Читать книгу Devil on the Moon: A Doc Savage Adventure - Lester Bernard Dent - Страница 4
ОглавлениеSTRANGE MEN AND STRANGE QUESTIONS
Unexpected absence of the green man was such a shock that Bob Thomas extinguished his flashlight. He could not have explained just why, unless it was a feeling of some terror lurking. Now and then a disturbed bird made a fluttering noise in the brush. Cloud images on the bay resembled monsters and seemed to crawl over the tiny light points of the stars.
“He tricked us!” Bob Thomas muttered.
The girl said nothing.
Bob Thomas pointed his flashlight beam at the ground. Faint bloodstains could be distinguished where the green man had lain. “He was hurt too bad to have gone far. We’ll hunt him.”
“No!” the girl gasped. She took hold of the young man’s arm. “Please, Bob—we’ve got to leave here,” she said wildly.
And because he was in love with her, he followed her. They reached the top of the hill and started down toward the Spanish Plantation before he spoke.
“Lin,” he said sharply, “what is this all about?”
The girl walked faster. “Please, Bob! You mustn’t ask questions!”
Bob Thomas turned the flashlight on Lin Pretti’s face. He saw so much fear that it shocked him. He had thought the girl sounded scared; he had not expected such utter terror. Bob Thomas’s skin began to feel as if it wanted to crawl. He suddenly knew there was some incredible terror here, something hidden, something he did not see.
“That stuff about the moon—” Bob Thomas demanded suddenly. “What did the fellow mean?”
The girl shook her head slowly. “You would not understand, Bob.”
“You’re in trouble!” Bob Thomas grumbled. “I should have known that much when you asked me to investigate Doc Savage.”
The girl stopped.
“Oh, that!” She shook her head. “That had nothing to do with this. I was just—just curious.”
“Do you have to lie to me?”
The young woman threw up her chin and seemed about to fling something biting. Instead, she whirled and ran toward the Spanish Plantation. She flounced inside and slammed the door behind her.
Bob Thomas, his expression more puzzled than hurt, started to open the door. Then he reconsidered. His car, a small coupé, was parked in the nearby lot. He got behind the wheel, tore the top off a package of cigarettes and sat and smoked thoughtfully. After about ten minutes, an idea occurred to him, and he seized his flashlight and got out of the car.
He was going to hunt the green man.
Topping the ridge, he was surprised to see a light moving down near the bay, where he had last seen the green man. When he saw who was using the light, Thomas stopped very still.
Lin Pretti! The girl was removing the bloodstains where the green man had been!
Watching her, Bob Thomas was again impressed by her terror. In fact it was catching. Bob Thomas put a finger inside his collar as if it was tight and was choking his Adam’s apple, then rubbed his forehead in puzzlement. His brain would not accept such insanities as the dying man in green had revealed to him and Lin Pretti. And as for being on the moon, that too was ridiculous!
Bob Thomas knew Lin Pretti well enough to believe that she did not scare easily. And yet she was utterly frightened. He wondered what he should do. If he accosted her now, she would be angry. And he doubted if she would answer any questions.
Thinking about the girl, Bob Thomas caught himself wondering just exactly who she was. After all, no one seemed to know where she came from. She didn’t have a job evidently. As a matter of fact there was a good deal of mystery connected with her. Bob Thomas didn’t like it one bit. It smacked too much of trouble. And Bob Thomas was the type of fellow who didn’t go hunting for it.
Of course, if Lin Pretti really needed help badly, he’d be only too glad to help. But something told him Lin Pretti wanted anything but that right now. What she wanted most was to be alone. Bob Thomas gritted his teeth and swore.
While Bob Thomas watched, Lin Pretti moved toward the bay with an armload of bloodstained weeds, which she apparently was going to throw into the water.
She had been gone only a moment when hands unexpectedly took hold of Bob Thomas.
There were several pairs of hand. When Thomas fought them, some of the hands became fists and struck back. He went down with men in a fighting pile.
“Blast him!” a voice grated. “He’s not as weak as he looked!”
This was the first time Bob Thomas had ever heard himself called weak-looking. He was six feet two, and he had made a football name in college. He kicked, and heard a victim reel away moaning. Bob got an arm loose, struck. Someone fell heavily.
Clouds passing overhead made it dark. Bob Thomas began to feel confident that he was going to escape—or perhaps he might even whip them all!
“Behemoth!” someone screeched.
The tone which answered this call was one Bob Thomas never forgot. It was a great, gusty whisper. An incredibly cavernous whisper.
“Gimme room to take ’im!” said the whisper.
The men released Bob Thomas, and he stumbled to his feet, but not quickly enough to evade a charge. A great body hit him. Thomas struck back with his fist, hit something that felt more like iron than flesh. Then great arms squeezed him. He was suddenly and completely helpless.
“I got ’im!” said the huge whisper.
A flashlight blazed. Bob Thomas twisted to see what nature of monster held him.
Behemoth was a giant with hair on the back of his hands—bright-red hair—and no hair on his head. His face had freckles, his nose flared, and the bulge of his teeth gave his lower face a squarish effect. His shirt gaped at the neck to show red fur. His shirt had two pockets; both were full of cigars, and he was smoking one.
“Hey!” someone exploded. “This ain’t Vesterate!”
It was plain they had thought they were seizing the green man.
The captors scowled at Bob Thomas in disgust.
“Here comes Lurgent!” a man said.
Lurgent came up. He was a tall hawk in a brown suit.
“Hi-ya, boss!” said the giant Behemoth.
Lurgent looked at Bob Thomas. “Who’s this?”
“That’s what we’re wonderin’,” Behemoth said.
Lurgent came over and poked Bob Thomas with a finger. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Who are you?”
Bob Thomas, baffled, did what he thought wise. He avoided the truth.
“I was dancing at that roadhouse over the hill yonder. I had a spat with my girl and took a walk to cool off. What’s the idea of your men grabbing me?”
He thought that was a rather good story. It seemed to deceive the men, too.
“I’m sorry,” Lurgent told Bob Thomas politely. “You see, we are guards from a nearby insane asylum, and one of the patients has escaped. We’re hunting him. My men mistook you for the—ah—nut.” Lurgent glared at Behemoth. “What the hell are you holding him for? Turn him loose!”
Bob Thomas was released. He got to his feet. He killed time straightening his clothes.
Bob Thomas thought over what he had just been told, and the strange things that had happened.
He suddenly recalled that Lin Pretti had never told him why she was in this district. Perhaps she had wished to be close to a relative who was confined in an institution! Suppose the relative had escaped? Naturally, the girl would be concerned, and she might try to cover the truth. She might deny, for instance, that the green man was a demented relative. Most people are sensitive about having insanity in the family.
“How was your escaped maniac dressed?” Bob Thomas asked.
Lurgent grinned. “He’s a bad case, and we humor him. Let him wear silly-looking green tights. He once saw a motion picture of a man who went to the moon, and now he imagines he’s the man on the moon.”
“That explains what he said about being on the moon.”
“You saw him?” Lurgent yelled.
“Yes,” Bob admitted sheepishly.
“But you said you hadn’t!”
“I know. I said that because I didn’t trust you gentlemen.”
“We’re sorry, buddy.”
“Will you gentlemen tell me something?” Bob asked.
Lurgent granted. “Anything we can.”
“Is Lin Pretti a relative of this insane man?”
Lurgent nodded. “His sister.”
“Thank you,” Bob said. “She was with me when we found the nut—the green man.”
“I see.” Lurgent seemed quite friendly. “What happened then?”
Bob Thomas launched into a description of what had taken place.
“Who has the blue glass cylinder?” questioned Lurgent, after Bob Thomas had finished.
“Lin has it.”
“Where does she stay?”
“At a new brick tourist hotel on the road north of here,” Bob said.
“It seems,” Lurgent said, “that we are going to have to kill you.”
Behemoth whispered, “Murder ain’t nothin’ to go rushin’ into!”
Lurgent scowled and addressed his men: “Tie this Thomas fellow.”
Bob fought them. But he had waited too long. They got him down—with Behemoth’s aid—and contributed belts to fasten his ankles, and handkerchiefs to put in his mouth.
“I guess we won’t kill him!” Lurgent growled at Behemoth. “I’m sending you after the girl.”
“You want that glass cylinder, too?” Behemoth asked.
“Of course, you fool!”
Behemoth did not seem insulted. He asked in a mild whisper, “What is that capsule, anyhow?”
“That,” Lurgent said, “is none of your business.”
The giant shrugged. “What about the bird in the green suit—that Vesterate?”
“He’ll be with the girl, of course,” Lurgent said. He made a meaningful gesture at his throat. “But you don’t need to bring back the fellow in green, providing you leave him dead enough.”
Bob Thomas knew they were wrong about Vesterate. They didn’t know how badly Vesterate had been hurt. Far from being with Lin Pretti, the poor fellow had dragged himself away and was dying somewhere near.
“You heard Thomas say where the girl stays,” Lurgent growled at Behemoth. “Get her and bring her here.”
Behemoth nodded, then walked away.
Suddenly Bob Thomas’ face blanched. For Lurgent had drawn a pistol, a single-shot gun with a long barrel and silencer. Lurgent deliberately aimed this weapon at Bob Thomas’ head.
“Wait!” Bob Thomas exploded frantically. “Maybe you’d like to know about the Man on the Moon!”
Lurgent started violently. Seizing a flashlight, he blazed it into Bob Thomas’ features. “What did you say?”
Lurgent waved at his men to withdraw. They did so, leaving Lurgent and Bob Thomas behind. They were not away for long. There was a single shot.
“Come on back!” Lurgent called.
Bob Thomas was sprawled on the ground, head turned to one side. There was a smear of red on his forehead. Lurgent reloaded his single-shot pistol. He said, “Keep your eyes open while I get rid of the body.”
He shouldered the body of Bob Thomas and strode toward the water.
