Doc Savage - Up From Earth's Center Part 2

"Well, yes, generally."

"And your boat was twenty miles offsh.o.r.e and pa.s.sed this barren island. How did that happen?"

"I don't see how that is important."

Doc Savage said, "Maybe it isn't. But if you're going to tell a story, let's have a complete one. How did you happen to pa.s.s that island?"

Linningen thought it over for a moment. "I guess it was because Bill Williams couldn't box a compa.s.s. Bill was steering, and he was told to hold north by east for a course, and he held northeast."

"This resulted in your pa.s.sing the island?" "I guess it did. You could hardly call it an island, though. It was more of a rock."

"Were you looking for a man on the island?"

"Of course not," Linningen snapped. "Who would expect a man on such a place? We were looking the place over through the binoculars, and saw him."

"Exactly who saw him?"

"I did."

"And it was an accident."

Dr. Linningen nodded grimly. "It sure was. It was a piece of bad luck, too."

"How do you mean, bad luck?"

"I'll get to that. This fellow had evidently been marooned on the island for three weeks or months. He was in bad shape. He had almost no clothes, and had tied seaweed around himself, for warmth. He was in ghastly shape. Starving and freezing."

"He must have welcomed rescue," Doc Savage suggested.

"On the contrary. Linningen shook his head. "He resented it. Here is exactly the way the rescue took place: This fellow - he says his name is Gilmore, but that's about all he has told us concerning himself - apparently didn't notice our arrival. Two of the crew rowed me ash.o.r.e, and I approached Gilmore, who was sitting on a rock. I spoke to him. Without turning around, he said, 'So you got to me finally.' His voice sounded utterly hopeless. Then he explained his not noticing us by saying, "I don't always see you, do I?" Then he made a remark that indicated he thought we had all come from Tophet."

"From where?"

"Tophet. Hades. h.e.l.l. The place down under."

"That doesn't sound as if Gilmore was rational," Doc Savage said.

"That's right. He didn't act rational either. He jumped up and fled, screaming. We had to chase him to catch him and take him aboard the schooner. He fought us like a wildcat."

"He wanted to stay on the island?"

"That's the way he acted," Linningen agreed grimly. "The poor devil would have frozen or starved within a few days, so the humane thing seemed to be to remove him against his wishes. We did that. I'm d.a.m.ned sorry for it now."

"Sorry you saved the man's life?" Doc Savage asked. "What makes you say that?"

Linningen bit his lips. 'The things that have happened since have started me wishing we'd never seen the fellow at all."

"What things?"

Linningen hesitated. "This stuff isn't going to sound very reasonable. It's stuff you have to see to believe."

"For example?" "Queer things. Incidents hard to explain."

Doc Savage said impatiently, "You'll have to be more explicit that that, doctor."

Doctor Linningen was tense and uncomfortable on the chair. "It's hard to be specific about the intangible."

"You're a psychiatrist, doctor. The intangible is your business. You should deal with it very capably."

"Yes, I know," Linningen muttered. "If I wasn't a psychiatrist, I wouldn't be scared, probably. If I didn't have enough training along such lines to know better, I'd just think Gilmore was balmy, and let it go at that."

Doc Savage showed a sharper flicker of interest. "You don't feel Gilmore is crazy?"

"He's no more crazy than I am. Not as much so as I'm going to be if this keeps up," Linningen said.

"What do you mean by 'this'?"

Linningen compressed his lips, scowling at his clenched hands. Then he blurted, 'There have been at least half a dozen unwitting attempts at suicide by the people on the Mary Too since that fellow Gilmore came aboard."

Doc Savage frowned. "Unwitting? Did you mean to use that word?"

"Yes. I'll explain it."

"You'd better," Doc Savage said dryly. "This isn't adding up to a very lucid or believable account."

"Let me tell you one thing that Bill Williams did. It will serve as an example. You know how the tide rips through the inlet here at Lubec? Well, Bill Williams got in a dinghy and threw away one oar and started sculling, - or trying to scull he can't row a dinghy pa.s.sably, much less scull one - out into the tide. He would have drowned if one of the sailors hadn't noticed and overtaken him in time."

"Did Williams have an explanation?"

"Not a reasonable one. He said it just seemed like a thing he wanted to do at the time."

"He would have drowned?"

"The chances are nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand that he would have."

"Did he know that?"

"He should have."

Doc Savage nodded. 'This is interesting, doctor. You had better give me the other incidents."

"I will," Doctor Linningen said, and proceeded to relate a full account of events. He finished with the two narrow escapes which he'd had while en-route to the house a few minutes ago. "I don't know whether I should include those, because they might have been coincidences," he said.

"Who is this Mr. Wail, doctor?" Doc Savage asked thoughtfully.

Linningen shrugged. "You've got me. Just a name Gilmore has mouthed, is all I know." "And Gilmore has explained nothing?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"He hasn't said how he got on the island, or why he wished to remain?"

"He hasn't explained a thing."

Doc Savage asked sharply, "Have you pa.s.sed over any c.u.mulative impressions, doctor?"

Linningen hesitated. "I don't believe I understand what you mean by c.u.mulative impression.

"Your story indicated that someone might have returned to the schooner with you at the conclusion of your first trip ash.o.r.e," Doc Savage said.

Linningen winced. "I was alone. I was absolutely alone in that dinghy when I rowed back."

"What about the crew member who was also ash.o.r.e?"

"Kroeger? He came back alone, too."

"You re sure."

"Positive."

"And it was at you that Gilmore started throwing things?"

"He threw things at my dinghy, yes."

"At you, or at the dinghy, or shall we say at some presence in the dinghy of which you were not aware?"

Linningen shuddered. "Let's not be fantastic. I was alone in the dinghy. I would know if I was alone, wouldn't I?"

"But Gilmore threw things at the dinghy? As if trying to drive someone away?"

"Yes."

"And Williams, after he started off into the deadly tide rip with one oar, said that he was going after Mr.

Wail?"

"Yes. Or Kroeger said that's what he said."

"Does Williams know a Mr. Wail?"

"He says he doesn't. Williams can't explain what he did."

"I see."

"I hope to G.o.d, you do see," Linningen blurted. "I hope you've got some explanation."

Doc Savage went to the window, opened it an inch, and the curtains immediately fattened under a little gust of inrushing wind. The air was chilled, freighted with the smoky odor from the herring sheds along the waterfront. It was a smell that hung over Lubec perpetually, the way crude oil odor pervades refinery towns. Turning abruptly, Doc Savage said, "Linningen, you've omitted to explain why you came to Lubec. Don't tell me it was a planned port of call, because it's off the usual route and doesn't have a very good yacht anchorage."

Linningen nodded. "That's easy. I came in hope of finding you." The psychiatrist looked up, saw that Doc Savage was waiting for a further explanation, and added, "That's right. I knew Renny Renwick, your friend and a.s.sociate, was here. I heard that on the radio. There was a newscast about a congressional discussion of the subject of going ahead with the dormant Quoddy project, and Renwick, the noted engineer, being employed to make a survey and recommendations to the committee."

"Because Renny Renwick was here, you thought I would be?" Doc Savage asked dryly.

"Not necessarily. But through Renwick seemed the best way of getting hold of you."

"And why were you so anxious to find me?" Doc inquired.

Linningen jumped up nervously. "Dammit, isn't that obvious by now? I want you to investigate this odd thing. Your sideline is dealing with the unusual, and I thought you would be interested, and the most capable man I could think of. G.o.d knows, it's unusual enough."

"You want me to talk to Gilmore?"

Linningen nodded eagerly "That's it. Better still, take him off my hands."

"You want to get rid of Gilmore?"

"You're darned tooting I want to get rid of Gilmore. He's giving me the compound w.i.l.l.i.e.s." Linningen took a careful grip on himself, and added, "You understand, I'm not pa.s.sing the buck. Gilmore is just something I don't understand. I'm sure you can fathom him. I can't. I'll bet you will be fascinated by Gilmore. I'm not. All I want is to see the last of him." 'And Mr. Wail?"

"I don't know who or what Mr. Wail is," Linningen said vehemently. "You can have Mr. Wail, too, with my blessings."

"You seem extremely anxious to shed your responsibilities, Linningen."

"Responsibilities!" Linningen yelled. "What responsibility have I got toward Gilmore? I saved the man's life by taking him off an island where he would have starved. Isn't that enough?"

"Is it?"

"Why don't you talk to Gilmore and see for yourself?" Linningen asked.

"I will."

Linningen's sigh of relief was a gulp. "When?"

"In about an hour."

Linningen's face fell. "I... was hoping you would go back to the boat with me now.

"No. In an hour, I'll be there. You go back to the schooner and wait, doctor."

Linningen nodded reluctantly. "All right. But you will be sure and come, won't you?" "I'll be there."

III.

AFTER he had closed the front door behind Linningen, Doc Savage wheeled, raced back up the stairs to the pleasant parlor, jerked open a connecting door, and confronted the two men there.

"Did you hear all that?" he demanded.

"Practically all," said one of the two men. He was a short fellow, nearly as wide as he was tall, with a face that would frighten his own mother. He was Monk Mayfair - Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Mayfair - and he had a worldwide reputation as a chemist, but was better known as an a.s.sistant of Doc Savage. "It impressed me as a screwball set-up which has a hidden gimmick in it somewhere," Monk added.