Читать книгу Haunted Ocean - Kenneth Robeson - Страница 7

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"FOOLS!" spoke the voice of Lora Krants. "He is the wrong man! You ought to have known that. Why didn't you wait for my signal?"

Renny was greatly puzzled. Anyway, he thought grimly, he was the man who had got this headache out of it. Then the girl added a few words.

"Doc Savage has gone to Washington by plane!"

So that was it, judged Renny. The charming redhead had been only a decoy. She had been sent to bait Doc Savage into this trap.

Then Renny was more amazed. Barton, the brother of Lora Krants, had spoken.

"We'll turn him loose then," he said. "We haven't any time to waste. Anything might happen in the next hour or two."

Men came into the room. They pulled Renny to his feet.

"Think you're able to navigate?" said one.

"Untie my hands and you'll think I can!" boomed Renny.

"Guess he's all O.K.," said another man.

"It would be best to gag him until you are out of the way," said the cool voice of Lora Krants. "We don't want to get the police in on this. They'll be tracing those smashed cars right now."

A gag was slapped over Renny's mouth. He was carried down several flights of stairs. After a short ride in a car, he was rolled out onto a grassy plot. A knife slid along the cords around his arms.

Renny was compelled to waste time untying the knots around his legs. He pulled the gag from his mouth. The tape blindfold took some hairs with it. A car purred away.

Renny stood up and blinked. He was in the approximate middle of Central Park. The car had made only two turns. Renny fixed a location that might be the apartment house from which he had been brought.

That would have to keep. He considered it more important to get back to headquarters. Long Tom was probably alone now. Professor Callus had said he would be leaving soon.

Renny wished he knew why Doc had insisted he escort Lora Krants to her home. Well, anyway, he reflected grimly, he had carried out the order. Hailing a taxicab, Renny headed for the midtown skyscraper.

THE buzzer at Doc Savage's headquarters sounded faintly. It was but a few minutes after Renny and Lora Krants, with the others, had departed. Long Tom had been unsuccessfully trying to make something out of the radio jumble.

"Good gosh!" he exploded impatiently. "More visitors?"

Professor Callus wagged his shiny head and smiled.

"It would seem that secrecy no longer attaches to this investigation of the disturbed ocean," he said.

The man who came in was tall and of the same Oriental coloring as the recently departed Kama Dbhana. His teeth flashed in a pleased smile.

"I have been informed only tonight," he said, "that Clark Savage has been investigating--"

"Sure, I know!" snapped Long Tom. "Your friend in the Coast Survey told you! Now what do you want?"

The dark-skinned Oriental continued to smile. Long Tom stepped back suddenly, slowly putting up his hands. The outside door had remained open. Other men with yellow faces seemed to glide in without walking.

There were six of these men. All were smiling. But the guns in their hands brought no smile to Long Tom's face. The electrical expert made a quick movement to reach for a pocket.

But he was not quick enough. Six unwavering guns were fixed upon his middle. Combined fire could have sliced him to pieces.

"We know you are alone here, with only this man who is not one of Doc Savage's companions," stated the dark-skinned leader. "You will not be harmed."

Professor Callus sputtered. But he was seized with Long Tom. Steel cuffs of intricate design clinked onto their wrists behind their backs. Damp cloths were slapped over their faces.

The drug was not chloroform. Long Tom had never before smelled this perfumed odor. He did not puzzle over it long. He and Professor Callus were bundled to one side. Both were peacefully sleeping.

Directed by their still-smiling leader, the six dark men went to work methodically. Strangely, they seemed to be acquainted with the most vital parts of all the delicate apparatus with which Doc had been seeking the origin of the ocean haunt.

In less than five minutes, the wreckage was as complete as if one of Professor Homus Jasson's bombs had been touched off.

Weather instruments, light recorders, the radio were ripped apart and smashed. The Orientals touched nothing in the laboratory except the gadgets used directly in the checking up on the haunted ocean.

They moved out as silently as they had come. The leader pulled the cover from the face of Professor Homus Jasson. The dead man still had a look of horror in his eyes.

The Oriental smiled with his white teeth.

"The master will be greatly pleased," he said. "This makes all perfect for the one who would sell."

DOWNSTAIRS, Renny alighted from his taxicab. He saw seven men getting into a closed car. They had yellow, Oriental skins.

"Good grief!" he muttered. "I suppose we've been having some more visitors! Looks like that guy Kama's friends or--"

Renny whipped into the building. He shot upward in Doc's own private elevator. This rocketlike lift passed seventy floors at a speed that would have projected it through the tower of the imposing mass of steel and marble.

Cushioned apparatus slowed it at the eighty-sixth floor.

Doc Savage's outside door was standing open. Renny proceeded with infinite caution. At the door of the laboratory he halted with a deep groan.

"I might have known something like that would happen," he murmured to himself. "I wonder where--"

A dull thumping came from one side of the room. Renny sprang to what seemed to be only the smooth wall. A panel swung open.

Professor Callus rolled out, groaning. His big head seemed to be attached to his body by only a thin rag. But his neck was not broken. As Long Tom staggered to his feet, Professor Callus arose.

"This is terrible--terrible!" said the professor. "Everything has been smashed! I thought we were done for!"

"What happened?" demanded Renny. "I saw men who looked like that Kama guy!"

"That's right," said Long Tom, mournfully. "We didn't have a chance! We were drugged and put into the cabinet."

The cabinet was one of the ventilated spaces in which Doc Savage sometimes imprisoned individuals he might want to question later.

"Set up the emergency," said Renny. "We've got to find out what happened to Doc."

Professor Callus opened his eyes. From what appeared to be a blank wall space emerged the complete equipment of an intricate radio and television set. This was a set maintained by Doc Savage for an emergency.

But when it went into service, the squawking and bumbling had become more intense. The apparatus was useless.

Renny had an idea. He went to the telephone. Thumbing through the book, he found the number of Cyrus Krants, the bathosphere man.

It must have been the voice of a caretaker or some servant replying to Renny's call.

"I would like to speak with Miss Krants, Miss Lora Krants," said Renny. "It is important. I have news of her missing father."

The reply was instant, unhesitating.

"Sorry, but Miss Lora Krants is visiting friends in California. You said her father is missing? There must be some mistake. Cyrus Krants has been in touch with his home every day. Who is this speaking?"

Renny did not say who was speaking. His sudden liking for the red-headed girl had completely evaporated.