He strode to one wall. The old plaster was a network of jagged cracks. He pressed a certain spot. A secret panel, the edges cleverly disguised by the cracks, opened. Squint took out a telephone instrument.
The phone obviously was not a part of the regular city system, since Squint did not give a number, but began speaking at once.
"Kar?" he asked. "This is Squint."
Outside the window, Doc Savage’s strong bronze lips formed the word "Kar." The dying man on the pirate ship, in trying to name the master mind who had given them the mysterious dissolving substance called the "Smoke of Eternity," had started a name that began with a "K."
Kar was that name!
"Yeah," Squint was saying over the secret phone line. "We put old Jerome Coffern out of the way like you ordered." Squint paused to wet his dry lips nervously, then added, "We — we had a little tough luck."
Squint was surprisingly modest. His four companions had died violently and he had barely escaped with his life — and he passed it off as a little tough luck!
Replying to a sharp query from Kar, Squint reluctantly explained the nature of the insignificant misfortune.
The outburst the information got from Kar was so violent the rattling of the receiver diaphragm reached even Doc Savage’s ears.
There followed what was evidently a long procession of orders. These were spoken in a low voice by Kar. Doc’s ears, sensitive to the extreme, could not hear a single word.
SQUINT hung up at last and replaced the phone. He closed the secret panel. Lighting a cigarette, he drew deeply from it, as though seeking courage. Then he faced the assembled thugs.
"Kar says I’m to tell you guys the whole thing," he said, making his voice harsh. "He says you will work together better if you know what it’s all about. He says it’ll show you birds where your bread is buttered. I guess he’s right, at that."
Squint paused to blow a plume of smoke at the ceiling. But the smoke apparently reminded him of the weird dissolving of Jerome Coffern’s body. He made a face and flung the cigarette on the floor.
"This is the first time you guys have been here!" he told the men. "Each one of you got the word from me to come to this room. I sent for you. I know every one of you. You’re regular guys. That’s why I’m ringing you in on the best thing you ever saw."
"Aw, cut out the mush an’ get down to talkin’ turkey!" a thick-necked bruiser growled.
Squint ignored the contemptuous tone of the interruption.
"Sure, I’ll talk turkey!" he sneered. "You just heard me jawin’ to the big shot. His name is Kar. That phone leads to his secret hangout. I don’t know where it is. I don’t even know Kar."
"You dunno who the chief is?" muttered the thick-necked man.
"Nope."
"Then how’d you — "
"How’d I get hooked up with him?" Squint chuckled. "I got a telephone call from him. He said he’d heard I was a square shooter, and did I want to get in on the best thing in the world? I did. And I’m tellin’ you it’s good. This proposition is the best ever."
"What is it?" queried he of the beefy neck.
"How does a million bucks to each of you within a year sound?" Squint demanded dramatically.
Jaws fell. Eyes popped.
"A million — "
"That much anyway!" Squint declared. "Maybe more! The million is guaranteed. You draw fifty thousand of it tomorrow. Fifty grand for each guy! But before I say more, I gotta know if you’re comin’ in.
"I know you mugs can’t afford to run to the police and talk. You’re sure to be rubbed out if you do. And if you come in, you gotta take orders from me. And I get my orders from Kar. I’m sort of a straw boss, see!"
"Count me in!" ejaculated the thug with the ample neck.
Like flies to sugar, the others offered eager allegiance.
"Here’s the lay!" announced Squint. "This fellow Kar has got something he calls the Smoke of Eternity. It’s something nobody ever heard of before. A few drops of it will dissolve a man’s body — make it turn into an ugly gray smoke. The stuff will dissolve brick, metal and wood — almost anything."
For some seconds the villainous assemblage digested this. It was too much for them to swallow. The big-necked fellow voiced the thoughts of the rest.
"You’re crazy!" he said.
REDDENING, Squint swore and shook his fist.
"I ain’t nuts!" he ranted. "The Smoke of Eternity works like that! I dunno what the stuff is. I only know it will dissolve a man. It will wipe the front right off the biggest bank vault there is. Enough of it, about a suitcase full, could turn the Empire State Building into that queer smoke."
The others were still skeptical.
"Don’tcha see what havin’ such a thing as this Smoke of Eternity means?" Squint snarled. "It means we can walk right into any bank vault in town and take what we want. And listen, you apes! I ain’t crazy — and I ain’t lyin’!"
At this point, a newsboy’s shout penetrated faintly to the room. The news hawker was crying his papers to the crowd of curious in front of the house.
"Body of famous chemist vanishes!" he was screaming. "Mystery baffles police!"
Squint laughed nastily. He leveled an arm at one of his listeners.
"Go buy a paper from that kid!"
The man left obediently. In a moment he was back with a pink tabloid newspaper.
Emblazoned in black scare-type was the story of the finding of Jerome Coffern’s right hand and forearm on the grounds of the Mammoth Manufacturing Company plant in New Jersey.
"I guess you’ll believe me now!" Squint sneered. "I used some of the Smoke of Eternity on old Jerome Coffern. It dissolved all of his body but the hand. Probably the hand didn’t go because there wasn’t quite enough of the stuff."
The expression on the evil faces surrounding Squint showed the thugs had changed their minds. They no longer thought Squint was lying or crazy.
"Why’d you rub out this Jerome Coffern?" one villain asked.
"Kar ordered it," said Squint. "Kar told me why, too. Kar believes in lettin’ his men know why everything is done. The only thing Kar don’t tell is who he is. Nobody knows that. Kar had Jerome Coffern killed because Coffern was the only man alive who might tell the police who Kar is."
"Jerome Coffern knew Kar, huh?" muttered a man.
"He must have." Squint fired another cigarette. "Now, I already got orders for you mugs. A shipment of gold money is goin’ to Chicago tomorrow. Some banks out in Chi are hard up and need the jack. There’s about two million dollars’ worth goin’. A hundred miles out of New York, we jerk up the tracks. We use this Smoke of Eternity to wipe out the bullion guards and get into the armored express car. And out of that two million, each of you guys gets paid your fifty thousand. The rest of the gold coin goes into Kar’s workin’ fund."
A gasp of evil pleasure swept the group. Mean eyes glittered greedily.
Although Squint had proclaimed that Kar was letting them in on a great deal, they actually knew nothing but the existence of the Smoke of Eternity and the fact they were to rob a gold train.
Who Kar was — they had no idea. Should these men fall into the clutches of the law, they could help the police little even if they told all they knew. True, the gold robbery would be thwarted. But the master villain would still be free.
A FAINT buzz came from the secret phone. Squint hurried to the instrument. He received more orders from Kar. His thin, repulsive face was worried as he hung up and closed the hidden panel.
"Damn!" he groaned. "Kar has another job for us to do before the gold train thing!"