Part 3 (1/2)

TWO men approached and Seized the doctor by his arms. Dr. Bird shook them off contemptuously.

”Keep your filthy paws off me!” he cried. ”I know when I'm bested, and I'll come quietly, but I won't be dragged.”

The men looked at their leader for orders. From behind his light, the Russian studied his opponent. He gave vent to a stream of guttural Russian. The men fell back.

”For your information, Doctor,” he said in a sneering tone. ”I have told my men to follow you closely, gun in hand. At the slightest sign of hesitation, or at the first attempt to escape, they will fire. They are excellent shots.”

”Lead on, Saranoff,” was Dr. Bird's cheery comment.

With a shrug of his shoulders, the leader of the Young Labor party turned and made his way along the track toward the wharf. Dr. Bird looked anxiously ahead as they approached, fearing that Feodrovna Androvitch would be discerned in her hiding place. Saranoff correctly interpreted his gaze.

”Does der Herr Doktor Vogel eggspect somevun?” he asked in the voice which had first come over Dr. Bird's telephone. The doctor started and the Russian went on in the voice of the doctor's secretary. ”I'm so glad you came, Dr. Bird. I am going to take you directly to the main base of our dearly beloved friend, Ivan Saranoff.”

An expression that was a mixture of chagrin and relief spread over Dr.

Bird's face.

”Sold, by thunder!” he cried.

The Russian laughed sardonically and tramped on in silence. Tied to the Romney Creek wharf was a boat with powerful electric motors, driven by storage batteries. At a nudge from his captors, Dr. Bird took his place in the craft. It glided silently away down the creek toward the Chesapeake's mouth.

In the bay, the boat veered to the south and ran along the sh.o.r.e until the mouth of Bush River opened before them. It turned west up the river, coming to a halt at one of the occasional bits of high ground which bordered the river.

”We get off here, Doctor,” said Saranoff. ”My base, which you have wasted so much time seeking, lies within a hundred yards of this point. Before I take you there, you may be interested in watching us conceal our boat.”

Before the doctor's surprised gaze, the edges of a huge box rose above the surface of the water, around the electric boat. The boat was raised and water could be heard running out of the box which held it.

When the box was drained, a man leaped in and made some adjustments. A cover, hinged on one side, swung over and closed the box tightly with the boat inside. Men closed clamps which held it in position. As they sprang to sh.o.r.e, the box sunk silently out of sight below the surface of the water.

”It is now beneath a foot of mud, Doctor,” laughed the Russian, ”and there is nothing to lead a searching party to suspect its existence.

Now I will take you to my base.”

He led the way for a hundred yards over the ground. Before them loomed an old abandoned fisherman's shack. They entered to find merely a barren room. The Russian stepped to the far side and manipulated a hidden lever. Half of the floor slid to one side, disclosing a flight of steps leading down into Stygian darkness.

Flashlight in hand, Saranoff descended, Dr. Bird following closely on his heels. They went down twenty-one steps before the stairs came to an end. Above them, the floor could be heard closing. There was a sharp click and the cavern was flooded with light.

Dr. Bird looked around him with keen interest. Before him stood a static generator of gigantic proportions and of a totally unfamiliar design. Attached to it was an elliptic reflector of silvery metal, from which rose a short, stubby projector tube.

”I suppose, Dr. Saranoff--” began Dr. Bird.

”_Ivan_ Saranoff, if you please, Doctor,” interrupted the Russian. ”I have renounced the trumpery distinctions of your bourgeois civilization as far as I am concerned.”

”I suppose, Ivan Saranoff,” said Dr. Bird obligingly, ”that this is the apparatus with which you send out a stream of negative particles.”

”It is, Doctor. I had no idea that the nature of it would ever be discovered; at least not until I had changed the United States to a second Sahara desert. I reckoned without you. In point of fact, at the time that I built this device and started it in operation, I had not clashed with you. Now, I know that my plan is a failure. You have left data on which other men can work, have you not?”