Кеннет Робсон - Death in Silver

To the homely Monk, the trip back to the submarine of the Silver Death's-Heads seemed to take an age. He struggled at first, then desisted at the very real threat of a knife point against his chest.

The air lock by which they were taken into the other subseas boat was of the conventional type, possibly a bit larger than usual. But Monk was not interested in structural details.

Forlorn grief contorted the chemist's pleasantly ugly features. He had seen what had happened to Doc Savage. The bronze giant — he was convinced — was now dead.

The thought appalled Monk. It weakened him, took his spirit, and made him listless, not caring greatly what happened henceforward. The fact that Pat Savage and Lorna Zane were still prisoners of the Silver Death's-Heads — perhaps alive — was temporarily forgotten.

Monk's existence was tied up with Doc Savage and had been for years. But Doc was dead now. Scientist, a being of superhuman physical powers, Master of incredible feats — the bronze man had perished in a tomb of steel 60 feet beneath the Atlantic.

Monk thought of that … and it put him in a mood where he could not see the need for carrying on.

Under the guard of alert submachine guns, Monk and Ham were placed together in a tiny compartment in the silver men's submarine. Their diving suits were removed.

They had to sit down shoulder-to-shoulder between 2 lockers. There was barely room for them. Nor was there headroom for even the shortest of their captors in the submarine.

The U-boat was incredibly cramped. And she had a big cargo of humanity aboard if these men who wore the silver disguises could be classed as such.

Rapid Pace and McCoy were placed somewhere else. Monk and Ham did not see them after they entered the underseas craft.

The homely chemist and the dapper lawyer did see a large metal canister being passed through the air hatch. A clockwork device was attached to this. They recognized it for what it was — a mine of the type used by the Coast Guard to destroy derelicts.

They could guess to what use the explosive was to be put.

The Silver Death's-Heads loaded aboard the submarine and took off their diving paraphernalia. They were a jubilant lot. Some removed their silver masks. The faces they revealed had one thing in common — there was viciousness about the eyes.

A switch was thrown, cutting current off from the electromagnets. The submarine lifted a little but did not clear the surface. It traveled away.

By the sound of the motors, Monk and Ham knew the craft was making full speed. They knew why — the mine.

The mine went off after a few minutes. The shock of it rolled the submarine and made her steel plates groan.

Ull came and leered down at Monk and Ham and said, "That blew your submarine and the corpse of Doc Savage to where they belong!"

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

Ull removed his mask now, probably because it hampered his breathing. The fact that he did remove it promised an unpleasant future. He would not show his face to men whom he expected to live to identify him later in a court of Law.

It was a surprise this face of Ull's. It mirrored no evil, not even the eyes. It was a round, cherubic thing — the countenance of a matured cupid. The eyes were soft and brown and the fat, round chin had a cleft that was almost a dimple.

UII stared peacefully at Monk and Ham.

"You see!" he said dryly. "We were prepared for trouble under the water."

"Whatcha mean?" Monk asked thickly.

"The electric lances," Ull chuckled. "We have carried them aboard for a long time. There was always a chance that we might be trapped under water and divers sent down to investigate. The lances were the most effective weapons I could devise."

Monk said nothing but tried not to think of Doc Savage and what had happened to him. His groping mind hit on another thing which was puzzling him. So he asked about it.

"The electromagnets?" he asked. "How come this thing was equipped with them?"

"We use them," UII chuckled.

"How?" Monk questioned hoarsely.

UII chuckled. If there was placidity and innocence on his cherubic face, it did not extend to his voice, for that was ugly in its very quietness. There was satanic evil also in his calm demeanor.

"The electromagnets enabled us to contact you in that black water," Ull offered. "We were lucky. We came close to you and had sense enough to have the magnets switched on. Before we knew it, we were fastened to you. The magnets pulled us close. They are very powerful!"

"You didn't put them on for that purpose," Monk muttered. "They wouldn't operate over a distance of more than a few feet. What are they intended for?"

Ull smirked. "Before long, I think that will cease to puzzle you."

"Yeah," Monk growled. Then still trying to keep his thoughts off Doc Savage's fate, the homely chemist ejected another question: "Pat — is she all right?"

"She is alive," Ull told him. "I would not say she is 'all right'. In fact, her position is very bad. So is that of the other young lady, Lorna Zane. To be quite clear, they are to be killedalong with you unless you tell us whether-or-not the police know of our method of getting into New York harbor by the underwater route."

That last was an afterthought, plainly, and Monk did not honor it with an answer. They would be tortured, of course. Whether-or-not they talked would not make much difference to them. They would be killed anyway.

Monk tried to clear up another mysterious point.

"Is Bedford Burgess Gardner behind all this?" he asked.

Ull hesitated … put the end of a pink tongue between his teeth as he considered … then burst into an explosion of hollow laughter.

"Is Gardner the big brain?" he smiled. "You want to know that?"

"Yes," Monk grunted.

"Yes," said Ull.

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

The submarine was traveling along at half-throttle and not making great speed. That was fortunate. Otherwise, Doc Savage might have been torn off.

True, he was lashed to a mooring ring on the deck. He could never have held on any other way even with his fabulous muscles. Maybe he could have managed for a time. But the chances were against it. Especially earlier during the time when the underseas craft had charged full speed from the vicinity of the Helldiver , endeavoring to get clear before the mine exploded.

Doc's escape from Death had been executed without great difficulty or impossible legerdemain. The water where the subsea fight had occurred was not so deep that its mere pressure produced extreme discomfort.

The bronze man had managed to get to a locker in the compartment into which he had disappeared after Ull had torn off the oxygen apparatus. This was not hard. Doc knew the Helldiver's every rivet. And he could hold his breath — due to long practice — a time an ordinary man would consider beyond human ability.

A pair of diving "lungs" had come out of the locker. These were merely the tubes and mouthpiece, purifier, and oxygen tanks minus the helmet and suit of an ordinary diving rig. Donning the diving lungs had entailed no greater problem than the swallowing of a quantity of saltwater. Doc wore them now.

The bronze man had to keep his head down and his features protected with enwrapping arms. Otherwise, the diving lungs would have been torn out by the rush of the water. That was why it was well that he had lashed himself to the mooring ring.