Part 13 (1/2)
”Suspects that Tant is not behind this thing at all? Naw, he ain't got an inkling of it!”
”Has he any idea of what we're after, and why we're trying to lay the blame onto Tant?”
”I dunno. I don't think so.”
Had bony Johnny, the accomplished actor, heard this, he would have bowed his head in shame and decided to give up the pursuit of excitement and go back to teaching the youth of the United States that a pyrite is a native compound rock containing metals, and not a fellow with a cutla.s.s in his teeth.
Johnny thought he was in the company of a Tant outlaw. But it seemed the badman in question was a member of another mob, which was engaged in pointing suspicion at Tant.
The leader of this mysterious other band was asking, ”Does Doc Savage know what the red monsters are?”
”I tell you, I don't know what he knows, chief,” the man called Cackle replied. ”All I know is that I got suspicious of this guy Snook, thought at first he was a Tant man, then got the suspicion he might be a Doc Savage man.”
The other voice said, after a pause, ”I think we can make use of this. We'll trick this Savage aid into trapping his boss.”A long stream of command followed.
CACKLE returned to Johnny via the front door of the restaurant. He was carrying a newspaper.
”Went out to got a paper,” he said. ”Waited a few minutes, so as to grab the latest edition.”
Johnny glanced at the paper.
FILLING STATION MAN SHOT.
FOUND IN CAR NEAR ROCK SLIDE.
Police Still Investigating Mystery Rock Blown On Road That was all the police had given the newspaper reporters so far.
They went out and got in the car. Cackle pulled out a map, not a road map, but one of the type used by oil men, an accurately surveyed map from which the most exact positions can be secured.
Cackle pointed.
”There,” he said, ”Is where the boss, Tant, is right now.”
They drove out of town, east, then north, then east again, and pa.s.sed the airport. Beyond, Cackle drove into a filling station, saying, ”Gotta get her filled up.”
While the gasoline was being pumped in, and oil and tires checked, Cackle roamed into a near-by orchard and began to finger over worm-eaten fruit in search of an apple that looked worth consuming, Johnny took the bait. He slid out of the car, scuttled into the filling station and telephoned Doc Savage.
He gave Doc the exact location pointed out by Cackle as the whereabouts of Outlaw Tant.
”Be there shortly,” Doc Savage said.
Johnny was sitting innocently in the car when Cackle returned. They drove on, and covered about two miles when Cackle pointed abruptly and said, ”There's one of our hang-outs, too.”
There was nothing. It was a gag, an old one, but the old ones are sometimes best. Johnny looked, and never knew about the blackjack which Cackle swung, until he figured it out hours later, after he regained consciousness.
Cackle looked at the senseless figure of the gaunt geologist and archaeologist. Then Cackle pocketed his blackjack.
”The great Doc Savage's aids!” he sniffed. ”Just so much gravy! That's what!”
He tied Johnny, gagged him, then drove on. He began laughing to himself.
”The chief is sure slick!” he chuckled. ”n.o.body even knows what we're doing until it's almost done, and then this Tant gent gets the blame!”
Chapter XIV. MASTERMIND.
DOC SAVAGE evidenced no unusual haste after he received Johnny's call-the call which Johnny had been unknowingly tricked into making, and which was to lead Doc Savage into a trap.The bronze man had been telephoning oil field lease brokers, the gentlemen known locally as ”lease robbers,” and possibly misnamed, because there were those among them as honest and upright as any businessman.
”Are there any leases being sold in the Indian Dome Field to-day?” Doc asked.
”You mean the field where them d.a.m.n man-eating things escaped through a casing?” the broker asked.
”That is the field,” Doc admitted.
”There's been some more attacks by the man-eating devils up there,” said the broker. ”Drilling crews, pumpers, and even operators are beginning to get scared of the place. Almost everybody will clear out if there's many more attacks. That'll cause a lot of leases to be offered for sale, because n.o.body wants a field where no telling what time something out of the ground'll eat you.”
”Any leases sold in the Indian Dome Field to-day?” Doc repeated.
”Yeah. One. No, wait a minute! Two! One early, and one just a minute ago. They sold very cheap, because the men who owned them got scared. One had a brother killed by the red, jellylike devils last night. You know, that drilling crew that was about half eaten up by the monsters in the Indian Dome Field last night. That lease was one that was sold, on account of the brother didn't want anything more to do with it. He got the big jitters and the w.i.l.l.i.e.s and-”
”Who bought it?” Doc asked, sharply.
The lease broker evidently looked the name up.
”The Best Bet Oil Corporation,” he said.
”Who owns it?”
”n.o.body seems to know. Now if you want to get some leases cheap-”
Doc Savage seemed to consider for a moment ”Listen,” he said, ”this is Clark Savage, Jr.”
”Is that supposed to mean something to me?” the broker asked.
”Doc Savage.”
The broker must have choked slightly. ”That's different!”
Doc said, ”I am making a standing offer for any lease in the Indian Dome Field. I will pay one thousand dollars more than any other offer made for any lease. Understand, I make no offer for any lease myself. But when an offer is made, I will go it one thousand dollars better. See that the word gets around, will you?”
”Will I!” exploded the broker. ”Say, I'll cut my commission to five per cent! But what's the idea? You going into oil production in the mid-West in a big way?”
Doc Savage said, ”I am trying to prevent one of the most gigantic extortion schemes and steals ever attempted to be perpetrated upon the oil industry. It is just starting now. If it can be nipped in the bud, now is the time to do it”