Chapter IX
From the way the sailors behaved, they THE UNEXPECTED
evidently got their pants kicked now and then.
HERR SCHWARTZ
None of them seemed to think the comical-looking old gentleman was fooling.
Doc Savage and all the others were HAM BROOKS whispered to Doc Sav-hurried below decks, being efficiently age, but Doc couldn’t hear the whisper, so searched as they passed, one at a time, Ham remembered that he could use Mayan.
down a hatch.
Ham spoke in that, and asked, “Any chance Several sailors showed great interest in of disabling this fish? Maybe get one of our the project of frisking Pat and Lena.
explosive grenades against the hull?”
“Nix, nix,” said the walrus -faced skipper.
Doc, also in Mayan, said, “Our pocket
“Vun or two of us are gentlemans, regardless grenades would not discourage that subma-of what the rest of the world thinks.”
rine hull. It is built to withstand depth bombs.
He confronted Pat and Lena and Three hundred pounds of TNT has to ex-bowed. “In my cabin, ” he said, “are two silk plode within fifty feet of it to crush it.”
bathing suits. I purchased them for my two The man on the submarine with the daughters, bought them in Japan. I guess hand grenade said, “Are your chappies say-there is noddings to do but contribute them to this good cause. You vill put on der bathing 36
DOC SAVAGE
suits. Then I vill feel safe about you hiding
“Ich nein kenne diesen Mann!” he veppons.” He chuckled. “My cholly boys will yelled. “Nein!”
enjoy dot, eh?”
“Was ist?” blurted the sub commander.
The grins on the faces of his jolly boys There was a rapid exchange of Ger-showed that they would enjoy it immensely.
man.
Doc Savage and his men, who understood the German language, listened with THE submarine, Doc Savage noted, much interest. The word exchange was was one of the late type of U-boats, a craft enlightening.
built for efficiency and strength rather than The sailor who had spoken was an in-impressive size and cruising ability. In the formant.
present war, it had been discovered by the He had, it seemed, been a spy on two enemy that smaller submarines took less men called Der Hase and Das Seehund. He material, were more compact, and could be had put the finger on the prisoners, the men maneuvered more readily under circum-who had seized the airways plane, for the stances where maneuverability was the an-submarine commander. He was responsible swer to whether the crew got back home or for the capture of the other plane.
not.
But, pointing again at Doc and his as-The craft was evidently quite new.
sociates, and at Lena Carlson, the sailor Long Tom noted this, and said, “We’re evi-shouted that they were strangers. They didn’t dently sinking their U-boats so fast that belong.
they’re putting them in the water while the Moreover, the man insisted, the big rivets are still hot.”
bronze man was the American scientist, Doc The walrus-faced sub commander Savage.
snorted. “You do pretty goot, at dot,” he said.
“Herr Doktor Savage, ” he said excitedly.
They were escorted into a forward
“Is dot right,” said the walrus, examin-compartment, squeezing through the ing Doc. “Well, well, I caught me a whale, cramped quarters of the submarine, bending seems as if.”
often to get under pipes and machinery.
He turned then, and gave an order in In the compartment, there were about German. Separate the prisoners, he com-fifteen people. Monk and Renny and Too-Too manded. Put Doc and his group in another Thomas were among them. The others were compartment.
the men who had been in the airlines plane.
He pointed at old Too-Too Thomas and Ham stared at Monk.
ordered, “Put him in with them.”
“You all right, you homely bassoon?”
he asked.
Monk sneered at him. “What’ve you THE submarine compartment in which done, joined up with the Nazis? You couldn’t Doc’s group was locked was smaller, not at be just a common captive. Not with that great all comfortable, and the air had that typical legal brain you’re always bragging about.”
heaviness of grease, electricity and machin-Ham made his voice disappointed and ery. It was air to which they would soon be-said, “I guess they haven’t beat any sense come accustomed, however.
into you.”
“Sorry dot you have no carpets,” the Lena Carlson and Too-Too Thomas commander said. He waved to indicate the looked uneasy, distressed by the soured cell. “Herr Hitler’s private suite,” he said.
meeting between the pair.
Monk grinned at him, said, “If they had Doc Savage and the others were im-you back in Berlin, they would hang you up pressed also, but only by the fact that Monk by one leg for saying that.”
and Ham’s meeting had lacked fire. Usually The sub commander chuckled. “Dot they managed some really original insults, they have tried, two or three times,” he said.
and enough thunder and lightning to make a
“They find old Adolph Schwartz does not bystander think a mutual murder was immi-hang so well.”
nent.
Doc Savage asked,
“You are
Now one of the submarine crew, who Schwartz?”
had been guarding the prisoners, shouted
“Herr Oberleutenant Adolph von and waved his arms.
Schwartz,” the man said.
HELL BELOW
37
When he said that, he popped his Chapter X
heels, and a snap and an impression of iron THE DARK TURN
attention came into his stocky body. For that moment he was a different man, not a genial TOO-TOO THOMAS took his time, ig-old German naval officer who made gags nored interruption and demands that he get about the Nazis.
at the heart of the mystery at once, and gave In that moment, Schwartz was an iron-them a brief resume of Rancho El Dirty Man, fisted old-line Prussian with the soul of a rifle in Mexico.
barrel and the backbone of one.
“Maybe you would just call it a big It was impressive, the change.
ranch, ” he said. “But me, to me it’s something Having identified himself, Schwartz special. She’s a big place and we’ve got our made a little speech.
own dock and warehouse down in the cove
“It is unfortunate—for you—that I hap-where we ship our beef out by sea. Our own pened to catch you in the net with the rest of packing plant, too, where we process our my blackbirds,” he said. “For that I am sorry.”
own beef, before we ship it out.” He nodded He looked at Doc Savage and chuck-at Lena Carlson, “Remember, Lena is a partled. “No, I am not sorry at all. It will be good ner in the Dirty Man. ”
for Germany, having a man like Doc Savage
“Get to the point,” Monk said.
out of the war.” He leered at them like a Too-Too Thomas ignored that and said, comic strip character. “Undt now I say auf-
“No other civilization within many a mile. Get wiedersen.”
that. In this day of airplanes we are probably He left them. The door was fastened as isolated as any part of the world except from the outside. They were alone.
the Arctic. We’re isolated because down Monk sighed when the skipper had there there’s no place for a plane to be head-gone.
ing, much, that would take it over our neck of
“If you ask me,” Monk said, “that old the woods.
gaffer is something to watch out for. Some-
“Now,” he continued, “here’s a general thing you don’t want to find in your breakfast idea of who this Der Hase and Das Seehund dish.”
are. They are both big-timers in the enemy
“One sure thing, ” Long Tom Roberts set-up that’s caused all the trouble in Europe.
agreed, “he isn’t the hooligan he pretends to This Der Hase has been sort of public hypno-be. Notice his accent? He must have read tizer for the mob since it began. He decides that in the Sunday papers. He puts it on and what they’ll tell the public, what they’ll feed takes it off at will.”
the suckers. He’s the twisted mind behind Old Too-Too Thomas cleared his throat.
their publicity. Not the figurehead, mind, but
“If that’s the Schwartz,” he said, “that the real brains.
Der Hase and Das Seehund have talked
“Das Seehund is the fellow who set up about, he is hell on wheels.”
the submarine campaign for the enemy.
Monk turned to old Too-Too Thomas.
You’ve seen his pictures—a great, fat guy.
“Pop, you can tell us what this is all Enormously fat, and covered with medals. In about,” Monk said. “Would do?”
a different uniform and a different big car
“Sonny,” said Too-Too Thomas disap-every time.”
provingly, “you keep on calling me pop, and
“I know the guy you mean,” Monk said.
I’ll breathe on you and bake you to a crisp.”
“All right, they’re scramming out of
“You resent it, eh?”
Europe,” Too-Too Thomas said.
“You ain’t fooling. ”
“Leaving Europe? Der Hase and Das
“If I apologize,” said Monk, “would you Seehund, you mean?”
tell us all the little details?”
“That’s right.”
“Might be.”
“Rats,” Renny said, “and the sinking
“I apologize,” Monk said.
ship. Holy cow!”
“Here, ” said Too-Too Thomas, “are all Too-Too Thomas grinned. “You said it.”
the little details.”
“The war must be closer to the finish than we figured,” Renny remarked.
The older man shrugged. “Anyway, the
two are beating it out of Europe. ”
38
DOC SAVAGE
“How?”
Too-Too Thomas said, “I got away
“By submarine,” Too-Too Thomas ex-from them. They had me a prisoner in Mexico plained. “What they did was get a bunch of on the Rancho El Dirty Man, and I got away. I guys who could be bought, or who were scrammed right out of there. I did it in a plane.
ready to get out anyway, and a submarine, You could not tell it to look at an old cuss like and they began moving out, and bringing me that I can fly a plane, but I can. I got to their money.”
Los Angeles in my plane, and they were right
“Money?” Ham Brooks said. “Listen, after me. I could see the plane in which they that German money is not going to be worth were following me in the air to the south. If much after this is over. Nor the other Axis they’d had machine guns, they would have money, either.”
shot me down before. There was an airliner
“Gold,” said Too-Too, “ain’t gone out of ready to take off for the East, and I got on fashion.”
that. It was headed for Washington, so I
“Where would they get gold?”
stayed on. I got to Washington. I was trying
“Plenty of it in Europe. Not all in Fort to get to somebody important to tell my story Knox, you know.”
confidential, when I met you fellows.”
“I guess those two cookies could get Doc Savage had taken no part in the their hands on it, too.”
questioning, but now, after Too-Too Thomas
“They have.”
became silent, the bronze man asked, “How
“Eh?” Ham stared at him. “You mean did it happen that the men were well estab-that they’ve already moved in?”
lished in Washington? They did not get that
“Couple of months ago.”
well established in a few hours—the few
“Where?” Ham yelled.
hours which elapsed after you got to Wash-
“The Dirty Man Ranch in Mexico,” Too-ington, and before you met us.”
Too Thomas said. “That’s what all the whirl-
“That wasn’t over a couple of hours,”
ing around is about.”
Too-Too Thomas said. “But the way I figure it Big-fisted Renny Renwick rumbled, now, they were planted there for Lena.”
“Holy cow!”
“For me?” Lena Carlson said. “Gra-cious, why?”
“Hadn’t they tried to get rid of you?”
LEATHERY, frowning old Too-Too
“Yes.”
Thomas became longwinded again. He
“I thought so,” said Too-Too.
spoke rapidly, sourly, giving a clear picture.
“But why?” demanded Lena Carlson.
“Two months ago they moved in on the Dirty
“Why would they do that?”
Man,” he said. “They already had the place
“If they killed you, the ranch would go planted with some of their men. I had taken to me according to your will,” Too-Too Tho-these birds on thinking they were all right.
mas explained. “And they already had me, or They spoke English better than I did, and had until I got away. What could be simpler.”
most of them spoke Spanish, too, with the
“But if you had the ranch entirely for accent of an American.”
yourself,” Lena said, “how would that help He waved an arm to indicate the crew them?”
of the submarine. “You take these guys on
“Oh, they were going to whittle on me this tin fish, now. Notice how all or most of until I deeded over the place to them, all legal them look and sound like Americans? Well, and everything.”
they’re picked men, men picked because they speak English and look American, and probably most all of them have spent some AT this point, there was an outburst of time in America one time or another.
noise in other parts of the submarine. It be-
“Der Hase and Das Seehund,” he con-gan with animal howls, angry yells, profanity tinued, “picked their men the same way. You in English and German, and shots. There got acquainted with some of them in Wash-was plenty of shooting.
ington.”
The fight outside developed, became
“You mean those fellows were all furious. They could hear men dashing back Europeans?” Monk demanded.
and forth in the narrow steel-walled corridor
“That’s right.”
outside, and the submarine tilted sharply up-
“Why’d they chase you to New York?”
ward with the ballast tanks blowing.
HELL BELOW
39
Doc Savage and Monk were instantly
“He remarked that it was rather annoy-working at the steel bulkhead door. It was too ing,” Pat translated.
tough for their barehanded efforts, however.
“He’s got a good choice of words,”
Monk listened to the fight, said, “Broth-Too-Too Thomas said.
ers, that sounds like something I hate to miss.”
“What do you suppose has hap-COMMANDER SCHWARTZ
com—
pened?” Pat asked in alarm. “We were run-posed himself. He did this by waving his ning submerged, so it can’t be an attack by arms violently and calling on Davy Jones to American naval forces—they would use witness a fine mess. He shouted, “Heil, der depth bombs.”
Fuehrer!” But this last he didn’t say as if he
“Consarned thing sounds like a family meant it at all. He said it the way a man row to me,” Too-Too Thomas said.
would say, after falling on his face and bruis-The fight died away. There was some ing himself, “That’s what I get for eating my more profanity, a few blows, and finally one spinach.”
shot.
That was apparently the wind-up of his Then the bulkhead door into their com-rage, and intended to be humorous, because partment was undogged from the outside, he leaned back against the bulkhead, thrown open and they were ordered back.
mopped his walrus face on a sleeve, and
“Holy cow!” said Renny, looking at the grinned sheepishly.
man who gave the orders.
“The path of a patriot has its thorns,”
It was the man called Sam, who had he said.
straw-bossed the group which had first
“What happened?” Monk asked.
seized Monk and Too-Too Thomas in Wash-
“One of my goot men,” said Schwartz, ington.
remembering to use his comic accent, “vas
“I feel sort of triumphant,” Sam told so careless as to bend over mit a pistol stick-them. “So I might have the courage to shoot ing out of his hip pocket. Vun of der prisoners the first one of you who bats an eye at me.”
got hold of it.”
No one batted an eye, probably.
“Can you,” Monk asked him, “speak the
“Throw old faithful in with them,” Sam English without all the vuns and ders and ordered. “Safest place for him.”
mits?”
The walrus of a submarine commander,
“Vots wrong, isn’t dot goot Cherman Schwartz, was pitched headlong into the accent?” asked the skipper.
compartment. The place was so crowded
“Suit yourself,” Monk said. “It might that Schwartz crashed into them, bringing make us laugh, and bless us, we need some down Renny and Ham, who tangled up with entertainment.”
him on the floor.
“Goot,” said Schwartz. “When you feel Schwartz was apparently in a mood to depressed, say so and I will talk some of the fight anything that moved, so he immediately funny accent for you. I like to do it. I used to began slugging Renny and Ham, who were get your comic papers and study it, perfect-in the same mood and lost no time slugging ing myself.”
back. While this was going on, Sam slammed Monk eyed him. “You’re quite a guy,”
the steel door and his men dogged it on the Monk said thoughtfully. “But you don’t fool outside.
me. You’re a good guy to watch out for, Schwartz and Renny and Ham ham-aren’t you?”
mered each other with vigor, nobody doing
“There are those who say so. And if I’m much harm, but venting plenty of steam.
not, I have wasted a lot of time acting fierce.”
“Let me in on that!” Monk said eagerly.
“What happened?”
“I want to hit somebody, too!”
Schwartz surprised them by talking Doc Savage said, “This may not be a readily and telling what was obviously, from time to entertain yourself.”
the sound of his voice and from what they He got busy and stopped the slugging.
knew of the situation thus far, the truth.
Commander Schwartz sat up indig-
“Ever hear of Der Hase and Das See-nantly. “Es ist wirklich argerlich! ” he said.
hund?” he asked by way of beginning.
“What’d he say?” Too-Too Thomas
“We were just talking about them,”
asked.
Monk admitted.
40
DOC SAVAGE
“Good. Then you know they are leaving The mystery had been bothering wal-the ship like rats.”
ruslike Oberleutenant Schwartz, too. He did
“Leaving the sinking ship like rats,”
quite a bit of snorting and muttering during Monk agreed. “We used the same words.”
the course of the night, and when Monk
“The ship isn’t sunk yet,” said Schwartz, asked him if he was nervous, he disclaimed it and there was a flash of the ramrod-backed much too violently.
Prussian in him for a moment.
Pat and Lena Carlson had a quarrel.
“O. K.,” Monk said. “But the point is be-This fracas began when Lena mentioned the coming less and less a basis for argument.
extremely highbrow and expensive beautifi-Go on. What happened?”
cation and body-reducing establishment Schwartz scowled at his own thoughts.
which Pat conducted on Park Avenue. Lena
“This fellow, Das Seehund,” he said, called the place, “that gold-plated thieves’
“has corrupted some of the men of our un-roost you run.” Pat resented that, although it derseas division. Word got to me that some-was a fact that she unmercifully overcharged thing strange was going on. So I investi-clients who could afford it.
gated. ”
“That’s a very pretty feather-lined head Commander Schwartz paused and you have, dear,” Pat said. “Didn’t it occur to spat to show how he felt. “For investigating, I you to ask the police for help when these first got a good bust on the shoulder straps. I was attempts were made to kill you?”
reduced in rank from a vice admiral with a
“I thought of it,” Lena said.
good swivel-chair job to going to sea again
“Then why didn’t you?”
as commander of a submarine. I was sup-Lena glanced at old Too-Too Thomas, posed to keep my nose clean, as I believe and said, “I might as well tell it. I got the idea you would express it.”
that these men who were trying to kill me had
“But you didn’t stop investigating?”
been at Dirty Man. And I was afraid Too-Too Monk surmised.
was mixed up in something that might get
“I certainly kept right at it. And that is him in trouble if the police knew about it.”
why I am here with my submarine. I planted a Too-Too Thomas grinned at her.
spy with the group working for Der Hase and
“I’m sorry, Too-Too, ” Lena said.
Das Seehund. By devious means, I got the
“You apologizing for thinkin’ I might be spy, who was piloting that commercial plane, a crook?” Too-Too asked.
to land on the sea where I could capture
“Yes.”
them. Then I was going to the hide-out, get
“That’s so durned nice of you,” TooDer Hase and Das Seehund, take them back Too said, “that it moves me to return the fa-to the fatherland, and turn them over to Der vor.”
Fuehrer.”
Lena stared at him. “Eh?”
He grimaced. “To Der Fuehrer, I
“You heard how, when I first ap-wouldn’t give a dog that had bitten me. But I proached Doc Savage and his men in Wash-was going to give him Der Hase and Das ington, I wouldn’t tell them what was going Seehund. ”
on?” Too-Too said.
“What would have happened to Der
“Yes.”
Hase and Das Seehund then?” Monk asked
“Well, that was because I thought you curiously.
might be mixed up in the crooked mess,”
The skipper made a cutting gesture Too-Too told her. “I knew that if we could get across his throat with a forefinger.
a plane and a bomb and sink the subma-
“Geek!” he said.
rine—not this submarine, but the one Der Hase and Das Seehund use—it would stop the affair without involving you. I figured if Chapter XI that happened, you would get scared out.”
RABBIT AND SEAL
Lena Carlson was startled.
“So you thought I was a crook?”
THE mystery of why Doc Savage and
“Sort of was led to believe it,” Too-Too his aides were being kept alive was ex-said, “by them two lads, Der Hase and Das plained when they were taken ashore at Seehund. ”
Mexico to the Dirty Man.
HELL BELOW
41
“Well,” said Lena sharply, “I never in Schwartz groaned disgustedly when he my heart, not once, really believed you were saw this other submersible. “Lying around a crook.”
here,” he muttered, “when it should be out
“Same here,” said Too-Too, “about sinking Allied ships.”
you.”
“March,” ordered Sam. “Up the hill.”
“You’re probably both lying,” Pat said.
The hill was more of a cliff, with stone steps, slowly angling back and forth, over-hung by vines. It was a pleasant spot, and THE submarine traveled on the surface lighted by plenty of hand flashes, so that the rest of that night, but submerged during there was no chance for a break.
the day, which cut down its speed somewhat, The ranch house, or houses, were at and then it laid offshore with motors barely the top, at the foot of another cliff, sitting on a turning for a considerable time.
wide tableland that probably included four or
“We’re probably lying outside the cove five hundred acres. The tableland extended of Dirty Man, ” Too-Too Thomas surmised, along the seashore, and it was its narrowest “waiting for it to get dark so we can go in-here, with a cliff coming in from the moun-side.”
tains behind to stand close to the buildings.
This was obviously what they were The moonlight was bright, putting a waiting for.
pleasant silver sheen over everything.
Later the motors picked up, and the U-
“Not bad-looking,” Monk said.
boat surfaced. They could hear the hatches
“You should see in the daytime,” Too-clang open, and heard men tramping around Too Thomas said. “The packing plant and the on deck.
loading corrals are down on the shore of the The craft bumped against something cove, a quarter of a mile from the dock where gently, and stopped.
the submarines are lying.”
“That’s the dock,” Too-Too Thomas They came to the ranchhouse, appar-said. “They let the sub lie on the surface dur-ently the main building of several structures.
ing the night, and on the bottom during the Ham eyed the walls, saying, “They built a fort, daytime.”
didn’t they?”
“Do you suppose they’ll take us The walls were ponderous, thick, and ashore?” Pat asked.
the building itself a vast affair of cool interiors.
“What I can’t understand,” Too-Too The rugs and carpets were thick, and the said, “is why they don’t just tie rocks to us.”
ornaments on the walls, the pictures and the Eventually the bulkhead door was armor, the silver-mounted saddles, the inlaid opened. The prisoners were at once shown a revolvers and swords, were all good pieces.
formidable array of submachine guns and Sam sent a messenger away, instruct-other weapons, for the purpose of intimidat-ing him, “Tell them that I made a clean ing them.
sweep. All prisoners are here.”
Sam said, “This is Mexico. You Sam sounded as if he was about to wouldn’t want to die in a foreign country, burst with self-esteem.
would you?”
The messenger came back and said, He was obviously very pleased with
“Der Hase will see Herr Savage, alone.”
himself.
Sam frowned. “But did you tell Das They were carefully shepherded out on Seehund—”
deck, in groups of three. Pat and Lena were
“Der Hase will see Doc Savage alone,”
the last to go, and purely by accident, Lena the man repeated meaningfully. He also slipped and fell off the side of the sub. As Pat spread his hands in a gesture that said he grasped her hand, some of the guards shouldn’t be blamed.
stepped forward, guns ready. But it was Sam told four men to take Doc Savage purely accidental, and nothing worse than a to Der Hase. Sam also added, to the mes-wetting of the silk bathing suit came of it.
senger, “I ought to kick a window in your All got onto the dock. The dock was a anatomy. I told you to tell Das Seehund we most substantial affair. On the other side of it were here, and that you needn’t tell the lay a second submarine, somewhat larger other. ”
than Schwartz’s charge.
“The other one caught me first,” the man complained. “What could I do?”
42
DOC SAVAGE
Doc Savage was a little puzzled at the good. “It is obvious now that we have made evidence of dissension between the higher-mistakes in Europe. But the noble experi-ups.
ment must not be allowed to fail. That is why The bronze man was soon straight-I have retreated to this out of the way place ened out on what was what, however. Almost to form a nucleus for a new effort and plans the first thing Der Hase said did that.
for the new effort.”
Der Hase turned out to be pretty typical The man wheeled and walked to a of the pictures of him which had been pub-desk. The room in which they stood was lished in the American newspapers.
enormous, and sitting on a dais at the far end Der Hase was a small, emaciated man, of the room was a tremendous desk. Not only but not crippled in one leg as had been was the desk high, but the light was very claimed. He moved forward with ease and bright in the eyes of anyone sitting or stand-agility, although his gait had a twisted swing ing in front of the desk. Der Hase made good to it due to some difficulty with his hip rather use of all the conventional tricks to make an than his leg. The story of deformity probably interviewer feel uncomfortable.
had arisen from the nature of his face, which
“I could use an intelligence such as wasn’t deformed; but was a face with such yours in making the new plan,” he told Doc.
unusual mobility, such powers of expression and flexibility, that it seemed unnatural. The man had a deep voice which was artificial, a DOC SAVAGE did not ask questions.
voice that he had painstakingly trained in an There was no need for questions, for every-effort to use his voice as a mob-swaying de-thing was perfectly understandable. This man vice. He had failed. He had bright eyes, bad they called Der Hase—Doc wondered if any-teeth, a bad breath which he seemed to be one called him that to his face and decided able to blow several feet as he talked.
that Der Hase would encourage it in his per-Der Hase said, “You are yourself proof verse way—had the ability to make things of what can be done with a master race sys-perfectly clear with a few words.
tem, Herr Savage, so I think we will have no The man was a fanatic. He was sincere misunderstandings.”
in what he was doing; he believed in it. He Doc Savage did not comment.
had not come here to Dirty Man Ranch in Looking at the man, Doc suddenly real-Mexico, had not come those thousands of ized he had seen the fellow once before. He miles from Europe, with any idea of escape.
had known Der Hase briefly, some years ago He was not a rat leaving a sinking ship. He when Doc was undergoing the course of was more of a rat in a corner fighting. He had specialized scientific training to which his fought, and he was going to fight again.
father had subjected him beginning in child-Doc said, “Why are you keeping us hood.
alive?” He knew, but he asked the question Der Hase then had been a student, as anyway.
was Doc, at a Vienna University. His name Der Hase pointed at his own forehead.
was not Der Hase, but Vogel Plattenheber;
“You can see the way the thing is going but he had been called Der Hase, it suddenly in Europe,” he said. “We are getting licked.
came to Doc’s mind, even in those days. He All of our ideals will be smashed by this van-was called the Hare, or the Rabbit, because dalism called democracy and equality.”
of his timidity and fear. Looking at him now, He indicated his head again and added, Doc saw that the man still had the fear, but “The trouble is with the thinking that was be-that he had turned it into an artificial superior-hind it in the beginning. Mistakes were made.
ity complex that was a honey. That, if you The master race idea is sound, but its execu-wanted to get tangled in psychology, was tion was not properly thought out.”
what had put this Master Race stuff in the He had something there, Doc reflected.
man’s head.
“What makes you believe, ” Doc asked, Der Hase frowned at Doc.
“that some thinking ahead of time wouldn’t
“I could use many words,” he said.
have convinced you that the whole thing is
“You have, on occasion, ” Doc said.
barbaric?”
“All the words would just express more
“Barbaric?”
fully, what I wish to say.” Except for a slight
“As barbaric,” Doc said, “as the tribes stiffness in phrasing, the man’s English was of primitive people who used to go out and HELL BELOW
43
take another tribe and make slaves out of
“If this man Savage would help us, sin-them.”
cerely help us,” said Der Hase, “it would be a
“That is childish talk.”
marvelous thing.”
“It is simple talk, easy to understand, I
“He will not help.”
will admit,” Doc said. “And logical.”
Der Hase glanced at Doc, seemed
“I take it you refuse?”
grimly stubborn. “Savage is a product of sci-
“You should have known I would, ” Doc entific training. He is a living example of what said.
men can do with themselves. He knows this.
Der Hase looked at him unsmilingly.
What we want to do, what the master race
“You will,” he said, “get twelve hours in which wishes to do, is handle men on a cold basis to reconsider.”
of scientific fact, not sentiment.”
The fat man said, “It is a dream.”
Doc Savage, watching them, was sud-Chapter XII
denly sure of a point. They were not in sym-BAD BREAK
pathy, did not have a common aim. They only pretended to have the same object.
THE other man, the one they called Dipping a little bit into his memory, Doc Das Seehund, came in then. He made his got a general idea of the situation. The fat entrance grandly, with his feet banging the man, Das Seehund, had always been a fel-floor as if he were goose-stepping.
low who sampled life. He wasn’t a dreamer, Doc Savage looked at him, and kept a and he had no high ideals and he carried the straight face.
sword for no particular cause, other than Das Seehund was wearing a new kind himself. He was a man who liked his steaks of uniform, a cowboy outfit. The motif was thick and rich. Nothing else described him Mexican caballero and Cheyenne frontier better than that.
days, the loudest of each, and there was Das Seehund wasn’t a man who would probably no louder raiment than these two.
travel along with Der Hase on any idea of His hat was the biggest, his pants the tightest, making another attempt to inflict a super race and there was more color and silverware on on the world—not if it meant any trouble and him than Doc had ever seen on a cowboy, risk on his part.
dude or otherwise.
Doc decided what had happened. Der He wasn’t happy, though.
Hase had come here with what wealth he He said to Der Hase, “Was nun? Did could get, to prepare for another great effort you have to make a speech before the exe-to change the world. Das Seehund had come cution?”
along, with the wealth, just to escape the
“An execution,” said Der Hase, “may consequences of what was going to happen not be necessary, if he sees things our way.”
to the Axis leaders in Europe.
“The execution should have been done Each man knew the other’s ideas.
at sea,” growled the enormously fat man in They were too clever not to know that much the flamboyant outfit. “They should never about each other.
have been brought here. That Oberleutenant
“Lock him up,” Der Hase ordered a Schwartz, or any of them.”
guard, indicating Doc Savage.
“Schwartz will be executed,” Der Hase Das Seehund looked uneasy as he said.
watched Doc being led out.
The fat man indicated Doc. “What about this one? Don’t you know he is probably as dangerous a man as we could have THE prisoners—the men—had been caught? Every minute he is around here, we confined to one large cell. Pat and Lena are fooling around dynamite with a lighted Carlson were locked up in another room match.”
across the hall. Both rooms had stout steel
“I admire his brain,” Der Hase said.
doors, and old Too-Too Thomas was busy
“Ach!” Das Seehund shrugged. “Me, I explaining how there happened to be iron admire my own neck.”
doors.
“I tell you, they put ‘em in since they came here,” he said.
44
DOC SAVAGE
“I halfway suspect,” Monk told him, A bit later, Monk got Doc aside, and
“that you had jail cells here in the ranchhouse with his fingers—using the sign language of all along.”
the deaf and dumb, in which he could stum-Too-Too Thomas snorted indignantly.
ble along after a fashion—he asked, “You get
“When we caught a Yaqui, we didn’t use a an idea, Doc?”
jail cell on him. And the same went for any of Doc Savage indicated he had one.
us the Yaquis caught.”
The bronze man also gave the others
“Where are your ranch hands?”
orders in the sign language, instructing them,
“Locked up, ” Too-Too said grimly,
“Keep your eyes open and let me know if you
“down at the settlement where the ranch see Der Hase at some moment when you are hands live. It’s a kind of fort down by the sure he is not with his partner, Das Seehund, cove edge. Built by the Spaniards four or five and cannot be seen by Das Seehund.”
hundred years ago.”
They agreed.
Doc Savage was shoved into the Too-Too Thomas, puzzled, demanded, prison room at this point, and old Too-Too
“What are you fiddling your fingers at each Thomas took the opportunity to yell loudly at other for?”
one of the guards, demanding to know
“Oh, we do that for exercise,” Monk whether his Mexican ranch employees were told him.
safe.
“We still have them,” the guard said.
Then he added frankly, “But they are not THEY didn’t need anyone to point out safe.”
to them that the situation was serious. Old
“What are you going to do with them?”
Too-Too Thomas took it on himself to do this,
“Unless they listen to reason,” said the however.
guard, “we shall have to have a wholesale He launched into a description of how execution.”
isolated Dirty Man Ranch was, and how iron-Too-Too Thomas, beginning suddenly fisted were their captors. “These two guys, to perspire, said, “None of my men will go the fat one and the rat-faced dreamer,” he over to your rascality, you lizard! They’re said, “have been mixed up in that mess in good citizens of Mexico.”
Europe and they’ve seen millions of people The guard slammed the door and killed. At first there were only a few killed, locked it. The lock was a small modern one, people they had to knock off because they a padlock, which fitted into a standard hasp stood in their way. But it got worse and worse that had been welded to the sheet steel of until finally they started the war and millions the door.
have gotten killed. They belong to the great-Monk came close to Doc Savage.
est gang of mass murderers in history. Those
“Careful, Doc,” he whispered. “There’s are the kind of guys who have us. Do you a microphone hidden behind the picture on think they’ll let us live? No. Certainly not.”
that wall over there. We just found it, but let Monk groaned disapprovingly.
on we didn’t. So don’t say anything you don’t
“We know there is a dead cat,” he said, want them to overhear.”
“without you dragging it out and waving it The bronze man glanced sharply at the around in front of us that way.”
picture.
The leathery old man snorted. “I’m And he made, for a moment, the low scaring myself.”
trilling sound which was his unconscious
“You’re scaring us, too,” Monk said.
habit in moments of excitement. The trilling,
“And we don’t need any scaring. We’re which had the fantastic quality of a wind in a scared already. Why scare yourself?”
wilderness of arctic ice spires, caught the
“Well, it’s this way,” Too-Too confessed.
attention of the others. Doc shook his head
“When I’m in a tight spot, I always scare my-quietly, and Monk and the others understood.
self good. It seems to help me to think up a But Too-Too Thomas was puzzled. He way out.”
demanded, “What the dickens was that Monk advised, “Cut it out. It just para-noise?”
lyzes me.”
“Must be the wind,” Monk told him.
Too-Too Thomas grinned thinly. “You
“Ain’t no wind in here. They got the air seem to be holding up all right.”
conditioner turned off.”
HELL BELOW
45
IT was late in the afternoon when erage of about two hours daily, which was a Renny Renwick, who had been leaning lot of daily exercising when one thought against the barred window looking out sourly about it.
at the mountain landscape and the red glow The bronze man’s voice imitations, for of the evening sun, made a grunting sound, instance, were excellent. They weren’t letter-and said in Mayan, “Come here, Doc.”
perfect, not as remarkable as they somehow Doc Savage went over to the window.
seemed, but the fact that he could listen to a Renny had discovered the scrawny man speak a few words, then do the man’s dreamer, Der Hase. The man was evidently voice and delivery so well that no one would taking a walk, a constitutional. He had his notice unless he was expecting something of head back, had pushed out what did him for the kind, was a very convenient trick. He a chest, and was walking rapidly with his used it often.
skipping gait that came from the condition of As a matter of fact, though, Doc was his leg or hip muscles.
quite familiar with the voice of Der Hase. The Der Hase disappeared in a thicket, fol-man was one of the louder Axis orators over lowing a path.
the radio, and had been for years, so that Renny whispered, in Mayan, “I figured Doc had heard him often over the air. And he would go out of sight. You wanted to know Doc used radio voices in the exercises which if he left without the fat man.”
he employed to keep in trim with his voice Doc Savage nodded. He said, also in imitations. He had practiced Der Hase before.
Mayan, “Gather around, all of you. We are So he did particularly well with Der Hase now.
going to start a little civil war.”
Der Hase: “Have you changed your Monk and the others approached. They mind?”
were puzzled. Then, when Doc used an ex-Doc (his own voice): “About getting rid cellent imitation of Der Hase’s voice, they of Das Seehund?”
understood.
Der Hase: “If you must state it so Imitating Der Hase’s studied oratorical bluntly, yes.”
delivery, Doc said, “I thought this would be a Doc: “It is an interesting offer, but it good time for an exchange of opinions.”
goes against our conscience.”
Doc, in his normal voice, said, “We had Der Hase: “Do it, and I will free you—
the idea the thing was fairly well settled.”
providing I have your word of honor that you At this point, To o-Too Thomas, not get-will forget all about me and this hide-out.”
ting the idea, hurried over and demanded, Doc: “You put a lot of trust in my word.”
“Say, what’s going on here! If there’s any Der Hase: “Your word is good.”
funny business—”
Doc: “There is one reason why we will Monk hit him. He didn’t hit the old fel-not do it.”
low very hard, with the result that Too-Too Der Hase: “It is a reason that is none of Thomas wasn’t more than jarred, and imme-your business.
diately swung a return blow that almost Doc: “We think otherwise.”
knocked Monk’s head off his shoulders.
Der Hase: “You mean, you would re-Monk hit him again, this time without so fuse just because you do not want me to pro-much politeness. Too-Too Thomas collapsed.
ceed with my plan of starting another new They waited tensely for the guard out-world order, another project of establishing a side the door to investigate, but the fellow master race to cure the ills of the world?”
paid no attention. Evidently the thick doors Doc: “Right.”
shut out most sounds.
Monk and the others were tensely silent. Th ey saw now what was going on.
The microphone behind the picture DOC SAVAGE used the fantastic was only a few feet, not more than an arm’s methods he did, his assistants long ago had length, from where Doc Savage was carrying realized, because he had such unusual tools.
on the conversation with himself. There was His methods worked only because he was no question but that it could pick up what was good at them. And he was good because of being said.
the training which he had received from Too, there was no doubt but that there childhood on. That, and the fact that he kept was either a listener, or a recording appara-practicing and exercising continually, an av-tus, connected to the microphone.
46
DOC SAVAGE
The outcome depended on whether Old Too-Too Thomas had been watch-Das Seehund listened to the thing first, or ing them with much interest, as had Oberleu-Der Hase, or the two together. There were tenant Schwartz. The latter understood the two chances out of three to get results.
German language where it had been spoken, and knew the set-up, and what was happen-ing. Too-Too, on the other hand, had not re-DOC continued his deception.
covered from Monk’s punch in time to get a Doc: “Aren’t you afraid Das Seehund full understanding. But Too-Too was silent.
will find out that you want him killed?”
Schwartz winked one walrus eye at Der Hase: “That fat oaf! Ach! He does Doc Savage. He seemed pleased.
not think.”
“Dot vas goot,” Schwartz said with his Doc: “But you will let us go if we kill him best trick German accent. “So goot I could for you.”
donce and sing. ”
Der Hase: “Ja.”
“I’ll bet that would be a spectacle,”
Doc: “But we have to give our word not Monk told him unkindly.
to interfere with your plan for another new order attempt?”
Der Hase: “Ja.”