Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 108 - Men of Fear

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MEN OF FEAR
A Doc Savage Adventure by Kenneth Robeson
This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online.
http://www.blackmask.com
Scanned and Proofed
by Tom Stephens
? CHAPTER I. THE REFORMER
? CHAPTER II. TRAILING HENRY
? CHAPTER III. HENRY STEPS OUT
? CHAPTER IV. PERSUADING HENRY
? CHAPTER V. PROFESSOR FROM EUROPE
? CHAPTER VI. ISLAND TROUBLE
? CHAPTER VII. RESCUE
? CHAPTER VIII. VITAMIN F E A R
? CHAPTER IX. CURE
? CHAPTER X. THE OTHER CHEEK
? CHAPTER XI. CONFESSION
? CHAPTER XII. THE ROCKETS
? CHAPTER XIII. THE EGGS
? CHAPTER XIV. JUST THE WHISKERS
CHAPTER I. THE REFORMER
TROUBLE had been the business of Doc Savage for a long time.
Like anyone else who was very good at his profession, the bronze man did not have to go hunting
business. It came to Doc, usually. And the approach was not gradual, as a rule.
"It looks as if we never sneak up on anything. It explodes under us, instead," was the way big-fisted
Renny Renwick, the engineer member of Doc’s group of five associates, put it. "Holy cow!"
The affair that began on Wednesday afternoon was exactly the reverse. It began this way:
Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Monk Mayfair and his pet pig walked into Doc Savage’s
headquarters on the top floor of a skyscraper in midtown New York. Monk was another of the five
associates, a chemist. He was the homeliest man of their group. There were not over two more homely
men in New York. The pet pig, named Habeas Corpus, was no orchid, either.
"I don’t think we’d better," Monk said.
"Better what?" asked Renny Renwick.
"Better not go exploring that South American jungle," Monk said. "I don’t favor it."
"Why not?" asked Renny.
"Too dangerous," said Monk.
"What?"
Renny rumbled. "What did you say?"
"Too dangerous," repeated Monk patiently.
Renny’s mouth fell open. He sat there and waited for the world to come to an end. He looked out the
window to see if the Hudson River was running uphill. Ice must be freezing in hell.
This was impossible!
Monk Mayfair’s likes and dislikes were well-known to Renny. Monk liked to eat. Better still, he liked a
pretty girl, particularly if he could take her away from the lawyer, Ham Brooks. He liked to quarrel with
Ham. But more than any of these things, he liked a fight. Excitement! Trouble! Danger! Mystery! These
were the pork and beans in Monk’s diet.
"Do you feel all right?" Renny asked anxiously.
"Sure! Feel fine," said Monk.
"No buzzing in your head? No fever?"
Monk scowled. "I just think Doc has been taking too many chances. He better stop it. Henry thinks so,
too."
"Who thinks so, too?"
"Henry."
"Who’s Henry?"
Monk assumed a pained expression. "You are just trying to pick an argument with me. I won’t give you
the satisfaction. I’m going to talk to Doc."
Talking with Doc was simple. Doc Savage was in the laboratory, which adjoined the library where they
were standing. Monk ambled into the lab. His hog followed him.
"Doc," he said, "you got to call off the South American trip."
Doc Savage was packing equipment for the exploration venture he planned to the upper watershed of the
Inirida River. He was taking complete apparatus for research in the various lines in which his men
specialized. Archaeological and geological equipment for William Harper Johnny Littlejohn. Engineering
and surveying equipment for Renny Renwick. A portable chemical-analysis laboratory for Monk
Mayfair.
"Call it off?" the bronze man said quietly. "Why?"
"Too dangerous," Monk said. The homely chemist was utterly serious. "You take too many chances,
Doc. You take too many chances. The world cannot afford to lose a man like you. You’ve got to turn
conservative."
The bronze man was so astonished that he made a small trilling sound that was his unconscious habit
when under mental stress. The sound was low and exotic, with a quality that made it seem to come from
the very air in the room.
"Is this a joke of some kind?" he asked.
Monk frowned. "I see I’ll have to get Ham and Johnny to talk to you, too," he said.
He walked out.
RENNY RENWICK caught Doc Savage’s eye and shrugged. "Holy cow! Don’t look at me," Renny
said. "I don’t know what is wrong with him."
"Too dangerous," Doc Savage said thoughtfully. "As a matter of truth, this is probably the safest venture
we have undertaken in the course of our association. It is not a fever section we are going to. There are
no fierce natives. It is safer than New York, because there are no taxicabs."
Doc was a man of far more than average size, and his physical development was amazing. His skin was a
deep-bronze hue, his hair only a slightly darker bronze, and his eyes were strangely like pools of flake
gold. He gave the impression—although he tried not to do so—of being exactly what he was: An
individual who had received unusual scientific training from childhood, and as a result had an amazing
combination of mental wizardry and muscular ability.
"Too dangerous!" Renny exclaimed. "Holy cow! And Monk is the guy we’re always trying to keep from
breaking his neck."
"He said something about getting Ham and Johnny," Doc remarked.
Renny nodded. "They love excitement as much as Monk does."
Johnny and Ham arrived soon afterward, towed by Monk.
"Doc, you have got to stop taking chances," Ham said.
Renny’s eyes popped.
Ham was Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks, noted lawyer. He carried an innocent-looking
black sword-cane, always. To hear him preaching caution was amazing.
Johnny Littlejohn, the archaeologist and geologist, was a very tall man who was thinner than seemed
possible.
"An intransigent preoption, without rejectitious tergiversation," Johnny announced.
Renny looked at Doc. Johnny’s big words always puzzled Renny.
Doc said, "He says they have made up their minds."
"That you’ve got to avoid danger, Doc?"
Monk said, "That’s it exactly. Ham and Johnny and I have made up our minds. We’re going to stop this
risk taking."
Renny walked over and stood in front of them. Renny had fists that would not go into quart pails.
"Now look, you goons," he said. "I don’t know what the game is, but we’re busy packing. We’re taking
off in the plane tonight. You better quit pulling this stuff and get packed."
Ham said, "We are not going to allow Doc to go."
"Oh, you’re not?"
"No."
Renny’s neck began getting red. "What about me?"
"You, too. You can’t go. You are also too valuable to the world. You’re one of the best engineers of the
age," Ham told him.
Renny blocked out his fists.
"What," he asked, "if we decide to go anyway?"
"We will stop you," Ham assured him.
Renny put one of his big fists under Ham’s nose for the lawyer’s examination.
"You see that box of knuckles?" Renny asked. "You cut this out, or that will do some stopping."
Ham backed away from the fist. "I do not see why you will not listen to reason," he said. "We have
talked this over with Henry, and he agrees with us that Doc is taking too many risks. Henry thinks Doc
should retire to the country somewhere, assume another name, and devote himself to surgical and other
scientific research. We can all help him. We will all be safe."
"Who," asked Renny, "is Henry?"
Ham said, "You know very well it is the sensible thing to do."
Renny lost patience.
"Well, we’re not going to do it!" he roared. "We’re going right ahead."
"We shall see," Ham said coldly.
He wheeled and strode out. Monk and Johnny followed him. Their faces were determined.
It dawned on Renny that they were really in earnest. He could hardly believe it, much less understand it.
"I wonder who this Henry is," he rumbled.
THE remaining member of Doc Savage’s group of five associates, Long Tom Roberts, arrived a few
minutes later. Long Tom was a slight man who looked as if he had matured in a mushroom cellar. But he
could whip wild cats.
Patricia Savage accompanied him. Pat was a young woman who liked excitement, and managed to get a
bit of it now and then because she was Doc Savage’s cousin. She invariably tried to horn into their
adventures. They tried hard to prevent that, and sometimes they succeeded.
Long Tom said, "What the heck’s got into Monk, Ham and Johnny? We met them downstairs. They
were wearing long faces and would not speak to us."
Renny snorted.
"They’ve been talking to Henry," he said.
"And who is Henry?"
"A very cautious gentleman, evidently," Renny said. "You know what those three clucks just told us?
They said we would have to call off the South American trip. Said it was too dangerous."
Patricia Savage peered at the big-fisted engineer.
"What is this—a little game?" she asked.
"So help me, that’s what happened."
"I can’t believe it!" Pat said.
Long Tom grunted. "Well, it didn’t affect their appetite, whatever ails them. I saw them go into the
restaurant downstairs."
"Restaurant, eh?" Renny said thoughtfully.
He sauntered into the reception room, which was furnished with comfortable chairs, an inlaid table and a
huge safe. He got his hat and rode the private elevator downstairs. The elevator was equipped with
alarms and gas to give undesired visitors a reception. Renny operated levers which switched off these.
He ambled into the restaurant, saw Monk and Ham and Johnny at a table and joined them.
"Look here, brothers," he said. "I want you to break down and tell me what goes on. This is confidential,
and I won’t tell anybody, so help me. Now, what has got into you? Why don’t you want Doc to take this
South American trip?"
Ham leaned forward.
"It’s not the South American trip, Renny," he said earnestly. "It’s everything."
"Everything?"
"All the risks Doc takes," Ham explained. "We have to stop that."
"Too dangerous, eh?" Renny said in a baffled voice.
"That is right."
Renny put his jaw out. He had a voice like a bear in a deep hole. Now, it sounded as if the bear was
angry.
"You guys sound like three crazy men!" he said. "I know you and I know you never thought about danger
before in your lives. Now, stop pulling this on me. Out with it!"
"Renny," said Monk, "it is simply that we have decided Doc lives too dangerous a life."
Renny glowered at them.
"That blasted Henry sure did a job on you," he said.
"We respect his opinions," Monk said stiffly.
"Damn Henry!" Renny yelled. "Who is he, anyhow?"
Ham stood up. He was blazing with emotion. "We will not have you cursing our friends, particularly one
who is concerned over the safety of Doc Savage," he said icily.
Renny also got up. But he walked out. He could not trust himself to do anything else.
There was something else, too. He had gotten the impression—he could not explain how—of fear in the
three men! He could hardly believe that. If it were fear he had sensed in them, it was such fear that he
would not have thought it possible for them to have.
He could not understand why the three had gone into rebellion.
RENNY wore a thoughtful expression as he walked into the headquarters suite. He saw, from the
expressionless glance which Doc Savage gave him, that the bronze man knew he had gone down to talk
to Monk, Ham and Johnny.
Renny shook his head. "It’s revolution," he said grimly. "But I don’t get it. I sure don’t."
"Did you get the feeling they were scared?" Doc asked.
Renny jumped. So Doc had seen that immediately.
"I thought I did," he admitted.
Pat, who had not seen the three rebels, shrugged. "You can’t tell me this is anything but some kind of a
gag. Those three like excitement the way a pickaninny likes watermelon."
Long Tom said, changing the subject back to their expedition preparations, "Doc, I am taking along a
new device I have developed for locating minerals by fluorescent activity, combined with so-called
radio-locator operations. I have found that certain minerals change their response to a radio locator when
subjected to fluorescence under black light. If I can index the alterations, I can work out a reliable
method of identification."
He went on in that vein. Renny stood at a window, frowning. He did not believe the rebellion was a joke.
It seemed serious to him. Very serious! But he could not explain why.
One sure thing, the three had always been the first to plunge into such trouble as Doc managed to
uncover. And the trouble had seldom been mild. Doc’s profession was frequently called that of righting
wrongs and punishing evildoers in the far corners of the earth. It was not a job for panty-waists. The
courage of Monk, Ham and Johnny had never been questioned.
They finished packing.
Doc Savage said, "Well, we are ready to go." He consulted his watch. "I am going to pick up some
chemicals. I will be back in an hour."
He walked out.
The bronze man had about time to reach the elevator, and there was a yell. Blows! Fight sounds! A shot!
A scuffling and gasping. Clang of an elevator door closing.
Renny let out a startled gasp, and dived through the library and reception room. He hit the tiled corridor
and skidded up against a closed elevator door.
The indicator showed him the elevator was descending.
"They grabbed Doc!" Renny howled.
He whirled, pitched back into the reception room. To the big inlaid desk. He jabbed at the inlays. They
were cleverly disguised control buttons. He jabbed buttons which released gas, stopped the elevator,
locked the elevator door—or should have. But indicators showed him that none of these things
happened.
"It’s somebody who knows how that elevator is rigged!" he yelled.
He dashed out, hit the stairs. Pat and Long Tom pounded after him. They reached a lower floor, where
regular elevators were available.
One of the cages came. They piled in. "Down!" Long Tom Roberts shouted. Then he swore at the
governor which regulated the downward pace of the elevator.
"They’ll get away!" he groaned.
Which they did.
THOROUGHLY disgusted, not a little disturbed, Renny and Long Tom examined the private elevator,
which was finally located, not on the lobby level, but at its last stop. This was in a private garage which
Doc maintained in the basement.
The part of the elevator mechanism which had been intended to stop the cage and gas its occupants had
been smashed.
None of the assortment of cars in the big basement garage had been bothered.
But the outer doors had been smashed open. No one could be found in the street outside who had seen
anything.
Rumbling in his chest, Renny stalked to the restaurant. It was not occupied by Monk, Ham or Johnny.
Renny was not surprised.
"You think they grabbed Doc?" Pat asked.
"Sure."
"Monk, Ham and Johnny got him?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"That damned Henry," Renny rumbled.
Apprehension that Doc Savage had been captured by enemies—the bronze man did not suffer for lack
of these—had given them a few minutes of wild concern.
When they got back upstairs, they were more calm. But they were infinitely puzzled.
"That’s the darnedest thing I ever ran into," Long Tom muttered. "I’ve seen some baffling mysteries in my
time, but this one seems to astound me more completely than any of the others."
Pat sank into a chair. "In a way, they’re right," she said.
"You mean about Doc taking too many chances?" Renny said. "I guess so. Yes, there is no doubt about
that if you want to take the completely sane viewpoint."
Long Tom looked thoughtfully at the cases of packed equipment.
"The trip seems to be off," he remarked. "There wasn’t anything very important about this jaunt to South
America, anyway. You know, on second thought, it might be a good thing."
Pat nodded.
"It might be. Doc needs a vacation," she said. "He has never taken one, has he? Never, actually, what
you would call going away for a period of relaxation. I guess it would be good for him. No human being
can keep up the pace he has maintained."
Renny snorted. "Theoretically, nobody could keep up the pace, but Doc has done it," he reminded them.
"In fact, I think he gets better all around as he goes along. But you might be right at that. A vacation never
hurt anybody. I could stand one myself."
Long Tom relaxed.
"Well, Monk and Ham and Johnny grabbed Doc to make him take a rest it seems," he said. "So I guess
it is all right."
They were still resting when there was sound of the outer door opening, and heavy breathing.
Monk walked in. He was puffing. "What happened to the private elevator?" he asked. "The instrument
box in the darned thing is all smashed up, and it stopped on me fifteen floors down. I couldn’t get it
started. I had to walk up."
Renny bolted upright. Long Tom’s eyes protruded slightly. Pat pressed a hand tightly to her lips. All of
them stared at Monk.
"Don’t . . . didn’t you smash that elevator?" Renny demanded.
"Me?" Monk stared.
Whipping to his feet, Renny gripped Monk’s arm.
"Didn’t you fellows seize Doc?" he demanded.
"What fellows?" Monk asked foolishly.
"You and Ham and Johnny—didn’t you grab Doc?"
Monk shook his head blankly. "We did not!" he said.
CHAPTER II. TRAILING HENRY
RENNY RENWICK had a great fist doubled as if to slug Monk. "You lying to me?" he bellowed.
"I didn’t touch Doc," Monk said. "Neither did Ham or Johnny. When did this happen? Is that what
smashed the elevator insides?"
Renny wheeled. His first wild excitement subsided into a grim purpose.
"Pat, get police on the telephone," he said. "Tell them Doc has been seized, ask them to keep a lookout
for him."
He wheeled to Long Tom, the electrical wizard. "Long Tom, contact Doc’s organization of private
detectives," he said. "Put the word out that Doc has been grabbed by someone. Ask them to do what
they can."
The last order actually meant more than the first. Doc’s detective organization was a peculiar one. It was
composed of "graduates" of his criminal-curing college, the unique institution which he maintained in
upstate New York. This "college" was an unknown quantity as far as officials, newspapers and the
general citizenry were concerned. To it, Doc sent such crooks as he captured. In the place, they
underwent delicate brain operations which wiped out all past knowledge. They were then trained to hate
crime and wrongdoing and taught a profession or trade. As a matter of practical common sense, Doc had
molded these graduates into a loose organization upon which he could call for aid when the necessity
appeared.
Turning back to Monk, Renny demanded, "Where are Ham and Johnny?"
"They took a ride in the country," Monk said. "They were going to talk this over."
"Talk what over?"
"This thing of Doc taking too many risks," Monk explained. "They were going to decide what to do about
it."
"Where can we get hold of them?"
"I don’t know how," Monk replied. "They aren’t using a car with a radio in it or we might contact them
that way."
Renny frowned at the pig, Habeas Corpus. The animal was sitting on the floor not far from Monk, its
large ears fanned out as if inquiring into the excitement. Renny snorted.
HE went into the laboratory. Long Tom joined him. "I got the word going around to Doc’s friends," he
said.
Renny nodded. Renny had a long face which habitually wore a sour expression. His mood now was
particularly murky.
"What are we going to do?" he muttered. "We can take fingerprints in the elevator cage, but probably
that will not help. We’ll do it, anyway. But anyone smart enough to grab Doc out of that elevator will
have sense enough not to leave fingerprints."
Long Tom glanced at Renny quickly.
Then the electrical wizard walked to a metal case and indicated several identical objects therein. The
objects looked like typewriter cases, four of them.
"Didn’t Doc tell you about these?" he asked.
Renny bent close and eyed the boxes. He read a label. They were typewriter cases.
"Huh?" he said.
"Didn’t you know about these?"
"Typewriters?"
"Don’t let the boxes fool you," Long Tom told him. "They are just to fool people. There are no
typewriters inside."
Renny shook his head. "I don’t get it."
"Doc and I have been working on these things, for some time," Long Tom said. "Doc had the original
idea for it, and turned it over to me for development. I got stuck a few times, and he helped me out. But I
think I’ve got rid of the bugs. I believe the gadget will work under actual conditions."
"Is this a Greek lesson?" Renny asked. "Or don’t I get told what is in those boxes?"
Long Tom moved one of the boxes from the case to a table. "Do not open it," he warned. "The
apparatus is rigged so it will destroy itself if the cases are unlocked or opened. Even if a hole is cut in
them anywhere, they will destroy themselves. There is some thermite and a detonator—the new type of
thermite that is being used in incendiary bombs. It will destroy one of those cases and the contents almost
instantly."
Renny stared. "Say, you make it sound important."
"It may be," Long Tom said thoughtfully.
"How does it work? What does it do?"
Long Tom indicated a camera lying on a nearby table. You know how light affects the silver coating on a
camera film when it hits it."
"Yes, results in oxidation," Renny said.
"Remember what spontaneous combustion is?"
"You mean a fire starting without anybody lighting it?"
"Right."
"Spontaneous combustion is oxidation causing heat to develop to ignition point, when inflammation
occurs. That it?"
Nodding, Long Tom said, "Right. Notice the oxidation in both examples. Well, I’ve worked out a
combination of chemical elements which can be made to oxidize rapidly when exposed, not to light, but
to ultra-short-wave radio emanations, combined with a magnetic field of extremely high frequency, but
not necessarily great strength."
Renny frowned. "Eh?"
Long Tom put a hand on the case which looked like a typewriter box. "This," he said, "is the gadget
摘要：

MENOFFEARADocSavageAdventurebyKennethRobesonThispagecopyright©2002BlackmaskOnline.http://www.blackmask.comScannedandProofedbyTomStephens?CHAPTERI.THEREFORMER?CHAPTERII.TRAILINGHENRY?CHAPTERIII.HENRYSTEPSOUT?CHAPTERIV.PERSUADINGHENRY?CHAPTERV.PROFESSORFROMEUROPE?CHAPTERVI.ISLANDTROUBLE?CHAPTERVII.RES...

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