Doc Savage - Devils Of The Deep Part 9

bragging about the capture of Monk and Ham.

Pete Mills came to life sharply at that. "B-but, boss," he argued, "I thought you was goin' to try and keep Doc Savage out of this. That guy's dynamite!"

The unseen speaker laughed shortly. "If he tries anything-"

His voice broke off. A faint hum could be heard. The hum grew steadily louder, until it was a deadening roar. Then it faded.

"What was that?" Pete Mills asked sharply.

"A navy plane," the unseen speaker said scornfully. "But it saw nothing, as usual. However, this game is getting hot. Get ready to start out again by dawn. One more raid and then we will stop."

The scarred-faced man started to protest. Then he changed his mind. He left the room.

Behind the opposite wall a tall, square-faced man with ramrod back grinned slightly. Mills undoubtedly was thinking of his share of the pirated treasure.

The tall man's grin grew broader. Mills had fed the fishes for others often enough. He shouldn't mindfeeding them again.

Then the tall man's grin vanished. A voice came out of a small radio at his side. "Doc Savage is gettin'

ready to move, boss," the voice said.

The tall man swore. Then he issued instructions swiftly and curtly.

Chapter XII. ONE AGAINST THE WORLD.

DOC didn't know that his imminent departure had been reported. But it was true that he and his aids were getting ready to start.

They were loading a curious affair aboard the bronze man's submarine. It was an object which Doc and Long Tom had been laboring on for several days.

Big Renny gasped when he saw it. "A giant spider," he hazarded.

Long Tom grinned. "If it works, it will get a larger haul than any spider ever made."

Johnny, his wide forehead furrowed, his monocle stuck in one eye, tried to ask questions. He got nowhere. Long Tom merely grinned more broadly. Doc didn't seem to hear at all.

The combined strength of the four was needed to carry one feature of the device to the submarine's hatch.

"A truly prodigious agendum," Johnny gasped.

"If you mean that was a h.e.l.l of a big job, I agree," Renny rumbled.

Supplies already had been placed aboard the submarine. As additional equipment was loaded, floodgates were opened and water rushed into the drydock that housed the underwater craft.

The submarine was not of the military type. Originally it had been designed for work under ice on a polar trip.

Peculiarly shaped fenders slanted along the deck. These had been added protection for the submarine when it had slipped under the frozen sea of the North.

Now Doc seemed to be using them for another purpose. Renny and Johnny looked on puzzled as the bronze man placed huge cables along these fenders. The cables then went completely around the craft, but in such way that they did not interfere with the diving planes or rudders.

"The Queen Elizabeth used something like that when she made her maiden voyage here from England,"

Long Tom explained, "but we've added a few improvements to the idea."

"Oh, yes," Renny agreed. The big engineer looked pleased with himself. "That was for protection against magnetic mines. I suppose we do run some danger in that regard."

Long Tom's face sobered. The lean electrical expert shook his head. "I wish that was all there was to it.

But it isn't. The thing that might get us is far worse than any mine-it's a sea serpent."

Renny looked bewildered, started to ask a question.

Doc Savage interrupted. The bronze man was carrying a small box aboard the submarine. He was carrying it with unusual care."We are ready to go," he said simply.

Johnny bellowed gleefully. Even Renny looked pleased.

They had started up the gangplank when the shots came from just outside the warehouse.

A single shot came first. Then there was a minor pause, then two more shots came in quick succession-and then the deafening roar of sub-machine guns.

Doc Savage flashed from the submarine. He held large, queer-looking weapons in his hands, gave one to each of his aids.

The four raced toward the front of the building.

DOC doused the lights in the warehouse as they neared the door.

"Careful," he warned tersely. "It may be a ruse to draw us in the open."

The others had thought of that also. Each held one of the queerly shaped weapons ready. They had used those weapons many times before.

The guns really were oversized pistols with large drums on the top, permitting them to be fired at an amazing rate. Occasionally those drums were loaded with explosive bullets, but usually they contained only "mercy" shots-bullets that barely penetrated the skin, but which contained an anaesthetic that caused quick unconsciousness.

The firing outside increased as they reached the door. Near at hand a man was groaning in agony.

Farther down the street came the scream of someone mortally stricken.

Then the four were outside.

The noise had been loud before. It was as nothing compared to the racket that started now. Doc and his aids opened up with their guns.

The weapons bellowed like oversized bull fiddles.

Knowing that they would not kill, but uncertain who was friend or foe, Doc and his aids fired impartially at every moving figure they saw.

"This may have been a private fight once," Renny chuckled, "but it ain't now."

The blasts from the four guns cleared the street as a hailstorm beats down wheat.

The bronze man dropped his gun, knelt at the side of the badly wounded man who had been groaning near the door of the warehouse.

The man looked up at Doc with eyes filled with pain and hate. "d.a.m.n you, Doc Savage!" he gritted. "I didn't believe it until now. But you are mixed up in this. And you'll hang for it!"

THE bronze man's aids halted, frozen. Long Tom looked quickly at Doc as Johnny and Renny exchanged a startled glance.

Long Tom peered closely at the wounded man. "That's one of the birds that's been hanging around that diner across the street," he exclaimed.Doc said nothing for the moment. He reached in the man's vest. When his hand emerged it held a gold shield. The wounded man was from the F. B. I.

All attention was centered on the hurt Federal Bureau investigator. None noticed the small man who darted behind them into the warehouse.

The man was barely five feet tall, with wizened, evil features. He clutched a small package to his chest as he raced down the darkened interior of the warehouse.

Doc felt of the Fed's pulse. It was beating weakly, but unconsciousness had come.

Sirens were sounding nearer and nearer. They seemed coming from all directions. In just a matter of seconds police-and aid for the wounded-would arrive.

"If we are to leave, we must leave now," the bronze man said. His gold-flecked eyes were whirling swiftly. He led the way into the warehouse.

Long Tom was the last to follow. The electrical expert wasted valuable seconds to inspect the body of one of those who had been mowed down by the mercy bullets.

"The guy that ran the peanut stand," he muttered.

Police were hammering on the door of the warehouse as the four poured into the submarine. For the moment they wasted no time on questions or speculations.

The conning tower was closed. The submarine nosed ahead. Huge doors, operated by photo-electric cells, opened slowly, the submarine slipped into the river. Only moments later it vanished beneath the surface.

No one knew better than Doc the danger of running submerged in the busy Hudson. But there was no help for it. His aids also knew the risk they were taking-and knew why.

The bronze man's standing with the government had been excellent. But someone evidently had tipped off Federal men to watch Doc in connection with the terror that had struck the Atlantic. With public hysteria at the breaking point, the Feds were taking no chances. They had set up such a watch.

But it was apparent also that another group had been watching.

"Those fishermen and that peanut guy," Long Tom explained to Renny and Johnny.

"So the two bunches have a run-in, some government men get killed, some more get wounded-and we'll get blamed," Renny rumbled disgustedly.

DOC SAVAGE was maneuvering the submarine carefully, but as speedily as possible. And he seemed to be depending as much upon a set of earphones as upon a compa.s.s.

There was a reason for that. The earphones were connected with special sonic microphones in the submarine's outer sh.e.l.l. They picked up the sound of other ships' propellers.

Twice Doc sat the submarine down on the bottom of the river, stopped its forward motion entirely. Once they felt the keel of some large vessel sc.r.a.pe across the fenders on the top of the sub.

"If the whole country hadn't gone nuts, n.o.body could believe this against us," Renny complained.

"But the country has," Long Tom pointed out. "And the people can't be blamed. Besides, think how thiswill look when it's reported. The surviving Feds will tell of us joining the battle, of shooting some of them down. What else can they think but that we're mixed up with the terror?"

Johnny nodded soberly. The thin archaeologist appeared unusually grave.

"I imagine that is why the fight was staged," he said. The fact that he didn't use big words showed the extent of his anxiety.

Long Tom agreed with Johnny's hunch. The man they were fighting was smart. He had known Doc would not want to lose the time it would take him to stay in New York and prove he was innocent. And by fleeing, the bronze man apparently had confessed at least a guilty knowledge.

It was hot in the submarine. But not all of the perspiration was caused by the heat. Some of it was caused by the strain of wondering when the inevitable would happen.

Johnny put it in words. He rumbled, "I wonder just how long before police boats, the coast guard and even destroyers will be out trying to stop us?"

n.o.body answered that one. All knew the answer would come soon enough.

It came just after they had moved past the Battery.

Doc stopped the motors of the submarine with one quick move. A minute later and the others understood, even without the use of earphones.

There was a swish and a roar in the water above them. The submarine rocked slightly.

The first destroyer, racing out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was headed for the Narrows to intercept them.

Long Tom's expression was grave. That destroyer would be equipped with listening devices also. It would be able to pick up the sound of the submarine's propeller.

It didn't seem possible that they would be able to slip by the blockade that was rapidly being laid for them.

A few minutes later it seemed even more impossible. The submarine was a mile from the Narrows, but still it shook and rocked violently.

The destroyer was laying down a depth-bomb barrage directly in the Narrows-a barrage that would crush the submarine like an eggsh.e.l.l if it came even within six hundred yards of one of the deadly blasts.

LONG TOM'S sallow features appeared even more pale than usual. The monocle dropped from Johnny's eye. Renny's big fists clenched helplessly. This was one time those fists were absolutely powerless.

Only Doc Savage showed no emotion. In fact, the bronze man did not seem concerned.

Slowly, a yard at a time, he was moving the submarine. Renny took a look at the compa.s.s and at the chart before the bronze man. Bewilderment was pictured on the big engineer's features.

Doc was putting the submarine directly in the Ambrose ship channel.

Then the submarine stopped, but Doc did not leave the controls. He appeared to be waiting patiently for something that had to occur.An hour pa.s.sed before he spoke. Then he gave quick directions to Long Tom. The lanky electrical expert grinned jubilantly with sudden comprehension.

Faintly, from the stern, came the beat of a ship's propellers. The vessel, evidently a small freighter, was going to pa.s.s directly over them.

The propeller beat became stronger. Doc forced water from the forward ballast tanks. The bow of the submarine lifted slightly. Then the stern came up.

Carefully, tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the submarine with the precision of a watchmaker, Doc brought it up a foot at a time.

The roar of the propeller above them grew deafening in the earphones.

Then came a faint sc.r.a.ping. And Long Tom went into action. He pulled a big switch. A low hum filled the undersea boat.

Instantly Doc cut off the motors. But this time the submarine did not stop. It continued to move ahead. It went at a steady, regular speed.