Chapter IX
“His girl friend. Name is Lucybelle Nolan.”
REACHING Ezra Strong’s apartment,
“How did you learn that?”
and discovering the police were there, Doc
“Oh, we got a break,” the officer ex-Savage did something which he would not plained. “First, this Lucybelle has a sister have done if Monk and the others had been named Ruth, and Ruth knew she was coming THE SPOOK OF GRANDPA EBEN
29
to see what had happened to Ezra Strong.
Doc Savage showed quick interest.
Seems Lucybelle and Ezra had a date to-
“Yes?”
night, and when Ezra didn’t show up, Lucy-
“I saw the girl,” the man said, “a little belle rushed off to see what was wrong.
before this guy come out of the shadows and When Lucybelle didn’t come back, the sister, bopped her. And when I first saw her, she Ruth, got worried and telephoned the police.”
was behaving funny. Kind of beating at the
“Then Lucybelle did not get back air, as if she were fighting something that home?”
wasn’t there.”
“No. ”
“As if she had run into, shall we say, a
“Did she go with Ezra Strong?”
spook?”
The policeman scratched his head.
“Well—yes.”
“Now, there is something that puzzles us.
“Did this thing appear to be movable, There was a kind of a commotion on the or immovable?”
street, a woman screaming. A guy who lives
“The way she was pushing and beat-down the street heard it, and looked out and ing—immovable.”
says he saw a woman being blackjacked by One of the policeman interrupted and a man. The man threw her in the car and said, “Wait a minute, you say there was noth-drove off.”
ing visible, but she was beating and pushing
“I would like to talk to the eyewitness.”
at something?”
“Sure.”
“Yes, and I’m not crazy,” the man said.
“I know it sounds funny, but that’s what I saw.”
THE eyewitness was a fat, sleepy man Doc Savage said, “Thank you very who was a little sour about being disturbed at much. You have been a great help. ” To the this late hour. It was now well past three policeman, the bronze man said, “Will you tell o’clock in the morning.
Chief Flannigan what we have learned, in
“Next time I hear a woman yell, I don’t case I do not see him immediately?”
put my head out any windows,” the witness
“Sure,” the cop said.
said.
“A man slugged a woman and threw her in a car?” Doc asked.
MONK, Ham and Billy Riggs heaved
“So it looked to me.”
gusty sighs of relief when Doc joined them, Doc Savage described Ezra Strong, and they were startled by the bronze man’s size, build and the clothing which Ezra had description of what he had done and learned.
been wearing when he fled from Copeland’s
“Chief Flannigan,” Billy Riggs said, “is place. “That sound like the man?”
going to be disturbed about this. What was
“Shucks, no. This man was short and the idea of letting the cops hear what you heavy-set. He had on different clothes, a found out?”
dark raincoat and dark hat down over his
“It is just possible,” Doc said, “that it eyes.”
may dawn on Flannigan that we are trying as That certainly did not sound like Ezra hard as he is to find out what is at the bottom Strong.
of this.”
“What kind of a car was it?”
Billy Riggs nodded. “Well, Flannigan
“Coupé.”
isn’t a bad guy at that. He was police chief One of the policemen said, “Ezra when I had my trouble, and he gave me all Strong drives a coach, and it is missing.”
the breaks.”
Doc Savage was thoughtful. “Appar-
“Did you know this Lucybelle Nolan?”
ently the man who got Lucybelle was not
“I’ve seen her with Ezra Strong. ”
Ezra Strong. ”
“Know her sister, Ruth?”
“We’re not positive. ”
“No, ” said Billy. “But, oh, boy, I’d like The eyewitness had been growing to!”
more friendly and less resentful under the
“Any idea where she lives?”
pleasant persuasion of Doc Savage’s per-
“Sure.”
sonality. He cleared his throat sheepishly.
The Nolan home was a pleasant ranch-
“Here’s something else,” he said. “I type brick in a good residence section. There don’t want you guys to laugh at me.”
was a lighted window, and when Doc Savage 30
DOC SAVAGE
rang, the door was opened almost immedi-
“Not that I heard. They were engaged.”
ately by Ruth herself.
“Anything unusual that happened,” Doc
“Oh.” She was disappointed when she said, “probably would have concerned Lucy-saw the bronze man. “I thought that perhaps belle and Ezra Strong.”
Lucybelle had returned.”
Ruth shook her head, then said, “Wait,
“We want to talk to you about Lucy-the other evening . . . but that is silly.”
belle,” Doc said.
“What was it?”
“Who are you?”
“It was just a remark Lucybelle made.
Doc Savage identified himself, giving She said, ‘Ezra is the silliest thing, or he is his name, explaining that two of his assis-losing his mind.’ Those were her exact words, tants, Monk Mayfair and Ham Brooks, were as I remember them.”
waiting in the car with Billy Riggs.
Doc Savage had been aware of a feel-
“Do you know something about Lucy-ing of animosity which Ruth held against him belle?” Ruth asked anxiously.
in the beginning. It was not an open emotion;
“A little. Enough to make us want to it seemed to be something she was hiding.
know more.”
So the bronze man was exercising his pleas-Ruth hesitated. “Very good, I will talk to ant personality as much as possible to draw you. But first let me tell my mother that every-the young woman out, to loosen her flow of thing is all right, or at least that Lucybelle did information.
not come home. Mother heard you ring, and He suggested, “Perhaps there was she will be anxious. Excuse me, please.”
nothing unusual in Lucybelle’s remark that
“Certainly.”
Ezra was a silly thing. Girls often say that Ruth was gone about three minutes, about boys without meaning anything.”
then returned with an air of subdued excite-
“Oh, but Lucybelle had always comment. “Mother isn’t very well.” She closed the plained because Ezra Strong was so sensi-door and stepped outside. “We had better ble,” Ruth explained. “She kept grumbling talk here on the porch.”
about his being so sensible that he wasn’t much fun.”
“Then, when she called Ezra silly, and SHE talked easily and rapidly.
said he was losing his mind, it was a no-
“Lucybelle has known Ezra Strong ticeably different way of referring to him?”
some time, but she has only been going with
“Yes indeed.”
him about six months. Mother and I were
“When did Lucybelle make this remark, both glad when she started going with Strong, do you recall?”
because she is inclined to be flighty and flut-
“About a week ago.”
terbrained. We haven’t always particularly The young woman seemed to be an-liked her associates, although the young man swering questions freely enough, but Doc she was in love with before Ezra wasn’t so Savage was puzzled. He sensed something bad. His name was Ansen Overby.”
vaguely wrong in the background.
“What is Ezra Strong’s business?”
“Ruth, have the police told you any-
“He has a small machine shop. But he thing about what has happened tonight?” he also has quite a bit of money, too. I have the asked.
impression that he made the money himself
“The police!” She became alarmed. “Is in some previous business, or business deal, something really wrong? Has something ter-but I don’t know what it was. I don’t think he rible happened to Lucybelle?”
ever told us. I understand he is now manu-Doc Savage, in his friendliest voice, facturing torpedo driving mechanisms for the said, “Your sister seems involved in this, and government in his machine shop.”
you have a right to know all that has hap-
“Has Lucybelle behaved strangely pened.”
lately?”
The bronze man then summarized the Ruth thought for a moment. “I don’t whole thing from the time Billy Riggs had think so. I’ve been wondering about that my-rubbed the Indian-head charm that had be-self, but I haven’t been able to remember longed to his Grandfather Eben, through the anything unusual.”
various appearances of the fantastic thing
“She hadn’t quarreled with Ezra which they had taken to calling a “spook,”
Strong?”
through the death of Copeland, finishing with THE SPOOK OF GRANDPA EBEN
31
what he knew of the disappearance of Lucy-He shoved both arms above his head. “All belle in the hands of a man in a dark raincoat right, officers, don’t shoot! You’ve got me!”
and dark hat on the street near Ezra Strong’s He approached. He saw they were not apartment.
police.
“The police didn’t tell me any of this,”
“Oh, my!” he gasped. “I’m glad to see Ruth said.
you gentlemen!”
“Probably they should have.”
Ruth had a queer expression.
“Mr. Savage, I made a mistake,” she Chapter X
said. “I want to apologize.”
“Why?”
MONK examined Ansen Overby with
“You remember, just before we came no approval whatever and said, “You’re the out here to talk, I said I had to go reassure guy who helped get us in jail, so we’re not my mother.”
happy to see you, if you’ll just pardon us.”
“Yes.”
“I know,” Overby said. “But now I’m in
“I didn’t. I lied.”
trouble, too.”
“What did you do?”
“Yeah?”
“I had been listening to the police radio,
“The police are looking for me for mur-and I heard an alarm being broadcast for you, der, along with you fellows.”
and it said you were also wanted in connec-Ham Brooks grunted suddenly.
tion with Lucybelle’s disappearance.”
“There’s a police siren. Hear it?”
Doc made a guess. “So, instead of They could hear the faint howl of the si-talking to your mother, you called the police ren in the distance. It came closer, and shut and told them we were here?”
off, probably a dozen blocks away.
“Yes.”
Doc said, “They are coming in silently.
Monk Mayfair said, “That must explain We had best get out of here.”
the guy who just came skulking into the yard.
He started for their car.
It’s probably a policeman.”
“I’m going with you.” Ruth Nolan
“Why didn’t you say you saw some-clutched Doc’s arm. “This is my fault, be-body!” Ham gasped. “They must be sur-cause I notified the police.”
rounding us.”
“It being your fault does not mean you
“I just saw him.” Monk got out the pow-have to go along.”
erful flashlight which had been in Doc Sav-
“But I want to. I want to talk to you age’s car and which he had brought along.
some more.”
“Get set, everybody! I’m going to turn this
“You have additional information?”
beam on him and blind him, and while he’s
“No. I want to ask you something.”
blinded, we’ll all make a few tracks.”
“Well, we can argue about it in the car.”
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Ruth said.
Doc hurried on.
“‘S all right,” Monk told her. “You did They piled into the sedan—Ruth Nolan the natural thing.”
and Ansen Overby with them—and got rolling.
Monk placed the flashlight on the porch They headed north, drove sedately, and kept floor, aiming it so that the beam would come off the main streets.
to rest on the skulker. Monk planned to
“Have you a place to go?” Ansen switch on the light and leave it lying there to Overby sounded frightened.
keep the man blinded while he and the oth-
“No. ”
ers ran for it.
“I am in the real estate business, as
“Switch it on, dope!” Ham whispered.
you may know. I have a country home listed Monk hesitated, deliberately goading for sale. It is unoccupied, and I have the key Ham Brooks, and when Ham snarled a soft with my bunch of keys. The place is rather question, Monk chuckled. He switched on the isolated. We can go there.”
light.
“Good enough.”
“Why!” Monk gasped. “It’s Ansen Overby gave directions, and they got Overby!”
out of town safely, taking a country road Ansen Overby, blinded by the beam of which was black-topped and overhung with light, behaved in a way they did not expect.
pleasant trees.
32
DOC SAVAGE
Doc Savage spoke to Ruth Nolan.
She was genuinely grateful. “Oh, thank
“What do you have to ask us?”
you! And will you let me go along?”
“I’ve heard of you,” Ruth said. “You Doc Savage considered the point. “For have the name of being a man who helps the time being.”
people out of trouble. Isn’t that your business?”
“In a way,” Doc admitted. “It would be THE car had a slight knock on the low hard to clearly define our business.”
hills and one of the front tires was worn in a Well, I want you to help me find Lucy-single spot so that it kept slapping the road belle.”
monotonously.
“That is what you wanted to ask?”
“The police,” said Ansen Overby, “are
“Yes.”
after me.”
“We will do what we can.”
THE SPOOK OF GRANDPA EBEN
33
“That’s no novelty for us,” Monk grum-
“Somebody else made the call,” Ansen bled. “They want us on a murder charge.”
Overby said miserably. “Somebody who
“But they want me for the same thing.”
fooled me into thinking he was Copeland.”
“How come?”
“That,” said Monk amiably, “might
“You remember that telephone call I make the police think you were trying to got from Harland Crown Copeland, the one frame us to protect yourself.”
where he said he was being menaced by you
“That’s exactly what they think, and the fellows and Ezra Strong?”
letter made them sure.”
“We have a faint recollection.” Monk’s
“What letter?”
voice was bitter.
“A letter they found in old Copeland’s
“Well, it was a phony. Copeland didn’t desk at his home. It was on my stationery, make it.”
and signed with a reasonable imitation of my
“Who found that out?”
signature, saying that I would kill old Cope-
“The police.”
land if he dared raise a fuss about the short-
“How?”
age in my accounting for the real estate I had sold for him last month.”
Ham, interested by the slight legal aspect of this last, asked, “Was there a short-age?”
“I . . . ah . . . a slight one. Nothing serious. I had made arrangements to handle it with Copeland, but unfortunately our arrangement was verbal, so I can’t prove it.”
“So the cops are after you, too?”
“Yes.”
The man sounded sincere, and the others were willing to accept his story. Doc Savage, however, put a question. “Overby, how did you find the police were after you?”
“They sent an officer to arrest me. He told me what I have just told you—the evidence against me—and I became terrified and, I fear, a little foolish. At any rate, I slugged the man, stunning him momentarily, and fled. ”
“That,” Doc said, “leaves only the point of how you found us?”
“Oh, that was a lucky accident. I had heard, of course, that something had happened to Lucybelle Nolan and I thought I would talk to her sister, Ruth, about it. I thought there might be some connection which would help me clear myself.”
“Lucybelle,” said Ruth Nolan sharply,
“isn’t a crook.”
“I’m sure she’s not,” Overby said hast-
“The time. They checked the time of ily.
the call, and they found Copeland had a visi-
“Lucybelle may be a thoughtless, but tor at the time, the proprietor of a grocery she’s not a bad girl.”
store who was quarreling with Copeland over
“Oh, I’m sure that’s true. ”
a grocery bill the old miser didn’t want to
“Overby, how much was that short-pay—and Copeland didn’t make the call. The age?” Monk asked suddenly.
grocer was darn positive.”
“I . . . very slight.”
“And so?”
“How much?”
“Eleven hundred and thirty dollars, but—”
34
DOC SAVAGE
“To old Copeland, that wouldn’t have fully dressed—and started to walk. Then he meant any more than eleven hundred and grabbed at his waistline, looked down, con-thirty of his arms and legs,” Monk said dryly.
sidered for a moment, then went over and
“I’m not a murderer!” Overby yelled, kicked Monk in the ribs, not very gently.
alarmed.
“Ow!” Monk yelled. “What you trying to do?”
“Where’s my belt?” Ham demanded.
THE country home was not well kept. It
“Your belt?”
belonged to a man who had gone to Wash-
“Yes, you heard me!”
ington on a government job and decided to
“How would you lose your belt? What stay there permanently, Ansen Overby ex-do you do with your head, nail that on so you plained uneasily. The interior of the house won’t lose it, too?”
proved to be comfortable enough, for the Ham kicked Monk again, less softly.
place was furnished. Overby had some trou-
“Where’s my belt, you silly mess?”
ble locating the proper key on his ring of a
“I didn’t touch it, you overdressed shy-considerable number of keys, but he was ster.”
successful, and he invited them inside as if Ham was pretty grim about it. “You he owned the place.
know darned well I prize that belt because it
“Eleven hundred thirty bucks,” Monk was a gift from the law class I teach evenings remarked, and Overby glared at him.
during the winters. The buckle was solid gold They went over the place, heeding and it was engraved with my name and some Doc’s warning to be careful that flashlights pleasant sentiment. I think a lot of it. Now, could not be seen through the windows by you dig it up!”
the neighbors.
“I haven’t got it.”
“The nearest neighbor is half a mile
“Dig it up, you goon!”
away,” Overby assured them.
“I’ll dig you a grave, you keep messin’
Monk noted that Overby was recover-with me!” Monk shouted. “If you lost your belt, ing his spirits rapidly. Doc Savage said, “Re-don’t blame me!”
gardless of the fact that we all want to be up and doing something to solve this mystery, we will have to have sleep. Monk and Ham Chapter XI came by train last night and had to stand because of the crowded cars, so they did not A BELT was an interesting item that get much sleep. The rest of us will have to turned up during the course of the mess in have a few hours. So we had better get them the State National Bank.
now. ”
The State National had been founded The bronze man divided them up so over a hundred years ago by a Scotchman that they would stand three watches—Monk whose descendants still operated the institu-and Ruth, Doc and Overby, Ham and Billy tion. Today the State National occupied a Riggs—during the rest of the night. Everyone fourteen-story building, had a trust division, a was satisfied with the arrangement except home owners loan division, a securities divi-Ham, who was irritated at the idea of Monk’s sion and all the other divisions that went with keeping lookout with the attractive Ruth.
a financial firm of size and importance.
“That Monk,” Ham warned Ruth, “has a On Fridays, the State National made wife and thirteen baboonlike children in New up the pay roll for the Copeland Chemical York.”
Co., and this was Friday. The pay roll Monk became red-faced with rage.
amounted to about fifty thousand dollars in
“That’s a blasted lie he always tells.”
bills of rather small denomination, which But Ham could see enough startled were placed in the envelopes at the bank, doubt on Ruth’s face to show him that he had and these envelopes were then hauled to the fixed Monk’s clock for the time being, so he plant in an armored truck and doled out to went to sleep and slept the sleep of the the employees.
blessed.
The actual making up of the pay roll Ham slept very soundly indeed, and was done at odd times by the bank employ-when he was awakened to stand his turn at ees during the week, and on Friday was watch, he got up drowsily—he had lain down placed in the paybags for the trucks to trans-
THE SPOOK OF GRANDPA EBEN
35
port. It was customary for the truck to call for the pay roll about ten thirty Friday mornings.
The pay roll was in the pay bags and bed sheet. Or perhaps swathed in a couple these were standing on a table in the rear of of bed sheets, since one sheet would hardly the bank waiting for the truck guards. The cover a human figure so completely.
truck had not yet appeared.
“They’ve got the sheets over their That was the situation when the first faces!” exclaimed another teller, “Maybe spook walked in.
they’re bank robbers!”
“Hey, look!” said one of the tellers. “A
“Bank robbers went out of fashion with spook!”
Dillinger.”
He laughed when he said it.
By now everyone in the main lobby of There was nothing supernatural about the bank had stopped work to stare at the the figure which had walked into the bank, apparition.
and which was shortly followed by three
“Must be an advertising stunt,” some-more figures almost identical in appearance.
body said.
At first glance the figure was so obviously an The guard who always stood in the ordinary human being wrapped in an ordinary lobby of the bank did not think so. He put a 36
DOC SAVAGE
hand on his gun and started forward, but al-good move, but in this case was a had one, most at once brought up sharp, emitting a since it accomplished nothing but the gassing small barking noise of pain and clutching at of the bank employees.
his bruised nose.
The spooks were human enough to be Then the bank guard felt of the air—it wearing gas masks, because they could be looked like nothing but the air, but he en-seen hastily adjusting the mouthpieces under countered a solid substance he could feel but their sheets.
not see—in front of him. A ghostly unbeliev-They got the chemical company pay ing expression overspread his face.
roll. Fifty-one thousand three hundred eighty There were now four of the sheet-dollars and forty-one cents.
wrapped spooks in the bank. No more ap-In odd cash lying around they got an-peared. The four were enough, it developed.
other eleven thousand and some odd dollars.
The guard jumped back, drew his gun, The thirty thousand dollars in War Bonds and shouted, “Put your hands up!”
which they collected were registered and The four spooks did not obey, although hence not negotiable; not by thieves at any they glanced toward the angry, frightened, rate.
amazed guard in a rather unspooklike fash-The situation was now quite spectacu-ion.
lar. Everyone but the spooks was more or So the guard cut loose with a shot, fir-less blinded by the tear gas. There was ing over the heads of the four figures, which plenty of shooting, well over a hundred was the sensible thing to do, since he did not rounds of ammunition being fired by the bank know whether they were really criminals. Or employees during the sensational affair. Not rather, he aimed over their heads. The bullet all of these hundred bullets stuck in the air, did not go there.
although most of them did. All but four, in fact.
The bullet, the guard swore after-The four bullets which did not stick in ward—and his statement was true—flattened the air were fired at the ceiling by a teller who out in midair and remained embedded there, kept his head and did some experimenting.
or suspended.
The bullets he shot at the ceiling behaved as bullets should, hitting overhead and knocking loose fistfuls of plaster.
ONE of the sheet-wrapped “spooks”
So there was not a ceiling of anything then did some clowning. He lifted his arms, invisible that stopped bullets.
and made the kind of a gesture—in the direc-The bank interior was so laid out that tion of the bullet—which a magician some-there was a cage around some of the tellers, times makes before taking a rabbit out of a and the others merely worked behind a wal-hat.
nut counter.
“Abracadabra, hocus-pocus,” he said.
The spooks finished their harvest and
“Stop, bullet. Stop, all ye bullets.”
left by leaping over the counter or climbing His voice sounded distant and hollow over the cage grille.
to the others in the bank, as if he were deep In climbing over the grille, one of them in a box.
got hung. The sheets were clumsy affairs.
The four sheet-wrapped figures calmly The man who got caught did some very un-climbed over the walnut counter, and began spooky cursing. He fought around trying to helping themselves to the money that was in free himself, and finally succeeded, falling to sight.
the floor. But he had left his belt hanging to Most of the State National tellers kept the cage, and did not seem to notice.
revolvers in their cages. There was a pistol This spook, it was now, of course, evi-range in the basement, and bank rules redent, was a man dressed in ordinary civilian quired a certain amount of practice, so they clothes under the sheet.
were good marksmen. But none of them hit a The four spooks ran to the door, where spook, although all of them did plenty of one of them turned and laughed. This one shooting.
was the joke-lover who had made the magi-The bullets stuck in the air at various cian’s gesture earlier. He made another one points, and hung there.
now.
A thoughtful bank employee set off the
“Hocus-pocus, fall bullets,” he said.
tear gas, which ordinarily would have been a THE SPOOK OF GRANDPA EBEN
37
The bullets did not fall immediately, but just the beginning. It is going to take more a few seconds later they did, clattering to the than us to stop it.”
floor. They did not all fall at once, but dropped by groups.
It was believed, although there was no Chapter XII
certainty about this, that the men escaped in a cream-colored sedan.
THE four spooks left their cream sedan on the south side, and got into another car which they had previously parked there. They THE police had already been called, had removed their sheets, of course.
when the tear gas was released, the function They were four ordinary-looking crooks, performed by part of the automatic apparatus.
fellows who had obviously been rejected by The officers arrived shortly.
the army for one reason or another, probably Police Chief Flannigan himself soon most of them on moral grounds. One of them appeared. The chief looked weary, showing was rather old and none of them were under the signs of a night’s loss of sleep. He did not twenty.
do much talking. There was an assistant The amount of money they had col-prosecuting attorney with him who did most lected impressed them.
of the questioning, giving the impression that
“I’ll bet,” said the youngest, “there’s half he thought everyone in the bank was com-a million dollars here.”
pletely insane.
The old man said, “Oh, hell! We’re
“Here, ” a detective said, “is a belt lucky if there’s sixty grand.”
which was torn off one of the robbers when
“But there’s a lot of it.”
he climbed over the cage.”
“Small bills. The bonds are registered.
“A belt may not help us much,” said Whoever picked them up was a damned fool.
Chief Flannigan.
We can’t pass them, and it will be the cause
“This one will. It has an elaborate gold of getting the F. B. I. down on our necks.”
buckle, with a lot of engraving. Look.”
The thought of the F. B. I. sobered
“Let’s see.”
them for a while. They drove north, following Chief Flannigan inspected the belt.
the main streets. Then they changed to two It was good engraving, easily read, and more cars, on the theory that the police might it showed that the belt had been given to by now be looking for four men riding to-Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks gether.
by a class of law students.
In the course of time, they rejoined in
“Who is Brigadier General Theodore an office building in the midtown section Marley Brooks?” demanded the assistant north of the bank which they had just looted, prosecuting attorney. “Wait a minute! Say, is but not many blocks distant. The building that Ham Brooks?”
was a shabby one and the office which they
“Ham Brooks,” agreed Chief Flannigan entered was entirely unfurnished. It consisted grimly.
of a suite of rooms, and it had just been
“That means Doc Savage pulled this.”
rented as a temporary headquarters.
“Looks so.”
They waited about twenty minutes.
“We already had enough evidence to They did not realize there was a back en-convict them of the murder of Copeland.”
trance to the suite of offices, so a sound
“Well, this stacks a bank robbery on coming from the rear room caused much top of it,” Flannigan said. “Some War Bonds alarm. They had guns out when a door were stolen. That probably makes it a Fed-opened and a figure appeared.
eral offense. Notify the Federal Bureau of The newcomer was swathed in a sheet.
Investigation.”
“Oh, put down those guns!” he The assistant prosecuting attorney was snapped.
a little too proud of the local police depart-They lowered the weapons sheepishly.
ment, and he said, “Why ring in the Federals?
“Better still, throw those damned guns They always grab all the credit. We can han-away,” the sheet-wrapped individual com-dle this.”
manded. “You won’t need them, and they’ll
“This thing is utterly fantastic,” Flanni-just get you in trouble. You’re liable to shoot gan told him angrily. “I have a hunch this is somebody.”
38
DOC SAVAGE
The four were reluctant to give up their
“As natural as I could make it look.”
weapons, however, and the other did not The old man said, “It looked natural all press the point.
right. He did a good job. Hell, I thought
“Count the money,” he said.
he’was really hung for a while. It was good.”
They spent nearly half an hour tearing
“That’s swell. Now the police will look open the pay envelopes and counting out the for Savage harder than ever.”
proceeds. The only one adept at figuring was
“I’m not happy about this Doc Savage the older man.
angle,” the old man said.
The person who had arrived last did
“Don’t worry about him.”
not remove the sheet, and did not speak dur-The old one snorted. “You might as ing the counting. But when the sum total was well tell a guy to ignore the law of gravity. I announced, it drew a whistle of pleasure.
tell you, I had a cousin who got mixed up with
“Good.”
Savage once, and something happened to The older man said, “Chicken feed.
him. We never did find out what. But he just With what we’ve got, we should have walked disappeared. ”
in and taken a million somewhere.”
The sheet -wrapped figure asked
“We will,” said the sheet-wrapped form.
harshly, “You want to quit?”
“Then why fool around with peewee
“I would have liked to quit before I be-stuff?”
gan,” the old man said with feeling. “But it
“Working capital.”
was too late when I found out Savage was
“Oh.” The older man comprehended.
mixed up in it. It’s still too late.”
“Yeah, that’s right, too. We can’t get very far
“Then shut up!”
without money to go on. The only thing is,
“Sure.”
now the police and everybody else is going
“You wait here, the four of you. In to be looking for spooks.”
about an hour, I will be back. If it’s more than
“What do we care? What can they do an hour, stick around anyway, because I’ll to stop us?”
want to outline the general nature of the next
“They might think of something. ”
job.”
The sheet-wrapped figure, who wore The old man frowned doubtfully. “Will white gloves, began pushing piles of money this one be another little seventy thousand toward each of the four men. “Here is two nubbin? Or is it going to be worth while?”
thousand apiece. You will get another eight
“Worth while.”
later. But two thousand is enough for you
“How worth?”
now. And do not go around spending it. Bet-Angrily, the other asked, “How much ter not spend a cent more than you have to, would it take to satisfy you, old man?”
and then only for necessities. And zoot suits
“Plenty.”
and Scotch whiskey doesn’t come under the
“I’ll guarantee you it won’t be less than necessity heading.”
a million apiece. Will that satisfy you?”
The older man was reassuring. “Don’t The old man grunted with pleasure. “It worry about us. We’re not going to mess up a might even make me happy.”
prospect like we’ve got.”