Кеннет Робсон - Death in Silver

"What are those things?" she snapped and put a hand up to adjust her luxuriant brown hair.

"Just a precaution to warn if anyone was following me," Doc told her.

The girl fingered in her hair, thrusting in her fingers, patting. Suddenly she took her hand down. She pointed it at Doc.

The hand held the twin to the small automatic which Doc had caused her to drop.

"Your 'precaution'," she said, "is not going to do you much good."

- — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

The girl's arm was out rigid. The gun pointed at about the middle button of Doc's vest. And because her arm was tense, her gray sleeve was drawn off a white-gold wristwatch. He could hear the animated clicking of the watch, tiny as the sound was.

"This may be a mistake," Doc told her.

"It will be a mistake if you make any move that I don't order!" she informed him.

Doc asked, "There has been a previous attempt to kill you? And you think I had a part in it?"

The girl seemed fascinated by the eerie quality of the bronze man's eyes .

"I can't prove it was you," she said.

"Why not?"

"The man who shot at me had some kind of a silver -colored suit on," she answered. "He had a silver mask, too."

"When did this happen?"

"The attempt to shoot me? Yesterday. Yesterday evening about this time." She moved her gun meaningly, but it still pointed at the center of Doc's vest. "I went right out and bought me 2 guns. And don't get the idea I can't use them! I was born and raised in Montana."

"Why," Doc asked her, "should a man in silver try to kill you?"

Her gun remained steady. "That is what I would like to know."

Doc Savage studied her as if trying to read her mind. Then … slowly but firmly … he walked forward.

"I'll shoot!" the girl shrilled.

But Doc came on and she did not fire but retreated, biting her lips in vexation until she was against the wall. The bronze man reached out and removed the gun from her hand without difficulty.

"You fool!" she flared. "You don't know how near I came to killing you!"

"Your pea-shooter," Doc advised her, "would not have dented my bulletproof vest."

She had tucked her bag high under an arm so that it had not fallen throughout the encounter. She did not resist when he took the bag. There was a folder of business cards inside. They read:

MISS LORNA ZANE

Private Secretary to Paine L. Winthrop

"Lorna?" Doc asked.

"Miss Zane to you!" she snapped.

Silently, Doc extended the bag after noting there was nothing else in it other than a metal powder box, almost full.

The girl took the bag, absently opened it … then apparently got a big idea. She flipped the powder case open and dashed the cosmetic flakes at Doc's eye.

But she had not counted on the blinding speed with which the bronze man could move. He ducked and the powder — shooting over his shoulder — spread in a cloud over the room.

The girl tried to flee. Doc grasped her arm. She screamed from fright since he could not have been hurting her.

From behind Doc came a loud report as a black pellet on the floor exploded. There was a second bang … a third.

Doc whirled.

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Turning, the bronze man saw first the chair — big and heavy. It clubbed in a whining arc for his head. Doc threw head-and-shoulders back through the air, turned sidewise.

The chair missed him but snapped buttons off his vest — such was its speed — and broke itself into fragments on the floor.

"Blast me, you're lightning in chains!" rapped the man who had swung the chair. "Blast me, lightning in chains!"

The man gave the impression of something operated by electricity. His words actually gobbled, such was their high-pressure speed. His arms moved as if driven by a clockwork which had lost its governor.

He stabbed a hand at his coat pocket. The weighty hang of his coat on that side indicated a gun.

Doc lunged. He was fast. But this other man had speed, too. He brought his left fist up in a terrific blow. It landed flush on Doc's jaw.

The other waited expectantly. His mouth fell open and his eyes flew wide when Doc did not drop. He looked scared but desperate.

"Incredible!" he exploded. "Incredible! Yes it is!"

He started another blow. But he was not as fortunate this time. Doc's left hand drifted out, pushed, and the fellow upset. As he went down, Doc's other hand grasped his coat pocket and wrenched. Half of the man's coat was torn off with it the pocket and the gun which it held.

"I'll be damned!" the man exclaimed with staccato rapidity. "I'll be damned! Yes, I will . Damned!"

Doc ignored him for the girl was running to get the automatic which she had first held. When Doc swept across the floor and got the weapon first, she grimaced angrily and backed into a corner.

The man of staccato speech came up from the floor like a suddenly awakened cat. He bounced backward warily as if apprehensive of encountering Doc again. His hands and lower lip trembled.

"Who are you?" he clipped. "Who are you? That's what I want to know!"

"Doc Savage," the bronze man said.

"That explains it!" gulped the other. "It sure does!"

Doc glanced at the girl. "Who is this fellow?" he asked.

"Harry Pace is the name," answered the man for himself. "Yes sir, Pace! People call me 'Rapid.' Rapid Pace. Get it? Efficiency, that's Pace. You bet! Efficiency."

"He," the girl said dryly, "is Paine L. Winthrop's efficiency expert."

The young woman had undergone a marked change. She wore a somewhat sheepish expression.

"So you are Doc Savage," she added. "I have heard so much about you that I began to think you were a legend."

"Yes sir, you're almost a legend, Mr. Savage," said "Rapid" Pace. "Yes sir, a legend!"

"Why did you try to club me with that chair?" Doc asked him.

"A mistake," Pace clattered. "All a mistake. You see, I was protecting Lorna. Efficiency on all occasions, that is me!"

Doc's flake-gold eyes probed.

"Have you seen any Silver Death's-Heads around the shipyard?" he asked.

"Good night!" Rapid Pace stuttered. "What arc you talking about?"

The floor seemed to jump a little under their feet. A loud thump accompanied this phenomenon. Several windows in the building evidently broke; they could hear the glass jangling .

- — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

"Bless me!" gulped Rapid Pace. "What was that?"

"Stay here," Doc rapped and whipped for the stairs. Rapid Pace started after him, stepped on one of the explosive particles on the floor, gave a wild jump … and trembled furiously.

"Dear me!" he choked. "My nerves aren't going to stand this! No, sir!"

"Stay with Miss Zane," Doc directed. Then the bronze man vanished up the stairs, his going as silent and swift as the progress of a gale-swept tendril of fog.

Rapid Pace eyed Lorna Zane and said hurriedly, "Lorna, I'm worried. What is this all about?"

"I do not know," said the girl grimly.

"If anything would happen to you, I think I … I'd die," Pace said earnestly.

The young woman studied him. "I doubt it," she said dryly.

"Now don't joke, Lorna," Pace pleaded. "You know I'm crazy about you. Yes sir … crazy! Why don't you like me?"