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Doc Savage: #186- "The Frightened Fish" XII - Plenty
The sound of splashing brought him to the port rail. The Bronze Man paused only long enough to
get a fix on the swimmer &
& then he stepped onto the rail and followed Jonas Sown into the water!
Sown -- a black shape in the black water -- struck out for the cluster of nearby tuna clippers. He
turned his head only once (at the sound of Doc Savage hitting the water) and frantically redoubled his
efforts.
On deck, Mahli picked up a gun that someone had dropped. This one was not a mercy pistol. The
Moon was still low. But there was enough light to make out the figures of Jonas Sown and Doc Savage
stroking toward the clippers.
"Doc's gaining on him!" Monk said excitedly.
Mahli grunted.
"The bronze one is fast," he rumbled. "But I have something more fast, nyet?"
Mahli lay the barrel of his captured pistol across a leveled forearm. He fired once.
Sown twisted in the water. He grabbed for his right knee.
"Good shooting!" Ham breathed. "You got him in the leg."
Mahli fired again, this time hitting Sown's other leg. Another bullet followed it.
Like a worm impaled on a pin, the neuro-physician floundered in the water as Doc Savage -- his
arms propelling him in a powerful breastbone -- closed in like a human torpedo.
Attracted by the noise and commotion, the clippers edged in closer.
"This is good sport, nyet?" Mahli said fiercely.
None of the others stopped the Russian as he calmly, methodically, and cold-bloodedly emptied the
gun into Jonas Sown's thrashing legs.
He kept firing even after the bullets ran out. Then he went in search of another pistol.
In the water, Doc swam to within a handful-of-yards of Jonas Sown. They could see milky
moonlight shimmer off Sown's glasses which had somehow managed to stay on his face. The reflected
light gave the floundering neuro-physician the aspect of a blind insect struggling to keep afloat on a
pond.
Ham Brooks used the twin reflections to home in on Sown with a searchlight he found on the
wheelhouse roof. He illuminated that patch of water just in time to capture the climax of the chase.
Jonas Sown floated on his back, his incredulous face bobbing close to the surface. Yarns of blood
radiated all around him like spreading fingers.
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Doc Savage: #186- "The Frightened Fish" XII - Plenty
Trailing a wake of disturbed water, Doc Savage reached out to snare his quary.
He was too late by a foot.
Jonas Sown simply sank.
Arching like a porpoise, the bronze giant followed him down. The red-tinged black water shook
and regathered itself at the spot where they had disappeared.
"Doc'll get him," Monk predicted.
"Let us hope," Johnny said fervently.
2 minutes passed & then 3 &
Ham worked the searchlight trying to locate any disturbance on the choppy seas.
Monk almost dove in &
But Mahli stopped him with a taunting remark:
"Have you so little faith in your leader?"
The homely chemist subsided. He squeezed the rail hard enough to draw blood!
Moments later, a flurry of bursting air bubbles erupted with a ghoulish gurgle.
Then a giant Man of Bronze broke the surface. He treaded water momentarily, pushing himself
around in place with his arms.
In no direction did they spy another swimmer. The searchlight halo made that plain to all.
Finally, Doc swam back to the junk alone.
He boarded the junk by climbing up his grappling hook-and-line which still trailed down to the
water.
"Sown got tangled in one of the clipper nets," Doc informed the others stiffly. "He drowned before I
could reach him."
"You were a fool to try to save him!" Mahli sneered.
"I had no intention of rescuing Jonas Sown," Doc told him flatly.
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Hours later, they had inventoried the casualties.
Most of the junk's crew -- including remnants of the New York gang -- were either dead or
incapacitated.
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Doc Savage: #186- "The Frightened Fish" XII - Plenty
Monk, Johnny, and Mahli had pumped out the Helldiver. After repairs, she would be seaworthy
enough for the voyage home provided they nursed her through the crossing.
Ham had been in touch with SCAP headquarters in the Dai-Ichi Building in Tokyo by radio,
explaining the situation. U.S. warships were dispatched from different Japanese ports to take charge of
the junk and its surviving crewmen.
Ham joined Johnny and Monk -- who were poking about the junk's innards -- to report the news.
"here's the fish discourager," Monk announced, pointing to several rows of simple devices on the
order of oversized hourglasses set into the keel. The top halves of these were filled to capacity with a
gritty black material like crushed coal. The bottom halves were empty.
Valves in the narrow neck of each hourglass kept the black grit in the upper portions of the glass
until a releasing switch was activated. One row of devices was empty, top and bottom. They could see [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]