The Fiery Menace by Kenneth Robeson;Lester Dent

Author:Kenneth Robeson;Lester Dent
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Blackmask Online
Published: 2001-10-05T16:00:00+00:00

IT was a hilly suburban section where the streets were winding lanes paved with blacktop. The trees were large and pleasant lumps in the darkness, and the wind was crisp and clean off the New jersey hills. The houses stood far apart and they were neatly precise, each dwelling fitting into its surroundings.

Doc Savage drove slowly and watched the pavement. When he saw four sticks, twigs off trees, arranged at the side of the pavement where they were conspicuous, yet not in a spot where they would likely be disturbed by passing cars, he said, “This is the place.”

Long Tom Roberts saw the sticks and nodded. They were arranged in a Mayan symbol meaning, “I am close by, and there is danger.”

The Mayan tongue was the ancient one, and Doc and his aids had learned it long ago in an adventure in Central America. Since then they had used it, and the primitive sign language, for communication when they did not wish to be understood by others. So far as they knew, they were the only persons in the so-called civilized world who understood it.

Doc parked and Pat came out of the shadows.

“Next house. About two hundred yards,” she said. “Samuel H. B. Stover is still there. What have you got?”

Doc began assembling the contrivance he and Long Tom had made out of the balloon and the rest of the stuff. He had attached streamers of tissue paper to the balloon with rubber cement so that they would flutter and give the thing the aspect of changing shape. Inside the balloon was the affair of the batteries and the electric bulb, these light enough in weight that the inflated balloon would carry them upward.

“What is that thing?” Pat repeated.

Long Tom answered her, explaining, “Oh, that! It's a vampire. We couldn't get hold of a battery light enough, though, as we had to substitute hydrogen gas for helium. The hydrogen is inflammable, but it will lift more than the helium.”

Pat frowned. “Look here-do you think this vampire thing is something like that?”

Long Tom looked at Doc Savage for an answer, but the bronze man made no comment. Long Tom shrugged. “Search me,” he said. “All I know is that this one is a fair imitation.”

“I don't believe it is,” Pat said.

“Is what?”

“Something like this. The real vampire, I mean.” Pat was thoughtful a moment. “None of the people involved in this strike me as fools. Maybe there are one or two who do not have the mentality of Einstein, but I don't think they are frightened by a hoax. Have you noticed that they all have something in common?”

Long Tom said, “They're all scared, if that is what you mean.”

“They have something else in common,” Pat pointed out. “All of them have led adventuresome lives, possibly with the exception of Mrs. Abbett. Although the way she blacked up as a Negro boy and involved Doc in the thing shows she isn't adverse to a little adventure herself.”

“Yes,” agreed Long Tom, “and all of the men have, at one time or another, followed the sea as sailors.

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