Devil on the Moon: A Doc Savage Adventure by Lester Dent (pseud. Kenneth Robeson)

Author:Lester Dent (pseud. Kenneth Robeson)
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: fiction, Doc Savage (Fictional character), adventure
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1938-03-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter X

THE FISH STEALERS

There ensued a moment of horror when even the ex-sailors were aghast, although Lurgent had obviously picked them for their hard unscrupulousness as well as their naval experience. More than one pale face was in the line. The little speech which Lurgent now made, stating that he expected military obedience and any man who shirked or hesitated would be shot, did not cheer them greatly.

Lurgent then stated that he had shot the two quitters simply because no information about this project could be permitted to leak out.

He finished by offering a reward of fifty thousand dollars in cash to any man who could manage to kill the bronze man, Doc Savage.

The men now got aboard the boats. Lurgent must have instructed them what to do while they were in the tool shed. They began putting on the white suits and the aprons which marked them as simple marine grocery deliverymen.

Doc Savage had crept forward and crouched in the anchor-cable locker. It was unlikely they would look there. The men were too much on edge to roam around looking at the craft.

“Cast off!” Lurgent ordered. “And all of you have guns ready.”

The hawseholes into the anchor-cable locker opened on either side of the bow. Doc, watching through them, saw the decrepit pier house recede in the swirling early morning fog. The second boat was accompanying them, also loaded with Lurgent’s men.

Doc put his tiny radio into use.

“Did you locate the source of the second station using that scrambler?” he asked.

Ham said, “Well, we got a couple of bearings. Any sign of Johnny, Doc?”

“No mention of Johnny,” the bronze man said grimly. “Get those bearings down on paper.”

“Sure. Shall we try to find the transmitting station?”

“Do exactly that,” the bronze man said. “And be careful. The fellow who spoke over that station was the Man on the Moon.”

“Good!” Ham growled. “We’re getting closer to him. But say, how about you?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Doc directed.

“Right,” Ham said.

That ended the radio conversation, and Doc remained quiet while the two fake grocery delivery boats ploughed through the fog. The craft seemed to have a definite destination.

The submarine was very large, very bright, very new. It was almost three hundred feet long, wonderfully streamlined. Four deck guns—themselves waterproof—crouched in iron warts along the deck. There were big hatches which could open, and a catapult with a scouting plane already in place for launching would rise by machinery.

From flagstaffs fluttered great flags. The flags belonged to the nation ruled by the iron-fisted ruler who had been discussed by the ambassador and the Man on the Moon.

The sub was moored to a deserted concrete dock not far from the U. S. navy yard.

The two boats containing Lurgent’s men pulled alongside, threw lines and made fast. They began shouldering baskets of groceries—these had been on the second craft.

They were challenged when they started to get aboard the submarine. The U-boat crew explained their craft was closed to visitors.

The submarine’s officer did not add that his government had sent this craft across the Atlantic just to show how modern a navy it had.

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