Part 4 (1/2)
”And they went downtown and entered an office building-”
”What address?”
The man furnished Horst with the address.
Horst cursed a third time, said, ”There is where Monk Mayfair, the chemist of Doc Savage's organization, has his lab.
They've gone to get Monk.””What do we do?”
”Get them. Take them prisoners. I don't care how you do it, but get it done.”
”How,” the man asked, ”will I know this Monk Mayfair?”
”Just look at him,” Horst snarled.
Chapter V. IMPULSIVE MR. HENRY PEACE.
ANDREW BLODGETT-MONK-MAYFAIR was never mistaken for any other person. Upon occasion, when Monk was seen in dark alleys and other spots where visibility was poor-there had been one particular occasion when he was swimming nude in a tropical river-he had been mistaken for an ape. So definite was the resemblance that, on the swimming-in-the-jungle instance, a specimen-collecting naturalist had shot at him repeatedly with a rifle that fired mercy bullets.
Monk's face was fabulously homely, but fortunately it was a pleasant kind of homeliness. Dogs wagged tails at him, and children, who logically could have been expected to be frightened to death at sight of such a face, chuckled in delight. Babies always cooed and wanted to smack Monk's nose with their little fists, although much larger fists had already knocked the nose rather flat, as well as made some permanent changes in the shapes of Monk's ears.
Furthermore, there was some quality about the face that seemed to fascinate pretty girls. By grinning, smirking and crinkling his small eyes, Monk imagined he could increase his appeal.
He grinned, smirked and crinkled for Rhoda Haven.
The display moved Brigadier General Theodore Marley-Ham-Brooks to make a remark.
”The more I see of you,” Ham said, ”the more I'm reminded of a famous scientist.”
”Who?”
”Darwin,” Ham said.
Monk bloated indignantly. ”Say, that's the guy who thought men came from monkeys.”
The pair scowled at each other.
Ham Brooks was a wiry man, wide-shouldered, with an orator's large mouth, a high forehead-a man who was as completely Monk's opposite as one could be. He carried an innocent-looking, dark sword cane. He dressed always-he changed clothes a dozen times daily, if necessary, to be properly garbed for each different occasion or activity-in the most expensive and correct of attire fas.h.i.+oned by the most famous tailors. In fact, tailors had been known to furtively follow him down a street, just to watch clothes being worn as they should be.
Ham Brooks looked what he was, one of the most astute lawyers Harvard had ever produced-in contrast to Monk, who was one of the greatest living industrial chemists, and didn't look it at all.
”Who,” Rhoda Haven asked Ham, ”are you?”
Monk said, ”He's an overdressed shyster lawyer named Ham Brooks, and while I hate to be disagreeably frank to another man's face, you want to watch him. He comes from a long line of ancestors who were not to be trusted. They were lawyers.”
”Listen,” Ham snapped, ”my family springs from the best stock around Boston.”
”My family never sprang from anybody!” Monk said. ”They sprang at 'em!”
WHILE Monk and Ham halved their time impartially between scowling, giving each other man-eating glares, and smiling with utmost pleasantness at Rhoda Haven, the girl told the same story which she had earlier given to Johnny.
The story from which much truth was missing. The tale about persons unidentified attacking her and her father atTower Apartments for reasons unknown. She lied nicely throughout.
Johnny said, ”The thing for us to do is go to Tower Apartments and see if we can pick up the a.s.sailants' trail.”
”You're very nice to help me,” Rhoda Haven said delightedly.
They had held the conference in Monk's penthouse, which was also his chemical laboratory, as well as an example of what a garish imagination could do with modernistic decoration.
”Wait'll I get my pig,” Monk said, and called, ”Habeas! Habeas Corpus!”
Habeas Corpus was a shote with long legs, wing-sized ears, and a snout built for inquiring into the bottoms of tin cans. Habeas was an Arabian hog, of indefinite age, who probably would never get any larger than he was-about the proportions of an average-sized bulldog. He was Monk's pet.
Habeas appeared, accompanied by Chemistry, who was Ham's pet.
Monk didn't care for Chemistry, probably because Chemistry was a chimpanzee-if not a chimp, then some member of the baboon family-which bore a disquieting likeness to Monk himself. Seen far apart, so that they could not be distinguished by size-Chemistry came little above Monk's knees-there was likely to be confusion of ident.i.ty.
Monk quarreled continually with Ham; Habeas Corpus squabbled perpetually with Chemistry.
”Let us,” Johnny said, ”extravasate.”
Monk translated, ”He means let's go to the Tower Apartments.”
They extravasated to the penthouse elevator and eventually out on the sidewalk.
”We'll take a taxicab,” Ham said.
While they were looking for a taxicab to flag, a man approached.
The man wore overalls, carried a huge paper-wrapped package on one shoulder. His face was soiled. A closer scrutiny would have shown that he was the same man who had been taking sidewalk photographs in front of Doc Savage's headquarters skysc.r.a.per. Unfortunately, no one gave him the closer scrutiny.
The man fell down. Flat on his face, he flopped. Directly in front of Monk, Ham, Johnny and Rhoda Haven. The man hit the sidewalk hard, and the box he was carrying hit even harder.
The box burst. Fumes came out. The vapor was the color of the insides of rotten eggs.
The fallen man took told of his mouth and nose with both hands and pinched, so he could not breathe.
Monk, Ham, Johnny, Rhoda Haven-all stared in astonishment until the fumes came up and enveloped them and were breathed into their lungs, when they realized what was happening-knew that the vapor was gas-after which they ran in different directions, but blindly, b.u.mping into things.
From a.s.sorted hiding places nearby came four men who wore gas masks and carried blackjacks, and a fifth man who drove a bakery delivery truck.
The gas-masked men with the blackjacks slugged Monk, Ham, Johnny and Rhoda Haven to the sidewalk. They loaded the senseless forms into the bakery truck.
By that time, there was a good deal of excitement around about, what with pedestrians who had walked into the tear gas, and people yelling for cops. But the bakery truck got away.