Doc Savage: The Secret of Satan's Spine (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage Book 15) by Kenneth Robeson & Will Murray & Lester Dent

Author:Kenneth Robeson & Will Murray & Lester Dent
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Action and Adventure
Publisher: Altus Press
Published: 2015-11-09T19:00:00+00:00

Chapter XXIV

THE UNCANNY FIGURINE

DOC SAVAGE LISTENED to the accounts of Captain McCullum, Boatswain Worth and Seaman B. Elmer Dexter in an absorbed silence.

The crystal statuette was placed on a modest table, and the bronze man studied it as he listened.

After Dex recited his account of being knocked out by a long-haired passenger, Doc pulled his gaze away from the statue and asked, “What did this man look like?”

“Dark, heavyset and tough as nails. Oh, he also wore a strange looking ring. It resembled a wedding band, but it was on his right-hand middle finger, and it was golden, but kind of reddish, too. I didn’t recognize the metal.”

Captain McCullum interrupted, “You failed to mention that fact before.”

“I didn’t think it was important before. I only remembered it now because I’ve noticed other passengers wearing similar rings.”

Don Worth’s eyes went to Doc Savage’s and between them the importance of that observation did not go unnoticed.

“Go on,” invited Doc.

“Well, you see, when I woke up, I needed water, and I saw the statue. It felt cold to the touch But when we returned to the cabin with the Captain, it didn’t seem to Don to be there. At first.”

Doc asked, “What do you mean—at first?”

Worth began, “It was—”

“Let me tell it,” interrupted Captain McCullum. “From where he stood, Bosun Worth declared that it was not there. Yet Seaman Dexter and I saw it clearly. Apparently, when you look at the damned thing from different angles, it disappears and then reappears.”

Doc Savage’s eyes went to the crystal relic, and briefly the golden flakes that forever swirled in suspension within their depths quickened.

Doc shifted on his bunk as he listened, and in that shifting, the angle of his gaze also altered. His weird trilling, sounding like a ghostly wind through the rigging of an old clipper ship, filled the stateroom, signifying that the bronze man was perturbed. It seemed to come from no definite spot in the room, but rather from everywhere.

“I no longer see it,” he said, rising to his feet.

“See what I mean?” exclaimed Dex.

Doc went over to the statuette, and lifted it in both metallic hands, making the figurine seem dramatically smaller than before.

“I would be exceedingly careful with that,” cautioned the Captain. “I held it for two minutes, and I had to soak my hands in warm water to get any feeling back.”

Doc gripped the statuette as he examined the workmanship, then scrutinized the chiseled features of the crystalline face of the subject.

“This does not appear to be Greek,” he advised.

“Looks Greek to my eyes,” stated McCullum. “What makes you say otherwise?”

“There is a general resemblance to the Grecian toga, but the cut of these robes are very different and the features of this man are not Grecian.”

“You sound very sure of yourself,” the Skipper said dubiously.

Doc Savage replied not to that, for he was feeling the chill of the crystal as it crept into the flesh of his metallic fingers.

“The longer I hold it,” he said thoughtfully, “the colder it seems to become.

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