The Pirate of the Pacific ds-5 Page 9

  There was no signature. Radiograms are often unsigned, which made this fact nothing unusual.

  "Whew!" Renny grunted. "Can you make heads or tails of that mess of letters, Doc? It seems to be a five-letter code of some kind."

  "The last word has six letters," Doc pointed out. "Let's see what a little experimenting will do to it."

  Seating himself before a sheet of blank paper, a pencil in hand, Doc went to work on the cipher. His pencil flew swiftly, trying different combinations of the letters.

  Five minutes later he got it.

  "The thing is simple, after all," he smiled.

  "Yeah?" Renny grunted doubtfully.

  "The first cipher letter is the first in the translated message," Doc said rapidly. "The second cipher letter is the last in the message. The third cipher letter is the second in the message; the fourth cipher letter is next to the last in the message, and so on. The letters are merely scrambled systematically!"

  "Hey!" gasped Renny. "I'm dizzy already."

  "It sounds complicated until you get it down on paper. Here, I'll show you."

  Doc put down the cipher as it stood.

  DTOSS EARYR AAGSE IAHBR OOAFR ODIRDA

  * * *

  Under that he wrote the translation.

  DOCSAVAGEABOARDRADIOFORHISARREST

  Renny scowled at this. Then its meaning became clear — the words were merely without spacing.

  "Doc Savage aboard. Radio for his arrest!" he read aloud.

  "The Instructions Tom Too sent to a confederate in San Francisco," Doc explained. "Evidently they had agreed upon a course of action should we be discovered aboard."

  * * *

  POWERFUL equipment was a part of the installation aboard the Malay Queen. Using this, it was possible for passengers aboard to carry on a telephone conversation with any one ashore, exactly as though there was a wire connection.

  Using this, Doc now proceeded to do some detective work.

  He called the Hotel Kwang in San Francisco.

  "Have you a guest registered under the name of John Duck?" he asked.

  "John Duck checked out only a few moments ago," the hotel clerk informed him.

  Doc's second call was to the San Francisco police chief. He cut in a loud-speaker so every one in the Malay Queen radio room could hear what the police chief had to say.

  "Have you received any request to arrest Doc Savage," Doc asked.

  "Certainly not!" replied the San Francisco official. "We have a suggestion from the New York police that we offer Savage every possible cooperation."

  Doc rested his golden eyes on Captain Hickman. "You satisfied?"

  Captain Hickman's ruddy face glistened with perspiration. "I — er — yes, of course."

  Doc severed his radio connection with San Francisco.

  "I wish your cooperation," he told Captain Hickman. "Whether you give it or not is up to you. But if you refuse, you may rest assured you will lose your command of this ship within thirty minutes."

  Captain Hickman mopped at his face. He was bewildered, angry, a little scared.

  Doc noted his indecision. "Call your owners. Ask them about it."

  The Malay Queen commander hurriedly complied. He secured a radio-land-line connection with the headquarters of his company in San Francisco He gave a brief description of the situation.

  "What about this man Savage?" he finished.

  He was wearing earphones. The others did not hear what he was told.

  But Captain Hickman turned about as pale as his ruddy face permitted. His hands shook as he placed the headset on the table. He stared at Doc as if wondering what manner of man the big bronze fellow was.

  "I have been ordered to do anything you wish, even to turning my command over to you," he said briskly.

  First Mate Jong stared as if this was hard to believe. Then he made a gesture of agreement. "I will start an immediate search of the ship. And I can promise you it will be done so smoothly no one will as much as know it is going on."

  He hurried out.

  Doc and Renny returned to the royal suite.

  Renny eyed Doc curiously. "Just what kind of a pull have you got with the company that owns this boat, anyhow?"

  "Some months ago the concern got pinched for money," Doc said slowly, reluctantly. "Had it ceased operating, several thousand men would have been out of jobs. A loan of mine tided them over."

  * * *

  RENNY sank heavily into a chair. At times he felt a positive awe of the mighty bronze man. This was one of the occasions.

  It was not the fact that Doc was wealthy enough to take an important hand in a commercial project such as this, that took Renny's breath. It was the uncanny way such things as this turned up — the way the bronze man seemed to have a finger in affairs in every part of the world.

  Renny knew Doc Possessed fabulous wealth, a golden treasure.trove alongside which the proverbial ransom of a king paled into insignificance. Doc had a fortune great enough to buy and sell some nations.

  Renny had seen that treasure. The sight of it had left him dazed for weeks. It lay in the lost Valley of the Vanished, a chasm in the impenetrable mountains of the Central American republic of Hidalgo. This strange place was peopled by a golden-skinned folk, pure-blooded descendants of the ancient Mayan race. They guarded the wealth. And they sent burro trains of it to the outside world as Doc needed it.

  There was one string attached to the wealth — Doc was to use it only in projects which would benefit humanity. The Mayans had insisted Upon that. It was to he used for the cause of right.

  Their insistence was hardly needed, for it would not have received any other disposition at Doc's hands. Doc's life was dedicated to that same creed — to go here and there, from one end of the world to the other, striving to help those who needed help, punishing those who were malefactors.

  This was the one thing that motivated Doc's every act.

  The same creed bound his five men to Doc. That, and their love of adventure, which was never satisfied.

  Chapter 12

  TREACHERY

  THE search for Monk, Long Tom, and Johnny drew a blank.

  "I can assure you we searched every stateroom aboard, and every box and bale of the cargo!" declared slant-eyed First Mate Jong. "There was no sign of three prisoners."

  "I don't believe they're aboard!" Captain Hickman Captain Hickman had taken to speaking in a low voice when in the presence of the big bronze man. He was completely in awe of Doc, and his manner showed it.

  "I'm still betting they're aboard!" Renny grunted. "Unless — " He wet his lips. His enormous fists became flinty blocks. It had just occurred to him that Tom Too might have become alarmed and slain the three captives, shoving their bodies overboard.

  Renny's fears were dispelled by a plain white card they found under the door of the royal suite the next day. It said:

  The straw did not break the back of the

  camel, you may be glad to ]earn. But

  it came very near.

  TOM TOO.

  "That snake is getting cocky!" Renny gritted. "How could the search have missed our three pals, granting they're aboard?"

  "No telling how many of the crew have been bribed," Doc pointed out.

  * * *

  THE Malay Queen stopped at Honolulu for a few hours. Doc had gotten instructions to the flashy cockney and the disheveled tropical tramp, otherwise Ham and Mindoro, and they all kept close watch on such persons as went ashore.

  No sign of Long Tom, Monk, or Johnny was discovered in the close inspection.

  Immediately after the Malay Queen put to sea again, Doc Savage instituted a single-handed search for his three captive friends. Due to the great size of the liner, the task was a nearly impossible one.

  A hundred of Tom Too's corsairs could conceivably have been aboard without Doc being able to identify one of them. Every Mongol, Jap, Chinaman and half-caste was a potential suspect.

  Doc began in the hold. He opened barrels, boxes,
and bales of cargo. He examined the fresh-water tanks. The Malay Queen was an oil burner, and he scrutinized the fuel tanks. Then he began on the D deck cabins and worked up.

  It was on D deck, well toward the stern, that his hunt produced first results.

  He found a stateroom which had been used, but which was now unoccupied.

  The mirror was missing.

  On the floor was a small smudge. Analyzing this, Doc learned it was the crayon he used for his invisible writing.

  These discoveries told him a story. The prisoners were actually aboard. They had been kept here for a time. Monk had been caught trying to leave a secret message on the mirror. The mirror had been removed and thrown overboard. Either Monk or his captors had destroyed the crayon by stamping upon it. Probably that was Monk's work, since Tom Too's men would have wanted the crayon to learn its composition.

  Doc continued his prowling. It was an interminable task. The Malay Queen had more than four hundred cabins. While Doc searched, Tom Too could easily move the prisoners to a stateroom Doc had already scrutinized.

  DOC did not finish the hunting. Tom Too struck at their lives the second night out of Honolulu.

  Doc and Renny had been ordering meals sent to their suite to keep Tom Too from getting the idea they were subsisting off rations carried in their baggage. The meals which were brought in to them they chucked overboard. This task usually fell to Renny, while Doc watched for enemies.

  Gulls were following the Malay Queen. Swooping, the birds snatched anything edible which was tossed overside before the articles reached the water.

  The birds bolted portions of the food Renny heaved over the rail.

  Two of the feathered scavengers did not fly fifty yards before their wings collapsed and they plummeted into the sea, lifeless.

  "Poison!" Renny grunted.

  The cook and steward who had come in contact with the meal put in an uncomfortable half hour in front of Doc's probing golden eyes. They convinced the bronze giant they knew nothing of the poison.

  Captain Hickman was perturbed when he heard of the attempt. He acted as scared as though his own life had beer attempted.

  First Mate Jong was also solicitous. "Do you wish me to make a second search of the ship?"

  "It would be useless," Doc replied.

  Jong stiffened perceptibly. "I hope, sir, you do not distrust the personnel of this craft!"

  "Not necessarily."

  Doc and Renny redoubled their caution.

  The next night they found poisoned needles concealed in their pillows.

  A few minutes later, when Doc turned on the water in the bathroom, a villainous, many-legged creature hurtled out of the hot-water faucet.

  At this Renny's hair stood on end. He was in the habit of carelessly thrusting his big hands under the faucet when he washed.

  "I've seen those things before!" he gulped, pointing at the hideous creature which some one had concealed in the faucet. "It's a species of jungle spider, the bite of which is fatal."

  "Tom Too must have gone ashore in Honolulu and loaded up with death-dealing instruments," Doc suggested dryly. "It looks as if we're in for a brisk time."

  Shortly after midnight a bomb tore the royal suite almost completely from the liner. Partitions were reduced to kindling. The beds were demolished, the bed clothing torn to ribbons. Two passengers in near-by accommodations were slightly injured.

  Doc's foresight saved him. He and Renny were bunking in with the cockney who showed such bad taste in clothes and manners — Ham.

  Renny started to race to the scene of the explosion.

  Doc stopped him. "Wait. Let Ham go and see how much damage was done."

  Ham was not long on his mission.

  "A frightful explosion," he reported. "The sides and roof of the royal suite were blown into the sea."

  "Good!" Doe smiled.

  "What's good about it?" Renny queried.

  "We'll hibernate in here and make it look like we were blown overboard," Doc explained. "In the meantime, Ham and Mindoro will keep their eyes open."

  * * *

  HAM and Mindoro kept their eyes open enough, but it netted them exactly nothing.

  The Malay Queen neared Mantilla, capital city of the Luzon Union. Arrival time was set for high noon.

  Doc quitted Ham's cabin, descended to the lower deck, and approached Mindoro. The wealthy Luzon Union politician was more blowsy-looking than ever in his tropical-tramp disguise.

  "How much influence have you with the police chief of Mantilla and the president of the Luzon Union," Doc questioned.

  "I made them!" Mindoro said proudly. "They're honest men, and my friends. I believe they would lay down their lives for me to a man."

  "Then we will send some radio messages," Doc declared.

  "You mean you want the liner searched upon arrival?"

  "More than that. I want every person aboard questioned closely, and those who cannot prove they have been engaged in legitimate enterprises for the past few years are to be thrown in jail. Can you swing something that radical?"

  "I can. And that should trap Tom Too."

  "It'll at least put a crimp in his style," Doc smiled. They repaired at once to the presence of Captain Hickman. The commander of the Malay Queen expressed vast astonishment at sight of Doc.

  First Mate Jong, looking up from the binnacle, registered popeyed surprise.

  "We wish to use the radio apparatus," Doe explained. "Perhaps you had better come along, captain, in case the radio operator should object."

  Captain Hickman had suddenly started perspiring. The mere sight of Doc seemed capable of making him break out in a sweat.

  "Of course — of course!" he said jerkily.

  First Mate Jong left the bridge at this juncture.

  "Just a moment, please!" gulped Captain Hickman. "I must give an order. Then we shall go to the radio room."

  Crossing to one of the apprentice seamen always on duty on the bridge, the commander spoke in a low voice. The words continued for fully a minute. Then Captain Hickman hurried back to Doc, apologizing for the delay.

  They moved toward the radio cabin. The door of the apparatus room appeared before them.

  Renny started violently — for he was suddenly hearing a vague, mellow, trilling sound that ran up and down the musical scale in a we[rdly tuneless fashion. It was a melodious, inspiring sound that defied description. And it persisted for only an instant.

  Renny knew what it was — Doc's tiny, unconscious sound, which he made in his moments of greatest concentration, or when he had come upon a startling discovery, or as danger threatened.

  Instinctively Renny looked around for the trouble. He saw it. Wisps of smoke, yellowish, vile, were crawling out of the wireless-room door.

  Doc went ahead, a bronze flash of speed. He veered into the radio room. Two operators manned the instruments at this hour. Both sprawled in puddles of scarlet. They had been stabbed to death.

  The wireless sets — both telephone and telegraph — had been expertly wrecked. They were out of commission.

  Whoever had done the work was gone.

  * * *

  RENNY flung into the radio room. "Now if this ain't a fine mess!" he rasped hoarsely.

  Captain Hickman had not entered.

  Doc stepped to the door, looked out.

  Captain Hickman's revolver blazed in his face.

  Doc moved swiftly, as swiftly as he had ever moved before. Even his incredible speed and agility would not have gotten him in the clear had he tried to jump back. But he did duck enough that the bullet only scuffed through his bronze hair.

  Before the treacherous skipper's gun could flame again, Doc was back in the wireless cabin.

  Renny had whirled with the shot. "What is it, Doc?"

  "It's Captain Hickman!" the giant bronze man said with a sort of blazing resonance in his voice. "He's on Tom Too's pay roll!"

  Renny sprang to the door. The snout of a machine gun bristled from either fist. He shove
d one into the corridor and let it drum briefly.

  A man shrieked, cursed — his profanity was singing Kwangtungese.

  "That wasn't the captain!" Renny rumbled.

  He listened. Speeding feet slippered in the corridor from both directions. They were coming nearer. Shots roared.

  "They're closing in on us, Doc!"

  Doc picked a glass globule of anaesthetic out of a pocket. But he did not use it. Renny could not hold his breath the three or four minutes necessary for the air to neutralize the stuff.

  "Use the guns, Renny. Cut our way out of here!"

  Renny sprang to the wall. Beyond lay the deck. He shoved one of the little machine guns out, tightened on the trigger, and waved the muzzle with a circular motion.

  The terrific speed of the shots made a deafening moan. The bullets worked on the wall like a monster jig saw. A segment larger than the head of a barrel was cut almost completely out. Renny struck the section with his fist. It flew outward.

  Renny and Doc pitched out on deck. Only a few startled passengers were in sight.

  Doc sped to the nearest companionway. He reached the deck below in a single prodigious leap. Renny followed, waving the guns wildly for balance as he negotiated with three jumps and a near headlong fall the distance Doc had covered in one spring.

  Passengers saw the guns and ran shrieking for cover.

  * * *

  HAM and Mindoro came up the grand staircase, shoulder to shoulder, guns in hand. Ham had his sword cane.

  A bullet fired from the upper deck screamed past them. Somewhere in the dining saloon the slug shattered glassware. More lead followed.

  "Watch it, Doc!" Ham yelled. "A herd of the devils are coming up from below!"

  The words were hardly out his lips when snarling yellow faces topped the grand staircase.

  Ham's gun hooted its awful song of death. The faces sank from view, several spraying crimson.

  "I'm low on cartridges!" Renny boomed. "Ammunition goes through these guns like sand through a funnel!"

  "My baggage is in the hold!" Doc said swiftly. "We'd better get to it There's two cases of cartridges in the stuff."

  They raced forward along a passage, Doc in the lead.

  Slant-eyed men suddenly blocked their way. Eight or ten of them! They corked the passage.