “It must have been someone was a peanut wagon presided over by a
imitating my voice.” thin figure which was bundled in rags.
“What killed your son?” “Stop at that peanut cart,” Monk
The man tightened and breathed suggested. “I want to get some peanuts for
heavily for a moment. “I do not know.” Habeas Corpus.”
“Why was he killed?” Habeas Corpus was Monk’s pet pig.
The other shook his head dully. Doc stopped the sedan beside the
Long Tom Roberts said, “I don’t peanut wagon. An overhanging tree made
know whether you know it or not, but Doc the spot particularly gloomy, and the thin
Savage saved your life. You had an attack piping whistle of the peanut roaster was a
when your . . . when Maurice was killed. ghostly sound.
Doesn’t that make any difference to you?” While Monk was buying five sacks
Radiator Smith clamped his lips and of peanuts, Doc made two rather strange
said nothing. remarks. He made them in a loud voice.
Without pursuing the line of “Oxalate Smith certainly laid the
questioning further, Doc Savage turned and crime on Annie Spain,” he said. “If the
left the room. Homely Monk Mayfair police catch Annie Spain, they will probably
overhauled the bronze man on the stairs. electrocute her.”
“Doc, we could grab him and give A moment later, he made the
him a shot of truth serum,” Monk second remark.
suggested. “Oxalate Smith has been gone
“Later.” about an hour,” he stated.
“Why not now?” Monk got in the car with his
“His physical condition is still bad. peanuts, and Doc drove down the street.
He couldn’t stand truth serum. The stuff is “Doc, what did you mean by the talk
hard on the human system, you know.” about Oxalate Smith?” Ham asked in a
In the central reception room puzzled voice.
downstairs, the big room just inside the Instead of answering, the bronze
main entrance, they found a number of man took the first turn into a side street and
police technicians gathered. Apparently yanked the sedan to a stop. He said, “Hand
they had finished their work at the Smith me a portable radio.”
house. Long Tom passed a pocket radio
Doc asked, “What was the verdict?” outfit from the back seat. The apparatus
was small, about the size of a folding
camera, but it was capable of transmitting cab finally turned off, pulling into a drive-in
and receiving over very short wave lengths restaurant.
for distances up to fifty miles. The cab driver entered the
“Keep in touch with me,” the bronze restaurant. The place was equipped with a
man said, and got out of the car. bar, and he began loafing there.
“What’s up?” Monk barked. Annie Spain walked along a side
“That peanut vender,” Doc said, road where darkness was almost complete.
“was Annie Spain.” She used a tiny flashlight, the beam darting
There was astounded silence in the about nervously. Doc trailed her.
car as he left. Doc ran to the corner, slowed Doc used his little radio and told
his pace to a more decorous one, and Monk and the others about the roadside
entered a cab. He rode in the cab past the restaurant and the cab driver idling in the
peanut cart. The cart was in motion. The bar.
vender was wheeling it away from the spot “Find out what the girl told the driver
where it had been standing—a spot where to do,” he instructed.
the Radiator Smith mansion could be “Righto,” Monk said. “Here’s the
watched to best advantage. restaurant now. I guess we weren’t far
Well ahead of the peanut wagon, behind you.”
Doc alighted from the taxi, took to the park Annie Spain took a left turn. It was a
and loitered in its shadows, watching. His winding road that mounted up an abrupt
guess had been good. The vender wheeled hill. Thick foliage banked each side of the
the cart just far enough away that its being road, then abruptly there was a stone wall
found abandoned in front of the Smith place and an arched gateway.
would not seem suspicious. The young woman did not go near
The vender slipped into the park the gateway.
shadows. It was Annie Spain, all right. She The gate was lighted brightly, and
slipped out of her ragged coat, stripped off two men stood there, one holding a high-
the ancient trousers, got rid of a cap and powered hunting rifle, the other an
bulky shoes. Under these garments she automatic shotgun.
had been wearing her expensive tailored Careful that the guards did not see
outfit. Her high-heeled slippers had been her, Annie Spain reached the wall some
concealed somewhere around the cart. She two hundred feet from the gate, and
put them on. cautiously climbed it.
When she headed for the street, Doc was close to her, and instead of
Doc ran, got there ahead of her and waiting until she got over to climb the wall
engaged a cab without being discovered. himself, did so while she was getting over,
knowing there was less chance of the
young woman hearing him at the moment.
THE facilities of New York City’s Once across the wall, Annie Spain
most densely populated section—this is spent some moments in listening. During
Manhattan Island—for handling automobile this interval, Monk’s voice came over Doc’s
traffic are generally conceded to exceed little radio, which he had tuned down until
those of any other of the world’s great the speaker was hardly audible.
metropolitan districts. The paramount artery “The cab driver says the girl told him
for traffic in Manhattan is the elevated to wait,” Monk explained. “Wait all night, if
speedway running almost the entire length necessary. She gave him a ten-dollar bill
of the island on the west side, and leading and showed him a second one. She must
northward to a system of scientifically be flush with money.”
designed parkways which enable the Doc whispered into the microphone,
motorist to travel from Manhattan northward giving the location of the estate in which he
for a distance of more than fifty miles now crouched. “Get up here,” he said. “But
almost without pause and at a do not show yourselves, and wait outside
comparatively high rate of speed. the gates.”
Annie Spain’s taxicab followed the “Seems like we’re closin’ in on
parkway well up into Westchester, the somethin’, huh?” Monk said.
county of impressive suburban homes. The
Also, he recognized the man. This

THE estate was as rich in a rural man was named Smith, too. Doc had never
fashion as Radiator Smith’s was palatial in met him. His name was J. Stillman Smith,
the city. There was probably ten acres of and the newspapers called him Sell-’em-
yard. The house stood like a great dark short Smith, because of his stock-market
block of stone on the top of a hill, dappled manipulations.
with white panels that were lighted There was a rumor that Sell-’em-
windows. It was very late at night for so short Smith had made in excess of a
many windows to be lighted, particularly hundred million dollars during various
since there was no outward evidence of a phases of the business depression, just by
party. selling stocks and bonds short. The Federal
Annie Spain got close to the house government had once tried to indict him for
and began examining the lighted windows. something or other that had to do with
She went from one window to another, then raiding the stock market.
appeared to locate one that was going to There were a lot of Smiths getting
hold lasting interest for her, because she involved in the mystery, Doc reflected.
climbed a small tree. He was thinking about that when
Doc puzzled about the tree-climbing Sell-’em-short Smith began dying before his
for a moment before he suspected the eyes.
reason. Then he climbed a tree himself—
his tree was farther back, but afforded
almost as good a view of the lighted Chapter VII
window as the other one. His guess proved ANOTHER SMITH DEAD
correct. The grounds were patrolled.
Two watchmen passed. They had SELL-’EM-SHORT SMITH was
shotguns and flashlights, but went by talking over the telephone when the halo
without discovering either Doc or the girl. appeared around his head. The halo
The window was bulletproof, Doc appeared suddenly—a strange
saw. Light from within shone through in a phenomenon of luminous character, almost
manner that showed the glass had such as bright as flame because it was plainly
thickness that it could only be bulletproof. discernible in the lighted room. It was not
The room beyond was a flame. Rather, it was a weird bluish light
comfortable study with a fireplace and that abruptly surrounded the fat man’s
pieces of furniture that were large. A desk head.
occupied the central space. It was a vast The fat man did not move for
piece. moments. He sat rigidly, gripping the
The man who sat at the desk was telephone. His mouth was roundly open,
likewise vast. Probably he could have lost a and his eyeballs were slowly protruding
hundred pounds of weight and felt much more and more.
better. His chins hung over his collar and The aura of eerie bluish light around
his stomach pushed against the desk. his head increased in volume, became a
When he put his hands down on the desk, kind of fantastic corona of luminance, not
they spread out like toy balloons filled with bright enough to cast a light itself, yet very
jelly. discernible in the brilliantly illuminated
The man was working—glancing room.
over reports, signing papers, occasionally There was a sound now. A low kind
picking up the mouthpiece of a dictaphone of a sound that might have been made by a
to dictate. He used the telephone. He was locust, although of a somewhat faster beat
smoking cigars, rich-looking cigars, each of than a locust note. It had started in a very
which came in an individual glass muted degree, as if coming up out of
container. The air in the room had a faintly inaudibility, but now it was louder, and there
bluish tinge because of the tobacco smoke. seemed to be many of the sounds; or
After Doc had watched the fat man possibly it was only the echo of the sound
working for a while, he realized the fellow itself which made it seem many.
was scared. Terrified.
At no time did this sound ever Doc said, “We better go back up the
become very loud. It was never as loud as tree.”
a frog croaking, and hardly greater than a “We better run for it, you mean,”
cricket’s chirp. Probably it was the usual Annie Spain said. “This place is alive with
nature of the sound that made it so starkly guards. After what’s happened, they’ll
noticeable. shoot, and ask questions afterward.”
Sell-’em-short Smith did not scream. “The tree,” Doc said.
But he did begin to rise up in his chair, They climbed a tree—both of them
every muscle in his body shaking. going up the same tree this time—and it
Then a luminous thing that might was done none too quickly either, because
have been his soul exuded from the top of two guards came racing past, driving long
his head. It came out slowly, like luminous white flashlight beams into likely spots.
vapor, and formed a kind of shapeless “My stockings!” Annie Spain
oblong blob and hung there in the air above complained. “They’re a wreck. These
the man’s head, and still attached to his trees!”
head. The stockings were a minor detail,
Then the luminous thing gave a little considering the situation, Doc reflected. But
hop and landed on the back of a nearby he had noticed that women attached more
chair. It ran back and forth there, writhing, importance to such things than they
for an instant, then hopped up into the air of sometimes did to robberies and murders.
the room and hit the ceiling. It vanished He suspected he would never understand
there, as if it had gone through the ceiling. women.
The halo was gone from around He used the small radio. “Monk,” he
Sell-’em-short Smith’s head. The tightness called.
was out of his body. He subsided loosely in “Yes,” said the homely chemist’s
his chair. rather squeaky voice.
Doc Savage recovered from his Doc reviewed the situation briefly.
astounded spell and realized Annie Spain He finished, “You had better get up here
was climbing down out of her tree. Being a and rescue us from this tree before they
woman wearing skirts, she was making it find us. Come in boldly. You have deputy
slowly. State police commissions, so it should be
Doc dropped out of his own tree, all right.”
and stationed himself as a reception “Right,” Monk said. “If there’s any
committee for the girl. fighting, save it until we get there.”
Monk liked action.
Annie Spain was very silent for a
BECAUSE he did not want her moment. Then, “You were using a radio just
screaming and attracting attention of the now, weren’t you?” she asked.
guards, he clamped a hand over her mouth. “Yes.”
“Quiet, you hear!” he warned. “I’ve heard a great deal about your
She looked at him. There was scientific gadgets,” the girl said. “I’ve
enough reflected light from the window that wished I had some of them.”
she could discern his face. She made “What would you do with them?”
gestures indicating she wanted to speak. “I would use them in my work.”
Doc lifted his hand. The estate guards prowled under
“You’re Doc Savage,” she said. the tree again, so that it was not safe to
“You know me, eh?” continue the conversation. Down by the
“In my profession, naturally I would gate, there was a commotion. This uproar
know you,” Annie Spain said. eventually subsided and Monk, Ham and
Inside the house, there was sudden Long Tom approached the tree.
excitement. A servant discovered the body Doc and Annie Spain climbed down
and emitted a horrified bawling sound that out of the tree.
was plainly audible. Instantly, people began “Keep an eye on this girl,” Doc
running into the room where Sell-’em-short suggested. “She seemed to know
Smith sat loosely in the chair. something was going to happen.”
“I can explain everything,” Annie The telephone over which Smith

Spain said. had been talking had fallen to the desk.
Doc picked it up—or started to pick it up,
rather. The instrument broke in his hands.
“SMITH is dead!” one of the guards When it fell to the desk top, the
blurted out. telephone shattered into several dozen
“Yes,” Doc Savage said. “It is a fragments.
miracle if he isn’t.” “Hey!” Monk exploded, “that was a
Monk demanded, “Did you see it, funny kind of telephone.”
Doc?” Doc did not touch the telephone
“Yes.” again. He did poke at the cord. It fell to bits.
“What killed him?” It seemed brittle.
Doc Savage seemed not to hear the Long Tom said, “I’ll be swiggered!
question. This was a small habit, this There is no wire in that telephone cord.”
convenient loss of hearing, whenever he Doc turned to one of the servants.
was asked something which he did not, for “Is this telephone connected to any other
one reason or another—the reasons were instruments in the house?” he asked.
usually good—care to answer. “No, sir,” the servant explained. “It is
Annie Spain eyed the bronze man. a private telephone. The wire comes
“Go on. Tell them what it was,” directly into the wall of this study from
Annie Spain said. “Live up to your outdoors, I think.”
reputation.” “We can tell by an examination,”
Doc seemed not to hear that, either. Doc said.
“I thought so!” said the young “I don’t think you can tell anything,”
woman. “You don’t know what killed him.” Annie Spain asserted unpleasantly. “I think
Doc ignored her. you’re about nine-tenths fake.”
“I always wondered if that whizz- Doc said, “Monk, take her out of the
bang reputation of yours wasn’t a phony,” room—and watch her.”
Annie Spain said. “With pleasure,” Monk said.
“Pipe down, sister,” Long Tom Doc, Ham and Long Tom continued
ordered. their investigation of the telephone line—
Annie Spain whirled on Long Tom. and learned there was no line. No wire, at
“Don’t you tell me what to do, you least. The insulators were on the poles, but
mushroom-complexioned shrimp.” there was no wire.
“Shut up, or I’ll upset you,” Long The bronze man moved along,
Tom said coolly. “I ain’t very gallant.” poking a flashlight beam at the ground.
They entered the house. In Twice he picked up bits of shiny stuff.
decorating the house, the owner had left no “What’s that you’re finding?” Long
doubt that the place belonged to Sell-’em- Tom demanded.
short Smith. In every room there were Doc showed him.
pictures of Smith or trophies he had “Metal that has been melted,” Long
secured—mounted heads of big game, golf Tom muttered. “You mean that something
cups, framed honorary degrees. One room melted the telephone line?”
was papered entirely with clippings of Doc did not explain what he meant.
newspaper stories concerning Smith.
Sell-’em-short Smith was dead.
Monk stared at the body. “Well, the THE Sell-’em-short Smith servant
lightning didn’t kill this one—or did it?” force was in charge of a butler who was a
Doc Savage did not volunteer an fatherly, sensible fellow.
explanation. He began examining the room. Doc asked him, “When did Smith
Annie Spain stood around and begin acting scared?”
looked baffled, and increasingly worried. The butler said, “I noticed it a week
They hadn’t asked her a single question, ago. I mentioned it to him, sir. But he
and apparently she did not think that was naturally denied it. He was a very blunt
natural. man, but a very secretive one, too.”
“Did he scare easily?”
The butler pointed to the mounted “What were you trying?” Ham
head of a tiger on the wall. The tiger had asked.
been an enormous thing; the taxidermist “Nothing,” Monk growled. “We got to
had managed to capture a little of its talking and I showed her some photographs
ferocity. of me I had in my pocket, and I just
“The master killed that tiger after it remarked that the pictures didn’t do me
charged him and knocked him down,” the justice.”
butler explained. “He had climbed two of “Then what?”
the highest mountains in the world in his “She said I needed mercy, not
time. As you know, sir, mountain climbing is justice, from a photographer.”
not a pastime indulged in by—ah— “She was right. Then what?”
pantywaists, if I may say so.” “I tried to reason with her. I told her
“You have no idea what scared fellows like me didn’t grow on trees.”
him?” “And?”
The butler shook his head. “I know “She said she guessed not. She’d
just one thing that might help.” never seen a tree with warts.”
“What is that?” “I’m going to like that girl,” Ham
“I brought the master the chortled.
newspapers tonight,” the butler explained. “I asked her what was wrong with
“They contained a story about the death of me,” Monk said gloomily.
another man named Smith—the son of Mr. “Did she know?”
John R. Smith, better known as Radiator “She said nothing much, she
Smith. The master read that story. He guessed, although she thought they should
became very pale.” have put my nose on my face bottom side
Doc asked, “Did the two Smiths up so that I would drown the first time it
know each other?” rained.”
“I do not think so. I have never “I’ve often thought the same thing,”
heard it mentioned, if they did.” Ham declared. “What happened then?”
“Then there was no connection “She just stood there and looked at
between the two Smiths that you know of?” me for a minute, then she up and hit me
“No.” with the ash tray,” Monk explained. “I don’t
The dapper Ham said, “But there understand it.”
must be a connection somewhere.” “If you would look in a mirror,” Ham
“Maybe Annie Spain can explain it,” said, “you would not be so puzzled.”
Doc suggested. Doc pointed at the door. “She is still
They went to the room to which in there?”
Monk had taken Annie Spain, a rather “If she isn’t, she’s seven-eighths
private room centrally located in the house, ghost,” Monk said. “There are no windows
a room which had no windows, but in that room, and this is the only door.”
depended on circulation from the air- They tried the door and it was
conditioning shafts for its air. locked. Doc knocked on the panel.
Monk was standing outside the door “Who is it?” Annie Spain called.
with the makings of a spectacular black “Open up and stop this foolishness,”
eye. Doc Savage said.
“Oh, it’s you.” The door opened
immediately. “Your large monkey of a friend
Chapter VIII there seems to think he’s a lady-killer,” she
THE SERUM TRICK said.
She stared at them, obviously
“WHAT happened to you?” Ham wondering what they wanted. She looked
demanded. remarkably chic, considering what she had
“That girl,” Monk said grimly, “hit me been through. She had removed her
with an ash tray.” stockings, which had gotten runs when she
Ham grinned widely. Any minor climbed the tree, but the fact that her legs
misfortune to Monk always intrigued Ham. were bare did not make the picture less
interesting.
The room was comparatively bare, a good idea to administer it to a person with
being fitted with two comfortable leather a weak heart or lowered vitality.
chairs, a table and a pair of reading lamps, Annie Spain took the stuff. After a
which indicated it was a private study. In while, her eyes became droopy and
the corner was a washbasin with hot-and- uncertain in their focusing.
cold-water faucets. Monk’s portable “All right,” Monk said. “We’re ready
chemical laboratory and a metal equipment to go.”
case containing stuff they had thought Doc said, “Maybe you had better do
themselves likely to need stood on the the questioning, Monk. She is a little scared
table. of you, hence more likely to answer your
“We are ready to ask you questions.”
questions,” Doc Savage told Annie Spain. This was a psychological fact that
“It’s about time,” Annie said. “Get the bronze man had discovered.
going on me.” Monk got in front of Annie Spain. He
“Monk,” Doc said, “get the truth said, “Who are you?”
serum out of that equipment case.” “Annie Spain,” said Annie Spain
thickly.
“What are you?”
ANNIE SPAIN gave a start and “I’m a young woman.”
frowned unpleasantly. “Truth serum? Say, “What do you do?”
what is this?” “The best I can.”
Doc said, “A long time ago, we Monk looked disgusted. Ham said,
discovered that it was practically impossible “You’ll have to do better than that, Monk.”
for us to tell when a woman was lying. They Monk made his voice louder and
must have been equipped by nature as said, “Answer me! What were you doing in
expert liars.” Radiator Smith’s house?”
“I like that!” Annie Spain snapped. “I am a private detective,” explained
“And so,” Doc continued, “we give Annie Spain in a rather mushy voice. “I was
them truth serum whenever we can.” trying to find out what was wrong with
“Will the stuff hurt me?” Radiator Smith.”
“It will be something like getting “Was something wrong with him?”
drunk, as far as the sensations are “He was scared.”
concerned. This is an advanced type of “How did you know that?”
truth serum.” “I eat in the same restaurant
“Have I got any choice in this downtown where Radiator Smith eats
matter?” lunch,” Annie Spain said slowly, her eyes
“None.” closed. “I saw that he was scared. I went
“Let’s get it over with, then.” over to him and told him what he needed
Although Doc Savage’s manner was a good private detective. I asked him
indicated that he put full trust in the truth to hire me. He swore at me. I knew he was
serum, he was fully cognizant of the fact afraid. So I decided to help him anyway.”
that the stuff had a degree of unreliability. “Isn’t that kind of unusual—helping
There was nothing magical about it. The him anyway?” Monk demanded. “What
truth serum did not work legerdemain in the made you do it?”
human mind and in some fashion separate “I needed a case. I haven’t been
lies from truth, so that only truth came forth; making expenses with my detective
nothing as super-efficient as that. Rather, agency.”
the serum simply dulled the mental “What did you learn?”
processes to such an extent that the victim “That Radiator Smith was really
could not function enough gimp to think up scared. That a whole bunch of Smiths were
a lie. The truth was conveniently at hand, in danger, and that the one most in danger,
so the dazed mind answered with the truth, next to Radiator Smith, was Sell-’em-short
unable to develop a falsehood. Smith.”
The effects of the stuff, while not “How did you hear that?”
terribly unpleasant, were nevertheless a “Radiator Smith was talking over the
shock to the human system, and it was not telephone. I eavesdropped.”
“Who was he talking to?” Annie Spain knew a great deal

“I don’t know.” about chemistry.
“Why did you flee from Radiator But the deception had worked
Smith’s house?” wonderfully. She had hit Monk in the eye
“The chauffeur got suspicious of me. with an ash tray as soon as she noticed the
I thought it was the regular chauffeur—it equipment case, and Monk had obligingly
turned out to be Doc Savage.” retreated from the room. Annie Spain had
“Why did you watch the house?” thought of the possibility of truth serum.
“To learn anything I could.” That would explain why they had made no
“And why did you come up here to previous effort to question her.
Sell-’em-short Smith’s home?” She sank down in the chair and
“To see what would happen. I shook with silent glee.
wanted to solve this mystery and get “Doc Savage,” she chuckled, “is
famous—so I could make a lot of money in easy to fool. He’s greatly overrated.”
the private-detective business.” A bit later, Doc Savage and the
“Do you know what is behind this others returned to the room and inquired
mystery?” how she was feeling. Rather rocky, she
“No.” admitted. She suggested that some fresh
There were a lot more “No” answers air might brace her, and Ham and Long
before Monk gave it up. Tom volunteered to accompany her.
“THAT’S all she knows,” Monk said. Chapter IX

“She’s a private detective who butted into LONG TOM AND TROUBLE
the thing. Ain’t that just like a woman?”
“We might as well leave her here,” DOC SAVAGE remained in the
Doc Savage said, “until she comes out from room with Monk after the young woman left.
under the effects of the stuff.” “I wonder what she did with the truth
They left Annie Spain sitting in one serum that was in the phial?” Doc Savage
of the deep chairs, departed from the room, pondered.
closing the door and locking it behind them. “Huh?” Monk stared at the bronze
The young woman sat still for a time man.
after Doc and his aids departed, then she Doc Savage moved over to the
cautiously opened one eye. The eye flicked washbasin and examined the drain closely.
about, making sure no one had remained in “This was the most likely place to get rid of
hiding in the room. Then she took in a deep it, at that,” he remarked.
breath, stood up and stretched and smiled Doc went out to the car. He came
widely. back with three small jugs. They were
She went to the washbasin in the black, made of composition, bakelite or
corner and glanced down the drain. She something. About an inch and a half thick,
turned the faucets, but no water came out. three inches long, and not quite round,
The faucets were not connected. rather oval.
The fact that there was no water Doc gave one jug to Ham, another
had discomfited her when she emptied the to Monk and another to Long Tom.
contents of the truth-serum phial into the “What are these?” Monk asked.
basin earlier. But they had not noticed, “Part of an experiment we are
fortunately, the presence of truth serum on trying,” Doc explained. “Carry them with
the little screen in the drain. you. When you meet one of the crooks—if
Nor had they realized, Annie Spain you do—get rid of the jug as soon as you
decided triumphantly, that they hadn’t given can. Try not to let them see you. Put it
her a dose of truth serum at all. They had where it can be found.”
administered the dose she had rigged for It was a little puzzling, but they did
them—a mixture of harmless chemicals she not ask questions. It was evidently some
had quickly concocted from Monk’s kind of an experiment.
portable laboratory.
“Long Tom,” Doc said, “why don’t Jonas: But why? What’s gone
you check on what has been picked up by wrong?
the microphones you planted in Radiator Voice: Plenty, I guess. A guy named
Smith’s home?” Doc Savage is messing around in it now,
“It will be a waste of time, if you ask and that means we’ve got to be careful. I
me,” Long Tom suggested. “When Radiator think this meeting is a kind of roundup to
Smith first called on us for help, we decided straighten everybody out on their duty and
to plant the mikes as a matter of taking our give them a line on what happens next. And
usual precaution to check every angle of what they’re to do to help.
anything we go up against. Jonas: When is the meeting?
“We know the microphones didn’t Voice: About two o’clock in the
pick up anything before Maurice Smith was morning. Just when the night clubs are
murdered.” letting out.
“They might have since.” Jonas: Well . . . I can make it. I’ll
leave here about one thirty. Fortunately, the
police have not left anyone on guard.
IT required a full hour for Long Tom Voice: Be seeing you then, huh?
Roberts to drive back to Manhattan Island, Jonas: Yes. I’ll be there.
and another half hour for him to collect the
recordings picked up by the microphones That was the end of that, and it was
he had planted in the Radiator Smith quite enough. Long Tom snapped off the
mansion on Fifth Avenue. He had installed playback, yanked back his cuff and stared
his recording devices in an empty at his wrist watch. A quarter after one.
apartment in a swanky apartment house “Blazes, I gotta make it!” Long Tom
adjacent to the Smith manse. blurted. He snatched up an eavesdropping
Playing back the recordings device and charged for the nearest taxi
occupied more time. Long Tom used a stand.
system—he raced the recordings through Long Tom had taken the recordings
until the playback encountered a voice, to Doc Savage’s downtown headquarters—
when he slowed up and listened. The the playback apparatus was there—and
recordings were impressed magnetically hence he was some distance from the
upon a long wire. elegant part of Fifth Avenue where stood
He got nothing until he came to the the Radiator Smith home. But he made it
recording made by a microphone he had with probably three minutes to spare.
planted close to the rear door. He’d placed
a mike there because he happened to
recall that important things are often said, THE office building stood on
or repeated, when persons stand at a door Broadway, in the theatrical district, in the
in arriving or departing. middle of a glare of electric lights that was
The interesting recording went: almost daytime bright. The place had two
disadvantages—noise and twenty-four-
Voice: (A voice Long Tom had never hour-a-day activity—but out of these might
heard before.) Hello. I want to see Jonas. spring an advantage. Men could enter or
The butler. leave the place at any time during the
Maid: (Long Tom recalled this voice twenty-four hours with small chance of
as a Smith maid.) Wait here. I’ll try to find attracting attention from, for instance, the
him. police.
Long Tom Roberts watched the
A long interval of silence. butler, Jonas, enter the building.
Long Tom looked rather like a
Jonas: Yes . . . Great grief! Who told Broadway tout. He had a fish-belly
you to come here? It’s too dangerous— complexion, as if he was never abroad in
Voice: They want you downtown. the daytime, and there were plenty of those
Jonas: Me? on the street around him. No one gave him
Voice: You and everybody else. a second glance. He walked into the
There’s a get-together. building behind Jonas.
It occurred to Long Tom that he had He attached his eavesdropping

neglected to inform Doc Savage what he device. It consisted of a pickup microphone
was doing, but there had really been no which was held against the door panel by
time for that. adhesive strips, the panel serving as a
Jonas took an elevator. There was sounding board. There was a small
an indicator over the elevator door, and it amplifier, a headset and plenty of cord.
moved around to nine, indicating the cage Having planted the pick-up, Long
had gone to that floor. It made only the one Tom struck a match and gave the office a
stop—this was an out-and-out break of brief examination. There was a yellow oak
luck—which indicated that Jonas had been desk with a desk lamp, some hard chairs,
the only passenger. and an elderly rug.
Long Tom wrote a note on a piece On the desk stood an ordinary
of paper and dropped it in a mailbox. crystal microphone on a stand.
Then Long Tom took to the stairs. Long Tom was ogling the
He didn’t know but what the elevator microphone in astonishment when a key
operator might be in cahoots with Jonas clicked in the door lock.
and the others.
The ninth-floor hallway proved to be
full of doors. It offered a problem. Long LONG TOM had not become an
Tom waited in the stair well. There was to electrical wizard without learning to think.
be quite a gathering here, he’d understood He made a dive, reached the spot where
from the recording. He hoped Jonas wasn’t the cord from the desk lamp plugged into a
to be the last one to arrive— wall outlet. He pulled the outlet plug out a
Several minutes later a ratty-looking trifle, whipped a silver half-dollar from his
fellow—”crook” was written all over him— pocket and jammed it against the brass
scurried out of the elevator and hurried to a lugs, short-circuiting them. There was a spit
door. He knocked several times, unevenly, of blue flame; somewhere else the faint pop
in a signal, then disappeared inside. of a fuse blowing.
Long Tom spotted the door, and as They wouldn’t be able to turn on the
soon as it was closed he glided down the lights in here now and discover him.
corridor. His objective was either one of the A moment later, he began to doubt
doors to the right or left of the one through that the lights would have been turned on
which the man had disappeared. He anyway.
reached one of them. It was locked, but the The figure which entered the
lock was simple, and Long Tom knew room—it was outlined briefly against the
something about picking locks. He got the hall light—was swathed in an enormous tan
door unfastened. topcoat of the wrap-around variety. The
He opened the door very carefully topcoat collar was turned up; a large hat
until he was sure there was darkness was yanked down low. The door clicked
inside, then stepped in quickly. The place shut the instant the newcomer was inside.
smelled very faintly of disuse. Astonished, Long Tom realized he
It was utterly dark. The complete not only hadn’t recognized the visitor—he
blackness puzzled Long Tom, for Broadway didn’t even know whether it was man or
outside was so bright, and if there was a woman.
window—but there wasn’t any window. He listened in growing amazement.
That was it. The whole side of this building The visitor lost no time in taking a
was walled up to afford a background for seat at the desk and beginning to speak
one of the Great White Way’s fabulous into the microphone. First, there was a faint
electric signs. That explained the clicking sound. Long Tom knew what that
windowless office. meant when the other began talking. Some
A crack of light came from under the kind of gadget—probably a short tin tube—
door to the adjacent office. So there was a placed between the lips to disguise the
door! Growing more elated by the moment, whispering.
Long Tom tried the door very cautiously— Whispering! The visitor spoke
he didn’t want them walking in on him—and entirely in a whisper, and it was shrill and
found it locked. unnatural, yet quite understandable. But
whether it was a man or woman talking, it His finger tightened on the machine-
was impossible to tell. pistol trigger and it roared like a big
“Are all of you present?” the bullfiddle.
whisperer asked. “Jonas will you answer? “Help!” rasped the whispering voice.
Speak in a loud voice so that you may be “The next room to you! South! Help!”
heard.” Long Tom fumbled on the floor. He
From the other room, Jonas had lost the pistol; the recoil of the thing
answered, “Everybody here.” had made it jump out of his hand.
Long Tom knew that the whispering Before he found the gun, a flashlight
was being stepped up by a battery amplifier beam jumped at him from the desk. The
and put out through a loud-speaker in the moment the light impaled him, Long Tom
adjacent room. surged up and charged. He dived over the
“I have called you here in order to desk, hit a figure. They crashed to the floor.
give you certain commands and thus The flashlight flew to one side, glanced off
tighten our organization,” said the whisper. the wall and landed so that its beam was
“As you know, one Smith died this pointed partially at their figures, enough
afternoon. Another has also died, as your that there was light for Long Tom to identify
morning newspapers will reveal. The other his foe.
Smiths will die as scheduled, and thus “You,” Long Tom exploded.
everything will continue according to plan. “Damned if I’d ever have guessed you were
Do not worry about that.” the killer!”
There was a pause. In the adjacent There was no more conversation,
room, the whisper from the loud-speaker and not much more action, because Jonas
must be an eerie thing, and the author of ran in and crashed a chair down on Long
the sound probably knew it. The pause was Tom’s head.
to let it take full effect.
“More Smiths will die,” the whisper
continued. “But there are others we will Chapter X
have to include with the Smiths. A man DEATH FOR SMITHS
named Doc Savage and his associates.”
Long Tom was an impulsive fellow. IT was about this time that Doc
He decided he’d heard enough. He had the Savage and Monk Mayfair heard a racket
master mind of the gang here in the room outside Sell-’em-short Smith’s house in
with him, so what was the use of fooling Westchester. The noise—it was a frenzied
around any longer? pounding—came from the garage; or rather
Long Tom came up out of the corner from a room over the garage.
where he had been crouching, fished in an They unlocked the door.
underarm holster and brought out an Ham stumbled out. Ham had a
unusual weapon called a supermachine skinned place on the side of his head, and
pistol, a gun which Doc Savage had a desperate expression.
developed. The weapon was capable of “Why, shyster, I thought you were
firing hundreds of shots a minute; it could supposed to be watching Annie Spain,”
put bullets out a great deal faster than a Monk said. “You took over that job when
man could feed them into the mechanism Long Tom left.”
with clip magazines, in fact. “She hit me with a wrench. Then
Long Tom remembered the jug—the she locked me in that upstairs garage
little black thing that Doc had given him. He room, I guess. Anyhow, I was there when I
was supposed to get rid of that as soon as came to my senses.”
he contacted the culprits. He pulled it out of “Where did she go?”
his pocket. There was a wastebasket close, “If she isn’t around, it’s obvious. She
and he shoved the jug into that. skipped.”
Then Long Tom started for the “When did this happen?”
figure at the desk—and forgot all about the “A good two hours ago. Not very
lamp cord on the floor. His toe hooked it. long after Long Tom left.”
He practically stood on his head.
Long Tom leaped over the desk, hit him!
It was almost dawn when they man conducted his endless scientific
returned to Doc Savage’s headquarters. experiments.
The headquarters occupied the They were trying to get some sleep,
eighty-sixth floor of one of the town’s most and keeping each other awake by talking—
impressive skyscrapers, and consisted of when Annie Spain turned up. Monk opened
three general divisions—a reception room, the door.
a library, and a laboratory where the bronze
“Annie Spain!” Monk exploded. “Mr. Smith,” said the secretary, “told
“Blazes!” me someone had threatened his life several
The young woman entered the days ago.”
place rather sheepishly. “Who?” Doc asked.
“I’m sorry I skipped out,” she said. “I The secretary didn’t know.
wanted to continue this investigation by Doc made extensive inquiries, but
myself.” he learned nothing more of real value until
“Why?” he heard of the death of Shipowner Smith.
“Because I wanted to hog the Shipowner Smith was plain Henry
credit.” Annie Spain looked uncomfortable. Smith, but there was nothing plain about
“But I thought it over. This is a little too big the fortune he had amassed in the
for me. Maybe a little too mysterious. I want transatlantic passenger business.
to work with you fellows.” He died while watering his flowers.
Monk felt of his eye. “So far, you’ve He was using a hose for the sprinkling. No
only worked on us,” he ventured. one saw it happen.
“I’ll be nicer,” Annie Spain promised. Doc picked up the hose. It broke in
They ran the recordings which Long his hands. He could crush it in his fingers.
Tom had made of the microphone pick-ups The rubber and fabric of the hose, it was
at the Radiator Smith home, and obvious, had undergone some kind of
discovered the incriminating evidence strange change.
against Jonas, the butler. They rushed up The vice president of Shipowner
there. Smith’s corporation gave them some
But Jonas was not there, and he did information.
not come back. “Smith told us,” said the vice
president, “that he had been ordered to turn
over control of his business interests to
DURING the next day it dawned on some person. He was to remain the head of
Doc Savage with unpleasant force that a them, but he was to take orders from this
widespread campaign against people person, and give this person a share of the
named Smith was in progress. profits. He was threatened with death if he
The earliest editions of the morning did not comply.”
newspapers carried the story of the death “When was that?” Doc asked.
of Sell-’em-short Smith and a rehash of the “Four days ago.”
earlier stories about the demise of Maurice “Did he know who threatened him?”
Smith, son of Radiator Smith. “No.”
But the noon edition came out with Doc Savage and his two aids, Monk
the story of the death of Telegraph Smith, and Ham, investigated thoroughly, without
who was also known as Michael Robertson unearthing anything that seemed to mean
Smith, III, of very aristocratic lineage, heir much. At least, what they found meant
to a telephone and telegraph-company nothing except more bafflement to Monk
fortune. and Ham.
Telegraph Smith had been driving Annie Spain was with them, and she
down to his office when lightning struck his said disgustedly that it didn’t mean anything
town car. It was a perfectly clear day, and to her, either.
no clouds, but as near as anyone could tell, “What became of Long Tom?” Annie
lightning struck the car. demanded. “Not only you haven’t learned
“Very similar to the death of Maurice anything, but you’ve lost one of your men, if
Smith,” Doc said grimly. anybody asks me.”
The bronze man and his two aids, “You’re sure a quarrelsome person,”
Monk and Ham—they were beginning to Monk told her.
wonder what had happened to Long Tom—
reached the death scene, but the town car
and the body had been removed. DOC paid Radiator Smith a visit.
From Telegraph Smith’s secretary Because the bronze man knew he
they got a bit of information that was was as much inside the doghouse as he
interesting. could get as far as Radiator Smith was
concerned, Doc stalked past a phalanx of and there was postage due, for there had
secretaries and into the great man’s been no stamp on it in the first place.
presence without being announced. It was the note Long Tom had
Radiator Smith sprang up with a written in the lobby of the building on
gasp and quickly shoved a bundle of Broadway.
papers into his desk. It simply stated that Long Tom had
Doc wasted no time on politeness. followed Jonas to the ninth floor of the
He strode to the desk, pulled the drawer building.
open and took the papers out. Radiator Twenty minutes later, Doc Savage
Smith pawed futilely at him, trying to and the others were standing in the
prevent him seeing the documents. building. Another five minutes were
The papers were headed: expended in locating the room where Long
Tom had met his bad luck.
OPERATING ORDERS There were fight signs about. The
desk was upset, and one chair had been
Doc ran his eyes over them. They broken. The microphone, its amplifier, and
were simply typed directions telling the loud-speaker in the next room were all
Radiator Smith how to run his many in place. So was Long Tom’s listening
enterprises. There was no clue as to who gadget. The stuff told an understandable
had written them, but it certainly had not story.
been Radiator Smith. “Long Tom got in here to
“Give me those!” Radiator Smith eavesdrop,” Doc said thoughtfully. “He was
gasped. probably surprised by someone who came
Doc returned the documents. The to talk, using that loudspeaker, to someone
man was pallid, perspiring and shaky. in the next room.”
“This explains your behavior, Monk picked up a piece of tin. It was
doesn’t it?” Doc remarked. like a flattened tube, about two inches long.
Radiator Smith sank weakly in his “What’s this?” the chemist
chair. pondered.
“Like the other Smiths, you were Annie Spain said, “Probably used to
ordered to turn over management of your disguise a voice. I have a hunch that if one
interests to someone, or be killed,” Doc spoke through that, and whispered, too,
said. “In your case you were told your son that the voice would be unrecognizable.”
would be killed.” Monk grinned. “That’s such a good
Radiator Smith made an inarticulate guess,” he said, “that I almost suspect you
noise. His hands were knotting. of being here.”
“You ignored the threat and Ham twirled his cane—the innocent
summoned us,” Doc said. “Your son, dark cane contained a sword, and he never
Maurice, was immediately killed. That went without it—and looked thoughtful. He
changed your mind. said, “The big point is: Any sign of who did
“I do not believe I blame you. But the talking through the loud-speaker—the
can you give us any information that will headman?”
help us?” “It couldn’t have been the butler,
Radiator Smith shook his head Jonas, at any rate,” Monk said.
slowly. “What makes you think so?” Ham
“I couldn’t,” he said, “if I wanted to.” demanded.
“Long Tom followed Jonas here,
didn’t he? He wouldn’t have come into this
Chapter XI room with Jonas here and had time to
THE HEIR attach his listening-in device to that door.”
“Jonas could have come from the
THE note from Long Tom Roberts other room to this one.”
arrived late that afternoon. It had been Doc Savage examined the
delayed because it was not even in an wastebasket. He found Long Tom’s jug, the
envelope; it was merely a sheet of paper, small black thing, the shell of which was
made of bakelite. The bronze man went to It was quite a few times, but Doc
the window, stood looking at the device. skipped the point.
The others did not notice that he “I see there is no use talking to you,”
had found the little contraption. He did not the bronze man said.
tell them. Doc turned away. He deliberately
The bronze man’s face was sober, acted nervous, and drew out his
his manner concerned as he moved slowly handkerchief to mop his forehead.
about the room. Then abruptly—as though A yellow envelope came out with
there was something important suddenly in Doc’s handkerchief and fell to the floor, the
his mind demanding immediate action—he bronze man apparently not noticing. He
left the building. Monk and Ham remained walked away.
behind. The city editor had seen the
They found nothing of value, but did envelope fall, but he sat there without
discover that fingerprints had been wiped saying anything. As soon as Doc had gone,
off anything that might have retained them. he snatched up the envelope.
The rooms had been rented by mail, they It was a cablegram envelope. The
discovered, and no one around the building city editor opened it and read the contents.
had ever seen the individual who had taken “Jumping cats!” he said. “Joe!” he
them. yelled. “Hold page two.” The city editor
“Doc knew those guys would be too slammed the cablegram down on his desk
slick to leave any clues,” Monk said. “That’s and grabbed a typewriter. “Try to keep me
why Doc left. Wonder where he went?” from publishing news about his friends, will
he!” he growled. “I’ll show him!”
DOC SAVAGE turned up shortly in

the city room of one of the town’s most THE first editions of one of the
blatant tabloid newspapers. His entrance morning papers—the editions which hit the
created quite a commotion, because the streets about eight o’clock—carried a story
bronze man was distinctly the stuff of which that astounded Doc Savage’s associates.
newspaper headlines are made, as well as Monk was gazing idly at the loudest tabloid
being handsome enough to make excellent of them all when his eyes popped.
camera fodder. “Great grannies!” he yelled.
Doc Savage assumed a forbidding “What’s wrong?” Ham demanded.
manner. “I have come here to tell you,” he “Look!” Monk exploded. “Just look at
announced, “that you had better stop this!”
publishing matter concerning myself and Ham leaned over Monk’s shoulder
my associates. In particular, you must not and read the story which had astounded
publish anything concerning Long Tom the homely chemist to such a degree.
Roberts.” “By jove!” Ham said thoughtfully.
The city editor wasn’t the city editor “And here we’ve been treating him like he
of that hell-raising tabloid because he could was a common working guy like the rest of
be bluffed. Several times in his hectic us.”
career, he had told senators, and even the The story:
president, where they could go, as far as he
was concerned. ELECTRICAL WIZARD INHERITS
“Yeah!” he said. “Oh, yeah? Let me FORTUNE
tell you something. This rag publishes Major Thomas J. Long Tom Roberts
news, and anything that happens is news, Heir to South Africa Gem
and if you don’t like that, see our lawyers!” Millions
“You refuse to co-operate?” Doc
asked. It was learned today that Major
“Co-operate? You’re a fine one to Thomas J. Long Tom Roberts, New York
talk about co-operating!” The city editor electrical engineer, has inherited an estate
turned purple. “How many times have you of at least ten million dollars from his uncle,
thrown my reporters out? How many times Cunico Roberts, of Cape Town, South
have you refused to give interviews?” Africa. Cunico Roberts is reported to control
one of the greatest diamond fortunes in ancient touring car, and while he was not
existence. happy, at least this was better than what he
In addition to the cash, it is had to look forward to.
understood Long Tom Roberts will inherit They were in southern Maine
extensive holdings in diamond-mine somewhere. They had passed through
properties. much nice scenery, which Long Tom was in
no mood to enjoy, and they were following
Ham finished reading and said, back roads now, as they had followed them
“That amazes me! I never heard Long Tom throughout the trip. It had been slow
mention a rich Uncle Cunico.” driving, and Long Tom had not dreamed
He and Monk rushed with the there was such a remote and unpopulated
tabloid newspaper into the laboratory, route through Connecticut and
where they found Doc Savage. Massachusetts.
“Doc!” Monk exploded. “What does There were four men in the
this mean?” machine, and they were not at all sociable.
The bronze man took the tabloid For crooks, they were remarkably loyal
and studied the story with approval. fellows. Not a word had been spoken about
“Contains almost exactly what was their boss, and Long Tom had two teeth
in the cablegram,” Doc remarked. that felt loose because he had tried to insist
“I don’t understand this,” Monk was on talking about the master mind.
puzzled. The master mind had been piqued
“It simply means,” Doc explained, over the necessity of revealing identity;
“that a particularly obnoxious city editor mad as the devil, in fact. But there had
swallowed a bait.” been no alternative under the
circumstances, so the leader had made the
best of it, even seeming somewhat pleased
Chapter XII at the astonishment which was manifest on
THE LIFE PRESERVER some faces when it was discovered just
who the master mind was.
LONG TOM ROBERTS fully Two men rode beside Long Tom,
understood that he was alive only because one at either elbow, and he was handcuffed
it was more convenient to take a live man to them. They had cheap, phony deputy-
from place to place than it was to transport sheriff stars which they had pinned on their
a dead one. vests, and the two men in the front seat
They were going to kill him. They also had phony stars; this was a ruse in
had told him so, and he believed them. This case they should be stopped by anyone.
was merely an interval of delay. Where they were bound, Long Tom
There might have been another was not sure. But he did know that they
reason for his not being killed planned to shoot him to death when they
immediately—they could have been reached a particularly remote stretch of
keeping him alive in order to get information road close to the coast, and toss his body
from him, to find out how much Doc Savage over a cliff with a rock tied to it so that it
actually knew, and how close upon their would sink in deep water.
trail the bronze man was running. But Long Suddenly, without the slightest
Tom thought not. The leader of this gang warning, an automobile careened past
was remarkably well posted, and unafraid. them, skidded to a stop directly ahead.
They had been questioning Long One of the men cursed, and drew a
Tom, beating him in a desultory fashion pistol.
while they did so, but he believed they were “Wait, it’s Lopez,” his companion
merely marking time in that fashion. His said.
real objective was death, and the delay only Lopez was a long, pale man, and he
one of convenience. came galloping up in a lather of excitement.
At the end of the present trip, he “You ain’t killed him yet?” he barked.
would die, probably. So he was not anxious Then he observed the evident fact that
to see it terminate. He sat back in the big, Long Tom was alive. “Gee, I caught you in
time!”
“What’s eating you?” They grinned at him; he had asked

“Chief’s orders not to kill this guy the question before, and gotten no
under any circumstances,” said Lopez. satisfaction. The only difference was that
“Huh! Why?” this time they grinned at him, instead of
“It seems he’s inherited ten million slugging him in the face.
dollars and some diamond mines.” He sat back and pondered the
question of the ten million and the diamond
mines. It made nice pondering. But he did
LONG TOM sat back, no little not let delight carry him away. He smelled a
surprised, but with the wits to hold his trick.
tongue and look wise. So he had inherited It was a fact that whoever had
ten million dollars, had he? He hoped it was created the illusion that he had inherited ten
true. million dollars had saved his life.
He was aware of a new attitude of “Doc Savage,” Long Tom remarked
respect toward him on the part of his after a while.
captors. They were even solicitous about The captors stared and one
his comfort. A few moments ago he had demanded, “What?”
been no more to them than a hog they were “I was just thinking,” Long Tom said.
taking to the butchering pen, but now they “What do you reckon Doc thinks became of
had a personal interest in him. me?”
“Ten million dollars, eh?” Long Tom Lopez—he was riding in the car
remarked. “And some diamond mines. now—answered that question.
Well, well!” “Doc Savage is going to think you
“Did you know your Uncle Cunico are in South America,” said Lopez.
well?” Lopez asked. “How come?”
“Who—” “You’re going to write a cable.”
“Uncle Cunico, the man who left you “I’m not in South America.”
the dough.” “That’s all right. You write the cable,
“Oh, you mean Uncle Wilbur—I and we’ll send it down there and a friend of
guess maybe they called him Cunico,” Long ours will cable it back.”
Tom said. “Yeah. A great guy, Uncle “I don’t need to write it,” Long Tom
Wilbur.” said. “A cable doesn’t come in the
He was being cagy, taking no handwriting of the man who sent it. It
chances that they might be feeding him the comes off one of those simplex machines in
name of a fake relative in order to trap him. typing.”
He had no Uncle Cunico. He had no Uncle Lopez looked sheepish. “That’s
Wilbur, for that matter. right,” he said. “I’ll just write the cable out
“My handcuffs hurt me like hell,” he myself, and we’ll send it soon.”
said. “How about taking them off my wrists
and putting them on my ankles?”
“I don’t know,” one of the captors Chapter XIII
said doubtfully. TRAIL TO MAINE
“I’ll give you a check for fifty dollars,”
Long Tom said. IT was a very convincing cablegram
That did the trick, and Long Tom’s which Lopez had composed and which
first act after having his wrists freed was to landed in Doc Savage’s hands several
write a check. They had left him his hours later after having gone the
fountain pen, but he had some difficulty roundabout route to South America:
making it write, scratching around on the It read:
check for a while without making visible
marks, and finally borrowing a pen from ESCAPED FROM GANG AND GOT
one of the men. He made out the check HOT TIP AND AM TRAILING HEAD
and signed it, and they rolled northward in CROOK IN PERSON STOP HAVE
harmony. REACHED MARACAIBO VENEZUELA BY
“Where are we going?” Long Tom PLANE AND FOLLOWING MASTER MIND
asked innocently.
INLAND STOP THINK CENTER OF Roberts. They gave a description of an

WHOLE MYSTERY IS DOWN HERE IF undersized, mushroom-colored fellow who
YOU CAN COME DO SO IN HURRY sounded very like Long Tom.
LONG TOM “You see!” Annie Spain ejaculated
triumphantly. “Your hunch is wrong!”
“It’s a fake,” Doc Savage said. “It’s an awful strong hunch,” the
Monk nodded soberly. So did Ham. dapper Ham told her.
“It’s a phony,” they agreed. “You mean you’re not going to do
That would have puzzled Lopez. anything about this cablegram saying Long
And puzzled Annie Spain. She read the Tom is in South America, and asking you to
cablegram, then called the cable office and hurry down there?”
learned the missive really had come from “Nothing:”
Maracaibo, Venezuela. “Oh, you fools!” exclaimed Annie
“Listen, how do you know the Spain.
message isn’t genuine?” she demanded.
Ham grinned. “Hunch,” he said.
“Hunch, eh? You’re crazy,” Annie THE complex system of living which
Spain said with no approval. modern man has evolved and which he
Annie Spain got on the telephone calls civilization has many wonders besides
and canvassed the air lines which operated airplanes and radios, and some of these
planes southward, and particularly to South are not as well known as they should be.
America. Clearing houses, for instance—the clearing
“Come here and listen to this,” she houses through which banks clear the
told Doc Savage. checks given to them upon other banks.
The voice from the airline office These work as fast as the mails will allow,
said, “Yes, our records show that a man and sometimes faster. A check given on a
named Long Tom Roberts left on one of our New York bank and cashed in Maine, for
planes yesterday. He had a ticket to South example, takes surprisingly little time to
America.” reach the New York banks, thanks to the
“When would he have reached facile clearing-house system.
Maracaibo?” Doc Savage answered the
“Today.” telephone.
“Can you describe the man?” “Yes,” he said. His speech was
“Why, I’ll have to see if someone confined almost entirely to affirmative.
remembers him, and call you back. Is it “Yes,” he said again. Then, “Yes. Send it up
important?” immediately.”
“It’s darned important,” Annie Spain Twenty minutes afterward, a bank
said. messenger arrived with a canceled check.
While they were waiting for the It was for fifty dollars.
airline office to call back, Doc Savage said, “What’s that?” Annie Spain wanted
“You are a rather persistent young woman, to know.
aren’t you, Miss Spain?” “Just a nibble on a line we had out,”
“I’m trying to be a good detective,” Doc said, which did not explain anything.
Annie Spain said. It was Long Tom’s check, the one
“I notice.” he had given to his captor.
“A good detective doesn’t pass up Doc put it under ultraviolet light. This
any bets—and doesn’t play hunches.” ultraviolet, or “black” light, as it was called,
“You are fully as anxious as we are has the peculiar property of causing some
to get a trace of the villains, I’ve noticed.” substances to glow, or fluoresce.
“Well, why not?” Long Tom’s fountain pen, instead of
“I don’t know why not,” Doc Savage being empty, had been filled with an ink
said. “The point just struck me, is all.” which was ordinarily invisible, but which
The telephone rang. It was the glowed when exposed to black light. There
airline office. He said that a field porter and was a message on the check that had
the driver of the bus which the line operated nothing to do with the visible writing on it.
at the airport both remembered Long Tom
Going north on Woodhill Road from Turpin radio the South American police to have
Corners Maine blue sedan NYOO-319 that fellow arrested, incidentally. Any friend
of the crooks could have relayed the cable.”
Doc Savage—he had used the “But what makes you so sure?”
black light in the laboratory—went quickly “There is a password,” Doc said,
into the reception room. “which all of us invariably include in any
“The plane,” he said. “We are message sent to each other, if that
leaving immediately.” message is genuine.”
Annie Spain sprang up. “So you’re Annie Spain sat back. She looked
finally going to South America!” she rather floored.
ejaculated.
“Do you want to go along?” Doc
asked. TURPIN CORNERS was not on
“Of course.” most atlas maps of the State of Maine, and
“Fine. We would have taken you a few road maps had missed it. There was
anyway.” a grocery store, filling station, post office,
Annie Spain stared at the bronze dance hall, all in one building that would
man. She hadn’t liked his remark. “Just probably fall down in another three or four
what did you mean by that crack?” she years.
demanded. Woodhill Road was the only road
Doc said nothing. through Turpin Corners, and it extended
The bronze man kept his planes in a northward, more crooked than it seemed
huge brick combination warehouse and possible for a road to be, and unpaved.
boat hangar on the Hudson River Ten miles north of Turpin Corners,
waterfront. The structure masqueraded as Doc Savage set the plane down and
a warehouse, and was reached by an unloaded the motorcycle. He explained to
underground tube of an affair through which the others.
a bullet-shaped car traveled, a contraption “You fellows keep on and look for
that Monk called the “angel wagon,” or the blue sedans,” he said. “Get that license
“go-devil” depending on the mood he was number into the hands of the State police,
in. and have them broadcast it to every county
Doc loaded a motorcycle aboard the sheriff and town constable.”
plane. “You’ll look from the road?” Monk
They took off in a dual-motored, inquired of his chief.
single-wing monoplane which looked like a “I’ll look from the road,” Doc agreed.
pursuit bomber, and could outfly most of The plane climbed into the air again.
them. It was slightly unusual as to Doc got on the motorcycle and headed up
structure—although this did not spoil its the road, pulling a long worm of dust after
streamlining—in that it could land on earth him. The road was rough. There were a few
or water. For water service, the landing farms, but most of the time nothing but hills
gear was merely cranked up, disappearing coated with scrubby trees. During the next
into the hull. fifteen minutes, Doc passed no traffic
Doc set a course. whatever.
“Say,” Annie Spain yelled, “you are Coming to a filling station, he
not heading toward South America!” inquired about a blue sedan.
“Not on your life. That was just your “I don’t pay no attention to the cars
idea.” that go by,” the attendant said.
“You mean that you still don’t intend That was to be expected. The
to do anything about that cablegram?” bronze man continued onward, the
“The cable was a fake.” motorcycle not very noisy. He came to a
“How do you know? It checked out road intersection, the first one of
genuine. Long Tom took the plane. The consequence which he had encountered
cable was really sent from South America.” since beginning on the motorcycle. He
Doc explained, “Our enemies aren’t stopped there, and devoted some time to
fools. They had a man who resembled searching.
Long Tom take the plane south. We will
It took him half an hour to find a tiny whether one of their companions had gone
strip of handkerchief with a knot tied near that way before.
one end. Attention to such small details as
The bronze man and his assistants this, the acceptance and use of a
had worked together for some time—a very standardized routine that, while apparently
long time, measured by the excitement and somewhat complicated at first glance,
danger they had encountered—and they became a matter of habit, was largely
had evolved operating methods to meet responsible for their having been able to go
most ordinary situations. The inclusion of a through such things as they had, and still
code word—always being sure the third remain alive. All of them knew that. Hence
word was “today” and the sixth word there was no varying from their practice,
“feeling” (They varied this code from month although when things were quiet, with no
to month)—in cablegrams and telegrams danger threatening, all those precautions
was one precaution they had settled upon. sometimes seemed much on the silly side.
There had been occasions in the Long Tom had been conducted
past when they had found it necessary to along a footpath that angled up sharply
drop bits of cloth as clues. Pieces of cloth from the right-hand side of the road.
lying on the ground are not entirely Doc followed the path. Trees
unusual, and to simplify matters they had crowded closer, shoving out branches so
agreed to tie a knot near the end of any bits that it was necessary to push through the
of cloth they dropped which were important. foliage. The trail, while distinct, was
It might be inconvenient to do so, but it carpeted with a mat of dead leaves and
avoided confusion. retained only the vague outlines of
Doc rode on. Fortunately, there footprints. But here and there bare ground
were not many intersecting roads. showed, soft and moist, retaining distinctly
the footprints.
Then Doc found a bit of cloth, a bit
IT was almost dark when Doc of clothing of the same type which he had
Savage found a knotted cloth fragment been finding from time to time at
which indicated the quarry had turned off intersections as he followed the road.
the road onto one that was less traveled. Suddenly he knew he was falling
He was near the coast, so close that into a trap.
he could hear the deep-throated bursting of The cloth wasn’t knotted.
waves against rocky cliffs. He followed the The bronze man straightened
side road. It dipped downward sharply, swiftly. But he had no chance to act on his
entering a canyon that was part of an inlet discovery.
which slashed back from the sea. He Jonas, the butler, came out from
crossed a bridge, an old bridge made of behind a large boulder nearby. There was
logs, with loose plank flooring that rattled. nothing butlerlike about Jonas now—he
He could see the tracks of cars now. wore old khaki pants, flannel shirt and cap,
There were not many. He watched closely. so that he resembled a native—and there
Where a car had stopped—there was certainly nothing that left doubts about
were the mark of footprints around it—he the rifle he pointed.
stopped the motorcycle and got off to make The rifle was an automatic one. It
an examination. He found Long Tom’s could empty a clip of several bullets. The
tracks. caliber was a heavy one which the maker
It was no miracle. There was not recommended for any big game in the
even anything incredible about being able world.
to identify Long Tom’s footprints among “The only reason I don’t want to
many others on the road, because their shoot you now is because the shot might
shoe soles were a composition type with a be heard,” Jonas said. “That isn’t much of a
distinctive marking. That, too, was a reason. Hardly anybody lives up here.”
convenience which they affected for mutual His manner was utterly collected
assistance. They could come upon any and matter-of-fact.
jungle or woodland trail and tell at a glance Doc lifted his arms, understanding
that he was very near to death.
There was nothing butterlike about Jonas now—and he had a rifle!
Chapter XIV “Look!” Ham exploded.

THE CLIFF Monk seized binoculars and stared
downward. “Doc’s motorcycle!” he said.
MONK handled the controls of the He started to dive the plane
plane and flew south. They had been north downward, then quickly changed his mind.
beyond the Canadian border, following the He flew on, rather than attract attention to
road, and the road had eventually petered Doc.
out. They had discovered no trace of a blue Annie Spain asked, “Does he have
sedan. Now they were going south again, a portable radio?”
making another try. “Yes,” Ham said shortly.
Monk explained, “We’ll land down

the coast somewhere and wait for Doc to ANNIE SPAIN sat very stiff in the
call us.” plane during the landing. She knew just
The land offered no opening of enough about flying to be awfully scared.
sufficient size for them to set the plane They came down in the fog well out to
down. The ship was big and fast, needed sea—the motors had been cut at the
more than an average amount of room. fifteen-thousand-foot level—and the landing
Monk arched out over the sea and was made dead-stick. Through the fog. Into
studied that. The waves were small, and the mouth of the bay.
there was not much of a swell. The fog rushed past the plane
“We’ll try the open sea,” he said. He windows, coated the glass until they could
waved to the eastward. “Fog rolling in, see nothing but a gray blur. Monk opened
anyway. It’ll hide us.” the forward windows, and damp air charged
The fog was thick and close to the inside. Then they hit the water. It was much
sea, like a floating layer of soiled cotton. calmer here, and the plane eventually
They hit, bounced; spray climbed slowed until its only motion was that given
out in sheets. Monk grunted, wrestled the by the breeze.
big wheel, batted at the throttles with his “Anchor,” Monk said.
palms. The ship straightened out and “The water is too deep, you ape,”
settled, knocking the tops off a long series Ham objected, then got out the anchor. The
of waves before it became stagnant on the water wasn’t too deep; only about eight
surface. fathoms. The anchor, a small collapsible
There followed two hours of dreary one designed for gripping properties, took
bouncing around on waves. The motion hold and the plane slowly angled its nose
was nauseating to the extreme. Monk into the wind.
became somewhat green. Monk put a collapsible boat in the
There was no radio communication water. It was a little thing, hardly as stable
from Doc Savage. as a canoe. The paddles were of light
“We better investigate,” Monk said airplane metal.
biliously. “I’ll get in first,” Annie Spain
“Anything so you can get on shore, volunteered, “and hold it for you fellows.”
eh?” Ham quipped. “O. K. But I’ve been “You aren’t going,” Ham said.
enjoying myself watching you!” “You’re crazy,” Annie Spain
“You would!” Monk snarled. “You snapped.
better fly this thing.” Ham got a pair of handcuffs out of a
They took to the air again, climbed compartment. “You’re not going anywhere,”
in tight circles until they had fifteen he said grimly. He walked toward the young
thousand feet of altitude. They flew woman with the handcuffs.
northwest for a while, until the coast Monk exploded, “Now wait a minute,
appeared in the moonlight. Ham! What’s the idea of treating this young
“There’s an inlet close to where we woman like that?”
saw Doc’s motorcycle,” Ham volunteered. “She’s been too sassy,” Ham said.
“We can land there and make an “And that’s only one reason.”
investigation afoot.” “What’s another reason?”
Monk peered downward. His “You remember when Long Tom
seasickness had subsided. He discerned disappeared?” Ham demanded. “Well, this
the inlet, but noted also that it was floored girl locked me in the garage at Sell-’em-
with fog, the cliffs projecting above the layer short Smith’s home about that time, and
of vapor and showing the outlines of the escaped. She was missing about the time
cove. Long Tom vanished. Then she came back.”
“We’ll have to drop down into that “She explained her absence,” Monk
fog and land blind,” he said. “Suppose we reminded.
hit a rock.” “Not to my satisfaction, she didn’t.
“There were no rocks,” Ham said. “I She said she had changed her mind and
noticed when we flew past it before.” decided to come back.”
“Women change their minds. Then they closed the plane door
They’re that way.” behind them. The cabin of the plane was
“Well, I’m not,” Ham said. “I’m going practically soundproof, so that the best
to lock her here in the plane while we’re yelling which Annie Spain would be able to
gone.” do was not likely to be heard more than a
“You idiot!” Monk snapped. few feet away.
Monk’s objections were neither as
violent nor as serious as they sounded. He
was doing two things—following his usual THEY found Oxalate Smith at the
habit of disapproving of everything Ham boathouse.
did, and getting in solid with the girl. He They had been ashore only a few
noticed she was giving him looks of minutes when Oxalate Smith walked out of
approval. the darkness, completely astounding them
“You want to leave her free?” Ham and said, “Oh, gracious, I’m glad to see
demanded. you!”
“Of course!” Monk said angrily. The boathouse in itself had been a
“She’s an honest girl. I believe everything surprise. There was a long rock running out
she has told us.” into the water, and they had climbed onto
Annie Spain gave Monk a more that without realizing it was a natural wharf
ravishing smile. Ham saw this, and it which someone had utilized by building a
scorched him. He suddenly understood why boathouse at the shore end. The boathouse
Monk was objecting. So he promptly was a very old one, constructed of slabs
double-crossed Monk. nailed to the planks, but it was in good
“All right,” he said. “Here.” He repair.
handed Monk the handcuffs. So intense was the darkness that
“Huh?” Monk gulped. they did not at once recognize Oxalate
“It’s up to you,” Ham said calmly. Smith.
“You’ve out-argued me. If she gets “Oh!” Monk gasped.
handcuffed aboard, you’ll have to do it.” He dodged backward so
Monk knew he had been double- precipitously that he slipped off the rock
crossed. into the water. Monk was large enough to
“You overdressed shyster!” he make quite a splash.
gritted. “Sh-h-h!” admonished Oxalate
Monk handcuffed Annie Spain to a Smith wildly. “They may hear us!”
cabin brace, where she could sit on the Ham took a chance and put a
floor in a position that was not flashlight beam on Oxalate Smith. He saw
uncomfortable. that Oxalate was disheveled, and that he
The young woman parted her lips was holding one end of a rope, the other
and let go a round general opinion of them; end of which was tied about one of his
she did not exactly swear, but her words ankles with a very complicated hard knot.
gave that impression. “Put out the light!” Oxalate Smith
“What if this plane sinks, or breaks exclaimed.
loose and drifts out to sea?” she Ham doused the light. “What the
demanded. devil?” he muttered. “You told us you were
Monk went to the tool kit, got two an antique dealer and furniture refinisher
small three-cornered files and handed them with a shop in New York.”
to her. “Sh-h-h,” breathed Oxalate Smith.
“You can file through those handcuff There was silence for some
links,” the homely chemist said. “I know, moments while they listened, but no
because I had to do it once. Take you sound—no alarming sound, rather, for there
about three hours if you stay with it. We was a little noise of night birds—could be
should be back before then.” detected.
They each pocketed one of the Oxalate Smith whispered,
small black jars which Doc Savage had “Remember I told you I frequently made
instructed them to carry, and discard as trips into the country to buy antiques at
soon as they met an enemy. bargain prices?”
“Yes,” Ham admitted. water somewhere, and the distant hooting

“Well, I was called up here by of an owl. Once, far away, a wolf howled, or
someone who wanted to sell an original it might have been a dog, although it
Duncan Phyfe set of furniture. A whole set, sounded like a wolf.
mind you! The price named made it a Ham asked, “Have you any idea,
marvelous bargain, if genuine. I rushed Smith, why you were decoyed up here and
right up here. But before that —” seized?”
“What happened when you got “Well—I have a theory.”
here?” Ham interrupted. “What is it?”
“Before that, in New York, I was set “It was feared that I might identify
upon by a footpad,” Oxalate Smith went on. the master criminal as having been in
“That was right after I left Doc Savage. I do Radiator Smith’s home, and acting
not know what significance that attack had, strangely.”
if any. I was robbed, however. Do you know “Jonas, the butler, you mean?”
anything about that attack?” “No. He is only a minor crook”
“Us?” Ham said. “No, we didn’t “Who, then?” Ham demanded.
waylay you. And we don’t know of anybody Monk said, “He must mean Annie
who did. You say it was a robber?” Spain.”
“I didn’t catch sight of him. He struck Both Monk and Ham became coldly
me down in the darkness. Must have grim at the thought. They had come to
sprung upon me and injured me, as well, know Annie Spain, and they rather liked
because my stomach has been bothering her—not entirely, they believed—because
me since.” she was a remarkably pretty girl. The idea
“Your stomach?” that she was responsible for the deaths
“Yes. It aches slightly. Nothing horrified them.
serious, you understand, but nevertheless “You mean Annie Spain?” Ham
uncomfortable.” asked.
Monk growled, “Let’s skip your “No,” Oxalate Smith said. “I don’t
bellyache and get down to the present. mean Annie Spain.”
What happened here?” “Who, then?” Ham exploded.
“I was made a prisoner.” “Radiator Smith himself,” said
“When?” Oxalate Smith.
“As soon as I arrived.” Monk and Ham digested that; then
“Then what are you doing loose Monk snorted.
now?” “The idea is ridiculous,” Monk said.
“I got away. Tonight. I crept down “Why? Didn’t you know that Maurice
here to this boathouse hoping to find a Smith wasn’t Radiator Smith’s true son, but
boat, but there is none. I was wondering an adopted boy? If Radiator Smith is the
how I could escape when I heard you criminal, and Maurice found it out, that
fellows, and realized who you were when would give a motive for the murder.”
one of you spoke.” “Um-m-m,” Monk said uncertainly.
Monk and Ham digested this This possibility had not occurred to
amazing story. either him or Ham earlier.
“Who seized you?” Monk After a period of silence, Ham
demanded. changed the subject, asking, “Where were
“Why, several men. I had never you held a prisoner?”
seen any of them before, with one “In a house on top of the cliff.”
exception.” “Could we get in it?”
“And the exception?” “It might be dangerous,” Oxalate
“Jonas, the butler who was Smith said uneasily.
employed by Radiator Smith.” “But we might manage it?”
“Yes.”
“Come on,” said Monk and Ham
THE stillness of the night continued, together.
broken only by the squawking of some
predatory sea bird out over the fog-covered
Chapter XV use, taking up no more space than a

MYSTERY BELOW tobacco pouch.
The house was empty.
IT was an ancient house, and big. It took them fifteen minutes of
The first floor was made of native stone, the cautious prowling, and three trips inside,
second was clapboarded, the third before they discovered this.
shingled. There were gables; against the They rejoined Oxalate Smith
stars Monk and Ham counted five, and they outdoors.
could see only the side and one end of the “Darn the luck!” Monk muttered.
structure. “Where’d they go?”
“Sure take a lot of ghosts to haunt “Maybe they’re out hunting me!”
that place,” Monk offered in a puffing Oxalate Smith gasped. “We had better
whisper. flee.”
The uneasy sobbing of the sea “If they’re hunting you—right here at
among cliff caves came to them. The house the house is the last place they’ll look for
stood not many rods from the lip of the cliff, you,” Monk told him. “Let’s give the joint the
and the path up which they had climbed once-over.”
had been steep and breath-taking. As they were starting inside,
There was no light anywhere about Oxalate Smith stopped them.
the house. No sound. No movement. “I have an idea,” he said.
“They’re still asleep,” Oxalate Smith “Eh?”
whispered. “The men often went into the
“We’ve got some gas,” Ham basement and were gone for long periods,”
whispered. “I suggest we use the stuff, then explained Oxalate Smith. “I listened. I think
barge in on ‘em. Make it simple.” there is some kind of a passage out of the
“If there’s only six or seven, we can basement. We might find it.”
lick ‘em barehanded,” said Monk, who liked “Now you’re talking,” Monk said.
to fight. As an afterthought purely, Monk
“Don’t be a fool,” Oxalate Smith extracted his little black jug of a device from
whispered. his pocket and left it outside, sitting on a
“He can’t help it,” Ham said. window sill where it would be quite
The gas—it was an anaesthetic noticeable in case Doc Savage reached the
type, producing quick unconsciousness house.
without very harmful aftereffects—was
contained in small cylinders equipped with
lean spouts through which the stuff could THERE had been a wine vat—or a
be sprayed, spouts that would penetrate an fish-pickling vat; they never did decide
ordinary keyhole. Monk took the front door, which—in the basement, and this was
and Ham took the back. They let in plenty empty now, and had been for a long time. It
of gas. was, however, equipped with a bottom
This gas remained effective for which could be dropped in place and
more than thirty minutes, in which respect it sealed, brine or some other liquid afterward
differed from another type of anaesthetic being poured into the vat to hide the fact
gas which Doc often employed, and which that it was through the bottom that access
became impotent after it had mingled with could be gained to a shaft.
the air for less than a minute. It was not a tunnel. It was a shaft.
To enter the house, Monk and Ham Sheer, absolutely straight up and down.
now employed hoods. These were simply Round. When they first looked into it, Monk
transparent sacks which they pulled over and Ham thought they were peering into
their heads, and which sealed around their the depths of a cistern. But, “Let’s look
necks with an adhesive tape. The sacks closer!” Oxalate Smith kept urging in a
were large enough to contain considerable whisper; so they looked, and they found a
air, but at the best they were only effective ladder, a modernistic ladder with iron rungs.
for a few minutes. They were, however, the They climbed down for probably fifty
most portable type of mask for emergency feet, Monk first, then Oxalate Smith, then
Ham. There was a steady current of air cut downward through the rock. In the
upward, which made Ham feel better. bottom of the hole, the sea churned up and
“If anybody starts down after us,” he down. There was an opening to the sea
whispered, “we can just let some gas loose down there somewhere, funnel-shaped so
and it will be carried up to them.” that each big swell striking the cliff outside
“Yeah,” Monk said. “But it’s what’s drove into the funnel and compressed, so
below that bothers me.” that the water level was raised in the shaft
What was below was, first, a large, a distance of a score of feet, often more.
dark cave of a room. It was natural, they The pistol in this unique cylinder
saw; that is, no human agency had was a huge tank of an affair which slid up
excavated it, but rather it was the work of a and down on steel rods, and there was a
brook which had, in some prehistoric era, connecting rod which extended to the
trickled down through the stone and worn machinery on the cave floor.
channels. “A kind of big sea-motor,” Ham said.
They followed the cave, which That explained it as clearly as
became a succession of rooms, each larger anything.
than the other and each lower—until finally
they came upon the machine.
Monk stared at the machine. MONK stood frowning at the thing,
“Blazes!” he said. his agile mind trying to calculate roughly
What he probably meant was that how many foot pounds of energy the device
he had never seen such an intricate-looking was capable of producing. He couldn’t tell
conglomeration of wheels, coils, tubes, exactly, of course, but it was plenty. He
cylinders, belts, cogs, levers—practically examined the motor itself. The power was
everything. exchanged into electrical energy through
Monk stared at the stuff. Monk was the medium of a huge dynamo. From the
a chemist, an industrial chemist—this was a dynamo, the juice went into—well, Monk
little different than being a plain chemist, wasn’t sure what it did go into. The most
because it necessitated an extra knowledge baffling mess of apparatus he had ever
of modern machinery, mechanical and seen, he was certain.
electrical, and manufacturing processes— He fooled around the stuff, not
but Monk had never seen anything touching anything at first, but feeling the
remotely resembling the apparatus below urge to do so. It seems to be an inborn trait
his eyes now. Neither had Ham. But with of the human male that when he sees a
Ham it was different; he was a lawyer and complicated machine, he wants to push a
had dealt more with writs and torts than button or turn a lever to see what happens.
with transformers and gear ratios. Monk had that impulse. It became
“What is it?” Ham asked. overpowering. He started half-reaching for
“I don’t know,” Monk said. “It looks things.
like somebody had a dream.” “You better not,” Ham said.
“Well, let’s find out.” “Why not?”
Monk listened. There seemed to be “You remember the lightning that’s
no one around. He found an electric switch, been striking the Smiths?” Ham asked.
and turned it, and lights came on. He “You think this contraption has got
crouched there, expectant, a supermachine something to do with it?”
pistol in one hand, a gas grenade in the “What do you think?”
other, but no one appeared. He looked Monk thought it was quite possible,
around. but decided he wouldn’t admit it to Ham. He
The simplest part of the contraption backed away from the electro-mechanical
stood on the other side of the huge room; mystery.
moreover, it was the only piece of “If we had a stick of dynamite,” Ham
machinery which seemed to be operating. said, “we could fix this golly-wogus,
Monk and Ham moved over to that. whatever it is.”
It was like a pistol operating in a “I can go back to the plane, get
cylinder. In this case, the cylinder was a some chemicals and mix us up some
great hole, almost vertical, which water had nitroglycerin,” Monk offered.
It was a good idea, and Ham But Oxalate Smith wasn’t. He folded
wondered how he could admit that it was down on the floor, making no sound, and
good without going through the disgusting lay there.
formality of agreeing with Monk. “You killed him!” Monk squalled.
He was saved the trouble. With no “Yes,” the man said calmly, “we
advance warning whatever, men appeared killed him. He was useless to us. But you
to the side and back of them, men armed aren’t.”
with rifles and shotguns. They came out Monk tightened his muscles, swung
quickly, in a way that showed that they had his supermachine pistol toward the
been there the whole time, and had only speaker.
been waiting to make sure no one else “Wait!” the man rapped. “You’ve got
accompanied Monk, Ham and Oxalate a chance of staying alive!”
Smith. “Yeah,” Monk said coldly. “I bet it’s a
Monk and Ham promptly whipped fat chance.”
out their supermachine pistols. They got The homely chemist was going to
them pointed. But they didn’t fire. It was start fighting. Ham realized it, and
perfectly obvious that they would get a few understood that they had no chance
shots out of the weapons, but would whatever. “Wait!” Ham gasped. He seized
certainly be shot down themselves. And Monk’s arm. Monk snarled, struck at him.
there was a difference between their But Ham forced Monk’s arm up, and when
ammunition and that of their enemies—they the pistol blared out deafeningly, the bullets
were shooting the unconsciousness- did nothing but splatter their chemical
producing type of slug commonly called a contents against the ceiling.
“mercy” bullet. The men with the guns rushed
“Think it over, you guys,” Monk them, bore them down under a wave of fists
warned grimly. “These guns put out a lot of and clubbing gunstocks.
lead in a little time.”
There was silence, except for the
churning of the big sea-power engine Chapter XVI
behind them. GIRL TREACHEROUS
“I am going to move,” one of the
men said. “I am going to show you ANNIE SPAIN would not want to
something.” see another file during the rest of her life.
The man moved away, and came The sound of it, as she rasped it back and
back carrying a device contained in a forth over her handcuff links, had long since
greenish metal box about the size of a ceased merely to set her teeth on edge.
common suitcase. It was so heavy that he The sound was stabbing at her brain now,
had a little trouble carrying it. maddening her. But she was almost
He placed the box on the floor, through the links.
turned a lever and one end dropped open, When she did get the link
disclosing a black panel on which there was separated, she wrenched herself free of the
a round brassy-looking disk. There was a brace in the plane cabin and lurched to her
switch on top of the box. The man threw feet. She fell immediately. In the
that. concentrated effort of using the file, she
He stepped back. had forgotten to move about, so that she
“Something is going to happen,” he was stiff. She clamped her teeth together,
said. “Be careful your guns don’t go off by got up again, and weaved to the plane
accident.” door.
Monk opened his mouth, shut it, There was no boat. No way of
asked, “I don’t get—” getting ashore except swimming. She
Cr-r-r-a-a-c-k! It was terrific. And clambered down on the float and put one of
blinding. For a lightning bolt—unmistakably her feet in the water.
that was what it was—came out of the box “Brr!” she said, and shivered.
and jumped toward them. Monk thought at She debated pulling up the anchor
first he had been struck. But no! He whirled and letting the plane drift ashore, but
to Ham. Ham was all right.
dismissed that idea. The plane would be “Grab high!” she said sharply.
wrecked on the rocks, probably. She didn’t
want that.
Searching the plane cabin, she JONAS was standing. He held an
found a gun—it was a common automatic automatic rifle, but he let it fall instantly.
pistol, the operation of which she Doc Savage half lay, half sat on the
understood, and not one of the intricate ground, with ropes around his ankles and
supermachine pistols—and ran a cord wrists. He was tied very securely, Annie
through the trigger guard of the weapon Spain saw.
and tied it, as best she could, on top of her “Stand still!” she warned.
head. She tried to tie a box of cartridges She went over and got the
there, but it would not stay; she automatic rifle which Jonas had dropped,
compromised by greasing the cartridges pulled back the slide to make sure there
thoroughly with a can of grease which she was a cartridge in the chamber, then
found in the tool locker, and stowing them exchanged that weapon for her automatic,
inside the front of her blouse. She put a fearing the cartridges in the automatic
small flashlight there, also, after noting that might be wet and useless.
it appeared to be waterproof. “Don’t think I won’t shoot you,” she
She got her bearings by the wind, advised Jonas coolly.
and slid into the water. It was cold enough She was busy a moment with her
to stab her all over like needles. She struck thoughts. There was a length of rope lying
out, glad that she was a good swimmer, beside the motorcycle, some that had been
and for the first few minutes she was left over when Jonas tied the bronze man.
plagued by a horrible fear she would not Annie Spain picked up the rope.
make it, but as her muscles generated heat “I better separate you two,” she
from the exercise, she was more confident. said. To Jonas, she commanded, “Get
When she reached shore, she took moving. Walk up the path. And one wrong
off her wet things and wrung them out as jump out of you will be your last.”
best she could. The automatic had not She sounded coldly earnest.
gotten very wet; she took out the clip and Jonas swallowed. “I . . . I—”
blew into the mechanism and into the barrel “Get going!” said the girl.
to get most of the water out. She had heard Jonas shuffled away. She followed
that it did not hurt modern cartridges to get him. She said, “I ought to shoot you down!”
them wet, but she was not too sure. in a rather loud and determined voice.
She had studied the lay of the They moved along the path perhaps
ground from the plane before dark; she a hundred yards.
knew there was a big house on a hill, but it The girl spoke in a much different
was some distance, three quarters of a mile voice.
or so from the spot where they had seen “How are things going?” she asked.
Doc Savage’s motorcycle. Jonas stopped. In a friendly tone, he
Her first move, she decided, would said, “Well, I was waiting there, hoping you
be to see whether the bronze man’s would turn up. I been hoping to see you for
motorcycle was still there. hours, knowing you were with Savage.”
It was a long trip, a rough one. “Does Savage suspect me?”
Being a woman, Annie hated it thoroughly, “A little.”
because it hopelessly ruined her suit, which “Does he suspect we’re in cahoots?”
she had bought from one of New York’s “Oh, no.”
swankiest woman’s shops, paying plenty. “That’s nice,” said Annie Spain.
She did not use her flashlight. “That’s swell. And you’ve been doing nice
Doc Savage and Jonas were at the work, Jonas.”
motorcycle. She heard their voices—Jonas “Thank you, miss.”
demanding to know the whereabouts of the “You don’t need to act like a
rest of his men, and the bronze man either servant. We are partners in this. You’ll be a
ignoring the inquiries, or refusing to answer. millionaire.”
Annie Spain took a chance; she “I hope so, miss. Thank you.”
thumbed on her flashlight.
“When I found out you were one of Doc inquired, “Did he tell you who is
the gang, I had a talk with you and you the brains behind this?”
decided to work for me. That makes us “He didn’t know. None of them
partners.” know. It’s a mystery.”
“Yes, miss.” “But he told you what their—infernal
“And it’ll also make you a dead man machine, you called it—is like?”
if those others find out about it before we’re “Yes. He said it was a marvelous
ready.” invention for committing murder. It is
“I know.” electrical in nature. I’m not technical
“Is this their—ah, factory, you might enough to understand it. Jonas didn’t
call it?” Annie Spain asked. understand it either, for that matter.”
“Yes, miss. There is a big house on “I see,” Doc said. “And you say we
the hill, and caves in the cliff below that. can seize this machine?”
The . . . er . . . ‘factory’ is a good word for “Yes.”
it—is there.” “Where?”
“Can we raid the place?” “I’ll show you,” Annie Spain said.
“We can try, miss. I hid a machine “It’s right along the shore of the cove. It’s a
gun under the porch. We can get that.” kind of a tunnel—an old abandoned mine
“Are you game to try it?” tunnel.”
“Yes, miss. The thought of making a “All right, show me,” Doc said.
million dollars makes me very game They moved through the darkness,
indeed, if you’ll pardon my saying so.” Annie Spain leading the way down to the
“It will be more than a million, Jonas. cove edge and along the shore, wondering
You go up to the house. I’ll meet you there if she would be able to find the mine tunnel.
later. Meantime, I will get rid of Doc Jonas had said she couldn’t miss it, but she
Savage.” was worried.
“Begging your pardon miss, but are The cove had no beach worthy of
you going to kill him?” the name—the patches of sand here and
“No, Jonas. If we fail in our raid on there among the rocks could hardly qualify
the . . . er . . . factory, we may need help. as beach—and the going was very difficult.
Doc Savage is the very best kind of help.” Also it was slow, because they had to travel
“Yes, miss. I agree with you. There without making too much noise. The fog
is a mine tunnel with a very strong door swirled around them like streamers of gray
along the cove shore. You cannot miss it.” cheesecloth.
“Mine tunnel?” The tunnel was perhaps fifty feet up
“Yes. To imprison Savage, miss.” the face of the sloping cove bank from the
They separated, Jonas moving off water, and loose débris taken from the
up the hill, Annie Spain returning to Doc tunnel when it was dug had been dumped
Savage. outside, making a long slide down to the
shore.
The tunnel mouth was blackly
THE bronze man had been working forbidding.
at his ropes, and he had nearly succeeded “They may be in there—Jonas could
in liberating himself. Annie Spain hastily have been mistaken,” the girl said.
dropped beside the bronze man, seized the “Or maybe Jonas came back and
knots and untied them, liberating Doc. warned them.”
“I let Jonas get away,” she said. “I don’t think he did.”
“Deliberately.” Doc Savage said, “We had better be
“Why?” Doc asked. careful. I’ll tell you what—you go back fifty
“I scared him.” feet or so and conceal yourself while I
“You—” investigate.”
“So bad that he told me the truth, as “All right,” Annie Spain said. “I will
much of it as he knew. He told me where whistle like this”—she whistled once softly,
the gang has their hideout. And he told me an excellent likeness of a whippoorwill
nobody is there, and we can walk right in call—”to warn you if anybody comes.”
and take over their infernal machine.” “Right.”
Doc Savage located the young of the sea came to them, sighings and
woman some distance away from the coughings of the waves flinging against the
tunnel mouth, left her there, and moved cliff. Closer at hand, the wind stirred leaves
back toward the dark opening in the earth. and occasionally whimpered among the
Annie Spain did not remain where many gables of the big house.
she had been left any longer than it “Where is everybody?” Annie Spain
required the bronze man to reach the demanded.
tunnel. Then she crept forward, reached the “Down below. In the cliff cavern I
tunnel mouth, and explored cautiously with was telling you about.”
her hands. “Where is the machine gun?”
Jonas had said there would be a “Over there, miss.” Jonas conducted
door. There was. It was made of wood, her to the porch and got down on all fours
steel-plated, and even stronger than she and disappeared under the flooring, to
had hoped. come out a moment later with a bulky
“Doc Savage!” the young woman object wrapped in a cloth, an article which
called softly. proved to be a hand machine gun when he
Doc’s voice came to her so faintly uncovered it. There were extra drums of
and hollowly that she knew he was far back ammunition.
in the mine tunnel. “All right,” the girl said. “Let’s start
“What is it?” the bronze man asked. our rat-hunt.”
Annie Spain laughed. She slammed Jonas conducted her inside. He
the heavy door, closing the bronze man volunteered some information in a whisper.
inside the tunnel, and locked it with the “He has always owned this house,”
heavy padlock she had found hooked in the he said, “and his father and grandfather
hasp. before him. It is a very old house.”
Annie Spain asked, “How did he
come to invent the contraption?”
Chapter XVII “He is a very brilliant man, you
THE CHANGE OF MIND know. He was educated in the finest
universities here and abroad. I think that
ANNIE SPAIN reached the top of may be one of his troubles—too much
the hill and found the big old house with the education. Something is wrong with him.
many gables. After she had searched He has no human qualities whatever, once
cautiously for a time, she located the you know him well.”
erstwhile butler, Jonas. “Did he invent the gadget here?”
“Over here, miss,” Jonas hissed, so “Yes, miss, I think so. It took years, I
she could find him. understand. I think he started the work in
“I took care of Doc Savage,” Annie Europe, then came back to this country
Spain whispered. when all that trouble started over there.
“What did you do with him?” Perhaps they ran him out of Europe. I don’t
“In the mine tunnel, like you said.” know.”
“Are you sure he is in there?” “Why work in a cave?” Annie Spain
“Oh, yes indeed. He called to me asked.
from far back in the tunnel just before I “You don’t understand, miss. A
slammed and locked the door.” great deal of power is necessary. The
“Good.” equivalent of thousands and thousands of
“It’ll be good if there’s no other exit horsepower. He rigged a kind of sea-power
from that mine tunnel. You are sure of motor in the cliff, and got the power that
that?” way. He is a genius, miss, but not normal in
“Oh, yes, miss. Positive,” said mind.”
Jonas. “I know,” Annie Spain said. “He’s
They moved close to the house, so crazy for power.”
that its bulk shoved up above them, a “Yes, indeed.”
rather shapeless thing against the stars, but
a thing of formidable magnitude. The sound
THEY reached the basement shaft “It’s all right,” he told the girl, who
that extended down from the bottom of the was still out of sight in the shaft.
vat, and stood there peering into the depths But just to make sure there was no
uneasily, listening to make sure no one was slip in capturing her, he seized one of her
immediately below to hear them once they ankles and jerked. Annie Spain fell down
started down. the last steps of the shaft to the cave floor.
“Crazy for power,” Annie Spain Men sprang upon her and gripped
repeated. “Yes, that describes him. You her arms. She tried to fight them, but did
know, Jonas, that he came to me when he not have much success.
was assembling his gang and wanted to “So you sold out on me!” she told
hire me as one of them.” Jonas grimly.
“Yes, I know.” “Not exactly, miss,” Jonas said.
“I guess my reputation as an “You never hired me in the first place,
adventuress fooled him into thinking I would although you didn’t know that. We simply
work for anybody. I had just gotten out of thought it advisable for me to pretend to
that spy mess in Austria, and there was lots work with you. It made everything much
of publicity. I was painted as a Mata Hari safer for us, you see.”
and Dracula combination, sort of.” A man said, “Where is Doc
Jonas said, “I don’t hear anyone Savage?”
down below, miss.” Jonas turned. “Locked in the old
“I pumped him when he tried to hire mine tunnel. Miss Spain locked him there.”
me,” Annie Spain said grimly, “and found
out what a wonderful invention he had
developed. He wanted to use it to terrify ANNIE SPAIN let them tie her wrists
people, to rule a lot of big business and ankles—there was hardly anything else
enterprises, and finally—the United States.” she could have done—and remained where
“Yes, miss. He’s power-crazy.” they dropped her at one side of the
“I think I was justified in turning on chamber. She watched them prepare a
him and trying to take his infernal machine party to go after Doc Savage. Her mouth
away from him, because he was going to was tight, and her body felt colder than the
kill people.” The young woman smiled stone against which she crouched. They
slightly. “Of course, I wasn’t doing it as a would not hesitate to kill a woman; there
good deed, entirely. I know that machine was no doubt whatever in her mind about
itself is worth millions if I can get it.” that. It was not the first time that death had
Jonas, the butler, moved his seemed in prospect, but it seemed more
shoulders uneasily. He felt, when he was in certain now than at any time in the past.
the presence of Annie Spain, rather as if he Certain. She saw no way of avoiding it.
was associating with a man-eating tigress. Jonas, even in his present triumph,
The young woman was so competent, so was still the perfect butler—smug, polite,
unafraid, that she scared him. using a modulated voice in which there was
They began, with infinite care, to just a trace of pride.
climb down the shaft, Jonas going first on He led the men up the shaft, out of
the ladder, the girl coming close above him the house and down the steep slope toward
and keeping the machine gun balanced on the cove shore and the old tunnel. They
his shoulder, both of them going very slowly went boldly, lighting their way with
because they felt heavy and awkward with flashlights. There was nothing to be afraid
the ammunition drums stowed in their of. Doc Savage, his three men, Annie
clothing. The drums were heavy. Spain, all had been captured.
Jonas reached the bottom first. Jonas unlocked the heavy iron door
There was a little light, enough to show the of the mine tunnel. It was intact, he saw.
tight ring of figures that surrounded the foot “Come out!” he warned.
of the shaft. After about five minutes of trying to
Jonas made a slight gesture at the get someone to come out of the tunnel,
men, then tossed one of them the machine they ventured inside. The place was empty.
gun. Moreover, the floor inside the door
was muddy, and they could see that there
were no tracks in the mud, a good layout of the place. He spent some time
indication that Doc Savage had never even cautiously prowling the outside, listening at
entered the tunnel. the windows. The moonlight was brighter,
so that he had to keep low in the weeds
that surrounded the place to remain
Chapter XVIII inconspicuous.
THE BAD BREAK He saw the small black jug which
Monk had placed on the window sill. He got
THE ventriloquist known as the it, opened it.
Great Lander had taught the bronze man The contrivance was a tiny
more than the art of “throwing” the voice, recording electroscope—a device that
which was nothing more than speaking so registered the presence in its neighborhood
that the voice did not sound as if it came of radioactive substances.
from the speaker; he had taught Doc to Doc had designed several of them
imitate other voices, and make them seem as protective apparatus for hospitals in
to come from very far away. which a store of infinitely valuable radium
So now Doc stood in the darkness was kept; the jugs, when planted in the
near the tunnel mouth. doorways of the hospitals, and hooked to
“Monk!” he called. “Monk! Ham! Are an electrical relay and bell, would raise an
you there?” alarm the moment anyone attempted to
It sounded as if he were more than pass through the door with any of the
a quarter of a mile away. hospital’s radium.
He changed to Monk’s voice, said, They were sensitive enough, these
“Over here, Doc. We been looking for you! electroscopes, to register the passing of
Over here by the end of the cove.” anyone who had merely been treated with
Jonas heard the voices, and he was radium emanation. There was an
taken in. He swore in a harsh tone full of adjustment which could be screwed down
horror. to prevent this. In the present case the
“Damn!” he gasped. “That Monk and adjustment was not screwed down,
Ham got away! And Savage is loose!” however.
“They’re back toward the end of the Doc examined the electroscope. It
cove,” a man growled. showed that it had been close to a slightly
“Come on!” Jonas snapped. radioactive substance.
The men moved away, bunched
tightly, guns ready, and not showing their
flashlights. DOC reached the vat in the
Doc let them go. He had not entered basement. Doc stared down the shaft. Far
the old mine tunnel at any time. When below, he could see light, and occasionally
Annie Spain had thought she heard him call there were small sounds of men moving
to her from far back in the tunnel, the about. He saw a man shove his head into
bronze man had actually been outside, only the shaft and jerk back quickly so as not to
a few feet from the girl. be seen. They were watching the thing.
The fact that Annie Spain had Doc retreated. He left the
expected the bronze man to be in the basement—the basement was no place to
tunnel had made the deception easy. In spend much time, for he could be trapped
ventriloquism, having the audience expect there—and got out of the house.
the voice to come from another source was The yard had a crop of weeds that
half the battle. Otherwise ventriloquists looked like monkey fur, and there were
would not have a dummy to sit on their clumps of scrawny shrubbery which had
knee. been planted there but never trimmed. The
Having sidetracked a part of the bronze man took shelter in that maze.
enemy temporarily, Doc climbed up the cliff He had not been there long when
to the house. there was the pounding noise of frantic feet
Like Monk and Ham when they had and the whipping of branches flung aside.
first come there, he had no idea of the Two men. They were in a great hurry.
Jonas and one other, it proved to The critical moment came when
be. They reached the house, panting. Jonas reached the bottom and stepped
“I’ll go down and get help,” Jonas clear.
puffed. “Harry, you stay here and watch—if Without following him out, Doc said,
you’re not afraid to. If you’re not afraid, in the guard’s voice, “I’m gonna wait here in
understand?” the shaft and keep a watch.”
“Afraid!” the other man said rather Jonas growled something
angrily. “What do you mean?” unflattering about men with no nerve, but
“No offense, Harry,” Jonas said. “I’m he was too concerned with his own troubles
not telling you to stay here on guard—it’s for suspicion to occur to him. He galloped
dangerous, because Doc Savage and his away.
two men are around somewhere.” Doc dug out the pencil he had found
The other man hesitated. He did not on Harry, and one of the envelopes, on
like the idea of remaining up here alone, which he printed:
but the question of whether he had the
courage was at stake, so that he did not Jonas:
have much choice. I changed my mind and climbed
“I’ll stay,” he growled. back to watch from the house.
Jonas disappeared into the house. Harry
The guard Harry leaned against a porch
post, rifle tucked under his arm. He folded the envelope and hooked
it over one of the metal ladder rungs so that
it could hardly remain undiscovered.
DOC SAVAGE moved cautiously, The bronze man trailed Jonas
taking advantage of such sounds as the cautiously.
wind made stirring the weeds and bushes. He did not continue following Jonas,
Whenever his fingers found rocks, he however. Jonas swung right, into a room
picked them up, until he had three small where a number of men waited. Doc took a
pebbles and a larger rock, a stone about left turn, because he had seen the chamber
the size of half a brickbat, in his hands. which Monk and Ham had earlier
He flicked two pebbles to the left of discovered, the room filled with fantastic
the guard. Harry whirled toward the sound. machinery.
Doc lifted and let fly the larger rock, The machinery was running now.
throwing with great care. He made a hit; the There was a shaded electric bulb over a
man’s head was not a difficult target. Harry large instrument panel, and this gave some
dropped. The rock bounded around on the vague light.
porch, making some noise. Doc began with the source of power
Doc Savage raced forward, leaned that utilized the surge of waves in the pit,
over and clipped the man with his fist to and moved his attention quickly to the more
lengthen the period of unconsciousness. intricate array of mechanism.
He searched Harry, found some coins, a He was careful not to venture too
short pencil, a few letters in envelopes, a close to the conglomeration of apparatus.
pocket knife and a flashlight. Doc took There was a yellow circle painted on the
those. He dragged Harry into the brush and floor around the machinery, he noted, and
boldly began descending the shaft. he was careful not to venture inside that.
Jonas was only a short distance He stared with interest at various devices,
below. endeavored to follow circuits with his eyes,
“What’s wrong, Harry?” he growled. and identify the apparatus into which they
Doc imitated fairly well the voice of entered. Many of the electrodes and
the guard he had just knocked senseless. conductors were surrounded with a visible
“I got scared,” he said gruffly. “I’m corona, due to the enormous frequency of
going down with you.” the current which they carried.
The hollow acoustics of the shaft Abruptly the bronze man showed a
further distorted the voice so that the deceit new interest.
worked. Jonas climbed on down. Doc Outside, he heard a bustle of
descended directly behind him. movement. Going to the aperture between
the two caves—the chambers were actually that gap and at the same time mount the
not rooms, but rather different arms of the distance. The height alone was a good high
underground labyrinth—and watching jump.
around the sharp angle, he saw that Jonas It took all of Doc’s great strength to
had assembled another group of men and get the board down without attracting
they were preparing to leave. attention. He whipped across silently. He
“You’re sure Monk and Ham haven’t brought out the pocketknife he had taken
escaped?” Jonas demanded angrily. from Harry as he crossed, made one big
“You can see for yourself,” a man circular slash and got Monk free.
said. “Loosen the others,” the bronze man
“I’ll do that.” said swiftly.
Jonas strode down a narrow He spun, went back the way he had
passage, dropped a board that spanned a come. His leaps were long with haste. He
deep pit with water at the bottom, gingerly crossed the plank, veered right, took to
crossed over and scowled at a guard who shadows. Farther up the cavern, lights were
stood there. coming on, their luminance leaping through
“Let me see the prisoners,” he the passages like bright monsters. But here
growled. there were shadows that could conceal
“Sure.” The cell guard turned, him.
thumbed on the beam of a flashlight. He reached the great room where
Monk, Ham, Long Tom and Annie the machinery grumbled and whined.
Spain were staked out. The floor of the Earlier inspection had shown him how the
cave at that point was gray clay that had sea-power motor could be stopped—there
washed in through the ages, and long iron was a big lever that actuated a clutch. He
pipes had been driven into this, forming threw that. The big device went silent;
anchorages to which the prisoners were gears stopped grinding, generators ceased
spread-eagled. to whine, and the spark-blue corona
Jonas stared at them. disappeared from around the myriad of
“But I heard their voices outside,” he conductors. Then there was a report, sharp
growled. “Heard Savage, too.” and terrific, like a bolt of lightning, and a
He rubbed his jaw, scraped fingers jagged rope of flame climbed briefly
through his hair, and his mouth made through the apparatus.
thinking shapes. Suddenly his face Evidently that was the wrong way to
blanched. Scared wordless, he dashed shut it off. Some smoke and odor of burned
back to the shaft which led up to the house insulation oozed into the room.
on the cliff rim. Doc did not wait. He pitched for a
Jonas saw the note. He read it. darkened niche, a place closed by an iron-
Then he demonstrated that his intelligence barred grille. The grille was not locked; he
was past the ordinary. jerked it open—there was a squawk of rusty
“Savage is in here!” he roared. “Get hinges as he did so—and dashed his
your guns! Get all the lights on!” flashlight beam over the contents.
They were metal cases that might
have been suitcases, for they were
Chapter XIX equipped with carrying handles. But they
THE STOMACH TROUBLE were not suitcases, the bronze man knew.
He clamped his lips, advanced on
DOC was moving fast by then. The the cases. He was scared. He knew that he
guard had rushed away from the prisoners was closer to death now than possibly at
to see what the excitement was about. Doc any time in his rather hair-raising career.
reached the board over the pit. The board There was death in each one of those
was an ingenious but simple door for a boxes; it was disaster of a concentrated
prison; once it was hauled back, it made kind that could kill scores at once, unless
the place a perfect jail, since the coming- he was mistaken. And a single false move
out end was much higher than the other, on his part would release it.
high enough that no man was likely to leap He began working on one of the
cases. There was a switch on each of
them; he was careful not to close it. Doc thumbed on the flashlight
Instead, he worked on the contacts, was quickly.
soon elated to discover what he had feared Oxalate Smith lay on the floor.
would be a tedious job could be made a Apparently he had been concealed in a
quick one. The wire from one contact came dark corner, and at the outbreak of the
away from the contact—it was soldered to excitement had crawled out into the open.
the jaws of the switch—and entered the box “Put out the light!” he gasped.
through a small hole, bushed with an “They can’t see us here,” Doc said.
insulating compound, perhaps half an inch “What are you doing here?”
away. “They decoyed me up here from
He could thrust his belt buckle under New York,” Oxalate Smith said rapidly.
the wire, tear it loose, then grip the wire “Then they captured me, and tried to kill me
with his fingers and pull it until it broke, thus with their infernal machine. They hit me
making a quick repair out of the question. with a bolt of lightning. They thought I was
He went over six of the boxes in this dead. Your men think I am dead. But I’m
fashion. There were seven of them. Doc not.”
picked up the seventh box, backed out of It was obvious he was far from
the recess, and a man shot at him. dead.
“Can you walk?” Doc demanded.
“Maybe I can. I was afraid I couldn’t.
IT was too dark for the fellow who That is why I called you.” Oxalate Smith
fired the shot to take a decent aim, and the sounded frantic. “Take me with you.”
bullet missed. But the man yelled an alarm. “Take you with us where?”
“Get the lights on in the power “When you escape.”
room!” Jonas squalled. Doc said, “Come on.”
“I can’t!” the man howled back. “All The bronze man leaned over then,
the lights came off the switchboard. He lifted Oxalate Smith to his feet. Then he
could shoot me before I got there!” clamped his left arm around Oxalate
That gave Doc Savage an idea. He Smith’s neck, jamming the man to his chest
ducked back into the barred recess. There helplessly.
was an electric bulb hanging from a Doc picked up the metal case with
dropcord and he seized it, put his flashlight the other hand.
on the bulb and examined it. He walked toward the open part of
Thirty-two volts. It was a thirty-two the cave.
volt bulb, not a one-hundred-ten-volt one. “Watch out,” Doc yelled. “I’m holding
This meant that power for the lights came Oxalate Smith in front of me.”
from a battery supply.
He picked up rocks—there were
plenty lying about—and went back to a spot OXALATE SMITH went through
where he could see the switchboard without several convulsions, then began to kick
getting in range of the guns. He threw his frantically at Doc’s legs, causing the bronze
rocks. Two of them missed, but the third, man agony.
thrown very hard, smashed a master fuse Doc loosened Oxalate’s throat, held
out of its mounting and there was sudden him by an arm about the chest, an arm that
darkness all through the cavern. confined the fellow’s arms like a steel band.
Doc moved fast then. He figured he Oxalate could yell now.
might stand a chance of reaching his “Don’t shoot!” Oxalate squalled.
associates; if he could ever stand a chance, “Rush the damned fool! But don’t shoot!
now was the time. He’s got me!”
But a voice halted him. Doc obligingly turned a flashlight
It was an urgent, squeaking voice. beam on Oxalate Smith’s face so that the
“Mr. Savage,” it said. “Help me!” men could see that Oxalate was really a
It came from the right. Doc went prisoner. Then he ran toward Monk and the
over. others.
“Mr. Savage,” the voice said, almost “Monk!” he called.
sobbing. “Over here!” Monk barked.
Behind Doc, there was shouting— “Shut up and see if he’s got any
yells intended to bring all the members of cartridges,” Ham ordered.
the gang from the various parts of the cliff Then suddenly an avalanche of
cave. figures were upon them. Seven or eight
Monk galloped up, trailed closely by men, desperately intent.
Ham, Long Tom and Annie Spain. “Don’t use your guns!” Oxalate
“Who’s this?” Monk gasped, pointing Smith screamed.
at Doc’s prisoner. Doc Savage jammed the metal case
“Oxalate Smith.” into Ham’s hands, said, “Get it across the
“Oxalate—but he’s dead! We saw board into the place where you were held
them strike him with lightning.” prisoner.”
Doc said, “You saw them make a Ham nodded, fled with the box.
pretense of that. Probably the charge
jumped to a nearby electrode instead of
Oxalate’s body, and he just fell over and THE fight lasted a minute or two,
played dead.” and during the interval no one probably had
“Then he’s one of them?” a coherent thought. Everything was by
“He’s more than that,” Doc said. instinct. Strike, clutch, kick—anything to get
The bronze man was moving while a foe down.
he spoke. He headed toward the higher Oxalate Smith got up and ran. Doc
portions of the cavern, the spot where the could not hold him and fight at the same
shaft led upward to the house. time. The bronze man slugged Oxalate
But flight was cut off. Someone fired once, and the man dropped, feigning
at them—four rapid shots from an unconsciousness—Doc suspected he had
automatic—and Ham made a snarling not hit the man hard enough, but had no
sound and fell down, but jumped up time to remedy it—then Oxalate crawled
immediately. He clamped a hand to the calf away, got up and ran.
of his leg. Crimson leaked through his Suddenly there was quiet. Not
fingers. silence—just no more action for the
“Back,” Doc said. “Even if we did get moment. Of the men on the floor, three
to that shaft, they would kill us while we were moaning and one kept screaming
were climbing it.” over and over with the agony of a broken
They retreated. They had no arms, arm.
except what rocks they had picked up. In “The prison niche,” Doc rapped.
the darkness these were not entirely They ran, feeling better now, for
useless. But suddenly the lights came on. they had rifles and some ammunition.
They had found the switchboard in the “Look,” Monk barked, stopping.
power room. “Run!” Doc rapped. “Back to “Here’s Ham!”
the prison!” Ham was not out. He had been
“But—” clubbed over the head.
“It’s the safest place,” Doc rapped. “Some guy grabbed the box from
“We can pull in the board and keep them me,” he said. “But he didn’t get away with
from reaching us temporarily.” it—I managed to kick it into the pit. It fell in
Ham was running—he was ignoring the water down there somewhere.”
his wound—well ahead of the others. He “Come on,” Doc said.
rounded a corner, almost ran into the They crossed the board. They
muzzle of a rifle. He twisted so that, hauled the plank back, giving them at least
although the gun exploded, the bullet temporary sanctuary.
missed him. He fell upon the rifle, twisting The bronze man searched quickly.
furiously, going over and over with his foe, He had noticed that this arm of the cave
concentrating on getting the weapon. turned sharply, and went back some
Monk rushed in, leaned down with a distance—far enough to offer them
fist. The foe made a single barking sound protection from both bullets and hand
and stretched out motionless. grenades.
“You better take it easy, with that Ham sank down on the floor. He
hole in your leg,” Monk warned. was weak from his wound.
“At any rate,” he said grimly, “I set upon him in a darkened alley so he
kicked that box into the pit. They won’t get would not recognize me. I overpowered
it.” him, knocked him out, and while he was
Doc said, “I hope you knew what unconscious, forced a mildly radioactive
you were kicking around.” compound into his stomach. It was a
“You sound as if I had kicked a case harmless compound which would not
of nitroglycerin,” Ham said. digest, which would form a lump too large
“Worse.” to pass from the stomach, and therefore
“Eh?” would remain there.”
“That case,” Doc said, “probably “He’s been complaining of a
contained more electricity than has ever bellyache,” Monk said. “I guess your
been condensed in one container before.” radioactive stuff gave it to him. But what
The bronze man turned to Annie Spain. was the idea?”
“That is right, isn’t it?” “To plant electroscopes which would
“That,” said Annie Spain, “is about it. register the presence of the radioactive
It works like a storage battery and a Leyden material.”
jar, only different, and more so. Instead of “You mean—”
storing eighty or a hundred ampere hours “Yes, once in the building on
of current, as in an automobile storage Broadway in New York City, where Long
battery, for instance, this thing will store Tom left his electroscope. It told me
hundreds of millions.” Oxalate Smith was there in the room.
The young woman stared at them, Hence he was the leader, because the
waiting for them to understand just how leader spoke from the room.”
important this was. “But during the fight after they found
“You realize what a tremendous Long Tom, others came in—”
thing this is, don’t you?” she demanded. “A “That fight was near the door,” Doc
steamship—the Queen Mary, for said, “far enough away not to affect the
instance—will merely put one of those electroscope. Later, at the house on this
storage cases full of electricity aboard, and cliff, Monk’s electroscope told me Oxalate
cross and recross the Atlantic. Planes can Smith was not only here, but had gone in
fly around the world non-stop with electric and out of the house a number of times
motors, probably.” recently. Therefore, when he told me he
Monk said. “So that’s why you tried had been lying dazed in the cave, I knew it
to steal it?” was not the truth.”
“Yes,” Annie Spain said. “Maybe I “So Oxalate Smith is the main
was a crook. But at least I was trying to cheese,” Long Tom muttered.
steal the secret from a man who was going “Speaking of the devil,” Monk called,
to use it to murder people. I wasn’t “here he is.”
intending to murder anyone. I was going to Monk was watching the entrance.
sell it to industry.”
Doc asked quietly, “When you were
conferring with Oxalate Smith, when he first OXALATE SMITH did not show
tried to enlist you in his gang, did he explain himself. Monk was nursing the stock of his
why he had decided to commit murder with rifle against his cheek, hoping the man
his discovery, instead of selling it to would be that much of a fool. Monk did not
science?” share Doc’s scruples against injuring
“He’s crazy for power. That’s why.” anyone, even an enemy, if it could be
“But he didn’t explain?” helped.
“No.” Oxalate Smith yelled at them.
Monk said, “Wait a minute! Oxalate “Come out of there, one at a time,”
Smith! Was he the master mind?” he shouted, “and you will be safe. Send
“Yes—Oxalate Smith,” Doc Savage Long Tom Roberts out first.”
said. Long Tom snorted.
“But how did you know?” “You gotta give him credit for
Doc said, “The first time we persistence,” he muttered. “He thinks I’m
captured Oxalate Smith, I let him go, then rich. So he’s still trying to get me.”
Doc called, “None of us are coming once. One of them had probably been
out.” switched on, and failing to work, someone
Long Tom had an inspiration. had tried to investigate, with the result that
“Furthermore,” Long Tom bellowed, the charge had been released, setting off
“Doc brought down a portable radio all the others.
transmitter and we’re going to use that to The released electricity, millions and
summon help. You haven’t got a chance, millions of volts at high amperage, behaved
and you know it.” weirdly. It balled up in great tub-sized
Oxalate Smith swore, shook his fist sizzling monsters of green flame and
at them. The instant the fist appeared, leaped around on the floor. It became long
Monk fired at it. It was impossible to tell greenish snakes that made whizzing noises
whether he hit it, because Oxalate Smith’s and bounced around on the ceiling or
cursing could not have become louder. crawled along the walls.
“I’m not sure that was wise,” Doc A quick change took place in the air.
said. There was suddenly odor, the smell of
“If I could’ve shot him between the ozone, and of things burned. The walls
eyes, it would have been wiser,” Monk said. became charged, and suddenly two
“I did not mean that. I meant Long charges got together with a deafening
Tom’s fib that we have a radio.” crash, spanning a gap between two
“Eh?” stonewalls.
“It will make them desperate. They Ordinarily, an electric discharge is
will not give us time that they might over in a moment. But this one persisted
otherwise have given us.” for—it seemed like minutes—several
Long Tom growled sheepishly, “I seconds.
never thought of that” After it was over, the guards, all but
They realized suddenly that Oxalate two who had been shocked into insensibility
Smith was retreating. They could hear his by the discharge, got up and ran away.
voice, ordering his men into spots where
they could prevent the prisoners escaping.
Doc was abruptly concerned. THAT cleaned it up. Except for a
“Smith!” he called loudly. “Oxalate development that made Annie Spain feel
Smith!” rather foolish.
“Yes.” “One of the stunned men revived,”
“Do not try to use one of those Doc Savage explained, “and he told us why
electrical containers on us.” Oxalate Smith used his invention to murder
Oxalate Smith laughed, a mirthless people and try to get power by extortion,
sound that was completely ugly and instead of simply selling it to industry for
determined. many millions.”
“You guessed it,” he said. “What was the reason?”
“The current has to be changed into
static type of electricity before it can be
THE explosion—it was quite stored,” Doc explained. “That makes it
deafening—came possibly five minutes commercially useless.”
later. It was not exactly an explosion, but “Useless!”
rather a concussion caused by air rushing “There are no practical motors for
into a vacuum created by a fabulous utilizing static electricity to operate
electrical discharge—at least, this was machinery,” Doc said. “The condensing
Long Tom’s opinion. invention is worthless commercially.”
There were lights as well. Not “That makes me look like a fool,
ordinary lights, but the unearthly, doesn’t it?” Annie Spain said. “Even if I
unpredictable display of coldly fantastic didn’t know it.”
blues and slashing yellows that The bronze man frowned. “One
characterize high-frequency electrical thing we have not straightened out—why
phenomena. did he confine his first terrorizing entirely to
The blast must have been all the Smiths?”
suitcase-shaped containers discharging at
“His mind worked that way,” the girl Monk accosted Ham. “Ham,” he
explained. “He figured there were enough said, “I’ve discovered a great idea in my
rich Smiths to start out on. Also, he thought head.”
it would help confuse matters.” “A stowaway,” Ham said unkindly.
Monk and Ham, considering that “I just thought—”
pretty Annie Spain had redeemed herself, “Yes, I figured so,” Ham said. “Let
renewed their attentions to the young me tell you that each date I have with that
woman. As Long Tom Roberts expressed girl is like a string of pearls.”
it, neither Monk nor Ham could tell the “Neckless, my friend, neckless,”
difference between a striped tabby cat and Monk said. “I’ve noticed.”
a tiger—Annie Spain being tiger caliber, in And so one word led to another.
Long Tom’s opinion.
To simplify matters, Monk figured he
might persuade Ham to ignore Annie Spain, THE END
thus limiting the competition.

087 - The Boss of Terror

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087 - The Boss of Terror

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THE BOSS OF TERROR

A Doc Savage Adventure By Kenneth Robeson

A Complete Book-length Novel

Chapter I “The stork that brought you,” he

speedometer climbed up to seventy. The THERE was more noise than

DOC SAVAGE AND HIS PALS

the wheel before the accident. There had

“He was excited,” Doc said. wouldn’t be arrested as thieves. They

“I . . . I saw it huh—happen,” the miniature scale, it was almost fantastically

The fugitive gave a nervous jump when Doc

“You come back to the Radiator “No. We don’t know ourselves, do

Also, he recognized the man. This

“I can explain everything,” Annie The telephone over which Smith

“Who was he talking to?” Annie Spain knew a great deal

“THAT’S all she knows,” Monk said. Chapter IX

It occurred to Long Tom that he had He attached his eavesdropping

Long Tom leaped over the desk, hit him!

DOC SAVAGE turned up shortly in

“What’s eating you?” They grinned at him; he had asked

INLAND STOP THINK CENTER OF Roberts. They gave a description of an

There was nothing butterlike about Jonas now—and he had a rifle!

Chapter XIV “Look!” Ham exploded.

Monk explained, “We’ll land down

“Yes,” Ham admitted. water somewhere, and the distant hooting

Chapter XV use, taking up no more space than a

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