Part 5 (1/2)
”Head north, toward Westchester County,” their pa.s.senger directed. ”I know of a vacant house up there. It's just the place to keep you two funny-looking fellows in.”
”Yeah?” muttered Long Tom.
”I'm going to hold you until Doc Savage releases John Acre,” said the girl in gold.
”Who is John Acre?” Long Tom questioned.
”The man who just landed from South America.”
”And you think Doc Savage got him?” Long Tom persisted.
”Somebody grabbed him,” said the girl. ”Who else could it have been? John Acre called me and said that no one but Doc Savage knew he was in New York. He asked me not to tell anybody. I didn't. John Acre was seized in front of the Midas Club. If Doc Savage didn't get him, who did?”
Long Tom permitted himself a slight smile. Doc had wanted them to get information from this girl.
”But why should Doc want John Acre?” he questioned.
Tip perched on the edge of the rear seat cus.h.i.+on. Long Tom, watching in the rear-vision mirror, marveled that her tight gown permitted her to be seated at all.
”Doc Savage would seize John Acre for the Little White Brother,” the girl said bitterly.
Long Tom's somewhat unhealthy face acquired a puzzled expression. Renny peered absently at his huge fists.
”Little White Brother?” Long Tom e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.
”You're not fooling me by acting surprised,” said the young woman with the gun. ”Doc Savage kidnaped John Acre. Only one person would have hired him to do so-the Little White Brother.”
”Listen,” Long Tom said angrily.
” n.o.body ever hires Doc”
The gilded girl seemed about to make a sarcastic retort. Instead, she jerked up rigidly on the seat. Horror overspread her attractive features.
She crouched there like a gorgeous, golden bird which had suddenly seen a hungry snake.
ONLY one thing could have caused the girl's fright-a great hollow salvo of sound which had coughed out over to the right of the sedan.
It made the earth tremble, this sound; it rumbled and thumped. Its ramifications seemed to gorge the night with dull thunder. Then the rumbling died away, as it had arisen, with swiftness.
Both Long Tom and Renny turned their heads to eye the girl. Both distinctly caught the stifled words which came from her lips. ”That shaking-the Little White Brother-” Her voice trailed off.
Long Tom and Renny shook their heads solemnly at each other. The girl's behavior had them baffled.
”Why did that sound of blasting scare you so?” Renny boomed.
”Blasting?” the girl gulped.
Renny waved a hand nearly large enough to envelop a football. He indicated a cl.u.s.ter of lights off to their right.
It was now snowing briskly. The lights were barely discernible through the maze of falling flakes.
”They're doing some excavating over there,” he said. ”They do their blasting late at night when there's no spectators around to get hurt.”
The sigh of relief which the girl in gold heaved was audible to both men.
”Am I relieved!” she exclaimed.
”You haven't answered my question,” Renny reminded her. ”Why did the sound frighten you?”
The young woman stared at him intently. Obviously, she was considering an answer to the question. She decided not to give it.
”I'm through talking,” she said shortly.
She seemed to mean it, too. Long Tom and Renny both tried to question her. All they got were caustic retorts.
”Shut up and keep driving!” the girl directed.
By now, snowflakes were spread like whitewash. Strangely, although snow literally poured against the winds.h.i.+eld of the sedan, none of it stuck there. The gla.s.s was covered by a preparation perfected by the chemist, Monk. This concoction alone had made Monk a fortune.
It was biting cold outside. In the sedan the temperature was comfortable, due to a combination air-conditioner and heater.
A great a.s.sortment of k.n.o.bs and meters decorated the instrument board. Long Tom reached up and adjusted some of these.
”What are you doing?” rapped the young woman.
”I don't need to be told how to drive this car,” Long Tom replied brusquely.
The sedan rolled northward. By now they had left the limits of New York City. Snow fell faster. A strengthening wind shoveled the flakes about.
”Turn left at the next corner,” the gilded girl advised.
Long Tom obeyed. A few rods farther on, in compliance with a second order, he wheeled the sedan into a large yard.
The headlights picked out a house. It was a frame building. Missing patches of s.h.i.+ngles made the roof looklike a mangy dog. Windows were boarded up. Numerous evergreen shrubs were blackish humps in the blizzard.
Long Tom stopped the sedan.
”Get out,” said the girl, ”and open the door. We are- Oh! Oh!”
The adjacent evergreen bushes seemed to hatch the leaping figures of men. An ominous ring, they converged on the car. They were heavily armed.
”The Little White Brother!” shrilled the girl.
TWO men, widely different in appearance, led the gang. One of these was natty in evening garb, and handsome in an evil way. The second man was big, slovenly. His nostrils were a pair of fuzz-rimmed holes. A deep scar slanting across his face gave him an appearance utterly villainous.
Long Tom and Renny were not acquainted with these two unsavory gentlemen. They did not know the pair were Velvet and Biff.