Doc Savage - Up From Earth's Center Part 6

"Strange?" Doc inquired pointedly. She did not answer immediately, but took a sip of the coffee. "I wouldn't say I'm frightened, as much as worried."

"Miss Sullivan," Doc Savage said, "I have some questions I'd like to ask you about your brother,"

Leona Sullivan frowned. "Why are you interested?" she inquired.

"I'm afraid that I have a weakness for the odd and the unusual, Miss Sullivan."

She nodded. "I know. You could have said you were interested because you are Doc Savage. I've heard of you, Mr. Savage."

"That's fine. Then you won't consider my interest so odd," Doc told her pleasantly. "I'd like to know a little more about Gilmore, Miss Sullivan. I have heard enough to outline picture of him in my mind, that of a well-educated young man, on the scholarly side, interested in geology."

"What else do you want to know?" she countered.

"I want you to fill in the picture of Gilmore. Put color in."

She thought for a moment. "Gilmore was a geologist. He 'was a specialist dealing with the subterranean materials composing the earth and how they were formed." She hesitated, then added quickly, "He wasn't very practical, I am afraid. He was interested in caves. Natural caverns. He would spend weeks exploring a new cave, and often did."

"Was cave-exploring Gilmore's profession?" Doc asked.

"You might call it that, yes."

"It doesn't sound profitable."

"It wasn't," Leona Sullivan told him. "But Gilmore inherited a little money from father, and he didn't spend much, and he got along."

"You do not sound as if you had a high opinion of your brother's specialty" Doc Savage suggested. She smiled faintly. "I can't say I did. I don't like caves. They're clammy places, and I quit going into them with Gilmore when I was a little girl. Gilmore certainly didn't share my dislike."

"Gilmore spent a lot of time in cavern exploration, I take it?" Doc said.

"Yes, more than was good for him," she agreed, after hesitating a moment.

"Why did you hesitate before saying that?" Doc asked.

"Did I? I didn't intend to. It meant nothing," she replied quickly.

"I don't think you intended to hesitate either," Doc told her. "But I think it meant something."

She grimaced. "Yes, it did, I'll admit that. And I'll tell you why - " She fell silent, biting her lips, clenching her hands tightly. Then she blurted, "It isn't easy to discuss mental aberration in one's family. It's hard to do, in fact!"

"You mean," Doc suggested quietly, "that Gilmore's mind became unstable?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean," she murmured miserably "As a result of spending too much time in cavern exploration?"

She nodded quickly. "I can't think of anything else that would bring it on."

"What," Doc asked, "was the exact nature of Gilmore's trouble?"

"Hallucinations," she replied.

"Of what sort?"

Leona Sullivan started to speak, jerked the words back, and Doc saw her compress her lips firmly. "I can't discuss such a personal matter with a stranger!"

Doc, in a serious tone, said, "Not even if it might be vitally important to Gilmore's well-being?"

"No. It couldn't be important, anyway. No, I can't discuss his hallucinations." "In that case," Doc said, "I feel you should know that Gilmore has disappeared again, under very puzzling circ.u.mstances.

Leona Sullivan glanced at him sharply. She leaned back in the chair and took a sip of coffee. Her hand was a bit steadier.

"I'm afraid I don't know a thing that will help you," was all she said.

Doc Savage jumped to his feet, saying, "I'm sorry to have bothered you when you weren't feeling well, Miss Sullivan."

"I don't mind." She smiled wanly. "I'm glad you're trying to help poor Gilmore. Thank you for that."

Swinging to the door, Doc appeared to recall something, and wheeled to ask, "Did you get a good look at the man I introduced as Mr. Wail?" "Yes, I did." He couldn't read much from her expression.

"Had you ever seen him before?"

"No." She shook her head promptly. "No, never. "Then why did you faint when you saw Wail?" Doc threw at her. "Or was it Bill Williams who brought that on?"

The girl gave Doc a cold look. "You're being utterly preposterous! If I fainted, it was only because I didn't feel well."

"I see," Doc Savage replied. "Well, if that is your story, stick to it." He rejoined the others.

To Monk's questioning look, he answered, "Miss Sullivan says she never saw Wail before in her life."

Monk spun and collared Wail, who didn't look very surprised nor apprehensive. 'All right, wipe that smirk off your face and explain why you lied to us!" Monk yelled in wail's face. "You're certainly gullible,"

Wail told him. "You believe everything you're told, don't you?"

And that was all they got out of Wail.

The manservant appeared bearing coffee and a tray of sandwiches, explaining, "We dine rather late as a rule. My wife thought you might get hungry before dinnertime."

"Are we invited to stay?" Doc asked.

"Why, I suppose so. Miss Sullivan told my wife to prepare the guest rooms," the servant explained. "It's a long, tiresome drive to the nearest hotel. The tourist camps are all closed at this season of the year.

The sandwiches were good. In the west, a snow-covered mountaintop speared the sun, and the long gray winter twilight set in. They sat about, all of them uncomfortable, except Mr. Wail, who went after the sandwiches with the celerity of a glutton, dropping crumbs off his chin now and then.

Miss Sullivan joined them, wearing a long hostess gown of a shade of green which did a lot for her red hair and figure. She was carrying a bulky sc.r.a.pbook, and she handed this to Doc Savage.

"This is a sc.r.a.pbook which I kept of articles, mostly scientific ones, which Gilmore wrote and had published," she explained. "I thought you might want to look them over.

Doc Savage examined the book for some time, reading a number of the items, some of them from beginning to end. Here was convincing evidence that Gilmore Sullivan knew his geology and his caves, and he was evidently a pretty fair photographer as well, judging from the color photographs of mineral samples and rock strata which accompanied a number of the pieces.

Doc returned the book. "This indicates your brother knew his business, Miss Sullivan." He watched her intently, saw she was not satisfied with his comment, and with a trace of satisfaction, he added, "But answering the question you had in mind when you handed me the book, the writings don't sound like the work of a man who had anything basically wrong with his mind."

Tears suddenly filled her eyes. She murmured, "Thank you!" and quickly left the room.

Bill Williams scowled at Doc Savage and growled, "Why kid her? She looks like a nice babe. Brother Gilmore is as screwy as a pet c.o.o.n, and you know it."

"Linningen doesn't think so," Doc told him.

Leona Sullivan didn't rejoin them until dinnertime. The manservant - his name was Clancy - showed them over the lodge, which proved to be a homy place that had cost a considerable sum. Clancy pointed out several spare sets of skis, indicating they were welcome to use the boards if they cared for that wintersport. Doc gathered that it wouldn't grieve Clancy too much if they went skiing and broke their necks.

Clancy's wife turned out an excellent dinner, which was served at eight o'clock in a large beamed dining room with candlelight and a blaze in the fireplace. Doc noted that Leona Sullivan hardly touched her food, and he thought that several times her eyes were on him appealingly.

After dinner, Doc sought the girl out in the privacy of a gla.s.sed-in veranda which gave a wide view of an impressive amount of blue-cold moonlight and too-bright stars.

"Miss Sullivan," Doc told her quietly, "we're here to help you, you know. I'll admit that curiosity brought us, but that's a motive that gets us into quite a few things."

He thought she wasn't going to reply, and when she did, the terror in her voice shocked him.

"Curiosity," she gasped. "Would you tell me curiosity about what?"

"Sit down, Leona," Doc said gently. "I'll tell you the whole story, as much as we know of it."

The narrative took several minutes, and Doc included the finding of Gilmore and the latter's unwillingness to be rescued and his odd statements to Linningen at the time. He left out nothing in the way of incident, but drew no conclusions, and did not complete the recital, because Leona Sullivan suddenly shuddered, gripped her hands together. She drew up, pale and tense.

"Mr. Savage!" she gasped. "Is there a h.e.l.l?"

"What?"

"If there is a h.e.l.l, is it where they've always said it is?"

"Good Lord!" Doc said.

"Is Hades down below?" she blurted.

"Underfoot?"

"Yes."

Doc took a moment to control his surprise. "I'm sure I couldn't say for certain," he replied. "That's one place I haven't visited as yet."

Leona Sullivan made a whimpering sound. "Don't treat it facetiously!" she wailed.

"I'm not. And don't be so upset - "

"Gilmore found h.e.l.l!" she gasped. "He was exploring in a cave near here, a tremendous cavern which he has been exploring on and off for several months. Gilmore was in the cave nearly two weeks, and when he came out he.. .he had undergone a terrible change. He said he had found h.e.l.l was exactly where they have always said it was, in the center of the earth, and he'd had a look at it."

Doc reached for her hand. "Oh, come now, Miss Sullivan!"

"No, it's true! Gilmore said " "Take it easy," Doc broke in sympathetically. "You must understand that Gilmore could have suffered a fall and an injury that would disarrange his mental processes. You shouldn't really believe - " She jerked her hand away.

"I hoped you wouldn't take a patronizing att.i.tude," she said bitterly.

"Really, you don't expect me to believe - "

"Mr. Savage!" she whimpered. "That Mr. Wail! He isn't human! He's a... an a.s.sistant devil sent up to dispose of Gilmore because of what Gilmore learned!"

Doc swallowed. "Miss Sullivan, what you need is rest. Perhaps a bromide to make you sleep - "

She twisted, her hand flew up and cracked against his cheek. Then she turned and fled.

Doc stood there, his face blank, a hand motionless against the cheek she had struck, for quite a while.

VI.

MONK Mayfair doubled a hand into a great fist, smashed it down on a knee, and exploded, "Of all the c.o.c.k-and-bull stories, this one is the winner! It lays me out flat!"

Doc Savage a.s.sumed a look of disapproval.

Ham Brooks said, "It's a dilly, all right."

"It's a honey," Monk added.

"Don't you believe in h.e.l.l?" Ham asked Monk. "Don't you feel there might be a Tophet and a devil?"

"A little spot down below, with brimstone heating, and a host with a spike tail and horns?" Monk sneered at him. "What are you trying to start?"

"I should think," Ham told him dryly, "that you would have given a little more thought to your future residence."

Doc Savage gestured impatiently. "Don't start one of your rows now. We have a job cut out for us here, if we can only get our teeth into it. I'd like to see you fellows concentrate on that, instead of a private fuss."

The pair looked at Doc in surprise. "You don't put stock in this h.e.l.l stuff, do you, Doc?"

Doc jumped to his feet. "Let's deal with proven facts, the ones in front of our nose. First, this one: Miss Sullivan knows where her brother is.

Monk and Ham stared at him with open mouths and round eyes.

Doc added, "Gilmore isn't far away, either, I have a hunch."

"How do you know?" Monk demanded, swallowing his surprise.

"Miss Sullivan is a perfectly normal young woman who would show a normal anxiety about the welfare of a brother who had vanished several weeks ago, and who had been found starving and freezing on an island. Isn't that right?"

Monk nodded. "Yeah, she's normal enough, except about six times prettier than that. But I don't see - "

"The tip-off," Doc told him, "was that she wasn't the least bit anxious about Gilmore. She didn't ask howhe was, not convincingly, and she didn't show genuine surprise when told he had disappeared again."

"Gosh!" Monk said.