Chapter I
“But I wouldn’t feed your ears to my THE OLD THIEF
dog!” he finished.
The young man said, “Hah, hah!” Then
“I USED to fight Indians,” the old gen-he waved at a chair. “Go sit down, pop. Go tleman said. “I used to eat their ears. I would sit over there and have a good cuss.”
stew their ears, then eat them with salt.”
“I wasn’t trying to amuse you,” said the He stopped and looked at the man old gentleman.
across the desk while he tried to think of
“I wasn’t amused,” said the young man.
something that would express his feelings.
“You can rest assured of that.”
HELL BELOW
3
The old gentleman spat. You could tell sit down. Cuss, chew tobacco, spit on the from the look of him that he had come from a floor, but just leave me alone.”
hard, bleak desert country, and he spat the
“I want to see the main guy.”
way he would spit to kill a bug on the sun-
“No. ”
baked earth.
“Listen, pup, I tell you—”
“I’m old Too-Too Thomas,” he said.
“Sit down. The head guy can’t see you.
“And to think I would sink to taking sass off a He’s got troubles of his own right now.”
clerk in a Washington bureau.”
Old Too-Too Thomas gave his tooled
“I’m not sassing you, old-timer,” said leather belt a hitch, the belt that had an the young man back of the desk. “I’m just enormous silver and gold buckle set with asking you kindly, please go over there and diamonds of respectable size. He crossed 4
DOC SAVAGE
the room and took a chair, stretched his feet Then he leaned back to listen.
out in front of him and scowled at the toes of The head man was speaking, trying to his embroidered cowboy boots.
soothe Doc Savage.
Then he frowned at the door of the in-He was saying, “You’re doing the work ner office. There were voices behind the door, we want you to do. It’s the work for which you and he had noticed that they were getting a were fitted when you were placed in the little louder.
hands of scientists, as a child, and given the
“I been in Washington seven hours,” he remarkable training which lasted until early said. “And as near as I am to that door is as manhood. You were given that specific train-close as I’ve got to anybody who amounts to ing to fit you for the job of righting wrongs anything. ”
and punishing evildoers who are outside the
“Believe me, pardner,” said the young law, and to do the job in the far corners of the man, “some fellows are in Washington seven earth if necessary. We want you to go right months and don’t get that close.”
ahead.”
“Mule feathers!” said Too-Too Thomas.
Doc Savage said loudly, “There’s a war Suddenly there was no question about going on!”
the voices getting louder in the inner office.
“Yes, a modern war,” the other said. “A They were very loud. They were angry.
war being fought on the home front just as One voice said: “You’re not going to much as in the foxholes and behind bomb-get in the shooting end of the war. That’s the sights.”
decision. You keep right on with what you are
“The home front,” Doc Savage shouted, doing.”
“is getting along extraordinarily well! Capital
“Who’s that?” asked Too-Too Thomas.
and labor and other special interests now
“The head guy,” said the clerk.
and then try to push across one of their pet A second voice said: “That is the same greedy ideas under cover of the war excite-song and dance you’ve been giving us since ment, but the newspaper publicity and the the war started. My five aides are tired of it.
people are taking care of that very nicely.
I’m tired of it. We want action!”
The war is where the shooting is. We want to
“Who’s that?” asked Too-Too Thomas.
be in it.”
“A man who wants to fight,” said the Doc Savage had a remarkable voice, a clerk.
voice that was full of controlled power, deep
“That makes two of us,” said Too-Too and modulated, giving the impression of vast Thomas. “Who is he, besides a voice that’s strength and ability.
shaking the building?”
“You are not feeling very reasonable,
“His name,” said the clerk, “is Doc are you?” the head man asked.
Savage.”
“Not particularly,” Doc said. “Not to the
“Doc Savage, eh?”
brand of reasoning you are offering.”
“Ever hear of him?”
Now the other became indignant.
“No. ”
He shouted: “There is more to this war
“Bless us!” the clerk said. “Where did than just shooting Japanese or Germans.
you say you came from, the planet of Mars?”
They can sink a battleship and we can build
“I came from the Dirty Man Rancho in another one. But if they kill you, where would the foothills of the Sierra Santa Clara in we get another man with your inventive skill Lower California, where the pigs chase and your thinking equipment? Where would mountain lions,” Too-Too Thomas said. “A we get a man with your almost fantastic abil-man’s country.”
ity to ferret out the most remarkable plots and
“Oh!”
intricate schemes?”
“Is this Doc Savage going to get to
“You won’t,” asked Doc, “assign us to fight?”
active service?”
“Not,” said the clerk, “if we can help it.”
“I will not.”
Another voice, a small, squeaky one that the owner should have outgrown about TOO-TOO THOMAS listened to the the age of twelve, burst into the discussion.
voice of Doc Savage which was causing the
“What about me?” it demanded angrily.
door to bend on its hinges. He chuckled and Old Too-Too Thomas glanced at the said, “I’ll bet you he does. I’ll just bet you.”
clerk and asked, “Who’s that one?”
HELL BELOW
5
“They call him Monk Mayfair, ” the clerk
“My craw,” said Too-Too Thomas, “is said. “But he is Lieutenant Colonel Andrew stuck plumb full of red tape. ”
Blodgett Mayfair, one of the world’s most able chemists.”
Inside, the voice of Monk repeated,
“What about me?”
“No. ”
“Why not?”
“Let a chemist of your ability waste your time packing a rifle? Anyway, you’re a Doc Savage aide.”
A fourth voice, a cultured Harvard voice, said, “I take it you are going to include me in this ridiculous refusal?”
“We are and we have!”
Outside, old Too-Too Thomas looked questioningly at the clerk.
“That one,” said the clerk, “is Brigadier General Theodore Marley Ham Brooks, a lawyer.”
Inside the office, Doc Savage said loudly, “This quarrel over whether we see action has been going on since the war began.”
“That’s right,” said the head man.
“And the answer is still no?”
“It’s still no.”
“We’re disgusted.”
“If it’s action you want,” the head man MONK
said, “you get plenty of it the way things are.”
When you look at this picture, you can under-Monk Mayfair said, “That’s no argu-stand very well why the subject is called Monk.
ment—”
Hardly any other nickname would fit him as well.
“How many times,” demanded the He’s a tough hombre. His arms are six inches other, “were you shot at in the past six longer than his legs, and with this gorilla build he months?”
seldom stacks up against any opponent who’s
“Not over a dozen times,” Monk said.
more than a brief workout for him. No one ever
“What has that—”
calls him by his real name of Andrew Blodgett Mayfair. And maybe they’d better not! There’s a
“More than half the soldiers in the army ring to it that Monk might not like! Yet Monk has a never hear an enemy gun explode!” yelled keen brain as well as a strong body, and is re-the head man.
puted to be one of the world’s greatest chemists.
Doc Savage, in a quieter voice, said, His combination of body and brain makes him a
“Come on, fellows. We’re wasting breath. ”
big asset to Doc Savage’s intrepid little band of They walked out of the inner office and crusaders.
old Too-Too Thomas stared at them in astonishment. He was impressed.
Monk Mayfair examined the leathery
“They look even more capable than old Westerner. Monk was a short man who they talked,” he said.
gave the startling impression at times of be-
“They are,” the clerk said.
ing as wide as he was high. He had a large
“I got me an idea,” said Too-Too Tho-crop of rusty hair, a big grin, and affected the mas.
manners of a circus clown.
“Tsk, tsk,” Monk said, shaking his head.
“Poor fellow. But I guess it happens often.”
DOC SAVAGE, Monk Mayfair and Too-Too Thomas scowled. “You think Ham Brooks were walking angrily down the I’m crazy, pardner?”
impressive hallway when Too-Too Thomas overtook them.
6
DOC SAVAGE
“Yes, and you have my sympathy,”
straight and slightly darker, and his eyes Monk said. “I’ll bet you’re not the first one got were like pools of flake gold always stirred by twittery trying to get something done.”
tiny winds.
“If you wasn’t so homely,” Too-Too Until now he had, as was his habit, re-said, “I would pop you right in the eye.”
mained silent and expressionless. But the old
“You’re offended?”
Westerner’s calm mention of stealing a navy
“Yeah, mad as a hornet. I ain’t no cra-plane was unusual enough to bring a startled zier’n most.”
expression to his face, and cause him to
“We’re perfect strangers,” said Monk.
speak.
“You walk up and start talking about your
“Steal a navy plane?” he said.
craw. What do you expect us to think?”
“That’s the only chance we got to make
“Don’t care what you think,” said Too-it in time.”
Too Thomas. “You fellers want action?”
“Stealing a navy plane is something
“Action?”
they shoot you for,” Doc reminded.
“Heard you talkin’ to that guy back Too-Too Thomas shrugged, not im-there. ” Too-Too eyed them speculatively.
pressed. “Done things I could’ve been shot
“Right likely lookin’ fellers, you-all. Figure for before.”
you’ve sort of been up against a thing or two A small park, pleasant in the sunlight, in your time.”
was across the street. Indicating the park, Monk grinned. “Old-timer, I’ll bet you’ve Doc said, “We had better go over there and eaten a few tacks yourself. What’s on your sit down while you explain this.”
mind?”
They crossed the street, dodging traffic,
“Craw’s full of red tape, like I said. Got which was thick. There were benches along a job that has to be done, and there ain’t time the sidewalk, one of which they selected.
to fool around no more about doing it. Need Too-Too Thomas took a deep breath.
help.”
“Lives,” he said, “have a relative value,
“What kind of help?”
I’ve noticed. In wartime, they somehow ain’t Too-Too Thomas winked. “Kind you as important. But these are important to me.
can give me, I expect.” He gestured. “C’mon.
They’re my friends, the ones that’ll die right Let’s get outa this wickiup so we can talk.”
away. The other ones, the ones who’ll die They walked through numerous corri-later, ain’t people I know, probably, but they’ll dors and showed their passes to watchmen, be nice folks.”
took an elevator down, ran the gantlet of Doc Savage said patiently, “The best more watchmen, then finally stood on the way to tell a story is the way you read a book.
street.
Begin at the beginning and don’t leave any-
“Now, old-timer,” Monk said. “What’s thing out.”
this bur you’ve got under your saddle.”
“I do it a little different,” said Too-Too Too-Too Thomas eyed them intently.
Thomas. “You savvy what I’m telling you? I
“Know anything about submarines?” he got to save some lives. They’ll die right away, asked.
tonight probably, if I ain’t fast enough on my Monk said, “Sure. Why?”
feet. Later on, more will die.”
“Fine, ” said Too-Too Thomas. “Now
“Where?”
the first thing we do is steal a navy airplane
“I’ll take you to the place.”
with some bombs on it and a can of quick-
“Where is it?”
drying paint.”
Too-Too Thomas looked at Doc Savage steadily. “Don’t push me.”
“Are you,” Doc asked, “going to tell us DOC SAVAGE was a man with more the whole story?”
qualities than a remarkable voice. He was a
“Not now, I ain’t.”
giant of a man who was so symmetrically
“Why not now?”
proportioned that his actual size was not evi-The leathery old man thought about the dent until one stood close to him; then it be-question for a few moments, then shook his came startling. When he moved, the play of head.
sinews in his neck and wrists indicated
“There’s somebody I don’t want to in-strength that was equally startling. His skin volve until I’m danged sure,” he said. “That’s was a deep bronze color, his hair was
HELL BELOW
7
why. I just ain’t going off half cocked, that’s the alley periscope fashion. He saw no sign all.”
of his quarry.
“Do you,” Doc asked, “expect us to steal a navy plane and a can of paint on the basis of no more than you’re telling us?”
Too-Too Thomas got to his feet.
“You could buy the paint, not steal it,”
he said. He shook his head slowly. “Reckon it was a kind of a locoed idea I had. I was feeling kind of desperate or I wouldn’t have tried it. Feel like the time the Yaquis chased me into the ocean and I couldn’t swim a lick.”
He eyed them and shook his head some more.
“You’re right likely lookin’ gents, too,”
he said. “Well, so long. I would tell you not to take any wooden nickels, only I can see you wouldn’t. So long.”
He walked off and left them.
DOC SAVAGE, as soon as Too-Too Thomas was out of earshot, said quickly,
“Monk, follow him. He is going north. Ham will go west, in case he turns in that direction.
I will go east.”
“I didn’t think the old fellow was kidding, either, ” Monk said, and got to his feet.
Monk was rather proud of the job he HAM
did shadowing Too-Too Thomas. He ambled casually across the sidewalk as if he was You’d never think a gentleman named Brigadier going back to the building they had just left.
General Theodore Marley Brooks would be called Ham —would you? But Monk, Ham’s pal, had a In the street, he got into a taxicab. He felt reas on for giving him the nickname. He thought it sure he had disappeared in the street, as far would irritate the dapper Brigadier General as Too-Too Thomas was concerned, as if by Brooks —and that alone was regarded as a good magic.
reason by Monk. Ham is a knockout dresser and a Following Too-Too Thomas wasn’t too knockout fighter, too. There’s very little of the law tough, although the leathery-looking old gent that he doesn’t know down to about six decimal behaved in a way that showed he was afraid places. But in a fight, the main law that he thinks he was being trailed. He walked fast, took a about is the law of self-preservation, although cab, and the cab went in and out of streets.
most of his battles have been in the interest of folks too weak to fight for themselves. His slender Doc Savage and Ham Brooks did not black sword-can is something to avoid.
appear, for the simple reason that they’d had no chance to catch sight of Too-Too Thomas.
Washington is a city of contrasts, However, Monk found after he had where a remarkably shabby street often ad-walked about twenty feet into the alley that joins a fine one. Too-Too Thomas picked one he had walked against a gun. The gun was of the most ragtag thoroughfares to leave the an impressive weapon of the type called a cab.
hogleg by cowboys. Too-Too Thomas, who He walked to a narrow alley and en-held it, had stepped from a niche that Monk tered, striding along rapidly as if he knew hadn’t noticed.
where he was going.
“If this gun was to go boom-boom,”
Before Monk entered the alley, he cau-said Too-Too Thomas, “it would blow you tiously used the shiny inside of the lid of his right out of this alley.”
large silver watch as a mirror, and examined Monk didn’t doubt it. As a matter of fact, Monk was wearing a bulletproof vest, but 8
DOC SAVAGE
thinking about the kick that old gun would the cab and Too-Too Thomas looked the fly-give his middle made him turn green.
ing field over.
“Figured one of you gents would trail The man was evidently an old cam-me,” said Too-Too Thomas. “Trapped you paigner, because he correctly surmised that neat, didn’t I?”
there were too many sentries and armed
“What do you want with me?” Monk men around the place.
asked.
“Even if the guards were that many
“Why, you’re gonna run that submarine Yaqui Indians, the chances would be too for me,” Too-Too Thomas told him.
long,” he said. “And these soldiers may be tougher than Yaquis.”
“So now I can go home?” Monk asked Chapter II
hopefully.
THE SCARED MEN
“No, no,” said Too-Too Thomas. “I’ll work the pump on my resources some more.”
MONK was not concerned so much They went back to the city of Washing-about the submarine as he was about what ton. This proved to be tiring, because they might come out of the pistol. “You know could not find a taxicab until they had walked about them things?” he asked uneasily.
through the heat and the dust for about a
“They make a loud noise and a piece of lead mile.
flies out.”
Monk felt foolish riding around, a pris-Old Too-Too Thomas chuckled. He oner. But he did not make a break.
was quite calm, a man who had walked in the The reason he was being meek, Monk path of danger before. He was somewhat told himself, was so he could stick around proud of himself, too.
and find out what this was all about. But that
“Before you start something,” he said, big revolver was a consideration, too.
“just tell me where to send the body.”
They went to a hotel. It was a re-They walked to the other end of the al-markably fine hotel, where the minimum rate ley. Just before they reached the street, Too-was fifteen dollars a day, American plan. The Too Thomas stowed his enormous piece of surroundings were impressive and rich.
hardware inside his coat.
“Be a very genteel place to be found a
“We’re going to take a ride in a taxi-corpse,” warned Too-Too Thomas, “if you cab,” he said. “Behave yourself. If you don’t, I want to try anything.”
give a sort of twitch, and the bullets fly
“No, thanks,” Monk said. “I hope to die around.”
of old age.”
“A model boy,” Monk assured him, “is what they always call me.”
They found a taxicab, although it was a SEVERAL small square envelopes had job. Cabs were not plentiful in Washington, been shoved under the door of Too-Too and the drivers had more business than they Thomas’ room. Some of the square enve-could take care of.
lopes protruded under the edge of the door, Monk was familiar with the address and Too-Too eyed them before he unlocked which Too-Too Thomas gave the cab driver.
the door. He immediately picked up the enve-It was a military air field.
lopes.
The cab got moving, and Monk said,
“I telephoned a bunch of agents to rent
“Since we’re partners, you might tell me what or buy a good seaplane for me,” he said. “I’ll we’re undertaking.”
bet these are the answers from them.”
“Shucks, I don’t see what makes you He began opening the envelopes—
think we’re partners,” old Too-Too Thomas they were the envelopes hotels use for tele-said. “We’re man and lackey, that’s what we phone messages—and reading the contents.
are. You’re the lackey.”
“I can read with one eye and shoot with
“We going to steal a plane?”
one hand,” he warned Monk.
“Sure.”
“Your modesty is giving me cold chills,”
They did not steal a plane immediately, Monk assured him.
though. They did not steal one from the mili-Too-Too Thomas waved one of the en-tary field at all. They got out and dismissed velopes.
HELL BELOW
9
“Eureka!” he cried. “Hot snakes! This planes anywhere but on airports where there guy found one for me! He says its a big new was a guard twenty-four hours of the day.
seaplane, and I can buy it.” He glanced at the That is, it was against the law unless the mo-message again. “A hundred and twelve thou-tors were taken out of the plane. If this was a sand dollars. Cheap enough. I just want it for plane without motors, Monk wanted to be this one trip.”
around to hear Too-Too Thomas cuss.
Monk was quite startled.
“So you want me to run a submarine,”
“One trip!” he said. “That’s a lot of Monk said.
dough to put out for one trip.”
“You can get me a few cases of dyna-
“It’s a lot of trip. ”
mite, some caps and fuses, too.”
A spick and span new suitcase stood
“What’s that for?”
on a folding baggage rack. Too-Too Thomas
“To take the place of a bomb.”
opened the suitcase, which held a suit of un-
“What’s the bomb for?”
derwear and a safety razor. Packages of U.
“Now your nose is too long,” said Too-S. currency filled the remaining space in the Too Thomas.
bag.
Too-Too Thomas stowed packages of money into his pockets until he ran out of THE farmhouse looked deceptively in-pockets.
nocent. The building was a long, low, pleas-He looked at Monk.
ant structure which needed paint, and the
“I ain’t got time to count out a hundred weeds in the yard needed cutting. If the door and twelve thousand, plus expense money,”
of the house had not been standing open, he said. “Here, you’ll have to carry some of with a man leaning in it, Monk would have it.”
sworn the place was deserted.
Monk obediently loaded his own pock-
“Gent’s waiting for us,” said Too-Too ets with packages of greenbacks. The bills Thomas, pleased.
were tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds.
They walked to the door, leaving the Monk was not able to judge the total of his taxi waiting at the gate, and Too-Too Thomas burden as closely as a bank cashier, but he asked, “You the feller with a seaplane for felt it was impressive. He thought he must be sale?”
packing anyway a hundred thousand.
“You the guy who wants to buy one?”
“I feel like the mint,” Monk said.
“That’s me.”
“Just so you don’t get to feeling like a
“Come in.”
rabbit.”
They walked into the house, and there
“I feel like that, too,” Monk told him.
was no furniture in the room. Not unless half
“Now it would be profitable to escape.”
a dozen men crouching against the walls with
“Yeah, maybe they could shingle your leveled revolvers or leveled and cocked rifles angel wings with greenbacks,” Too-Too could be counted as fixtures.
Thomas said, and sounded as if he meant it.
“One jump makes you dead,” said the They got another taxicab in front of the man who had been at the door. His remark hotel. When the cab driver heard the address, seemed unnecessary.
he informed them it was farther than he was Disturbed, Too-Too Thomas eyed them.
allowed to drive in his zone, on his gasoline
“Too bad I only got one gun with six allowance. But when Too-Too Thomas shells in it,” he said. “If I had my usual two showed him one of the greenbacks, he guns, I’d have enough bullets to go around, agreed to take them.
and I would start something.”
“This place is a farmhouse in the coun-The armed men, Monk noticed, were try, close to the Potomac,” Too-Too Thomas impressed by the old fellow. They took him explained. “We go there, and the feller shows with deadly seriousness. The two who came us the plane, which is in a shed on the river.”
to search him stood far from him and Monk said nothing, but looked to see if reached out, acting as if they wished they the old man seemed to be telling the truth.
had forked sticks.
He did, and Monk was puzzled.
“Wow, wow, wow!” said one of the men, There could not be any civilian plane, looking at the money.
Monk knew, in any shed on the river. There They kept taking money out of the old was a government regulation against keeping man’s pockets.
10
DOC SAVAGE
“He must be stuffed with it!” one said.
Too-Too Thomas groaned. “Was there
“This one, too,” said a man who was an airplane?”
searching Monk.
“No. ”
The one who had held the door open
“How come?”
for them and who seemed to be in charge,
“We just located your hotel room, and sank to his knees and rapidly totaled the saw those little telephone envelopes sticking amount of the money from the figure written out from under the door. We read ‘em, and on the band of paper that inclosed each found out you were after an airplane. So we package.
put a note of our own under the door, to bring
“Whew!” he said. “Nearly one hundred you out here.”
thousand dollars.”
“I must be getting old,” Too-Too Tho-
“Shucks, less than a hundred thou-mas muttered.
sand,” said Too-Too Thomas, surprised. “It
“Maybe you are,” the young man told didn’t count up like I thought it would.”
him, “but you haven’t shown many signs of Unfortunately, the men were not so im-it.”
pressed by the money that they became careless, and Monk saw no opportunity to make a break.
MONK now went through the motions Too-Too Thomas suddenly yelled and of dusting his hands. “Well, boys, thanks, for pointed at one of the men.
rescuing me,” he said. “Now I’ll be on my
“Great guns, I’ve seen you before!” he way.”
shouted. “You’re the hombre who kicked me
“What about the money?” someone in the ribs because I complained about the asked.
sun shining in my cell!”
“Ask old fire whiskers,” Monk said indi-
“H’yah, you old buzz saw,” the man cating Too-Too Thomas. “It was in his cus-said.
tody, but he didn’t seem to care much for it.”
“So you trailed me east!” Too-Too
“He wouldn’t, considering where he got Thomas said.
it,” the man said.
The old man’s tone made Monk look at Monk dusted off his hands again.
him sharply. Too-Too Thomas sounded dis-
“Been nice being rescued by you.” He couraged. Abruptly he was an old man, a headed for the door.
defeated old man.
At least three rifles cocked, and other
“I wasn’t so smart,” he said. “You weapons pointed at him. Someone said, trailed me.”
“Take it easy, brother. That was a nice line, The man he had recognized said, but you didn’t hook us.”
“Some job it was, too. We didn’t really catch Monk stopped. He could tell by looking up with you until about two hours ago.”
at them that they would shoot him if they HELL BELOW
11
thought it necessary. He had learned to look and then that added up to violence and sud-at men and tell when they were thinking that.
den death.
“Go tell that taxicab we’re through with They came back with the verdict.
him, and pay him off,” a man said.
“Doc Savage has got to be caught or One of them went out and got rid of the killed before he gets wind of this,” the taxi without trouble.
spokesman said. “We’ll get busy on him right Old Too-Too Thomas asked, “How did now. ”
you fellows know about this farm?”
“Oh, one of us used to live in Washington, and we just drove down the road until we Chapter III
found an empty place close to the river. We DESIGN FOR DEATH
didn’t have much time to be choosy. Why, ain’t the place elaborate enough for you?”
THE time was past, Monk realized, for Too-Too Thomas grunted and resumed any more fooling around trying to find out a miserable silence.
what was going on. He saw that he had Someone pointed at Monk, and asked, made a mistake, a bad one.
“Who’s this funny-lookin’ bird, anyway?”
Monk cast around in his mind, and re-Monk, who was indignant, said, “I won’t membered that he knew a few words of the look funny to you by the time this is over.”
language the Yaqui Indians spoke. He had They were not scared, and they went gone to Mexico with Renny Renwick, another to a pile of his belongings on the floor and Doc Savage aide, on a trip Renny had taken began going through them. The searcher down there to put a mine on a profitable ba-picked up all of Monk’s private money, resis.
moving it from his billfold, and pocketed it.
Monk had learned just enough Yaqui to
“Commission,” he explained.
get along with the Yaqui girls. Monk being Then he inspected the cards in Monk’s Monk, his interest in the Yaqui language was billfold. He let out a yell.
satisfied when he had learned that much.
“Dammit, I knew I’d seen pictures of One of the Yaqui phrases Monk had learned this homely guy somewhere!” he shouted.
was the equivalent of, “How about some ac-
“Who is he?”
tion, baby?”
“Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Glancing at old Too-Too Thomas, Mayfair.”
Monk—in Yaqui—said, “How about some
“Holy cats!” someone said.
action, baby?”
The name of Mayfair apparently meant Old Too-Too Thomas started. He nothing at all to some of the others, one of looked as if an angel had spoken to him.
whom asked, “What is he, half toad or some-
“Yippee!” he yelled. Then he said two thing?”
or three quick sentences in Yaqui.
“Ever hear of Doc Savage?”
Monk didn’t understand a word of it.
The man who had made the bright re-Nor did Monk have long to think about mark about the toad didn’t feel so funny. He it, because a man standing behind him hit swallowed with some difficulty. “Huh?”
him over the head with a blackjack, dropping
“This guy”—the man indicated Monk—
Monk senseless.
”is one of Doc Savage’s five assistants.”
“They were cooking something up,” the Monk had seen the effect which Doc blackjack wielder said. “Pop the old geezer, Savage’s name had on crooks before. Usu-too, somebody.”
ally it pleased him.
They popped the old geezer. Two of He had never, however, seen a more them had to hold him while they did it, and pronounced effect at the mention of Doc they had to pop him more than once. A man Savage, than he did now. But Monk wasn’t said. “Give me your blackjack, Willis. It’s entirely pleased.
heavier.” But finally they knocked Too-Too It gave him a cold feeling when they Thomas out.
walked off into a corner, the three who
“Head like a rock,” a man said.
seemed to be the ring-leaders, and had a The straw boss of the group said, “Tie conference. Most of what they said did not them up, tape their mouths, shoot some co-reach Monk’s ears, but he heard a word now caine in them, wrap them up in blankets and 12
DOC SAVAGE
put them in the back of the delivery truck we utes, and they would get Doc up from down-rented.”
stairs.”
The man then selected four men whom
“Oh, oh!” Willis said. “They were going he named as Willis, Pet, Frederick and to trace the call in that five minutes.”
Bummy.
“Sure.”
“You,” he told them, “are going to help
“We better blow. ”
me get Doc Savage.”
“We are, and fast, too.”
The four men he picked looked very They got away from there in a hurry.
unhappy.
Sam, far from being thwarted, tried The leader was addressed as Sam.
various war departments by telephone. This Sam’s actions showed that he was, in his wasn’t satisfactory. “I should’ve known the special line, a competent fellow.
army and navy ain’t givin’ out any informa-Back of the house, in a shed, were two tion,” he complained.
delivery trucks with panel bodies. One of
“What we need,” said Willis, “is some-these bore the name of a dry-cleaning con-thing direct.”
cern and the other was white and advertised
“Such as?”
a dairy. Sam and his four selected men took
“You notice that guy Monk’s voice?”
the dairy truck.
“Sure. Sounds like he was twelve years As they drove down the highway, he old.”
explained his reasons for using panel body Willis said, “Listen.” He screwed up his trucks instead of passenger cars.
face and pulled in his chin and said, “You
“The ban on pleasure driving has been guys might use this kind of a gag, huh?”
put on again back East, I hear,” he told them, They stared at Willis as if he was an
“and you can’t tell about the cops and these answer to a prayer.
government men. They’re liable to stop a
“Boy, that’s swell!” exclaimed Sam.
passenger car, just to ask if we’re on essen-
“Sounded like Monk, eh?”
tial business, but they won’t be likely to mess
“Sure did!”
with a delivery job.”
Willis was pleased. “Here’s what I His four helpers were silent. They had thought. Why don’t we make another tele-long faces.
phone call to New York, with me doing the
“Cheer up,” Sam told them.
calling and using Monk’s voice. I tell them in
“Sure, sing and be merry,” one mut-New York that I’m in trouble and need help, tered. “Like the blackbirds in the pie.”
and that I’ve lost track of Doc and to get hold Sam said, “Savage won’t eat you.”
of him and send him to help me; and I give
“Is that what he don’t do to you?” the them an address.”
man asked sourly.
This delighted Sam. “That’s great, Willis. Simply great. You’re not as dumb as I thought you were.”
FIRST, they had to find Doc Savage.
“What address do we tell ‘em in New This was a job which they tackled systemati-York?” asked the man called Bummy.
cally and with some foresighted cunning.
“We’ll find one,” said Sam.
“He has a headquarters in New York,”
The man called Pet was the one who Sam said. “We’ll see what they tell us.”
was familiar with Washington and the sur-Sam was on the telephone about fif-rounding environs. He immediately stated teen minutes, and came out of the booth mi-that he knew just the spot they needed. The nus a number of dimes and quarters as well others accompanied him to look at it, and as his confidence.
they agreed.
“They’ve had that gag pulled on ‘em
“Just the ticket,” admitted Sam.
before,” he said.
The building was in the active com-The man Willis, alarmed, demanded, mercial part of the city. Shabby, about six “You didn’t get ‘em on our trail?”
stories high, with dirty windows half boarded
“Heck, no,” said Sam. “I told ‘em I was up. It was empty.
General Shoozis, calling from a pay tele-Pet explained that the structure had phone, wishing to locate Doc Savage. They been vacated and closed preparatory to de-told me to hold the phone for about five min-molishing it in order that a new building might be erected. But there had been a legal hitch HELL BELOW
13
before any wrecking had been done, so that
“O. K.” Sam agreed. “But let me give everything was intact. Even the elevators and you a piece of advice. Don’t ever let him hear lights were still functioning.
that you called him fat. He’s touchy as hell
“Only hitch,” Pet pointed out, “is a about his weight.”
watchman and a janitor who are on duty dur-
“Thanks,” said Willis.
ing the day.”
In about twenty minutes, there was an
“That’s not such a hitch,” said Sam.
influx of men into the old building. They were They went in and slugged the watchmen who had taken care to dress so that man and janitor and tied them up in the they were not too noticeable in a crowd. As basement.
far as clothing went, they were a colorless
“Make your call, Willis,” directed Sam.
group. But none of them looked honest or at
“To make it good, the call should come ease.
from here, huh?”
Sam took charge. He distributed the re-
“Willis, your brain is growing, isn’t it,”
inforcements at various points on the first said Sam.
floor, and in the alley, also in the street out-Willis made the telephone call to Doc side. They gave some thought to the men Savage’s headquarters in New York, and did posted in the street, finally placing two of his imitation of Monk to perfection. Sam lis-them in a greasy-spoon restaurant halfway in tened at the receiver, becoming elated.
the block, and two more in the parked dairy When they hung up he said, “Yow!
truck. Another pair began to dicker for furni-Swallowed it like a seal taking a fish!”
ture they had no intention of buying in a sec-Willis said, “Mind if I make another ondhand store.
suggestion, Sam?”
Hardly were they placed when a look-
“Shoot,” Sam said. “Boy, you’re leaking out hissed loudly.
brains today.”
“Coming up,” he said.
“What do you say we call the others.
Sam peered out of a window, and be-We ought to have all our crowd down here to came a little pale. It was the first time he had help in this. After all, this isn’t exactly a seen Doc Savage in person, and he was mouse-catching we’re pulling.”
suddenly afflicted with the wish that he was Sam sobered. “You got something somewhere else.
there, too. ”
Doc Savage was far from the building, They made two telephone calls and at the end of the block. He seemed in no looked more relieved after that.
hurry, but stood there surveying the vicinity.
“Everybody is going to help,” Sam said.
He looked the ground over so thoroughly that Sam got the jitters.
“He’s waiting to see who is hanging THEY settled down to wait, hoping the around suspiciously,” Sam gasped. “He’ll rest of their gang would show up. This was spot the guys in the dairy truck.”
just the Washington part of their crowd and But the pair in the dairy saw Doc, too, Sam said, “I wish everybody else was in town and they started the truck and drove away.
so they could help.”
Sam heaved a sigh of relief. He was sweat-Willis said he wished they were, too. “I ing.
wish the two big guys could have seen my
“I might pick him off with a rifle from two ideas awhile ago,” he said. “Might get me here,” a man whispered.
a bonus, huh?”
“Too risky,” Sam said. “That Monk was Sam, in an expansive mood, said, “It wearing a bulletproof vest. So Savage will get you a bonus anyway, because I’ll probably has one, too.”
recommend one. What I recommend usually goes through.”
“You’ll put it up to the two big guys?”
DOC SAVAGE noticed the two men
“Yeah.”
drive away in the small dairy truck. Milk com-
“Put it up to the fat one,” Willis sug-panies did not usually put two men in trucks gested cunningly. “I think he’s more inclined that small these days when help was scarce.
to be reckless with his dough than the shriv-Two men were sitting in a greasy-eled one. So put it up to the fat one, huh?”
spoon restaurant and they were a little too 14
DOC SAVAGE
well-dressed to be loafing in a dumpy restau-Because he was alert and watching, he rant at this time of day.
noticed that there were tracks in the dust Two more men were dickering in a which overlay the blacktop covering of the secondhand furniture store. The dickering roof. They were the footprints of men. A was over a carpet, and this particular carpet quick glance around convinced him they was the only one in the front of the store, al-came from the windows of the old building though there were others in the rear; and the which was his objective.
traders did not go back to look at the other It was obvious that at least three men carpets, although the one they were looking were concealed on the rooftop, probably be-at was in bad condition.
hind chimneys or skylights.
Doc Savage decided not to go in the Possibly they had seen him. If so, this front of the old building.
was no time to be reckless about sticking his He had not intended to do that anyway, head into view. He felt he was in danger.
as he was suspicious about the call.
He was taken completely by surprise His aides in New York had contacted when a voice, a young woman’s voice, called, him by radio. All three of the five remaining “Stand still if you don’t want to get shot!”
aides were in New York. They were Renny He heard footsteps and the young Renwick, Long Tom Roberts and Johnny woman came up from behind and seized Doc Littlejohn, engineer, electrical wizard, and around the neck.
archaeologist-geologist, respectively. In New He felt something hard gouge him in York headquarters at the time they called the ribs, looked down, and saw that it was a was Patricia Savage, Doc’s cousin. Pat was gun. A blue gun about five inches long with a a young woman who liked excitement, and pearl handle, a .32-c aliber. The hand that now that she knew something was going on, held the gun had faintly tinted fingernails.
she would be in their hair.
“Stand still!” the young woman re-What had made Doc Savage suspi-peated.
cious was the fact that there had been a pre-Then she raised her voice and shouted, vious telephone call from Washington in an sounding desperate and a trifle triumphant.
effort to locate him. A call from a General
“Now!” she cried. “Now! You dare Shoozis, who hadn’t waited around to have bother me, and I’ll put a hole in your friend!”
the call traced.
Doc had been right about the number
“He skipped, so he might’ve been a of men concealed on the surrounding roof-phony,” said Long Tom Roberts, who gave tops. There were three of them. They the information to Doc over the portable stepped into view. All were well-dressed and short-wave radio which they used for com-had guns.
munication.
They approached.
Doc Savage himself had said, “In this
“Keep away!” the girl cried, “or I’ll shoot second call, someone might have imitated your friend!”
Monk’s voice, the idea being to decoy me to The men kept coming.
some spot where they could get at me.”
Sounding increasingly frightened, the
“Move slowly and cautiously,” Long girl told Doc, “I was up here on the roof, and Tom had warned.
they must have seen me. They came out and So Doc Savage was being suspicious, were hiding around, getting ready to sneak and he was sure he was justified.
up on me. But I’ll show them.”
He went around the block and, finding Doc thought she was mistaken. The an alley, he entered. He did not go along the men had been hiding around waiting for him, alley directly to the rear door of the old build-not the girl. He was sure, from the expres-ing.
sions on their faces as they approached, that Instead, he climbed to the roof of the they hadn’t dreamed the girl was around.
next building. The buildings were standing But it was also evident the men knew side by side, one roof against the other. He the girl.
grabbed the ladder of a fire escape, leaped,
“I’ll shoot!” the girl cried, jabbing Doc and pulled it down; which gave him an easy with the gun.
route to the roof he wanted to reach.
“Go ahead,” a man said.
He took great care and crawled across
“Bing him, sister, and save us the trou-the roof toward the old building.
ble,” said another.
HELL BELOW
15
“You can’t fool me!” she cried. “I’m going to shoot.”