
Monk, who disliked being left out of anything, wailed, "But, Doc, what—"
"Only one thing will save this man," Doc Savage said. "We have that thing down at our water-front place. I
must take him there."
Doc Savage gathered up the stricken man. Then he addressed Ham.
"Endeavor to find where this fellow came from," he suggested.
"Righto," Ham agreed.
Both Monk and Ham busied themselves at their assigned tasks.
It took Doc with his burden but a short time to reach what was ostensibly a huge unused warehouse on the
Hudson River water front. The warehouse was really a combination hangar and boathouse.
Doc carried the victim to a device which resembled a large steel tank, with a hatch in the end and numerous
valves and gauges on the outside. There was nothing unique about this thing. Any professional diver would
have recognized it as an "iron doctor." Divers enter the "iron doctor" for decompression, after being subjected
to the terrific pressure of a deep dive, to prevent the formation of fatal air bubbles in their blood stream.
Doc Savage did not open the "iron doctor." Rather slowly, he laid his burden down.
The man had died!
Doc Savage worked furiously over the body, attempting to return a spark of life, even taking the corpse into
the "iron doctor" and turning on the pressure. It was, however, of no avail.
The victim had been seized with what divers call the "bends." Recently, his body had been subjected to
terrific pressure and he had not been properly decompressed. The resultant formation of nitrogen bubbles
might not, necessarily, have been fatal. The "iron doctor," perhaps, would have saved him.
But the "bends" had not killed the man. He had died from the effects of the acid burns about his mouth, the
loss of his life stream through his slashed wrists.
Doc Savage searched the fellow’s clothing, examined the body. An untrained searcher, perhaps, would have
sworn there was nothing to be found.
There were a few grains of sand in the cuff of the still-damp trousers. Doc Savage examined these under a
pocket magnifier.
"North shore of Long Island Sound," he said, as if to himself.
That would not have surprised a trained geologist. Sands from different localities frequently have as distinct a
personality as have finger prints.
On the dead man’s shirt, the left shoulder, there was a reddish brown smear, which the water had not entirely
washed away. Doc added lenses to his magnifier, increasing its power, and scrutinized the stain.
"Copper bottom paint off a ship," he concluded.
Next he got a clean metal pan and, not without some difficulty, managed to wring a few drops of water from
the man’s clothing. He carried the pan across the building.
The interior of this building, which outwardly resembled an old warehouse, was of enormous size. The walls
were thick. The roof as nearly bombproof as it could be made. The place housed a remarkable assortment of
vehicles for travel in the air, on the water, and under the water. There were several planes, ranging from a
huge speed ship to a small autogiro; there was a dirigible of unusual design; there were speed boats; and off
to one side in a drydock of its own stood a small submarine.
From a locker, Doc Savage took a metal case and opened it. An array of chemicals and chemical equipment,
ingeniously compact, was disclosed. This assortment, an unbelievably complete portable laboratory,