Part 15 (1/2)
”They're tremendously strong, even for their size,” Monk breathed. ”Dumb, too, or he wouldn't waste his strength bustin' out through a wall like that.'t The pinhead followed his fellow giants out of town.
DOC SAVAGE tooled the gyro after the monster men. He kept fairly high and switched on the brilliant Landing lights. These illuminated the giants.
The monsters were running down the road which led to the lake sh.o.r.e.
Doc Savage advanced the gyro accelerator. The s.h.i.+p did not have a conventional propeller. Its speed was regulated by the inclination of rudderlike vanes affixed to the tips of the rotating wings. Advancing the accelerator set these vanes to digging into the air at a greater angle.
Doc had discovered that the giants were following a car. The top of the machine bore a cl.u.s.ter of four large loudspeakers.
”That's the guy who tried for us with the machine gun!”' Monk declared.
Doc sent the windmill plane toward the fleeing car. They Were close to it when a man stuck his head out of the rear door.
It was Griswold Rock. The fat man flailed about with his pudgy fists; he drove fierce blows back into the car at a target which could not be seen. He made imploring gestures with his arms, as if pleading for help, then was yanked back out of sight into the car.
A man swung out, clinging to the running board of the automobile. He held an aircraft-type machine gun harnessed to a belt about his waist. With one hand he elevated the weapon. Its muzzle flamed red fire. The bullet stream -- a reddish thread of tracer -- missed the gyro by fully a hundred feet, then sought the target in wild sweeps. The bouncing car was not a foundation conductive to marksmans.h.i.+p.
”I'll fix that cookie!” Monk gritted, and leaned out with his superfirer.
Monk's gun hooted, and the man on the car sagged. Monk was a remarkable shot when he could see his target. Mercy bullets from his rapid-firer had stricken the gunner with instant unconsciousness.
Hands inside the car caught the senseless man, however, and hauled him inside.
”Now, if I can pot the driver through the top of the machine!” Monk chortled.
He never had a chance to try this. Doc suddenly whipped the gyro away from the spot.
”Hey!” Monk yelled. ”We may be able to bag -- ”
Doc merely pointed at the fuel gauge.
”I made it here non-stop from New York!” Renny groaned. ”Fuel is about gone.”
”We'd best get far enough away that the giants won't see us when we make a landing,” Doc offered.
The engine died, fuel gone, as the bronze man was bringing the s.h.i.+p down some miles to the north. He had picked a spot near the lake sh.o.r.e.
”What a break!” Monk groaned.
Chapter 20. THE WINGED PERIL.
DOC SAVAGE had selected an emergency landing spot near the lake sh.o.r.e for a specific purpose. He dug binoculars out of the c.o.c.kpit duffle pocket, then quitted the windmill plane.
He ran for the beach. Here, as along most of this wilderness sh.o.r.e, there was timber. Doc sought a large tree. He did not use his flashlight, but felt about ill the black night with his hands.
Finding a towering pine, he mounted. Monk and Renny, puzzled, clambered up after him.
The monsters, from the direction they had taken, should have reached the lake sh.o.r.e perhaps two miles away to the westward. Doc focused his binoculars in that direction.
”What's the idea?” Renny asked.
Doc pa.s.sed the binoculars to him. ”Take a look.”
Renny did so. In the jet night he could not see the giants. But he did discern tiny spots which glowed with all un earthly purple luminance.
”Say, what's them light patches?” he demanded.
”A chemical compound akin to phosphorus,” Doc explained. ”The stuff begins to glow after it is exposed to the air half an hour or so.”
Monk, astride a limb below, emitted a knowing snow. ”The dope was in the shotgun slugs you plugged at the giants!”
”It was,” Doc admitted. The bronze man fell to watching the luminous spots which marked the position of the monsters. The glowing patches moved out into the lake and became stationary.
The great loud-speaker voice of Hack, thundering out, carried over the two miles with surprising volume.
”Bring the speed boats!” Hack called.
A moment later, in answer to the red-necked man's behest, marine engines sputtered into life. Boats had been waiting out in the take. They sped for the sh.o.r.e.
”Three of them!” Monk decided, after counting the craft. The giants went aboard the speed boats, and the craft headed out into the lake.
The glowing spots on the giants seemed to grow larger, although the monsters were being carried away.
”They're trying to rub the s.h.i.+ny stuff off,” Renny thumped. '”Their efforts just spread the dope.”
Doc Savage got careful bearings on the direction taken by the launch.
Distance finally swallowed the glowing smears on the giants.
DOC AND his two men moved down the lake sh.o.r.e to the point where the boats had been boarded.
They found the car with the loud-speaker equipment. It was parked near the sh.o.r.e, deserted.
Later, Doc traced the license number of the vehicle. The machine had been purchased in Detroit a few weeks before by a man giving his name as Pere Teston, but who answered the description of the slain Caldwell.
On its side the car bore the advertising of a political party which was now campaigning. It developed that the car had no connection with the political organization, however.
”They put the sign on it so the loud-speaker wouldn't attract suspicion,” decided big-fisted Renny.
The men returned to Trapper Lake.
The town was m an uproar. Women still screamed, sobbed and had hysterics. Men galloped about, wild-eyed, their persons bristling with weapons. Almost every one was barefooted, having been routed out of bed. A number of old fas.h.i.+oned male nightgowns were to be seen.
The house into which the pinhead monster had crawled was a wreck. A number of fences had been torn down; gardens were trampled. The door of the Guide's Hotel had been demolished. Shapeless tracks of the big, armored feet were thick.
”One of the infernal giants just b.u.t.ted the door down and climbed in,” reported the dapper Ham.