"There"s a spy!" Doc Savage said finally, and pointed.
The spy was a long fellow, almost as long as Johnny, and his arms and legs looked almost as bony asJohnny"s. His middle, however, was paunchy inside a big overcoat. The fellow lay p.r.o.ne on a rooftop, peering upward at Doc"s skysc.r.a.per across the street.
It was a tribute to Doc Savage"s stealth that the spying man was unaware of an impending attack until Doc got him.
They wrestled in silence for seconds. The man kicked, b.u.t.ted with his head, flounced his skinny body. He was a very bony man with a tremendous stomach. He did not cry out.
"h.e.l.l!" he growled suddenly, and gave up. He said nothing more, stared at Doc Savage intently, plainly amazed by the bronze man"s strength.
"I"ve met strong hombres in my time!" he muttered. "But this is the first time I ever ran into a human bear trap!"
Johnny came up and searched the man. The fellow had two big single-action six-shooters in the waistband of his pants, and plenty of cartridges in various pockets.
"Name?" Doc Savage requested.
"Considering I"ve got kind of a general idea who you are, just from looking at you," the man said, "I don"t mind giving you my name. I"m Reservoir Hill!"
BIG-WORDED Johnny had an exclamation which he invariably used when surprised. It escaped him now. "I"ll be superamalgamated! Vida Carlaw"s partner!"
"I can prove I"m Reservoir Hill!" said the prisoner.
"You could have all kinds of papers and stuff," said Johnny. "They can be faked."
"Pull up my coat tail and shirt and take a look at my back," the prisoner suggested. "There is a tattoo there.
You can tell it"s been there for years, because there is a scar through it."
The tattoo was there; so was the scar, and both had obviously been there for years. The name read: CROTON HILL.
"Croton is a reservoir, part of the water supply of New York City," said the long, lean captive. "That"s how I got nicknamed "Reservoir." How"s Viddy-Miss Carlaw?"
Doc Savage suggested, "I thought she left you in Oklahoma?"
"Viddy just thought she did! That durn red thing coming out of the ground, and killing our driller and Sam Sands got me kinda worried! I was afraid something might happen to Viddy. I knowed she was coming East to see you, so I followed her, by plane, to keep her out of trouble!"
Reservoir Hill sighed. "So you"re Doc Savage! One time I came a-h.e.l.ling all the way from Okmulgee to Tulsa, just to get a look at you, when you stopped off in a plane, but you had left before I got there."
Bony Johnny, catching Doc"s eye, pursed his lips and looked skyward, a gesture which indicated the bony geologist did not believe Reservoir Hill"s story.
The bronze man released Reservoir Hill and the old oil man made no attempt to run.
Doc asked, "What did you fear might happen to Miss Carlaw?"
"Well, I didn"t know!" said Reservoir.
"There are no oil wells around New York out of which red monsters might come," Doc reminded him."Tell you, I didn"t know!"
"What were you doing at this spot?"
"Listen!" said Reservoir Hill. "I was coming to see you about half an hour ago, and I get me a look at an hombre who is watching your hang-out. Now this hombre is one I"ve seen in Oklahoma. Why should some rannihan from Oklahoma be watching your hang-out? So I decide to do some p.u.s.s.y-footing! That"s what I was doing when you caught me!"
"A glib answer to everything," bony Johnny said.
Reservoir Hill put out a flinty-looking jaw, "Don"t you get tough, bonebag!"
"Acquiescence occupies ephemeral supereminence," Johnny said, dryly.
"Somebody translate that!" Reservoir Hill requested. "If it means what I think, I"m gonna see who"s best man!"
"He merely said that your story seemed all right for the time being," Doc Savage translated, not quite literally.
Reservoir Hill, mollified, asked, "What do we do about these several ginks around here, all watching your place?"
"We"ll take care of them later," Doc said. "I want to question you and Miss Carlaw, in hopes of turning up something."
THEY returned to Doc Savage"s headquarters through subway, underground tunnel and the high-speed elevator.
They looked in the reception room, library, and the laboratory. They went out and examined the hall; then Doc went back into the laboratory, opened a hidden panel, and consulted recording dials of concealed instruments.
By these, he could tell if any one had come near the eighty-sixth floor recently. There was even a small concealed camera which photographed any one who appeared in the corridor, and Doc developed the tiny negative which this took.
"Vida Carlaw left alone," he said finally.
Chapter VI. THE TRAIL.
"SOMETHING has happened to Viddy!" Reservoir Hill squawled.
Doc Savage went into the library and swung out a section of bookcase, to disclose a device which recorded telephone conversations to his headquarters. It was not unlike an ordinary office dictaphone.
He connected a reproducing microphone and a loudspeaker and played the record back. There had been a telephone call.
"Doc Savage"s office," Vida Carlaw had said, answering the telephone. "Doc isn"t here."
"Viddy," the harsh-voiced caller had said, "this is Reservoir Hill. Don"t you recognize my voice?"
"Oh! But I thought you were in Oklahoma?"
"No. I"m waiting down in front of the building; I"m with Doc Savage. We"ve got some important information.
Come down right away."
"I"ll be right down."That had ended the call.
Doc Savage stopped the instrument and placed a fresh record on the recorder.
Reservoir Hill yelled, "That guy faked my voice!"
Johnny eyed him intently. "To me, it sounded like yours!"
Reservoir Hill knotted his fists and took a step forward.
"In my country, they shoot "em dead for such cracks!" he snarled.
Johnny, who had been an erudite college professor in his time, snarled back, "Any time you"re ready, you sage-hopper!"
For a moment it looked as if there was going to be a fight; then Reservoir Hill grinned thinly. "Sage-hopper?
They don"t have sagebrush in my part of Oklahoma!"
Doc Savage led the way downstairs, taking a regular elevator this time. In the lobby, there was some excitement, which they had missed by coming into the building by the secret underground route and up in the private high-speed elevator. There were policemen present, and an elevator captain was explaining.
"A girl came down in one of the elevators. Some guys were waiting here in the lobby and they grabbed the dame, banged her over the head, and dragged her away!"
Doc interrupted to describe Vida Carlaw.
"That"s the one they got!" said the elevator captain.
Doc hurried outside. There was no sign of Doc"s two aids, Monk and Ham. Nor was there any trace of the mysterious men from Oklahoma.
"They got Viddy and cleared out!" Reservoir Hill groaned; then he scowled at Doc Savage. "They put something over on you! You"re overrated! You ain"t what you"re cracked up to be!"
Doc did not reply, and showed by no sign that he was affected by the other man"s opinion.
Johnny, not exercising as much composure, scowled and demanded. "Look here, Hill! What do you know about what is behind this? What are you hiding?"
Reservoir Hill did not exactly give a start, but it was evident that he was shocked. He moistened his lips.
"What you mean?"
"My personal opinion is that you"re not telling all you know!" Johnny snapped.
Reservoir Hill put out his jaw.
"Any more of them cracks and one of us is going to go to the hospital!"
Doc Savage said, "In view of the fact that the affair seems to be getting more involved, it might be advisable to call in our other two men, Renny and Long Tom."
THE remaining two members of Doc Savage"s group of five aids were no less remarkable than the others.
"Long Tom" was Major Thomas J. Roberts, an electrical wizard whose name would probably pa.s.s down through history because of some of the things he had accomplished. Yet he did not look like a man of deeds.
He was slight, appeared fragile, and his complexion was about as inviting as that of a mushroom. No one could remember him ever having looked differently-nor could any one ever remember him having been ill.Colonel John Renwick was "Renny." Fame followed Renny for two, things-his fists and his engineering ability. Both were big. His fists were so large that archaeologists maintained that even the famous "Cardiff giant" had not possessed bigger hands. Renny"s ability as an engineer matched the size of his hands.
Long Tom and Renny arrived a short while after Doc telephoned, and the bronze man gave them a short outline of what had happened.
"What are we waitin" for?" Renny rumbled in a voice reminiscent of a peevish lion roaring in his den, he being excited over the prospect of action, which he loved.
"Monk and Ham may have succeeded in trailing the girl"s captors," Doc explained.
"More than likely Monk and Ham are somewhere quarreling!" feeble-looking Long Tom suggested.
Big-fisted Renny drew a newspaper from a pocket, sat down, and began reading the front page.
"I see an outlaw named Tomahawk Tant is sorta struttin" his stuff in Oklahoma," he rumbled. "Holy cow! If this earth devil thing takes us to Oklahoma, what you say we sorta relieve the citizens of Oklahoma of their outlaw, Tant, too?"
Reservoir Hill demanded, sharply, "Somebody been trying to sick you onto Tant?"
Renny looked up. "You sound interested!"
Reservoir Hill shrugged.
"h.e.l.l, no! I was just asking!"
Bony Johnny said, calmly, "Reservoir Hill, you understand, Renny, may not be telling all he knows."
Reservoir Hill had been seated in a chair. He got up and pushed his sleeves up his wrists.
"Blister my britches!" he growled. "I"ve took enough loose talk!"
"And I," Johnny said, calmly, "haven"t had any exercise for some time. When we finish, bet you sing a different tune."
Doc Savage requested, "Postpone that a moment, please!"
BOTH prospective combatants halted. They saw the bronze man go to the large array of sensitive radio apparatus with which the laboratory was equipped. A small electric call light on one of the panels was flickering, and Doc Savage touched a switch, cutting a loud-speaker into circuit.
The apish Monk"s squeaky voice came out of the loudspeaker. "Them guys gave us the slip! They had a big plane planted in a little field! They got the plane in the air and left us twiddling our thumbs! They had the girl!"
"They take her in the plane?"
"Yes!"
Doc Savage switched on the radio transmitter and asked, "Did they learn you followed them?"
"Don"t think so!"