Part 21 (1/2)
The room behind the window was dark. Doc approached warily. The gas with which he had vanquished the other men evidently had not spread this far. No doubt the night wind had swept it back.
The gas was Doc's anaesthetic concoction which spread quickly and became harmless after being diffused with the air for perhaps a minute.
”Is there a guard inside?” he called.
”No,” said the young woman. ”Something seems to have happened to him.”
From the amount of caution Doc used, an observer would have thought the girl had told him the place was heavily sentineled.
He entered the house. The air was heavy with old cooking and perspiration odors.
The girl's statement had been accurate. There were no other guards about. Doc found the door of her prison.
There was no lock on it. It was secured by a ponderous, weighty metal bar on the outside. Doc operated the bar, pushed the door open.
Tip Galligan stumbled out. She still wore her striking evening gown of gold cloth. She had ripped off several inches at the bottom in order to make it less hampering. She had donned a gaudy poncho. Her boyish-bobbed head was bare.
”You didn't know I was here?” she demanded.
”No.”
”I thought so. From the window, I saw you leaving. That's why I yelled,” Doc guided her toward the exit.
”How long have you been here in Chile?” Doc asked.
”Only a few hours. They must have had a fast plane. They kept me blindfolded, and I couldn't see them or their plane. But I heard them brag that no other craft could overhaul them. Later, when they found your s.h.i.+p had a greater speed, they had long faces.”
Doc Savage had been listening intently. Suddenly he seized the girl; his corded arms lifted her as easily as if she had been without weight.
”Why-you-” She struck angrily at him. The blows did nothing but make her fists ache.
The very earth on which the house stood seemed to have awakened to a hideous life. A vast grumbling and roaring filled the air.
TIP GALLIGAN realized why Doc had scooped her up. She ceased resisting.
”One of the quakes!” she cried.
Doc replied nothing. He had started back for the large central room. It was his idea to endeavor to carry one or more of the unconscious men to safety, as well as the girl.
The ancient and infirm construction of the house thwarted Doc's intention. A portion of the roof came down in his path. A wall keeled over.
Dodging debris, Doc veered through the aperture made by the toppling wall. The girl was carried easily atop his shoulder.
The earth convulsions increased in violence. Great boulders were beginning to loosen and come jumping down the canyon slopes.
Doc made one more attempt to reach the men asleep in the large room. The roof of the chamber collapsed as he was on the point of entering. He spun away.
The men were doomed, despite anything he could do.
The saddle horses had all escaped the corral at the rear of the house, and fled the vicinity. That was probably just as well. Considering the unproarious shudders which were now racking the earth, it was doubtful if a horse could have made respectable progress.
”Hang on!” Doc demonstrated to Tip the best method of clinging to his back, so as to leave his arms free.
Twisting the lens of his flashlight, Doc caused the beam to widen to a great fan. This illuminated the way. The surface of the earth was an eerie sight.
The trembling was causing rocks to jump up and down. Dust was pouring upward like brown steam.
Time after time Doc was shaken from his feet, despite his enormous agility. To save himself from going down, he doubled and traveled for the most part on all fours, animal fas.h.i.+on.
A rolling boulder, a number of times as large as an automobile, plunged toward them from the side. Doc spattered his light upon it. The girl looked, made a choking sound of horror.
A leap of singular length took the giant bronze man and his burden clear. Fresh boulders almost as large threatened them. The huge rocks came down the canyon sides with the speed of diving airplanes. Some of them bounced high in the air, so that the heavens seemed to rain them.
The minutes which followed were things of horror to Tip Galligan. The earth shook itself more and more violently. Great sections of the canyon side detached and slid down; flying gravel pelted; dust choked them.
Just how Doc Savage managed to go through the demolis.h.i.+ng inferno, Tip Galligan never quite understood. At least a score of times she gritted her teeth, thinking death was upon them. But always the herculean man of metal who carried her evaded the impending peril.
The pandemonium abruptly took itself away. It was as if an ethereal colossus which had been shaking the earth and snorting thunder had given it up and was scampering away.
THE ground was still quivering slightly when Doc planted the young woman on her feet.
”Stay here!” he commanded. ”I'm going to look around.”
The canyon was like a ditch which was filled with gravel, some pieces of which were so large that an ocean liner would have had difficulty floating them.
Doc's fabulous strength served him to good advantage as he worked through the maze. He made good time.The house with the unconscious gas victims inside was buried to a depth of many feet. Doc did not try to dig down to it. It would take hours.
The men in the house were certainly dead, their lives ruthlessly wiped out in what Doc was quite sure was an attempt on his own life, directed by human hands.
Mounting the canyon sides-they were far less steep now-Doc circled widely. If a human agency had caused the cataclysmic shake, he hoped to find some trace of it.
He did not use his flashlight; the electric glow would not have been very effective. A choking pall of dust still squirmed over the scene.
Doc depended on his ears in his hunt, until, near the edge of the shake zone, where the dust was less thick, his light could penetrate. It was there that he found the only thing of interest-a high-tension electric line.
Doc Savage eyed the line curiously. No doubt it carried thousands of volts down from some mountain hydro-electric plant to the smelters and other industrial concerns in Antof.a.gasta.
Retracing his steps, Doc found Tip Galligan exactly where he had left her. His slight nod denoted great approval; the young woman could take orders. Like other men, Doc disliked having his commands disobeyed.
”Did you find any trace of the shakemaker?” the girl asked.
”Then it is a human being which causes the quake?” Doc questioned.
”The shakes are made by some agency called the Little White Brother,” explained the girl in the gold evening frock. ”I know nothing more than that.”
”In the course of your captivity, did you overhear anything that might be a clew?” Doc asked.