Кеннет Робсон - Death in Silver

It was no 2-man craft. At least a dozen silver men in diving suits were outside.

They grouped to meet Doc and his party. Some of them held diver's knives. But others were doing something else, working at the escape hatch by which they had left their own submersible.

They drew out black rodssome 6 feet-or-more in length, to the ends of which were attached what resembled black rubber hose. The men held these rods like lances and advanced. The black line trailed out behind them and led into their own submarine.

One of them stumbled. He put the end of his rod down against the sandy bottom to maintain his balance. Where the rod touched, there was abrupt, sizzling blue flame like an electric arc.

"The rods carry high-voltage current!" Doc warned his companions. "Pressure closes a contact. If they touch us with those things, we're finished!"

The silver men came on. Their features were grotesque inside the helmet windows for they still wore the gruesome masks which had caused the tabloid newspapers to give them their designation of Silver Death's-Heads . The insulated high-voltage rods probed hungrily.

Doc halted … wheeled … saw that his 4 companions were behind him … and waved them back.

"To fight them would be fatal," he warned. "Stay away from those rods. Circle around them. Keep them worried. I am going back into the Helldiver."

The bronze man spun and sloped back for the escape hatch. His best speed was not as fast as a normal man could walk on land. Injecting extra buoyancy into his suit, he lifted himself up to the conning tower … compensated the buoyancy … then dropped back and let himself down into the hatch. Compressed air forced the seawater out.

A moment later, he was in the Helldiver control room.

A twist of a lever discharged a fresh quantity of the chemical which — due to its reaction with the saline content of the sea water — created a black smudge.

Next, the bronze man dug a cutting torch out of a locker. He did not ignite it. Then he passed through the escape hatch and emerged outside again.

"Everyone safe?" he asked.

Monk and Ham replied almost at once over the intercommunicating radio. McCoy was a bit slower.

"How about you, Pace?" Doc asked.

"I'm not a bit scared!" said Rapid Pace. "I cannot understand it."

"Simply stay clear of them," Doc directed. "Give me a chance to work on their electromagnets with this cutting torch."

The bronze man did not ignite the torch immediately since its glow might betray his presence despite the black smear which now filled the sea. It was like working through ink as he crept along the hard, sandy bottom.

The silver men, he reasoned, would be worried by the black cloud and stick close to their own craft. Getting between the 2 tightly-clinging submersibles, Doc fended off with one hand, then puffed his suit with the air valve and sailed upward.

He found one of the electromagnets which were like washtubs. The cutting torch was fitted with an underwater igniter. With a mild explosion, it began to flame .

Doc Savage promptly clamped his transparent helmet to the steel side of the submarine. This would cause the clank of lead shoes — should any divers approach — to come to his attention before danger was too close.

Instead of holding the cutting torch in his hand, the bronze man placed it on the sub hull in such a position that the flame was held against the electromagnet covering without aid from his own hand. This was a matter of precaution. The torch might short-circuit through the coil and bring a death-dealing jolt of current.

Shortly, a flash of blue flame showed through the sepia void. That would be the burned-out coil wires arcing. Doc jerked the insulated lanyard attached to the torch and drew it to him.

He worked down the hull in the intensely dark, gently resisting void that was the sea and found the next electromagnet. He repeated the process there, even to keeping his helmet pressed to the sub hull.

And it was well that he did not neglect that last! He might have missed the clanking of rapid footsteps. Lead shoes were coming along the sub deck. From the jangling noises, other divers were striving to clamber up the hull.

Doc waited. The torch made a roaring that almost drowned out the footsteps. But it did not drown them quite as much as before. The divers were getting close.

Doc hauled the torch in, cut the flame, and eased away. A few feet down the hull, he stepped out and let himself sink to the sand.

Before he got his balance, the ocean current carried him against the Helldiver's hull. He crept along it, feeling his way.

"Monk! Ham!" Doc called into the microphone. "Get in the Helldiver with Pace and McCoy."

Doc reached the escape hatch and a moment later- with a dull clanking and a bubbling of released air — his 4 companions also reached the hatch. In order not to get lost, they had linked themselves together with a line — a hank of stout cord was a part of each diving suit belt equipment.

Doc closed the escape chamber hatch, blew the water, then stepped into the Helldiver . He ran for the control room without removing the diving suit.

Motors wailed out at his touch of the starting switch. Wailed and labored. Suddenly there was a great crashing of circuit breakers cutting current off from the motors. The breakers functioned automatically to protect the motors from an overload.

Doc tried again. Unclutched from the propeller drive shafts, the motors turned over readily. But the shafts themselves refused to turn. The overload caused the breakers to bang open.

"What is it?" Monk asked anxiously.

" They seem to have wrapped chain around our propeller shafts," Doc told him.

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The bronze man now blew the Helldiver's ballast tanks to their fullest in an endeavor to get the submarine to pull free from the electromagnets which still held it to the other underwater craft. Since some of the magnets had been rendered useless, Doc hoped the others would be insufficient to hold.

He was positive that they could have gotten away had the Helldiver's motors been able to turn over the propellers. The submarines did not separate, however, but continued to repose on the sea bottom, magnetically glued together.

And now there was more noise at the hatches as the silver men endeavored to force themselves inside the Helldiver .

Doc went back to the escape chamber accompanied by the other four. They were grim, saying little. Enclosed in the chamber, they shut the inner door. Then Doc touched the control which started opening the outer panel.

The door had opened but a few inches when he lunged for the controls and reversed them. A black rod had protruded through the opening. Its end was armored with the shiny copper of an electrode.

"One of them blasted electric lances!" Monk growled.

"Keep away from it!" Doc commanded grimly.

The lance had been caught in the closing door. The steel panel pinched shut and a moment later cut through the lance insulation with a resultant explosion of blue flame .

The Helldiver was equipped with 2 escape hatches so that divers could come and go. They had been intended for scientific exploration work under water. The second hatch was located forward and was smaller.