Chapter V
THE fellow was a spectacular sort. A giant bronze man—in fact, his stature was AT MIDAFTERNOON, the rain still startlingly greater than one imagined until came down in a tired way. The clouds must one stood close to him. Then he was indeed be very dark and thick over the city, because ample, in a firm-knitted muscular way. This already at 3 p. m. there was almost a twilight, Doc Savage, of whom I had heard such prea semi-murk that pervaded like a giant’s posterous tales, was undoubtedly one of scowl. The horns of the cars in the street great physical powers. His muscles were beeped ill-temperedly at one another, against mighty. But then, it occurred to me sourly, so a background of traffic sound that was a low are the muscles of a horse.
disgruntled growling.
He had, I suppose, handsomeness of a Miss Lucy Jenkins, my lab assistant, is sort. But my admiration does not extend to a nervous soul; she had long since become that brown, outdoorsy, knotty-wood look that so flustered that Miss Farrar suggested it so many violent fellows have, and which was would be kinder to let her go home for the a characteristic of this Savage chap. His day. I agreed, because I was a trifle resentful eyes were rather freakish, being somewhat of Lucy’s ill-concealed implications that I had like pools of flake gold always stirred by tiny fallen into bad company. This was probably winds. They were compelling eyes, though, perfectly true in the case of Mr. Mayfair, but and about the whole man there was an air of not of Lila Farrar. Lila was having an utterly being able to dominate if he wished to do so.
excruciating effect on me.
You felt, when you were close to him—
Mr. Mayfair banged down the tele-or at least I felt—much the same as one does phone receiver.
when standing beside a large, strange and
“Nothing happens!” he yelled. “Polite powerful piece of machinery.
boy is still unconscious in the hospital! The Miss Farrar’s reactions irked me.
cops can’t find Dido Alstrong!” He wheeled Starry-eyed, she immediately began indulg-and scowled at the door, adding, “And Doc ing the wiles that women use on men they Savage isn’t here yet!”
admire.
Anything smacking of peace seemed to I found myself wishing violently that irritate this man Mayfair, it occurred to me.
this big man would at least turn out to be a This was an annoying attitude; for my part it dumbbell.
would be suitable if nothing more happened
“Mr. Mayfair,” I said at once, “did not to me in my lifetime.
have my authorization to involve you in this
“You have appealed to this Savage fel-matter.”
low?” I exclaimed.
“Call me Monk, dammit,” Monk told me.
“Sure.”
Then he informed Doc Savage: “This is
“I don’t,” I informed him, “think I ap-Henry, an empty box as far as I’m con-prove!”
cerned.”
Mayfair snorted. Miss Farrar had
“I resent that!” I cried indignantly.
brightened in a most idiotic fashion at the Savage had a quiet voice, resonant mention of Doc Savage, and now asked with controlled power and—this was also a Mayfair, “You’re not kidding?”
disappointment to me—he put words to-
“I called Doc,” Mayfair said.
gether quite intelligently.
“Why, that’s wonderful!” Lila declared.
He asked Mr. Mayfair for the general Mayfair glanced at her thoughtfully, picture.
and did not look so pleased. It had obviously Mayfair said: “An old schoolmate of entered his thick head that in pressing Doc Henry’s, named Dido Alstrong, called on Savage into the picture, he was going to di-Henry for a favor. Dido wanted Henry to get vert Miss Farrar’s interest from himself.
and keep a package for him. Somebody took
“Hm-m-m-m,” said Mayfair gloomily.
a shot at either Henry or Dido, and hit a fat And presently he added, to himself and with man by mistake. Two hot-rods then used a a hopeful note, “But maybe Doc’s tied up with holdup as a pretext to take another shot at something else.”
Henry. We got the package, but before we The hope he expressed was a vain could look into it, a guy crowned me. Then one, for Doc Savage presently appeared.
Henry handed the package over to a young guy who was smart enough to talk the soft 18
DOC SAVAGE
words Henry likes to hear, and the young guy the way of an apartment could be had for got knocked on the head and stabbed for his less than ten thousand dollars a year.
pains, and the knocker-stabber made off with
“Your father’s company,” Savage con-the package.”
tinued, “is in the plastic packaging field? Is Having given this brief outline, Mr.
that right?”
Mayfair went back and filled in the details. He
“Yes. They make plastic food contain-appeared to have an astonishingly good ers, and pliofilm covers for manufactured ar-memory. In spite of all that tearing around ticles.”
and yelling he had done, he had noticed just
“And Dido Alstrong is in charge of the about everything.
laboratory which does research?”
“I didn’t,” Mayfair finished, “know what
“Yes.”
to do next. So I thought you’d be interested.”
“Have you,” Savage inquired, “much Savage turned to me. “Henry, can you faith in Dido Alstrong’s character?”
clear up the mystery at all?”
I interrupted, “I can give a picture of
“My name,” I replied, “is Mr. Jones.
Dido’s character!”
And I am utterly at a loss.”
“Please,” said Savage. “Let Miss Farrar
“Henry’s that way most of the time,”
answer.”
Mayfair said. “But this is the first time he’s Lila was hesitating. “I—well—I guess admitted it.”
Dido is all right. He’s amusing, aggressive, He was so obnoxious that I did not and full of ideas. A marvelous dancer. Holds deign an answer.
his liquor well. And not tight with his money.
One of those fellows who isn’t overawed because he is taking out the boss’ daughter.”
SAVAGE now turned to Lila Farrar,
“You like him, then?”
who was waiting for his attentions as willingly
“We—er—I was considering becoming as a flower waits to be kissed by the sun, and engaged to him,” she confessed.
put a question. “Dido Alstrong is employed by This sickened me. I dearly hoped, that your father?” he queried.
before this was ended, Dido Alstrong would He spoke, I will admit, impersonally.
be painted before her in dark villainous col-But Lila’s tone, her manner, implied that it ors.
was quite personal and just between the two
“How,” Savage inquired, “did your fa-of them—and she wasn’t unwilling.
ther regard Dido Alstrong?”
She said this was true.
“Why, he made Dido head of the lab.”
“How long have you known Dido Al-
“I mean with reference to Dido’s inter-strong?” Savage asked.
est, his personal interest, in you?”
“Six months,” Lila said. “He has been Again Lila hesitated. “That,” she con-with father’s company nearly a year, but I fessed, “was another story. He wasn’t very only met him six months ago. You see, I’ve hot about the idea.”
really seen very little of my father during my
“He objected?”
lifetime. My mother and he were separated,
“Daddy is a pretty smooth article. He but my mother died three years ago, and fol-didn’t object in so many words, but rather by lowing that, my father insisted that I be edu-inference.”
cated in California, and I saw him only at in-
“And he inferred?”
tervals. He traveled a great deal. But don’t
“Well—that Dido Alstrong was a con-misunderstand me—my father has always firmed small timer.”
treated me kindly.”
This elated me.
“Except,” Savage suggested, “that you
“Your father,” I exclaimed, “has excel-saw little of him.”
lent judgment!”
“I hardly knew my own father,” she confessed.
“But you’re with him now?”
THINGS, it seemed to me, were im-She nodded. “For the last six months, proving. Dido Alstrong was of bad flavor with yes. He has an apartment on Park Avenue.”
Lila’s father, and I was sure she would have She gave him an address in a section where the excellent judgment to presently see that it was generally known that nothing much in her father was right. And this highly touted Doc Savage, who had been flaunted to me THE MONKEY SUIT
19
as mental wizard, physical giant and scien-
“Scattered some dust on the steps.” he tific marvel, was not doing anything extraor-replied. “It might seem a bit childish. On the dinary. Savage was making no progress. He other hand, there’s nothing like a precaution.”
had lighted no skyrockets. He had not ex-The man, I reflected, must be on the ploded like a star-shell, as the oaf Mayfair idiotic side.
had inferred he would.
The big man jarred me a little, however, by saying, “We’ll see what can be done AFTER Mayfair returned, we moved with the fellow in the hospital.”
the car to an inconspicuous spot from which This indicated a certain firm judgment the entrance of the hospital could be the man might have.
watched, and there we waited.
But, unfortunately, it was not the sole
“What are we hanging around for?” I shock. Because, when we had driven to the asked.
hospital, we did not enter. We parked nearly Mayfair glanced at me as if the query a block distant. And immediately we were were extremely stupid. “For smooth-talker to approached by a uniformed policeman who come out,” he said.
saluted Doc Savage respectfully, then que-
“What!”
ried, “Ready for it?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes. Turn him loose,” Savage replied.
“You mean the chap is going to be re-Mayfair grinned like the ape he was.
leased?”
“So you got to work on this as soon as I Monk glanced at Doc Savage and said, phoned you, Doc,” he said.
“That’s the idea, isn’t it?”
Savage nodded. He produced from a
“But he’s wounded!” I exclaimed.
glove compartment in the car several small
“Not very seriously,” Savage replied.
cases resembling hearing-aids. He handed
“The knife entered high, and did not go in these to Mayfair.
deeply. He can get around all right. And as
“Monk,” he said. “There’s four cabs he gets around, we’re going to trail him and waiting in line in front of the hospital. Go to see where he leads us.”
each of them in succession, tell the drivers
“But he was bleeding from the lungs!” I you’re looking for an object which was lost, cried. “I saw him! His wound was serious.”
and open the back doors of the machines
“A bitten tongue. He was struck on the and feel over the cushions, as if searching.
head, as well as stabbed, and he bit his As you do that, plant one of these gadgets, tongue when struck.”
shoving it down between the cushions of the
“Oh!” But this still didn’t make sense to seat and the back. Can do?”
me. “But surely—you say he’s being turned
“Duck soup,” said Mayfair.
loose! Surely the police wouldn’t be such
“The gadgets are numbered,” Doc fools!”
warned him. “Put number one in the first cab,
“The police,” Savage explained quietly, number two in the second, and so on.”
“are coöperating with me.”
“It’s done,” said Mayfair optimistically.
I suppose he spoke with modesty, but The homely fellow departed and pro-the implication of his words was ridiculous.
ceeded to do his job. For a person with no The police turning this fellow loose to ac-manners and such violent ways, he seemed commodate Savage! Preposterous!
to deceive the cab drivers smoothly.
“You mean you asked them to let him Doc Savage himself left our car, go, and they are?” I said coldly. “That is ri-walked to the entrance of the hospital, and diculous!”
loitered for a time there, but moving back and Mayfair said, “Oh, shut up, Henry.
forth while he was loitering. I could not imag-You’re always zigging when you should be ine what he was doing, although it did seem zagging.”
that he had a purpose.
I subsided. This was beyond me. I tried When Savage returned, he at once to think that it was a coincidence, that the removed a small container from his pocket young man was going to be released from and placed it in the glove compartment. The the hospital at this time anyway—but the ap-container had a perforated top, and evidently pearance of the uniformed officer a while ago held some sort of powdered substance.
rather belied this theory. It seemed that the
“What did you do?” I asked curiously.
police were coöperating with this Savage, all 20
DOC SAVAGE
right. I wondered what kind of prevarications denied moved me to ask, “What was the he had told them to accomplish a thing like powder you sprinkled on the hospital steps?”
that. Someone should warn the police about Mayfair answered that. “Oh, it’s some-being so gullible.
thing we use quite often, Henry.”
Miss Farrar was gazing at the big
“What is it?”
bronze man with a fawn-eyed look. She was
“Goofer dust.”
more beautiful to me than ever, and I felt an Savage said sharply, “Stop ribbing him, overwhelming wish to protect her from the Monk.” Savage then turned to me, explain-influences of this big bronze bluffer.
ing, “It’s simply a chemical preparation which, Presently the gentlemanly-mannered even in the very smallest traces, will fluo-young man did appear from the hospital.
resce under ultra-violet light. You’re doubt-He took one of the cabs in which May-less quite well acquainted with the properties fair had planted a gadget.
of the preparation, Mr. Jones.” And he gave
“On the hook,” said Mayfair dryly.
me the chemical symbols of the ingredients and it was as he had said. It had never occurred to me that the substance might be Chapter VI used in this fashion, although it was true that I had heard of sneak thieves being trapped THE taxicab carrying our quarry moved by handling objects on which the police had completely out of sight. It vanished.
placed a similar powder in microscopic quan-
“You’ve lost him!” I said.
tities.
“Henry,” Monk Mayfair said. “It’s going Monk Mayfair, unwelcomed by me, to be a pleasure to disappoint you.”
gave me added information. He said: “In And he did disappoint me. Because case he didn’t take a cab, and the radio they followed the polite young man with gadgets would have been a flop, we had this ease. They did it with a device which, be-powder to fall back on.”
cause I am a scientist myself, I at once rec-
“The stuff is also radioactive,” I re-ognized. The thing they were using was ab-marked. “Couldn’t you follow it, much as you surdly simple—I understand that airplane are following now, by using an extremely drivers use it every day in a less complex sensitive Geiger counter instead of a radio form. It was a radio direction-finder. The ob-receiving loop?”
jects which Mayfair had planted behind the
“That,” said Monk, “is the idea.”
cab cushions were obviously small continu-I was silent. I didn’t wish to betray any ous-signal transmitters utilizing peanut tubes amazement.
and a compact battery supply that was self-contained. It was not unbelievable, because quite powerful aircraft radio transmitters are THE apartment house stood on Park often compact enough to be held easily in the Avenue. A huge place, massive, impressive, palm of the hand.
with a genteel facade and a discreetly uni-Lila thought it was wonderful.
formed doorman, and another uniformed
“Why, this is amazing!” she declared.
lackey, a footman, to open car doors, it be-
“I’ve heard a great deal about you, Mr. Sav-spoke the luxury of fine living and of richness age—how your methods are almost magical!
within. Mr. Mayfair, who seemed to disreI’m delighted for this chance to see you at spect anything genteel, remarked that it re-work.”
minded him of a harem queen’s jewel box.
He seemed to color slightly in discom-
“But I’ll bet there’s a lot of brass along with fort, but it was probably another trick he had the gold in there,” he added. Then, observing mastered.
the address numerals on the elaborate awn-
“Isn’t this a little theatrical and small-ing from the entrance to the curb, Mr. Mayfair boyish?” I inquired.
stiffened.
Monk Mayfair thought this amusing. He
“Oh, oh!” he said. “We’ve brought said, “Henry, you’re quite a guy. You’re a somebody home!”
character, you are.”
My wits seemed to be fuzzy this after-Displeasure kept me in silence for a noon, because the significance escaped me.
while, but presently curiosity too strong to be
“Yes,” confessed Miss Lila Farrar grimly. “I live here.”
THE MONKEY SUIT
21
Her voice was small, strained; she was building, or entering, pick up the microphone very embarrassed and also shocked.
here, press the button to put the carrier on
“You mean—this apartment—your fathe air, and state the fact. Monk and myself ther—this is where you live?” I asked as co-will have pocket receivers tuned in.”
herently as my own stunned disbelief permit-
“Very well,” I said bitterly.
ted.
Lila Farrar was regarding Savage with
“Yes.”
that I-think-you’re-wonderful look again.
“And we’ve followed that polite rascal here!” I blurted. Unwittingly, I’d made it sound like an accusation.
I WATCHED the three of them enter She was too upset to reply.
the great apartment building, and it galled me Mayfair then remarked comfortingly, to realize that my stature had been diminish-
“Just because the guy came here doesn’t ing in the eyes of Miss Farrar. She was com-necessarily mean anything for you to be wor-pletely ravishing; my heart had difficulty do-ried about, baby. He may live here, or he ing its work whenever she was near me; little may be looking for Dido Alstrong, or he might tingles would go up and down my spine. This have ten other reasons.”
was a completely new effect for a female to Miss Farrar touched the baboon’s arm have upon me, and my mind logically ac-in a grateful fashion. I wished gloomily that I cepted the explanation—I was madly in love had thought of those comforting words to with her. Nothing else would explain it. I even say.
had—and this was quite unique for me—an Doc Savage parked some distance absurd wish to be a hero, to accomplish a down the block, and he turned to me.
manly feat.
“Henry,” he said, “it would be a good idea if My mind is logical, accustomed to someone remained here to watch the en-analysis and reason-grasping, so that it was trance of the building—someone who knows clear to me that my growing disfavor in the by sight young Alstrong, the two phony hold-lovely girl’s eyes was not my fault, but due to up men, the junior grade wolf, and the polite the fantastic—and cheap,
I
felt—
fellow. In other words, Henry, you could help spectacularity with which this Doc Savage us greatly by remaining in the car, as look-person and his stooge, Mayfair, were operat-out.” He indicated the others. “The rest of us ing. They were not my type, and in compari-will go inside with a Geiger counter, and see son I suffered. In the long run, of course, if we can spot our quarry.”
Miss Farrar would certainly recognize my Probably he thought he had phrased superior qualities. But the trouble was, I this cleverly. But the inference was clear to couldn’t seem to compose myself for a long me. He considered me an impediment to his run. I was impatient. I wished to shine before plans, and wished to sidetrack me.
the young lady, and shine now.
I said nothing coolly.
It was undeniable that, in permitting the Savage continued: “This car, if you ha-courteous young man to take Dido Alstrong’s ven’t observed, is a special job—armor plate wrapping-paper-covered box, I had acted body and bulletproof glass. It is also gas-unfortunately. The young man had met mis-tight, and the doors, when this button”—he fortune as a result. I was sorry for him.
indicated a switch on the dash—”is pressed, Frankly, I still believed the young man to be cannot be opened until the button is de-of good character. The suspicions of the oaf, pressed a second time. So you will be secure Mayfair, and of the showy Savage, seemed here.”
to me to be very bad reasoning.
The man was casting an aspersion on I am always sure that a courteous man my courage, it seemed to me. I had not, is a good-hearted man.
however, noticed that the car was armor-All this was in my mind like worms. And plated, but a closer inspection confirmed this.
then, as lightning flashes, an idea came: A grown man driving around in an ar-Why not beat them to Mr. Farrar, Lila’s mored car! It was ridiculous, as well as fan-father, and create a favorable impression? A tastic.
wonderful idea! I would explain the situation, Savage spoke further. He said: “In and offer my services. An important man like case you see anyone who is involved—Dido Mr. Farrar would be quick to recognize true Alstrong or any of the others—leaving the 22
DOC SAVAGE
worth. And I imagined the favor of a parent to
“But—you seemed so courteous!” I be no mean asset in the suit of a lady’s heart.
mumbled.
I left the car at once.
He searched my clothing for weapons.
It troubled me not at all that this was His hands were as rough as a tiger’s claws.
contrary to Doc Savage’s instructions. The Finding nothing, he stepped back. And he man had no right to give me orders anyway.
kicked me, kicked the part of me that pol-ishes the chair.
The kick, a horrible thing that turned THE footman and the doorman were my spine to tingling stone, propelled me both impressed by my gentlemanly bearing, headlong toward a door that was closed. I and so was the PBX telephone operator in tried to gasp a remonstrance at this un-the lobby, because she at once rang the seemly treatment.
Farrar apartment. I had told her to announce
“Shaddup!” he said. “Open that door.
Mr. Henry A. E. Jones, D. Sc., President, And one funny move, I’ll blow ya apart!”
Jones Research Laboratory, on important He certainly was displaying none of the business of a personal nature, and she did fine manners he’d shown on our previous so.
meeting. And, as Savage had said, his
“You may go up,” advised the tele-wounds did not appear serious.
phone operator. “Twenty-second floor. Mr.
Farrar’s apartment occupies the entire floor.”
A man whose living establishment oc-IMPATIENT ferocity continued to impel cupied an entire floor of a structure of this the man; he kicked me again when my hand class would indeed be affluent.
hesitated on the door. I threw the door open, Doc Savage, Mayfair and Lila Farrar and more falling than on my feet, followed it were not in evidence. I visualized Savage into another vast room. This one could very being a man of such cunning ways that he well have been one of those rooms in muse-would not think of using an open door, but ums of arts which depict period furniture; would contrive around to climb in through a here the period was French, one of the Louis window—figuratively speaking. My own motifs—I was too disturbed to remember clear-headed methods were superior.
which Louis, and might not have been certain The elevator wafted me happily up-on the point anyway.
ward. Presently I stepped into a truly cathe-There were two men in this room. I dral-like entrance hallway which, rather to my knew neither one, yet I was able to surmise disappointment, contained no butler. It con-their identity at once. . . . One, who lay tained, in fact, no one.
sprawled on the floor, his hands tied behind Diffidently, I waited. I had no intention him with a length of braided curtain pull-cord, of jeopardizing my first good impression by must be the chap who had attacked the polite being forward enough to call out, or make a young man and taken the box from him.
racket. But, after some time dragged, I did The box lay on a delicately carved ta-cough discreetly.
ble.
A hard object jabbed into my back.
The other gentleman, of course, had to
“Get ‘em up, pie-face!” ordered a most be Mr. Farrar, Lila’s father. The family re-ugly voice.
semblance, fine features and alert eyes, a Horrified, too upset to realize the trim moulding of the body, was quite evident.
deadly danger the move posed for me. I Mr. Farrar occupied a large chair. He sat very started to turn. I didn’t get clear around, but still, kept his hands in plain sight.
my face did revolve sufficiently that I could
“Mr. Farrar?” I said.
view my greeter.
He gave me a tense look, a slight nod.
It was the courteous young man. He
“I’m Henry A. E. Jones, and I’m dread-was pale. He had a gun jammed in my back-fully sorry our meeting had to be under such bone. He slapped my face. Quick, like a circumstances—”
snake striking.
“Whassa matter with the circum-
“Damn you! I said getcha hands up!”
stances?” demanded the polite-young-man.
he snarled.
“I’m afraid,” I told Mr. Farrar, “that I complied.
you’re the victim of this chap. Am I right?”
THE MONKEY SUIT
23
He gazed at me stiffly and with a pale For what happened next, I can only countenance. He was, one could see, the explain that I must have reverted to a primary sort who under more favorable conditions instinct. The instinct to live, to breathe, to would be very congenial.
have consciousness, to know life—nothing
“I don’t know,” said Mr. Farrar pres-else mattered. My mind must have func-ently, “what is happening, exactly.”
tioned like chains of electric sparks, for it oc-He sounded extremely confused and curred to me that begging for my life would bitter.
be useless. This man was going to kill.
“Perhaps I can explain,” I began, “the I didn’t want to die, and I whirled and situation—”
hit him. I grabbed his gun. There was no sci-
“Shaddup!” said polite-man. Incidently, ence; I have heard that soldiers and police he bore little resemblance to his original officers have judo methods of disarming an suave self.
opponent. I did not know these. All I had was I saw no reason why I shouldn’t talk.
madness, a desperation not to die.
“Really, I want to explain—”
The gun roared in my hands. The noise Polite-man said, “How the hell’d you was terrible. The bullet went somewhere. I get here, pan-face?”
suppose it could have gone into me and I
“If you mean me—” I began.
would not have known.
“I mean you. Answer the question.”
Strength of madness must have been
“I’m trying to inform you that I accom-in me. Because suddenly my opponent, a panied Doc Savage here and—”
larger man than I, somewhat, was flying The effect of this was outstanding. The away. I followed him, screaming, spray flying bound man on the floor gave a fish-like flop.
from my lips. Mr. Farrar was staring at me in Mr. Farrar’s jaw fell, and his eyes widened—paralyzed wonder.
an indication that he had heard of the Sav-The man on the floor, the one tied with age chap, which was a little disappointing to curtain cord, the one who answered the de-me. But the largest response came from my scription of the fellow who had taken the bedeviler.
package from polite-man, began floundering
“What?” he screamed. “You came with madly. He must have had his hands nearly Doc Savage? Is he involved in this now?”
free. Because he loosened them at once. He
“Yes, you see I—”
sprang to his feet.
I didn’t finish. One does not complete This man ran from the room. Ran to-statements when one sees one is going to ward the exit.
die. For polite-man was going to kill me. I am Polite-man clawed at my face. I tried to no great student of human nature, but I did knock his brains out with the gun. I had his not need to be—one could see it in his eyes, gun now. I did not know how to shoot it; like poisonous snakes. He was going to kill shooting it did not occur to me at all. And me.
presently the gun was lost; it went skittering He said so, too. He said: “One guy we and hopping across the carpet.
don’t need is you!” He said it to me. His in-We fought. Primitively. The way beasts ference was plain.
fight. The way beasts deal death to one an-Quite deliberately, he cocked his re-other. And polite-man was cursing and volver.
screaming, and not in bravery. He must have partaken of my frenzy, of my madness of effort, because suddenly he tore free from me.
HAVE you ever seen death? I mean, Polite-man ran from the room. He, too, have you ever stood on legs without strength went toward the exit.
and stared into death’s empty sockets? I had I ran the other way. I ran past Mr.
never. Once I had pneumonia and nearly Farrar, reached a door, tried to open it. It died, but I really did not know much about it would not open. I was so upset that I could until later, when they told me; there was no not even solve the simple problem of turning consciousness of death nearness at the time.
a door knob to get a door open. That was It was nothing like this. I am an abstracted how nearly terror had carried me to the level soul when I walk, and I have had cars dust of the animal.
me off, and felt very trembly later—but even Thwarted, unable to open the door, I those occasions weren’t like this.
turned with my back to the panel, a cornered 24
DOC SAVAGE
thing. My knees gave way and I was sitting word—by the fact that the fellow had struck on the floor. I began to shake. Tears came.
me over the head a couple of times before I Mr. Farrar was staring at me in wonder.
came into this room.”
I have never been a worse mess in my This wasn’t quite the fact either—it was life.
his foot that had struck me, and not on the head.
Mr. Farrar and Lila were favorably im-Chapter VII
pressed now.
But the Mayfair lout said, “Before you WHEN Doc Savage came, he was ac-become too brave, Henry, you might explain companied by the Mayfair fellow and by Lila how you happened not to stay in the car like Farrar. They immediately observed that you were told to do.”
something violent had happened, and Lila,
“I’m not,” I retorted, “the sort of fellow with a cry of anxiety, ran to her father. He who likes to be left in camp like the squaws assured her that he was safe.
and children while the braves hit the war Mr. Farrar, after another wondering path.”
glance at me, stated, “I have just witnessed
“Ho!” said Monk Mayfair.
the most remarkable thing.”
“Henry is that at any time,” Monk Mayfair remarked, but his oafish humor fell flat.
DOC SAVAGE entered, empty-handed With a concise use of words, Mr. Farrar from his search for polite-man and the other.
then explained what had happened. He He confessed his failure. But he added, “It’s shook his head several times in amazement rather unfortunate Henry stirred up things, while doing so. “It was the craziest thing I because Monk and myself were working out ever saw, the way this fellow took that gun-a smoother approach that would have en-man.”
abled us to catch the fellow, and possibly Savage said briskly that he would see wind the whole thing up.”
if he could find some trace of the pair. He
“It’s purely conjectural that you would went out.
have caught him—or them,” I said hurriedly.
Mayfair examined me. “I didn’t think
“They might have escaped anyway.”
you had it in you, Henry.”
He admitted this was true. He couldn’t It was a most difficult thing to muster very well do otherwise.
my self-control, but with herculean effort, I I pointed at Dido Alstrong’s package on succeeded—outwardly, at least. My wits, the table.
once assembled, enabled me to think coher-
“And I recovered the package,” I added ently, and I saw that I needed an explanation triumphantly.
for my behavior in trying to get out of the Savage’s expression seemed rather room after my opponent had fled. Except for noncommital for a moment, then he turned to that part, my actions might be construed as Mr. Farrar, asking, “Have you an idea what extreme bravery—which, the more I thought it’s about?”
about it, they were.
Mr. Farrar shook his head. “None.”
“I have very little recollection of the lat-
“But father!” gasped his daughter. “You ter part of the fight,” I said untruthfully. “I was must have! Those men were here! Didn’t struck, I believe, on the head.”
they say anything?”
They seemed to accept this.
The father stroked his daughter’s hair I continued: “I remember faintly trying fondly, but his facial lines were bleak.
to pursue the fellow through a door—but
“I didn’t know either of those rascals,”
things are very vague about that.”
he said presently. “Here’s what happened:
“You mean,” said Mr. Farrar wonder-The first one, the one with the package, ingly, “you weren’t scared?”
came nearly an hour ago. He was an-It would have been very impressive to nounced by the phone operator downstairs profess a total lack of fear. But it would also as a Mr. Quade, on an important mission have been laying it on a trifle thick.
from Dido Alstrong. Naturally I admitted
“I imagine,” I said stiffly, “that I had a him—and he stuck a gun in my face.”
normal amount of apprehension. Accented, I’m afraid—or perhaps confused is the THE MONKEY SUIT
25
Mr. Farrar wheeled quickly, went to a I saw a chance to do myself some divan, reached behind it, and came up with a good, and said: “Perhaps I can offer a theory.
firearm.
Dido Alstrong is doing something reprehen-
“This gun,” he continued. “The fellow sible, those two fellows are involved with him, told me to sit down, shut up, and not try any-and since Dido Alstrong works for Mr. Farrar, thing. I did so, not being a fool and”—he the men probably came here to seek news of glanced at me—”lacking a certain kind of Dido Alstrong.”
courage. Well this fellow, Quade, if that was
“Why,” said Mr. Farrar gratefully, “that’s his name, which I doubt, sat down too. We logical.”
waited. I tried to demand an explanation.
“They ask about Dido Alstrong?” Monk Quade said shut up, he was expecting a visi-Mayfair demanded.
tor. And then that other rascal came.”
“Well—yes. Yes, I believe his name Savage interrupted: “Was the fellow was mentioned,” Farrar stated.
the visitor Quade was expecting?”
“You forgot to say anything about that
“Not at all.” Farrar shook his head.
before.”
“Quite the contrary. The second man came in Farrar shrugged. “Dido’s name was all unexpectedly, overpowered Quade, and tied mixed up in the cussing they gave each him up.”
other. It slipped my mind.” He was sharing
“Oh.”
my opinion of the Mayfair person, I noted.
“They were obviously bitter enemies.”
“Well, we’re getting nowhere fast,”
“What makes you think so?”
Mayfair said.
“Why, he tied Quade up, didn’t he?
He strode to the table on which Dido And he threatened Quade’s life, and he was Alstrong’s packet lay.
going to kill Henry, here.”
“Let’s open Santa Claus’ pack and see Mr. Farrar had a fine, clear-minded what he brought us,” he added.
face, and he was speaking honestly, straight-forwardly. One could heartily approve of the man.
DOC SAVAGE, stepping forward hast-Savage asked, “Exactly what words did ily, said, “Henry, will you come here. Tell me, they say to each other?”
is it the same package you and Monk got
“It was nearly all profanity,” said Farrar.
from the locker in Grand Central?”
“Quade cursed the other for a meddler, a
“It appears so,” I replied.
thief, and much worse. The other called
“Tied with the same cord and the same Quade the same things.”
knots?”
“Was the package mentioned?”
“I think so.”
“Oh, yes.”
“What about it, Monk?” Savage asked
“In what way?”
his uncouth aide.
“Why, I gathered the fight was about it.
“Same cord. Different knots,” said Both wanted it.”
Monk.
“Any hint as to the contents?”
“I disagree,” I said.
“None.”
“Miss Farrar?” Savage inquired. “What
“And you didn’t know the men, don’t do you say?”
know what is it all about?”
“I was really too excited to notice it
“That,” said Farrar, “is correct.”
closely,” she replied sensibly.
It seemed to me that there was a cer-Savage still did not open the packet, tain wrongful attitude in the air, a suspicion but turned to Mr. Farrar and said specula-directed toward Mr. Farrar, intimating he tively, “This does seem to revolve around might be able to tell more. I felt this was ut-Dido Alstrong, but so far it’s just mystery, terly unjustifiable. He was being fine and nothing tangible.”
coöperative, and handling himself well, con-
“Why don’t you open that thing?” Farrar sidering how his household had been dis-demanded. “What are you staging, a sus-rupted.
pense show?”
“It’s funny,” remarked Mayfair, “that Those were my opinions also.
them two ginzos came here.”
Savage remained calm. “About Dido
“Dammit, that’s something I can’t ex-Alstrong—is he a creative chemist, Farrar?”
plain!” said Mr. Farrar testily.
“Creative? What do you mean?”
26
DOC SAVAGE
“Is it possible that he has made some Chapter VIII
sort of valuable discovery, and the trouble is revolving around that? A fight for its posses-IT came as somewhat of a shock to sion, perhaps?”
find that Savage had a plan of action. It Farrar shrugged. “Dido Alstrong is seemed to me that the bronze man should be more mouth and glad-hand than ability, in my completely stumped, and I suspected him of opinion. But he knows how to make other fourflushing when he said, “Well, perhaps we men work for him. That’s why I gave him the have something to work on.”
executive job he holds.”
Farrar, of the same idea, pointed at the
“Then you can’t answer my question?”
box and demanded, “You mean that makes
“I don’t know that it has an answer.”
sense to you?”
Savage turned to Mayfair. “Open that Without answering, which was rather thing,” he said.
rude, Savage advised Lila, “I think you’d bet-Since I had heard so much of this felter remain here. There seems to be some low Savage’s profound reputation, I was danger involved, as witness what almost naturally interested in observing his methods; happened to Henry, and I wouldn’t want you my curiosity was intense to know how he had exposed to it.”
built himself up in such a degree. Now I be-She was disgustingly put out about lieved I had the answer—the fellow was a this. I had hoped her fascination with Savage showman. Take this holding back the open-had subsided, but obviously it hadn’t.
ing of Alstrong’s packet—it was senseless,
“Won’t I see you again?” she asked but it did create an air of tension, a sort of anxiously.
anxious stage on which Savage stamped and
“Of course,” he replied gallantly.
pranced, showing off. This was my feeling, And the goon of a Mayfair said, “Baby, for I had been loath all along to believe the when they’re as beautiful as you are, their fellow any sort of a superman; I was glad to trouble is seeing too much of us.”
see my opinion corroborated.
I was almost glad she wasn’t going Mayfair threw open the wrappings. He with us, because it would save her from be-lifted the lid of a cardboard box.
ing subject to such remarks from these fel-
“Hell!” His small eyes protruded. “What lows. And particularly, it would spare her the hell!”
Mayfair’s smirking, strutting and eye-rolling.
His sentiments were generally shared.
Savage, Mayfair and myself rode down The box contained a monkey suit.
to the lobby in the elevator.
“The hell!” the loutish Mayfair kept re-There Savage shocked me. He strode peating, as if unable to believe this.
to the telephone operator, and asked, “You It was a brownish sort of a monkey remember Henry calling and asking to be suit. It would fit a man of average size. It announced to Farrar.”
seemed, and I am not an authority on mas-She recalled.
querade costumes, not overly expensive,
“Who,” Savage demanded, “answered previously worn, and rather faded as if it had Farrar’s telephone?”
been dry-cleaned or washed a number of
“Why, Mr. Farrar, of course,” she re-times.
plied.
“A masquerade outfit!” Lila exclaimed.
“Thank you.”
“But—why, this is ridiculous! All this muss The meaning of this byplay was a little over a masquerade suit!”
slow soaking into me. Then I saw it’s prepos-Savage, an inscrutability on his fea-terous significance—Savage was seeking to tures—the man could certainly hide his emo-establish that Farrar hadn’t been a prisoner tions—began removing the garment from the of the fellows upstairs, because he had per-box. He inspected it closely. He replaced it, sonally answered the phone.
lifted the lid of the box, and noted the name
“That’s stupid!” I declared. “Farrar of a costume rental concern printed thereon: would have been forced to answer the phone REX COSTUME COMPANY. He replaced by his captor.”
the lid on the box.
“Naturally,” Savage agreed in a rather
“Well, what is it?” asked Farrar sharply.
odd fashion.
“A monkey suit,” Savage said dryly.
“Henry’s getting to be quite a mastermind,” Mayfair said.
THE MONKEY SUIT
27
“Phoo!” I said. “You fellows aren’t ac-pared, as he showed us, identically with complishing anything.”
laundry marks on the other costumes in his
“Henry’s brave as a hornet, too,” Monk stock.
Mayfair added.
“Ours,” he said. “Now what about it?”
I wished to strike him, but he was not
“You mean,” said Savage, “that this is the sort one did that to.
just an ordinary masquerade costume out of On the street, Savage said, “Monk, I your stock?”
don’t imagine Henry will feel too bereaved at
“That’s right. We got about a half not having your company. So will you do a dozen of them. Not very good renters, inci-locating job on polite-boy?”
dentally. Got ‘em about three years ago off a
“Sure, I’ll find him,” Mayfair replied. “I’ll show that ran a couple of weeks and closed.
fetch him in. Take me about an hour, I You see, it was a show with political signifi-guess.”
cance, or so they called it, with a scene The preposterous confidence of the showing how this collectivism was an animal chap!
thing that was going to return us to the status of tribes of baboons—”
“Do you,” Savage interposed, “recall THE REX COSTUME COMPANY was the fellow who rented this?”
on the second floor of a building just off Sixth
“Why, think I do, vaguely. Talkative Avenue in the part of the city that would cor-sort, kind of high-pressure, sort of a fat respond to the cuff of a bum’s trousers—face—”
tired, sloppy, and not entirely honest. There
“That’s Dido Alstrong,” I exclaimed.
was a wide stairway leading upward, but it
“Sure. That was his name. Alstrong.
didn’t smell too well and there were bits of You’d think a fellow like that would be more trash, cigarette stubs and gobs of chewing prosperous,” said the man who rented cos-gum on the steps, if one cared to search for tumes.
them.
“Prosperous?” inquired Savage.
A Mr. Ivan McGonigle introduced him-
“Sure. That’s how I remember the man.
self to us—or to Savage, for it was Savage We do a good business here, we get so who did the talking. Mr. McGonigle con-many customers, how am I gonna remember fessed to being the proprietor of the REX
one unless for a reason? This guy, he don’t COSTUME COMPANY.
have the cash to put up a deposit. We de-
“You rent masquerade costumes?”
mand a deposit, you know. He ain’t got the Savage inquired.
deposit, he says, so he puts up a bit of per-
“That’s right,” said McGonigle. “We sonal property.”
supply
shows,
parties,
and
theatrical
Savage considered this. “Thank you,”
troupes.”
he said finally.
Doc Savage placed Dido Alstrong’s
“You wanna turn that ape suit back in monkey-suit box on the counter.
now?” the man demanded.
“This one of your boxes?”
“No, not just yet.”
“That’s right.”
“Hokey-dokey.”
“You supply the monkey suit?”
Savage turned. “Come, Henry,” he
“That’s right. If there’s a monkey suit in said. He wore an abstracted look and I re-there, we—”
flected, with some pleasure, that he had
“Take a close look at the suit before come a cropper. He hadn’t learned anything you jump at conclusions,” Savage suggested.
of value. Quite probably, he didn’t know what McGonigle did so. He was a red-faced to do next.
man, brusque, with a certain shrewdness Down in the street, Savage popped me which had probably been taught to him by into his car.
doing business in this district. The low-class
“Wait a minute for me, Henry,” he said.
businessman type, I should say, and quite
“I believe I overlooked something I should honest, but not a sort that I particularly fan-have asked the costume shop proprietor.”
cied.
He wheeled and re-entered the estab-Presently McGonigle was positive. He lishment. I endeavored to follow.
pointed out a trademark, certain repairs to The presumptuous fellow had locked the suit, and the laundry marks which comme in his remarkable armored car.
28
DOC SAVAGE
SAVAGE returned in not more than five ing a scientific library that was also breath-minutes. His bronze face was inscrutable.
taking.
“You locked me in the car!” I said angrily. “I
“Goodness!” My tone was awed. “Who resent such high-handed methods.”
designed this place for you?”
He replied amiably, “Indeed? Did you
“It’s my own arrangement,” he said, not try pressing the button which frees the as though he was boasting, but as if he was locks?”
preoccupied with other thoughts.
“I certainly did!”
I hardly believed that. It was even im-He examined the intricate array on the probable that the mind of one man would dash, and said, “Why, the master-switch accumulate enough variety of specialized seems to have been open. I hope you knowledge to use all this apparatus.
weren’t inconvenienced.”
Moving over to a section devoted to It seemed a thin explanation. I believed metallurgy, which is my field, I was amazed he had locked me in the machine merely out to note the advanced nature of the equip-of a childish whim he could show me that he ment, and also of the experiments that had could make me stay put. I was also riled in-obviously been performed there. Enough wardly by his inscrutability, the lack of an signs of the sort of work done were lying emotional display on his features; I was curi-about to inform me that some of the work ous to know his thoughts, and his face told exceeded my own knowledge considerably. I me nothing.
was aware of a bitter jealousy, combined with
“What did you ask the costume shop envy.
man?” I demanded sharply.
It just wasn’t possible that this man He pretended not to hear my query. He Savage had such scientific ability. There had started the engine, and the car joined the to be another explanation.
traffic. He drove with the sort of carelessness I was speechless.
which characterizes taxi drivers in New York The telephone rang.
City, the ease which some people feel comes Savage was on the instrument in-from skill and experience in coping with traf-stantly. “Yes. . . . Monk? You have? . . .
fic, but which always makes me nervous.
That’s a bad break. We’ll be there in a hurry.”
“What did you ask the man?” I shouted.
He hung up, turned to me, and said,
“Henry,” he said thoughtfully. “Do you
“Let’s go, Henry.”
suffer from pains in the chest, headaches,
“Where?”
nightmarish dreams, and do you occasionally
“Monk has found your friend.”
awaken from sleep with violent starts?”
“Friend?”
“Certainly!” I snapped. “I am a nervous
“The one we’ve been calling polite-sort.”
boy.”
“You should,” he advised, “take things
“No!” I gasped. “Found him? But May-less seriously, including yourself.”
fair couldn’t have! He had no clue!”
“All right, don’t tell me!” I yelled.
Not until we were northbound in that tank-like
automobile—which, incidentally didn’t much resemble the rolling fortress that THE man Savage had a fabulous labo-it was—did Savage condescend to explain.
ratory. I had heard rumors of it, exaggerated, He said: “Finding the fellow was no I supposed. But they weren’t exaggerated.
trick. As you know, we planted midget radio The laboratory was really superb, and par-transmitters in the cabs he was likely to take, ticularly remarkable in that it was equipped and also a radioactive powder where he was for scientific research in many fields—it was likely to get it on his shoe soles.”
not just a general lab; it was one in which a
“The powder would have worn off his man could specialize in chemistry, electro-shoes by now!” I said skeptically.
chemistry, electronics, metallurgy, surgery,
“Here’s what someone forgot to tell and Heaven knows how many other things.
you, Henry. There was some preparation It was dumfounding. One had to be a before the fellow left the hospital. One of his scientist to appreciate the place. It occupied, shoe heels was hollowed out, and an ultra-on the eighty-sixth floor of a midtown sky-short-wave exciter placed there. In other scraper, the entire floor with the exception of words, another radio gadget which can be a reception room and another room contain-traced.”
THE MONKEY SUIT
29
I was speechless some more. Such Savage was on his knees beside the devices were preposterous, but I was getting victim for a brief time.
to the point where almost any wild thing
“Couple of hours ago,” he remarked.
seemed logical.
“That would mean it was done to him very shortly after he escaped from the Farrar apartment. Whoever did it might have been THE house was a brownstone in the waiting here for him—or followed him here.”
upper Eighties, west of Central Park. The Mayfair said, “Some of his stuff is in-street was dark, fairly quiet, although a teresting.”
newsboy was hawking his wares at a distant Savage frowned. “Eh?”
corner. Savage parked and waited a while,
“Take a look at the writing desk there, his eyes searching different directions.
the letters and bills—” Mayfair broke off, In a moment, the Mayfair fellow sepa-stared at me. “The bathroom’s yonder, rated from the slightly blacker shadow of a Henry.”
doorway. He waddled to us, opened the
“I have a nervous stomach,” I blurted, door, leaned inside, said, “Ain’t nothing new and made a dash for the place he was point-happened.”
ing.
“Seen anyone around?”
“Nope.” Mayfair jerked his cowcatcher jaw at the house. “Ground floor. Front room.
THEY had their heads together when I Not bad diggings.”
came back, and they ended whatever they Savage said, “We’ll have a look.” He had been saying. Letters, some first-of-the-alighted from the car.
month bills, were spread out on a modest Mayfair gazed at me. “Henry going in writing desk. There were many racing forms with us?”
and dope sheets.
“If he wishes,” Savage replied.
“What have you found out?”
I had been thinking of polite-man with
“Polite-boy’s name was Davis. Hugo terror. After all, the chap had endeavored to Davis,” Mayfair replied. “Seems to have kill me.
made his living sharp-shooting. Race player.”
“Aren’t you going to call the police?” I He indicated some small slips, the nature of demanded uneasily.
which mystified me. “Numbers slips. The guy Not answering this, Mayfair said, was a pusher for a policy racket, part of his “Henry’s liable to throw one of his whing-time. Summing him up, I’d say he was a dings.”
small-time plug-ugly.”
He was aspersing my courage, natu-
“I surmised as much.”
rally. “I was struck on the head!” I snapped. “I
“And,” added Mayfair, “Dido Alstrong wasn’t hysterical at the Farrar apartment—it paid the bills for this apartment.”
was a dazed condition.”
“What!”
Mayfair grinned. “Your nerve is all right, The homely chemist’s enormous fore-then?”
finger probed the duns. “You can see for
“Absolutely!”
yourself. Rent receipts made out to Dido Al-
“Okay. You can lead the way for us,”
strong.”
Mayfair said.
“But can this be Dido Alstrong’s apart-Savage said impatiently, “Cut it out, ment?”
Monk. Henry isn’t accustomed to this sort of Mayfair shook his head. “Nope. The thing.”
cops have found that. Alstrong lives in a hotel Not until we were in the house, and in on Madison Avenue. He’s not there. He polite-man’s rooms, did I understand the hasn’t been home since this morning. The grisly death’s-head humor Mayfair had been cops are sitting around there with their arms indulging.
open for him.”
Polite-man was dead.
“But what crime can they charge Dido He lay on the floor, about ten feet in-Alstrong with?”
side the door of his sitting-room, lay on his
“Search me. Maybe with having a side and there was an awful crimson lake friend who got a carving job on his throat.”
that had spread from his throat, which had
“Then,” I exclaimed, “this fellow must been incised from ear to ear.
really have been Dido Alstrong’s friend!”
30
DOC SAVAGE
“Could be. What’s amazing about it?”
in fact, for I think of only the classics as litera-
“It just occurred to me that, earlier to-ture. However, there was a small section de-day when he informed me he had been voted to the container business; mostly asked by Dido Alstrong to receive the pack-bound trade volumes, and a few works on age from me, he might have been telling the the preservation of food, and the chemistry of truth.”
various forms of decomposition and spoilage.
Mayfair wasn’t interested in this. “Well, It was, I was saddened to note, not a very he’s through telling the truth or anything comprehensive library. But then I imagined else,” he said.
Mr. Farrar was primarily an executive.
Savage continued to examine the Farrar was manifestly nervous. One felt rooms. Presently he stated, “The place has sorry for the man. The way he’d explained it been searched. Thoroughly, too.” He indi-to us, he’d really been involved in this unwill-cated certain letters. “And with a sort of pur-ingly, and without his knowledge.
pose, too. These letters have no envelopes.”
Savage said, “We’re investigating Dido
“I got a habit of throwing envelopes in Alstrong more thoroughly, Mr. Farrar. . . . I the wastebasket, if there ain’t an address on wonder if we could speak to your daughter ‘em I want,” said Mayfair. “Maybe I ain’t the on the matter?”
only one with the habit.”
Farrar did not approve of this.
“But all the New York letters have en-
“I fail to see the point to it,” he replied.
velopes.”
“You gentlemen were with Lila a good part of
“Huh?”
the day—and I must say that the association
“The letters without,” said Savage, “are wasn’t soothing to her nerves.”
apparently from Hugo Davis’s home town.”
“She was upset?”
He read some of the letters. “Two are from
“Very.”
his mother, evidently. I gather he wasn’t a
“She did not,” Savage remarked, very good son. The others are from a girl “seem so agitated when we left her here.”
named Anne, whom I judge Hugo Davis had Farrar frowned. “It was after your tele-led to believe he would marry her.”
phone call that she really went to pieces.”
“That doesn’t tell much,” Mayfair said.
Savage stared at the manufacturer of
“No, except that Anne mentions that food-packaging containers.
she works in a branch of the Farrar Products
“My telephone call?” he asked. “When Company plant in the small town where she was that?”
lives. Hugo Davis got her the job through his
“Why, about five o’clock.” Farrar’s lean, friend Dido Alstrong—reading between the sensitive face suddenly showed puzzlement.
lines, I’d say he got her the job to keep her
“You’re not saying you didn’t call her? You from coming to New York and bothering him.”
did, didn’t you?”
“Hey,” said Mayfair, “that should give Savage, instead of making a direct re-us a line on the town.”
ply, turned to me and said, “Henry, you have
“We’ll ask Farrar about it.” Savage been with me continuously. Did I make a said.
telephone call?”
“No,” I said. “You received one from Monk Mayfair. That was all.”