Dent Lester - Trouble On Parade

Stanley K. Foreman put his handkerchief to his mouth and ascended the stairs to see how the fire fighting was progressing. Doc Savage stood at the foot of the steps and listened for a moment.

“It sounds as if they've extinguished the blaze,” he remarked to his new bodyguard.

“Uh-huh,” the main said.

Doc strode to the dining room … looked inside … and observed Disappointed Smith, Mix Walden, and Si Hedges still seated at their breakfast table. There was a man in the dining room. Evidently he was a guard who had warned them to stay where they were.

Doc addressed his bodyguard who was at his heels.

“Your job, Mr… Mr. …?”

“I'm Erle Mason,” the thug muttered.

“Okay, Erle. Your job is to protect me.”

“That's right.”

“I want you to stand right here and be ready to protect me while I go talk to those people at the table,” Doc said. “Keep your eyes open. If they try to jump me, pitch in and help me. Understand?”

“I got it,” Erle said.

Giving the bodyguard no time to think of accompanying him, Doc walked quickly to the table. For the benefit of the bodyguard, he delivered himself of an angry stare. Then he sat down, putting his hands in his pockets.

“What,” Mix demanded, “has come over you?”

Si Hedges asked, “What happened upstairs? They won't let us leave here.”

Disappointed Smith closed his eyes and unlimbered a quotation: “Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the Supreme guardian and legislator, who knows us better too. - He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. - Our antagonist is our helper."

He grimaced violently and added, “A guy named Burke wrote that. He must've had us in mind.”

Doc leaned forward and said, “Shut up and listen! In a moment, I am going to pick up a napkin and roll it in a ball as if I was nervous. When I lay the napkin down, there will be half-a-dozen small glass balls inside it. The balls contain a liquid. Don't drop them. They're gas. Each one of you take two. But don't let anyone see you dividing them up or let anybody know you have them.”

Smith gulped, “Gas? What are …”

“Listen! And don't ask questions! Don't use the glass capsules until I tell you to. Then throw them on the floor and hold your breath. Hold your breath at least a minute because if you don't, you'll fall over unconscious.”

“Falling over unconscious,” Mix said wryly, “might be a relief.”

“It won't rescue your sister,” Doc said levelly.

Mix's eyes flew wide with excitement.

“You've found Jane?” she demanded eagerly.

“No. But I'm working on it.”

Mix exclaimed, “We think they must have brought her here to the island …”

Doc stopped her by lifting a hand.

“Why didn't you people tell me this hotel is a refuge for high-grade crooks?”

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Smith, Mix, and Hedges were all blank-faced for a moment.

Then Smith muttered, “So you found that out.”

“With small help from you!” Doc said sharply. “Keep your voices down. Foreman's gang isn't sure yet that I'm wise.”

“Now that you are,” Mix said, “they won't let you leave here alive.”

“We'll see about that. How long have you known about this?”

“I just got suspicious yesterday,” Mix said. “Jane suspected it before I did. That was about a week ago. But I thought her imagination was working overtime.”

Doc turned to Si Hedges.

“When did you catch on?”

Hedges paled. “I've suspected it — I must admit — for some months. I … I was afraid to act. But when I learned they intended to killsome of those poor shipwreck victims who landed here unwittingly, I was horrified into doing something about it.”

“Why,” Doc demanded, “did you think of calling on me for help?”

“Because I knew about you. I really have a brother-in-law named Wilbur Tidings, whom you once did a great favor. Yesterday when I accompanied Mr. Foreman to the mainland to buy supplies — as was my habit — I slipped off and telephoned you. I … er, I told you the lie about the boats because I wanted to talk to you before I told my suspicions.”

“You mean,” Doc said sourly, “that you wanted to make a deal to clear yourself.”

“I … yes.”

“They must have suspected you,” Doc said, “and had a man eavesdrop on your talk with me.”

“Yes. I found out later — after they took me from my hotel room violently — that they had.”

Doc swung on Disappointed Smith and said, “So the next thing they did was hire you to put on your idiotic swimming act, thinking that was just the kind of cockeyed thing that would distract my attention from them?”

Disappointed Smith groaned audibly.

“Damn them! That's exactly what they did. But I didn't catch on until …”

“… until Foreman bailed you out of jail and told you to keep your mouth shut?” Doc suggested.

Smith nodded. “Yes, that's how I got out of jail. And then I knew I was into something that stank bad.”

Doc was keeping a wary eye on Foreman's henchmen to see that neither of them came within earshot. They were holding the conversation at the table in low voices.

“How did Jane get into it?” Doc asked.

Near tears, Mix said, “She thought I was involved and was trying to protect me.”

“Do you and Jane work here on the island?”

“Yes. I'm a hostess and Jane was a bookkeeper.”

“And you never suspected anything for months?”

Mix shook her head slowly.

“Foreman is a slick devil. And who would ever expect to find a thing like this rat's nest?”

“We've killed enough time,” Doc said.

He placed the balled napkin on the table.

“Here's the napkin with the gas grenades inside it. Remember what I said to do. And get this! Don't be surprised at anything that happens to you!”

“We won't be,” Smith muttered. “Nothing could surprise us after this.”

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

Doc Savage arose … walked angrily to the door … and told the bodyguard, “Good work! You kept your eye right on me.”

At that moment, Foreman approached, scowling, and demanded of the bodyguard, “What's he been doing?”

“Talking to that crackpot Smith and the other two,” the guard said.

Foreman didn't like that. But Doc headed him off by saying in a grim voice, “Mr. Foreman, do you know what I think? I think those three — Smith, Miss Walden, Hedges — aren't honest. I think they're hiding something.”

With some difficulty, Foreman pretended surprise.

“You do?”

“Yes, I do!”

“Hmmmmm,” said Foreman.

“And now,” Doc announced, “I'm ready to make that telephone call to my friends in New York to tell them I'm safe and they needn't start a search of this place.”

Alarm turned Foreman's eyes coldly dark.

“This isn't the mainland. You can't telephone …”

“Radio-telephone, I mean.”

“Oh.”

“I understand you have a radio-telephone station here.”

Foreman licked his lips.

“It's busy right now. Wait about 10 minutes. I guess it'll be all right for you to make your call.”

“10 minutes, very well,” Doc agreed. “Mr. Foreman, I must say you're turning out to be a very cooperative fellow. Practically the first one I've run into in the last 24 hours.”

“I aim to be,” Foreman said.

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