Лестер Дент - Death in Silver

"Where's Doc?" Pat repeated.

Monk turned around as if to look at Ham but actually to hide the expression on his homely features.

"I dunno," he mumbled.

Her voice suddenly shrill, Pat demanded, "Monk! Has something happened to Doc?"

Laughing loudly from the door, Ull said, "I will tell the broadminded World that 'something' happened to him. He drowned! Then we blew his body to little pieces!"

Pat became very pale and swiveled so that no one could see her face.

Lorna Zane bit her lower lip so furiously that it seemed certain her small white teeth would go through.

A silver man appeared behind Ull and said, "Listen, the 'Big Boy' wants to see you. And he's as mad as hell!"

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

Ull scowled, his childishly round face suddenly ugly. He leveled an arm at the prisoners.

"I'll be back," he promised. "And you had better make up your minds to tell whether-or-not you spilled the dope on us to the police before you started out in that submarine!"

Then Ull stamped out and made his way up a companionway, then along a filthy passage. The old boat had once carried passengers, and Ull turned into what had been the lounge.

In the center of the lounge stood a large table. It was long and wide, but it was none too large for the use to which it was being put.

The table held the proceeds of the Silver Death's-Heads' robberies of the night before. There were stacks of currency, canvas bags of hard money, piles of necklaces, bracelets, and fully a bushel of rings. Almost a million dollars' worth of it if sold at retail by the original owners.

At the head of the table stood an ominous figure. He waved an arm and snarled, in a coarse whispering voice, "I suppose you had this display arranged to impress me?"

The expression on Ull's cherubic features showed that he had done just that.

"There is a great deal of money here," he muttered.

The ominous one at the end of the table wore one of the silver cloaks. The whispering tone he used was obviously assumed to disguise his voice.

"You still think that the loot taken last night justifies the turmoil into which the robberies threw the New York police?" he asked sarcastically.

"They won't catch us!" said Ull. "I'll order the anchor hoisted, and we shall cruise out to sea for a few days. No one will suspect us. The papers of this ship are in order. And there is a cargo of innocent wool and hides in the hold by way of proving we are enroute from South America to Canada."

"You are avoiding!" rapped the whispering one.

"Avoiding what?" Ull asked with pretended innocence.

"The fact that you ordered those robberies on your own initiative!" snapped the other. "You were to loot that first armored truck. You were to kill Paine L. Winthrop. And that was all except for the work incidental to fighting Doc Savage."

Ull began, "We took nearly a million dollars … "

"… and you endangered a scheme which has netted me a billion within the last year!" the silver mastermind hissed.

Ull's cleft chin sagged.

"What?" he choked. "A… how much?"

"A billion!" snarled the man at the head of the table.

Ull seemed dazed. "I do not understand this."

"Do you recall that at various times during the past year I have ordered certain men killed," queried the other grimly. "The killings were well done by yourself and aides, I must admit. In no case were they traceable to an organized plot."

Ull wet his lips. "I thought they were just … enemies of yours, like you said."

"Enemies. Business enemies!" the other said hoarsely. "They were men who stood in the way of business mergers which I was engineering. It was necessary to get them out of the way."

"But what about the billion?" UlI gulped.

"That was made by recapitalizing the merged companies and selling the stock," he was informed. "The financial details are too complicated to consider here."

Ull eyed the loot on the table, and it did not seem to impress him as much as it had earlier.

"Was Paine L. Winthrop in the way of one of your mergers?" he asked.

"No!" rasped the other. "Winthrop was working with me. As you know, he built our submarine in his shipyard a few months ago when all of his regular employees were laid off and we used our own men for the construction work. I was going to merge his company and give him a handsome cut of the profits. But he got cold feet. He had been told the submarine was for a foreign government. When he found out its true use, his nerve failed. I had to put him out of the way to keep him from going to the police."

"Oh," Ull said vaguely.

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

The Master in silver teetered on his heels. He even wore the silver gloves. But it was apparent that his hands were shaking slightly with rage!

The sinister one's anger began to get on Ull's nerves as did the mask. He was uneasy. Here, he realized, was a schemer of much greater magnitude than he had thought.

"You do not have to wear that disguise aboard," Ull mumbled.

"Most of your men do not know me," the other whispered hoarsely. "It is as well that they remain in ignorance. But let us not get away from the subject. You disobeyed my orders last night!"

"That," Ull told him quietly, "is not entirely my fault."

"How do you figure that way?"

"Had I known of this 'billion' business, do you think I would have been fool enough to endanger it?" Ull demanded.

The other seemed to think this over.

"In the future, my orders must be followed implicitly!" he said.

"They will be," Ull replied earnestly.

The being in silver waved an arm at the treasure-laden table. "Divide this stuff among the men. I do not want a share. And you will get no share yourself. That is by way of punishment for overstepping your authority last night!"

Ull looked as if he had been stuck with a pin. But he said nothing.

"What about the prisoners?" he asked.

"Question them," commanded the other. "Then executethem!"

Ull departed.

"Close the door behind you," he was directed. "And do not disturb me."

Ull closed the door of the treasure table room and walked away.

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

After Ull had gone, the man in silver walked over to the table, gazed upon the jewels with an experienced eye, and picked out the more valuable. He selected packets of bills. In less than a minute, he had annexed nearly a fourth of the loot!

The fellow now left the room, chuckling harshly. The passage into which he went was dark. But he strode blithely along it … until he suddenly fell on his face .

He never heard the blow which had struck him for it had been delivered silently with great force! Nor did he see the giant Man of Bronze who bent over him and searched him.

A bulky packet — not the loot from the table — was fastened inside the silver man's garment. Doc Savage took that.

Then Doc removed the silver garment.

It was very dark in the corridor and Doc did not make a light. Hence it was impossible for him to view the features of his victim — the Chieftain of the Silver Death's-Heads . Nor did Doc risk striking a match.

He drew the silver cloak on over his own head, found that it was snug but could be worn, then searched his victim again and found matches. He pocketed the matches.