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 ship 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 fashion.
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 demolishing 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.
Tip Galligan considered deeply, finally said: "No."
Doc nodded. "Let"s get away from here."
"Where are we going?"
"Back to town."
THE streets of Antof.a.gasta were swarming with people when Doc and his attractive companion entered town.
The quake in the canyon had been heard plainly. Indeed, its quivering had penetrated the metropolis with sufficient strength to dance gla.s.ses on tables.
Fearing the town itself might be the recipient of some later convulsion, every one was getting outdoors. The citizens were under the impression that the quakes were of natural origin. Many individuals were moving their beds to the streets.
Doc, sighting an establishment which was the equivalent of a corner drug store in the United States, entered it. Using a telephone, he called the number of the Taberna Frio.
Renny"s great voice roared out of the receiver.
"Holy cow, Doc" rumbled Renny. "That shake had us worried! We thought it might have gotten you!"
"I"m O. K.," Doc replied. "Have you learned anything?"
"I went out and made a few inquiries," Renny rumbled. "My end of the job, you said, was to learn something of the men who are taking charge of the nitrate plants in the places of those who were murdered."
Did you get hold of anything peculiar?" Doc asked. "
The men are all foreigners!" Renny exclaimed.
"So are most of the men in charge of the nitrate industry down here," the bronze man reminded.
"These all come from one particular country, Doc," Renny boomed grimly. "The country in question is a certain European one which is considered a possible instigator of a future war."
"That throws light on the mystery," Doc said thoughtfully. "It gives us a clew to the motivation."
"Yep," Renny agreed. "These fellows taking charge of nitrate plants are all newcomers to South America, too."
"Have Long Tom and Johnny reported in?" Doc asked.
"Just got here. They"ve got a lot of papers with inky lines and figures on "em-their instrument readings while that shake was in progress."
"Tell them to put the stuff in the safe," Doc directed.
Renny snorted. "n.o.body is going to take it away-"
"I"m not saying anybody will take it away from you," Doc told him. "But put it into the safe, anyway."
"O. K.," Renny agreed.
"Is Dido Galligan there?"
"Sure, everybody"s here! Even Monk"s pig."
"Inform that I have found Tip," Doc said.
Doc heard Renny convey this information in an aside from the mouthpiece. Dido Galligan"s shout of delight was audible. An instant later, Dido"s excited voice crackled in the telephone receiver.
"Where is Tip, Mr. Savage?" he demanded.
"She"ll be at the Taberna Frio in a very few minutes," Doc told him. "The whole gang of you stick around there."
The bronze man hung up.
THE Taberna Frio was somewhat agog, and not because of the earthquake which had led some guests to move their beds to the street. It was something else.
"Like wild men, they dashed out!" exclaimed a man in Spanish.
"Who can understand the ways of Yankees?" muttered another.
Doc Savage and Tip Galligan, overhearing these remarks, stopped and exchanged glances.
"Your men!" gasped Tip.
They raced to the suite which Doc had taken for his party, opened the door, and shoved in.
The chambers were empty, except for one man-John Acre.
At sight of Doc and the girl, John Acre"s eyes protruded a bit. He looked like a startled hawk. Judging from his expression, he had never seen Tip Galligan before.
"This is the genuine John Acre," Doc told the young woman.Tip Galligan bowed. "I never did get to see the mysterious man who gave that name and was seized in New York."
"And murdered," John Acre added. "We resembled each other quite a bit, it seems."
"Where are the others?" Doc asked.
"Didn"t you phone them?" John Acre asked.
"Yes, I did," Doc replied, "to tell them I was bringing Miss Galligan here."
"But didn"t you call a second time?" John Acre insisted.
"No."
"They got a phone call only a minute ago," said the hawk-faced man. "It was from some one who said you told him to call. According to the fellow who phoned, you and the girl had been attacked, and you wanted help."