The Monkey Suit Kenneth Robeson

Chapter XI

So was Dido Alstrong’s monkey suit.

Both had vanished, and it was logical IT was past midnight when we crossed to suppose they had gone together. But be-George Washington Bridge and, after rolling yond that it did not make sense. Not the swiftly for a time, turned north. Eleven o’clock. The storm was on us with awful THE MONKEY SUIT

splintering streaks of lightning, and the face The car traveled for a long time while I of the dashboard clock was visible in the waited for them to kill me.

convulsive blazes of red glare.

“Get a move on,” the tall man said to the short one, who was driving. “Maybe we THE thunderstorm had followed us, or can outrun this damn storm.”

we had followed it, and now it should have

“Yeah,” said the other. “And have a been daylight, but it wasn’t. At least all the highway cop lookin’ in at Henry, here.”

light seemed the slashing scarlet of lightning,

“Henry wouldn’t tell tha cop nothin’.

and the rain came down in solid wires and Wouldja, Henry?”

sheets; the wind was lions; at times it

“The police,” I said grimly, “are already seemed the car would be swept from the looking for you gentlemen for the holdup in highway.

the cocktail establishment.”

Finally the car was turned on to a lane, The short one sneered. “Whose afraida and Pokey said, “Well, we made it.” The ma-cops? Ask Henry if he described us to tha chine crawled along the winding gravel for a cops, Slim.”

time, then stopped. Pokey turned his head,

“Henry wouldn’t do that. Would you, demanded, “How’s lodge-member?”

Henry?”

Slim turned a flashlight on my face. “He

“No.”

don’t look so good. Color’s kind of a mortified

“You hear that, Pokey? Henry’s our blue.”

pal. Henry’s our lodge brother.”

“Yeah,” said Pokey. “That ain’t a bad

“I don’t belong to any lodge,” I said color. But he should be feeling better than miserably.

that. He’s got a lot to feel grateful over. He Tall bandit whooped. “Sure you do, ain’t dead.”

Henry. You joined one tonight. When you This was true. But the future was not a figured that babe got the monkey suit, that’s thing that intrigued me.

when you paid your initiation fee.”

They sat there a while. Pokey had

“Sure,” said the other. “You’re a paid-turned off the headlights; now he blinked up member.”

them twice, left them off again. And from

“What kind of a lodge is this?” I asked ahead, through trees, there was a replying nervously.

couple of light blinks.

“Biggest there is, boy.”

“Hot dog!” said Pokey. “This is home

“Sure,” said Pokey. “More belong than sweet home. I was beginning to wonder if I’d don’t. Ain’t that right, Slim.”

took the wrong road somewhere.”

“I’m not sure I wish to belong.”

Slim was surprised. “You mean you

“He don’t wanta belong, Slim,” said didn’t know where you was going?”

Pokey.

“I never been here before. You know

“Who does,” said Slim. “But everybody that. All I had was directions. . . . Hey, I wish joins, don’t they.”

we had raincoats.”

“Yeah, everybody. Some sooner’n oth-

“That’s great, riding around all night ers, though.” Pokey turned his head, leered.

with a guy who don’t know where he’s going,”

“Henry ain’t got tha lodge badge yet, though.

Slim complained. He suddenly gave me a How you reckon the badge will look on him?”

shove. “What you sitting there for? Get out.”

“It’ll look fine.” Slim studied me criti-I alighted. My legs would hardly remain cally. “A lily will go well with Henry’s color-rigid enough to support my weight. We ing.”

climbed a steep path. A house appeared, a The sky had deafening noise. The car rambling place, one-story, low, with wide noise was tiny, almost unnoticeable, in the porches and the air of being a summer storm’s uproar. A bolt of lightning split a tree home. They shoved me inside. I was in a up ahead; there was a kind of smoke puff, large room where there were other people.

whitish; it was an evergreen tree, and little

“Lila!” I cried.

flames spread all through it. Big drops of water like half-dollars began hitting the car.

“Get a move on,” Slim said uneasily to MISS FARRAR did not reply; her ex-his comrade. “You wanta hang around here pression was cold, grave, and desperate.

and get lightning-struck?”

DOC SAVAGE

She showed, almost as much as I, the effects A voice called him a genial name. Not of a harrowing night.

a nice one. “You two hooligans took your A man who answered the description time gettin’ here,” the voice added.

of the fellow who had attacked polite-man

“It rained. We was beset by the ele-and taken the monkey suit from him stood ments.” Slim listened to the awful uproar of with a gun in his hand, guarding Miss Farrar.

the storm a moment. “I hope the resta our This chap—he was certainly the one who party don’t get lightning-struck.”

had been a prisoner at the Farrar apartment

“You get Henry?”

on the occasion of my ill-omened visit

“We got Henry. Sure.”

there—sneered at sight of me.

“Bring Henry in here,” the voice said.

He said, “You guys better not be too

“We might as well acquaint him with his pur-careless.”

pose in life.”

“With Henry?” said Slim scoffingly.

Slim came back, seized me, propelled

“Why, Henry is the soul of gentleness with me at the door, through it.

his fellow man.”

The voice belonged to a lean, lazy-

“Yeah?” said the other. “Well, I seen looking man in a tweed suit, a fellow who did him different.” He frowned, then added, not look either particularly intelligent or vi-

“Maybe he’ll be all right if you don’t scare cious, although on the latter point his looks him.”

were obviously deceiving.

“We wouldn’t think of scaring Henry,”

Dido Alstrong, the other man in the Slim said.

room, I knew, of course.

Miss Farrar had said nothing. I had tried to give her a reprimanding frown, but it had no effect on her. It was difficult to be se-DIDO ALSTRONG was certainly in a vere with her for striking me and taking the deplorable condition. There had always been ape suit. Too many other greater fears beset about Dido a certain garish neatness that me. . . . And clearly Lila was also a captive.

went with his acquisitive manners—he did

“How did you get here, Lila?” I asked.

not have it now. They had been beating Dido.

She said nothing in a wooden speech-Not with fists, either. When he looked at me, less way.

his mouth sagging open with surprise, I saw Short-bandit, the one named Pokey, that they had knocked out, or pulled out, at took it on himself to answer that. “Why, least three of his lower teeth and two uppers.

Henry, we were waiting outside your place One of his fingernails was completely miss-when she came out with the monkey suit. We ing also, the end of the finger a bloody just picked her up, and sent her along here.”

stump. Much as I detested Dido Alstrong, the He nodded at the one who had warned him way he looked made me a little ill.

about my reactions to fear. “Ossie brought

“Henry! Good God!” said Dido Alstrong her.”

hoarsely. “Then they weren’t lying!”

Ossie

cursed

him

very

blackly.

“Lying?” I asked unsurely.

“Whatcha usin’ my name for?” Ossie de-

“Oh my Lord!” cried Dido.

manded.

There had been something vaguely

“Why,” said Pokey, “Ossie ain’t your familiar about the lazy-looking man in name.”

tweeds, and now it dawned on me why this

“Well, quit usin’ any names!” Ossie was. The chap had been at some of the snarled.

same places where I was yesterday—

“Okay. Okay, if you feel that way about standing in front of my laboratory building, it. Okay, Nameless.”

and in the cocktail bar, and standing in the Slim grinned. He had been looking street in front of the Farrar apartment. The about. “We the only ones here yet?”

fellow had been functioning as an observer, a Ossie jerked his head at another room.

lookout. Now he was serving as Dido Al-

“Yeah. Except in there.”

strong’s captor.

Slim strolled to the door which Ossie Suddenly, from the other room, came a had indicated. He peered through. “Do you bit of confusion. Feet clattered. Lila Farrar wanta be Nameless, too?” he asked some-cried out, a whimpering sound.

one in there.

Slim jammed his gun into my side, said, “Easy, Henry. No fits out of you, pal.”

THE MONKEY SUIT

And he guided me hastily back into the other

“I—well—I don’t believe I understand,”

room to see what had happened.

I said uneasily. I had no wish to serve these Lila Farrar had endeavored to make a people.

break for the outer night. She had been un-He crossed his tweed-clad legs casu-successful. The man referred to as Ossie, or ally. “Tell you what, Henry. Here’s the whole Nameless, had recaptured her.

story. Dido Alstrong, here, works for Farrar

“Hell, she worked them ropes loose,”

who has a company that makes food packag-Ossie said.

ing units, and that got Dido Alstrong inter-

“Somebody oughta work some of your ested in means of preserving foods. You hide loose, make ya a little more careful,”

know about frozen foods packages, don’t said Slim. To Lila, Slim added, “Baby, you you?”

don’t wanta do things like that. We’d sure

“Oh, yes,” I said. “You see them eve-hate to have to shoot a pretty tootsie like rywhere—”

you.”

“Kinda profitable, wouldn’t you say?”

Lila, in a voice which desperation made

“Yes, indeed. I imagine—”

hardly understandable, cried, “So my own

“Dido Alstrong,” he interrupted me, father would have me shot!”

“had developed a process by which almost Slim’s jaw fell. “Huh?”

all perishable foods can be preserved for up Ossie snorted.

to six months by subjecting them to a super-Slim pulled his jaw up, asked, “What’s sonic ultra-short sound wave gadget—I she mean by that, Ossie?”

guess you’d call it that, anyway. I ain’t a sci-

“She thinks her pop is stud duck,” Os-entist enough to know the name of it.”

sie said. “Ain’t that somethin’?”

I considered this. “Such a device would

“What?” yelled Slim. “She thinks old probably be bulky and impractical,” I said. “Of Farrar is engineering this? What makes her course, scientists have long understood that think that? What gave her such an idea?”

ultra-short sound waves have odd effects on Ossie shrugged. “Damned if I know.

molecular structure. But—”

Who can figure how a woman thinks!”

“As we understand it,” said tweed-suit, Lila stared at them bitterly. “You’re not “the machine ain’t so big nor expensive. And fooling me,” she said.

it preserves food just about as fast as it passes through on a conveyor belt.”

I thought of this.

THEY guided me forcibly back into the

“Good Lord!” I gasped.

room where Dido Alstrong was seated on a It was incredible. Such a discovery chair. I noticed that his ankles were tied to would be worth a fabulous sum. . . . Gradu-the heavy chair legs.

ally, like trees falling, the significance began

“Henry,” said the tweed-suited man.

to grow on me. Each fresh realization was a

“You’re a chemist, ain’t you?”

crashing impact. Why, such a discovery

“Y-yes,” I confessed shakily.

would revolutionize the food packaging in-

“How good a chemist are you?”

dustry; it would have an effect on the entire

“I—quite good.”

way of life of men.

“Better than Dido Alstrong?” he de-To say nothing, naturally, of the mil-manded.

lions of dollars that would pour into the pock-

“I knew more than Dido Alstrong will ets of Dido Alstrong in the way of royalties. I ever know,” I said grimly, “when I was ten thought of Dido Alstrong, the obnoxious fel-years old.

low that he was, and I have never been

“Watch out, Henry!” Dido Alstrong sicker.

yelled.

“That’s—that’s—why, Dido Alstrong Slim hit Dido on the head. Dido’s eyes isn’t entitled to any such good fortune!” I rolled until they were all whites.

croaked.

Tweed-suit looked at me thoughtfully.

Tweed-suit laughed. “We had the same

“You’re the boy for us, Henry. You’re our lad.

idea, sorta.”

Dido Alstrong was able to invent the thing, so

“You—”

you can surely figure it out. Don’t you think He nodded. “We’re relieving him of it.

so?”

Of course, we haven’t got our hands on it yet, but I think we will.”

DOC SAVAGE

“What happened?” I blurted.

“Hah! He would have let me marry

“Well, we were a little careless and Lila.”

Dido Alstrong found out we were after the

“But he would have found out later!”

secret, so he decided to put them where we

“After I was one of the family, maybe,”

wouldn’t be able to get them.”

Dido said carelessly. “What could he do

“And where was that?”

then? If he got tough, I could sue him for a

“He gave them to you, Henry.”

potful of dough for alienating my wife’s affec-

“Me?” I yelled. This was unbelievable.

tions. It wouldn’t have come to that, though—

It could hardly be true either.

I would have slid out of it by saying the proc-

“The monkey suit,” the man said.

ess had a flaw in it that I hadn’t discovered

“But I don’t understand!”

earlier.”

“The monkey suit,” he explained pa-

“Then there isn’t any food-preservation tiently, “is the key to the formula.”

machine?”

“I’m so confused!” I said.

“No.” He eyed me anxiously. “You’ve

“We ain’t exactly in broad daylight our-got to believe me, Henry. You know I’m quite selves,” tweed-suit informed me. “There’s a liar.”

one little hitch—making Dido Alstrong tell us I did know he was quite a liar, all right.

the formula or where it is. But we’ll get that But I had no idea what to think. If there done.” He wheeled on Dido Alstrong. “Won’t was a food-preserving machine, Dido would we, bub?” he demanded.

doubtless lie to these men, who were trying to steal the secret, and say there wasn’t. On the other hand, the tissue of falsehoods and DIDO ALSTRONG had been listening fourflushing was exactly the sort of thing to this with all the emotions of a selfish man Dido Alstrong would perpetrate. So I had two who was terrified about his own safety. It did stories that seemed equally logical. In either not seem to me that he was at all worried case, Dido deserved the mess he was in. I about my own welfare, and I resented this, wished I wasn’t in it with him.

because after all he had something at

“Henry,” said tweed-suit, “I’ll make you stake—millions of dollars no doubt—and I a proposition. A business deal. You check had nothing. I was the bystander. I was Dido this supersonic gadget for us when we get it Alstrong’s sucker. I wouldn’t have been in or the plans—if there’s plans, you may have this if it hadn’t been for Dido.

to build a model—and we’ll cut you in on it.”

Now Dido said, “Henry, don’t believe

“Give me a share?” I asked.

that story.”

“That’s right.”

“Isn’t it true?” I asked anxiously.

It was awfully tempting. “How much?”

“Not exactly,” Dido said. “You see,

“Ten per cent,” he said.

Henry, there isn’t any food preserving super-

“Oh, I’d have to have fifty per cent, at sonic gadget. There never was. I—well—I least,” I said.

told some people there was, and that got me Dido Alstrong laughed bitterly. “Broth-into this trouble.”

ers, Henry is a child where everything but a

“Who did you tell you had such a dollar is concerned. Then he’s a shark. You’ll thing?”

find that out.”

“I—uh—Mr. Farrar,” Dido replied Tweed-suit was glaring at me. “We grimly. “And Lila, and maybe one or two oth-may have to do some inducting,” he said.

ers.”

“You lied?”

“Yeah.”

NOW came a very touching scene. It

“But why?”

had, also, a certain hideous note.

He said bitterly, “Old man Farrar didn’t Because another man—and this man think much of me as a prospective son-in-also I had seen during the previous day at law. I wanted to marry Lila and he was nixing different places, not at the time recognizing it. So I told the lie about a food preserving him as one of the thugs—came into the process to fix myself up, make him think I place. He brought with him Mr. Farrar.

was some guy.”

Mr. Farrar entered with his hands held

“But Dido, what good would that have on a level with his shoulders. His face was done you?” I demanded.

THE MONKEY SUIT

pale. When he saw Lila, his features regis-Chapter XII

tered the bitterest sort of stunned emotion.

“Father!” Lila cried. “They—you—”

MAYFAIR’S voice was a little muffled She didn’t say that she had suspected because he stood outside a window. He her father of masterminding the affair, but remedied that. He knocked the glass out of you could see that she was now convinced the window. In the middle of the sound of differently, and revolted with the very idea breaking glass, his big voice—it was a nor-that she could have had such a thought.

mally squeaky voice, but it certainly changed

“Lila, darling,” Farrar said softly. “I—I when he was excited—said clearly, “The was hoping—they told me they had you pris-place is surrounded with cops. So act ac-oner—I was hoping they lied.”

cordingly.”

Lila sobbed for a few moments. Then Maybe it was the breaking glass.

she turned to me. “Henry,” she said. “Henry, Maybe they just didn’t believe him. Maybe I’m sorry I hit you and took the suit. I did it they were too

desperate

care—

because—well—I was foolish enough to be-understandable, because there had been a lieve my father was involved.”

cold-blooded murder.

“I understand,” I said. “You wished to Anyway, activities commenced.

aid him.”

Slim began by shooting Mr. Mayfair in Farrar did not seem astonished. He the chest. This discomfited Mayfair. That, I told me, “This is not news. Lila accused me swear to you, was all it did—discomfit him.

of such a thing earlier last night—before you Apparently he was standing rather precari-and Savage and Mayfair returned the second ously on a barrel or something outside the time. That was why Lila was not there. She window, and the bullet unbalanced him; his had left in a rage, revolted with me.”

great arms waved like a spider’s legs, and I stared at Lila. “That’s what you presently he fell into the room. Not away from wanted to tell Savage when you tele-the window. Into the room. The effect was phoned?”

tremendous, because he removed the re-

“Yes.”

mainder of the glass from the window, and

“But why didn’t you tell me, Lila, when his yell was like a freight-engine whistling in we talked.”

the room. Mayfair came erect. He came to-She said bitterly, “You just don’t inspire ward Slim. Slim shot him again. Mayfair still confidence, Henry.”

came.

I was bitterly hurt. After all I had been Slim said, “Blanks!” He really thought through, I wasn’t inspiring confidence. It was his gun was loaded with blank cartridges, a nauseating development.

evidently, because he pointed it at the ceil-

“I’m very distressed,” I mumbled.

ing, which was plastered, and pulled the trig-Tweed-suit asked dryly, “Are you disger again. A bullet from his gun ploughed a tressed enough, Henry, to help us out with quantity of plaster loose. Quite satisfied his the gadget? You could put quite a few feath-bullets were real, Slim prepared to fire at ers in your nest while you’re doing it.”

Mayfair again. But he had wasted too much

“But what—what about Lila, Mr. Farrar time, and Mayfair hit him. I had not realized a and Dido Alstrong?” I asked uneasily.

mere fist could change a man’s face so.

“They’ll be distressed, too,” said tweed-Doc Savage’s voice said distinctly, suit. “And rather dead, I’m afraid.”

“Monk, get out of there! I told you we’d use

“Oh! Oh, no—”

gas on them!”

An utterly unexpected voice—not a

“Hell, I slipped and fell in the window,”

stranger’s voice, though—addressed us.

Monk said.

“Speaking of distress,” it said. “I think I am afraid I have begun the descrip-now’s as good a time as any to contribute tion of this fight inadequately. Not that, even some.”

now, anything seems quite adequate. . . .

I believe I experienced an undreamed-Anyway, there had been at the beginning of emotion: I believe I was glad to see the three victims in the room—myself, Lila, Mr.

lout Monk Mayfair.

Farrar—or four counting Dido Alstrong. And the enemies were Slim, Pokey, Ossie, the tweed-suit, and the man who had brought Mr.

DOC SAVAGE

Farrar—five. Slim was no longer interested.

A voice addressed a general state-Four remained.

ment. It was Mayfair.

So there were now four foes, three-to-He said: “What do you know! Henry four neutrals, and bedlam. Everyone did wound up on the side of the white race.”

whatever occurred to him or her at the time. I could not watch it all.

Savage came in. He had, dumfound-MAYFAIR took me by the collar and ingly, been in the other room. The man’s dragged me into the house, on into a kitchen, speed was fabulous. The tweed-suit and Os-and jammed my head into a bucket of water.

sie were levelling handguns; Savage was

“Wash your face, Henry,” he said, and left. I upon them instantly; he struck one gun away, cleared my eyes with all haste, then returned seized the other, and got it. And then the pair to the conflict scene.

were at him, and Pokey joined them.

The whole thing, as nearly as anyone I knew Savage could not overpower could guess its time, had taken less than a three of them. It was impossible. My only minute. But the room was a shambles; furni-thought, the only way I could see life ahead ture lay shattered, the air stank of gunpow-of me, was to take flight. But I needed an der. Bodies were scattered about. Five of the excuse for it, and so I leaped to Lila, cried, latter—accounting, unbelievably, for all the “Here! I’ll help you!”

opponents.

She was still tied. Bound, I discovered, Doc Savage carried Lila Farrar inside, to the chair. Terror gave me no time to un-placed her in a chair. He asked, “You all bind her. I picked up girl and chair and made right?”

for the door. I made it, but fell down at the She nodded tensely. She was very door; I went crashing down the steps, muddy.

slammed into the ground on my face. There I said, “I’m sorry, Miss Farrar, that I fell was mud. I was blinded.

with you.”

The rain beat on me. The wind She gave me as pleasant a look as the whipped my clothing. Inside the house, a gun circumstances permitted.

crashed. A man screamed awfully. The mud

“I’m sorry, too, for the things I was hurt my eyes no end; I could not see a thing.

thinking about you,” she said.

Then feet, a man’s feet, hit hard beside This was confusing. The implication me. I sensed—felt, heard—the force of a ter-was that I had done something to redeem rific blow that just missed my head. Someone myself. All I had done was fight, not very gal-was trying to brain me! He cursed.

lantly either, for my life.

Have you ever been blinded? And in a I wondered which of these men on the fight? It was very bad; I began to feel much floor I had overpowered while blinded. I as I had felt in Farrar’s apartment. Not brave.

looked at them. None of them, strangely, Just imbued with a wish to live—to do any-were either wet nor muddy.

thing, anything at all, to live.

Dido Alstrong was still tied to the chair.

Instinctively, my hands went up. Per-Apparently he had been unable to get into haps I was screaming in fear and rage; the fight.

someone was. At any rate, and most fortu-Monk Mayfair went outdoors.

nately, my hands encountered a down-Doc Savage asked me quietly, “You slugging arm. I jerked. The other fell on me.

feel all right, Henry?”

We fought.

“I—er—wouldn’t call it all right,” I con-I hit, variously, the mud, an arm, a fessed. “I’m a trifle upset.”

face, the ground again, my own leg—and I He nodded. “Sorry about using you.”

managed to bite, butt and kick almost as

“Using me?”

many objects. It was not very clear. It was He hesitated, then inquired, “Hadn’t too fast. It was like one fall—a great one, you figured that out?”

down a stairs, when one doesn’t know what

“Oh, yes,” I said vaguely. This was not really happens.

true.

At length the other one was still.

Savage now confronted Dido Alstrong, Blinded, my eyes leaking, the mud hurting produced a large documentary envelope, my eyeballs like acid, I lay across my victim.

opened it, fanned the blueprints and data THE MONKEY SUIT

sheets it contained before Dido’s face, and tion, didn’t I? I wanted the girl, and her demanded, “This gadget phony?”

dough.”

Dido Alstrong winced. “Yes.”

Savage shook his head slowly.

“How come?”

“I don’t think I like you, Alstrong,” he Now Dido Alstrong repeated substan-said.

tially the story he had told me earlier—he

“That hurts me a lot,” Dido Alstrong didn’t have any supersonic gadget for pre-said cheerfully. “A lot. In a pig’s eye.”

serving foodstuffs; he had just pretended to Savage shrugged. “You got scared and have one in order to impress Mr. Farrar so fled the city, I take it. Why did you come that he could wed Lila.

here?”

“I didn’t dream,” Dido finished, “that

“My pal, Hugo Davis, owns the place. I they would try to steal the thing off me, and figured it a good hideout. I used to work in a kill me too. As soon as I was in danger, I Farrar plant near here, and spent time here went to that costume shop and rented the before.”

monkey suit, told the guy I didn’t have

“Did you know they killed Hugo Davis?”

enough dough for the deposit, but would

“Huh?” Dido paled. “They—did.”

leave my watch and those papers for secu-Monk Mayfair put his head in the door.

rity. . . . Hey, how’d you get that envelope?”

“Henry’s victim is waking up,” he said.

Savage told him how. “Henry and I vis-

“Let him wake up,” Savage replied.

ited the costume place, and the proprietor

“Then bring him inside.”

happened to mention you were short of I stood there with the feelings of one money. That seemed queer. So I left Henry whose mind had separated from his body locked in the car—the more Henry knew, the and was hanging suspended several feet more trouble he seemed to be able to distant. Because for the first time I realized make—and went back and asked the pro-who my victim must have been.

prietor what kind of a deposit had been made. He showed me the envelope. I had the police visit him and get it for me.”

THIS Savage was even worse than the

“Well, I guess you can see the gadget rumors had had him. He was the mental wiz-won’t work,” Dido mumbled.

ard they had said he was. He had known, it

“Yes. Obviously.” Savage rifled the pa-was suddenly clear to me, all the answers pers. “This one is an interesting document. . .

very early in the affair. . . .

. Nothing to do with the phony invention.”

In an utterly miserable voice, I asked,

“Uh-huh. You mean the statement of

“You—you knew Miss Farrar had telephoned the facts,” Dido said. “Yeah, I put that in be-me at your laboratory?”

cause I didn’t want anybody killing me and

“Why not? There are extension tele-getting away with it.”

phones in the laboratory where Monk and I

“You figured,” said Savage, “that in were,” said Savage dryly.

case you were killed, the police would trace

“And you gave me the monkey suit, the monkey suit back to the shop where you and sent me home to serve as bait?” I rented it, and find out about the deposit you blurted.

left, thus discovering the statement?”

He nodded. “Monk’s idea, however. . . .

“That’s right.”

Yes, we surmised what Miss Farrar had on

“It was a round-about way of naming her mind—the problem of whether or not her your possible murderer.”

father was a crook and what she should do.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t want no statement

“And you let those thugs take me, and like that in the hands of no lawyer, who might followed us up here—”

get conscience-ridden and turn it over to the He shook his head. “Wrong. We cops. I wanted it where it would be found if I watched them take Miss Farrar, and followed got killed, and also where I could get it back if her here. We were already here when you things turned out well.”

were brought.”

“How could it have turned out well if Dido Alstrong entered the discussion.

your gadget was a fake?”

“What I want to know,” Dido com-Dido Alstrong snorted. “Are you kid-plained, “is how’n hell they found me here! I ding? When this thing developed the way it thought this was a safe hangout. Only Henry did, I had a better hold on him than the inven-Davis knew about it.”

DOC SAVAGE

Doc Savage glanced at him with dis-his Farrar Products company in a dishonest like, said, “I’m afraid I was responsible. You fashion.

see, I deliberately gave Farrar the idea that

“You probably knew Farrar was a Hugo Davis and where he formerly lived crook,” I told Dido Alstrong outdoors. “You’re were important. Farrar grabbed the bait. He probably as unreliable as he.”

did some thinking, decided that since you

“Henry,” said Dido bitterly, “the pot wouldn’t hide out in your own place, it was shouldn’t call the kettle black. You stinker! I’ll logical that you would use one Hugo Davis never forget that you were about to throw in knew of. The first thing he did, probably, was with the gang and explain my gadget for have his men find out what property Hugo them.”

Davis owned, and they spotted this cabin

“I was just pretending,” I said angrily.

immediately.”

“Hah!” he said.

Monk Mayfair now booted Mr. Farrar I walked away from him. I didn’t feel so into the room. Mr. Farrar showed the damage tall. About tall enough to walk under a sleep-my fists and teeth had done.

ing gopher.

Mr. Farrar did not look at me. He did Miss Lila Farrar was standing on a not look at his daughter, either.

knoll. The knoll gave a view of green hills and blue distance as hazy as a blind man’s eye.

“Lila, I’m so sorry, so sorry, about your THE police came later. Two state father,” I said.

troopers. A detective and an assistant District She had a small twig in her fingers.

Attorney from New York City. They discussed She turned it, looked at it, broke it. “There are the case with Doc Savage, and it developed many things to be sorry for,” she said.

that tweed-suit had killed Hugo Davis. They I knew she was including me.

even found Hugo Davis’ wallet on tweed-suit, and presently the man offered wildly to turn state’s evidence and testify against Mr.

THE END

Farrar, whom, it seemed, had been a crook for a long time. He had even been operating