Chung!
It discharged.
The flashlight promptly went out as the man who held it leaped back. Obviously, he was fearful some of the ghastly Smoke of Eternity would be splashed upon his person.
From a distance of several yards, the men waited.
"How did Kar get wise the bronze guy was followin us?" one asked the messenger.
"Simple," was the chuckled reply. "The watchman at that bank telephoned the morning newspapers a big bronze bird had attacked him and robbed the vault. Guess he phoned the papers before the police. Probably wanted to see his name in print.
"Anyway, it caught the newspapers just at the deadline. They came out with it on the front page. Kar has men watching every paper to grab the editions as they hit the street. He does that to keep track of things. Sometimes the papers have news ahead of the police. Anyhow, the minute Kar got his dope, he reasoned the bronze guy was trailin the loot in hopes it would lead him to the chiefs hangout."
"So he sent you "
"So he sent me here to make that loud talk about leadin you guys to him." The speaker laughed nastily. "Kar knew Doc Savage would follow us right into this trap!"
"Kar is pretty slick," said one of the group, smitten with evil admiration.
"You said it! Slickest of all is how he keeps anybody from ever seein him, or even of learnin what his real name is."
"We were in luck that the watchman called the papers!"
The flashlight spilled glare onto the passage deadfall.
Vile gray smoke had made a sizable smudge. Eerie electrical sparks played in a pronounced fashion.
The heavy timbers of the deadfall were dissolving!
"That," leered one of the men, "fixes the bronze guy!"
But, whether the bronze man met his end or not, his companions were still at his office headquarters; while Doc was out on his errand, they were waiting for the next move.
Chapter 12. THE TERRIBLE DESTROYER
IN Doc Savages skyscraper office, six men were waiting the night out, obeying Docs command to wait as he made his hurried exit the previous night.
Dawn was not far off. Over on the Sixth Avenue Elevated, trains were beginning to rattle past more often. In another hour, the city would awaken in earnest.
On a table in the office lay the last edition of a morning newspaper. Emblazoned in scare type on the front page was the story the stupid watchman had turned in. The scream heads read:
MYSTERIOUS BRONZE MAN ROBS BANK
"
I wonder if we should do something about that?" Johnny, the geologist, murmured anxiously, wiping his glasses with the thick left lens.
"Doc knows what he is about!" declared Long Tom, who had his nose buried in a highly technical pamphlet on advanced electrical research. "Shut up and let me read."
"Yes, do shut up!" Ham echoed. "I want to listen to this remarkable music!"
Monk and Renny, with the innate calmness of men huge physically, were sleeping. Monk snored. His snores had the peculiar quality of no two sounding remotely alike.
Ham, the waspish, quick-thinking lawyer, sat near Monk, listening with great interest to the variety of snore noises in Monks repertoire. His sword cane was between his knees.
"Can you imagine!" Ham jeered. "Not only is Monk the homeliest bird on earth, but he makes the awfulest noises!"
Of the six men present, only Oliver Wording Bittman betrayed nervousness. He got up from his chair often. He paced the floor.
"Arent you worried about Doc Savage?" he inquired wonderingly. "He left near midnight. Now it is almost dawn, and no word."
Long Tom repeated his previous declaration. "Doc knows what he is doing. Long ago, we learned not to worry about him."
Bittman made a move to return to his chair. His fingers sought the scalpel on his watch chain. Twirling the thing seemed to give him nervous surcease.
Suddenly he leveled an arm at the door.
"Listen!" he breathed. "Did you hear something?"
Monk promptly awakened although the words were far less loud than others he had slept through. One had a suspicion Monk had been pretending sleep so as to annoy Ham with his snoring.
Rennys gigantic fist had ruined the door panel, but temporary repairs had been effected with rough boards.
A faint sound came from the other side of the door. Feet scuffing the corridor floor! Some one in flight!
Monk kicked over the chair in which Renny slept. In a thundering avalanche, Docs five friends hit the door. They volleyed through. Oliver Wording Bittman jumped out of their path as though getting clear of a stampede.
A man was just wedging into one of two waiting elevators.
Doc had described all of the recruits assembled to Kars cause by Squint. This was one of them!
The man got the elevator door shut before Docs friends reached it. The cage sank swiftly.
But directly beside the lift the sneak had used, stood another car, open.
In the office, Oliver Wording Bittman searched about wildly, calling, "Where are the guns?" He was not going to barge into trouble unarmed, it seemed.
Renny, Long Tom, Johnny, and Monk dived into the open elevators. Monk stamped the button which started the doors sliding shut.
Quick-thinking, waspish Ham threw himself against the closing panels, halting them.
"Hold on a minute!" he clipped. "That man deliberately let himself be heard! And there is no attendant in this elevator!"
THE others stared at Ham, not comprehending what he was driving at.
"Scat!" rumbled Monk. "If you dont wanta see action, get out of the way of somebody who does! You can stay and guard Bittman. He still aint got no gun."
"Shut up!" Ham rapped. "Come out of there! All of you!"
"But what "
"Come out and Ill show you what I suspect!"
The conversation had occurred rapidly. Renny, Monk, Long Tom, and Johnny erupted from the elevator door as tumultuously as they had entered.
Reaching into the cage gingerly, using his sword cane for a prod, Ham threw the lift control lever to the point marked, "Down."
Nothing happened.
Ham let the doors slide shut, closing the master circuit of the hoist machinery. Ordinarily, the cage would have departed with a gentle acceleration.
But this time it fell!
The dull report of a blast echoed from high overhead. An explosive had been placed in the lift mechanism!
"Aw " Monk muttered. He was not affected as much by the narrow escape from death as by the thought he would have to thank his roasting mate, Ham, for saving his life.
Hams quick thinking had saved them from Kars death trap!
"Well use Docs scooter!" Renny barked.
They ran down the battery of elevators. The metal-paneled last door was shut. Apparently no cage stood there.
Rennys monster hand found a secret button and pushed it. The doors cracked open. A waiting cage was revealed.
This was Doc Savages private lift, to be used in reaching the street in moments of emergency. Docs friends called it his "scooter." It operated at a far greater speed than any other cage in the huge skyscraper. It always waited here on the eighty-sixth floor for Docs use.
Oliver Wording Bittman now came dashing out of the office. He had apparently reconciled himself to going into action without a gun.
"Wait for me! I want in on this!" he called.
He sprang into the elevator with the others, Monk hit the control lever. The cage floor seemed to hop out from under their feet. So swift was the descent that the sensation of falling persisted for some seventy stories. And the stopping piled them down on all fours.
"Golly!" grinned Monk. "I always get a wallop out of ridin in this thing!"
They hurried out to the street.
"There he goes!" declared Long Tom.
Their skulking visitor stood beside the curb half a block distant. Parked at this point was a cream-colored taxi. The man drew a taxi drivers uniform cap from the cab, donned it. Evidently this was his masquerade.