Doc Savage - The Derrick Devil Part 10

THE hanging man was big, bony, and his skin was not red alone because of his hanging there, for his complexion was the hearty one of the outdoors. He had an aquiline nose and big eyes. His crumpled morning suit, striped trousers and all, failed to give him a suave appearance. One word described him. Rugged!

The hanging man was breathing with difficulty through his nose.

Reservoir Hill said loudly, "Too bad! I thought for a minute you'd committed suicide!"

"Who is he?" Doc asked.

"Enoch Andershott," said Hill.

The man was not hanging by his neck, but by his middle. He was buckled to the chain of the chandelier by a strip of leather, evidently his belt.

"I'm so stiff I can't move!" he groaned. "Cut me down, somebody!"

Doc Savage moved forward, and instantly, there was a snarling and sc.r.a.ping of sharp claws on the floor behind him.

"Whitey!" Enoch Andershott shrieked, feebly. "Heel! Stop it!"

The giant, ferocious black dog, which had started a charge, skidded to a stop, then slung back, dragging along on its stomach.

Enoch Andershott peered at Doc Savage. Andershott was a big man, but he seemed, somehow, dwarfed alongside the bronze man.

"They were trying to kill me!" Andershott said, hoa.r.s.ely. "I don't understand it! I think they were trying to make it look as if I was guilty of something, and did not want me alive to prove otherwise!"

Old Reservoir Hill spat noisily.

Andershott continued to look at Doc Savage. Abruptly, he recognized the bronze man.

"You're Doc Savage!" he exploded. "You must be! Where's my partner, Alonzo Cugg? Have you seen him?"

"Is he supposed to be around?" Doc asked.

"Cugg was here when the red things came," Andershott said rapidly. "I jumped and hung to the chandelier. I don't know what happened to Cugg. He fled. The red things stayed on the floor, almost able to reach me.

"The last one fled just before you broke down that window-I mean, it went through that window just before you broke down the door."

He pointed at a window.

Monk ran to the window, which was open. He looked out over the sun-bathed morning landscape, then scowled at the window sill itself.

"Trail of that slime goes out here," he grunted.

"There are men," said Andershott, "who control, at least to some extent, those red things!"

IT must have been a thought that rendered every one in the room silent for a moment.

"Men!" Monk exploded. "Guiding that jelly thing!""Those jelly things," Andershott corrected. "There was more than one! And I saw them-the men, I mean!"

"What'd these guys look like?" Monk yelled.

"Their faces were vaguely familiar," Andershott explained. "But it was a long time before I kinda remembered where I had seen their pictures."

Andershott had been speaking fast, and he paused to catch a breath.

"They were outlaw Tomahawk Tant's men!" he gulped. "I had seen their pictures in the newspapers!"

"Tant's men?" echoed Ham in a surprised voice.

Old Reservoir Hill reacted instantly to that.

"You're crazy!" he howled. "They couldn't have been Tant's men!"

Every one looked at Reservoir Hill. The old man glared, then apparently realized his howled statement had sounded queer, and looked confused.

"What I mean is that this dang gollywobbler, Andershott, couldn't tell the truth if he wanted to!" he yelled.

"He's a natural-born liar. He's lying now for some reason!"

Enoch Andershott drew himself up with some dignity, looked slightly angry for a moment, then shrugged.

"This old man," he said, "has held a fancied grudge against me for years. He is an old man with bile in his soul, and some persons hold the opinion that he is not quite responsible."

"Not respon-crazy, huh!" Reservoir Hill actually jumped up and down in his rage. "I'll wring your neck, or I hope to be put on a diet of carrots, than which there's nothing I like less!"

Monk told Andershott, "We were told you headed the mob of men who tried to prevent us reaching Oklahoma."

Andershott started. He opened and shut his mouth.

"Why-I don't-maybe-I've got it! That is why they tried to kill me! They used my name to guide suspicion from themselves, whoever they are! They wanted to prevent me telling different!"

Doc queried, "If you had pictures of the Tomahawk Tant mob, could you identify the men you saw here, guiding these red mobsters?"

"I could try," said Andershott.

Ham interposed. "How were they-the monsters-guided?"

"I don't know!" snapped Andershott. "I didn't see!"

Doc telephoned the police, and they promised to come at once, bringing such pictures as they had of known Tant badmen. While the officers were on their way, Doc and his men went over the grounds and the Andershott-Cugg mansion. They found no monsters. They found no Cugg, nor no pile of strange-looking grease which might have been a Cugg.

The police spread their pictures on a porch table.

"There," said Andershott, pointing. "And there, and there. That's four of them."

"Have you a picture of Outlaw Tant?" Doc asked the policemen.

"Tant is sort of a spook among badmen," one cop replied. "To tell the truth, we haven't a picture we're sure is him. But we have his finger prints.""Mind letting me have the finger prints?" Doc requested.

They didn't mind. The bronze man pocketed the print card which they gave him.

The police heard the story of the attack of the red, jellylike things.

"Queer," they said. '"Tant's men controlling the things! And this morning, two of Tant's outlaws were found dead, half consumed!"

"Probably they were carrying some of the red monsters and the things got loose on them," suggested Andershott.

THE police gave the premises a thorough going over, and it developed that they were more modern than usual, to the extent that they had an expert chemical a.n.a.lyst who went over the slime on the rugs and on window sills, and even on the lawn gra.s.s outside. The chemist tested this slime to learn what composed it.

"Whew!" he gulped, on finis.h.i.+ng. "Whew!"

"What is it?" Long Tom asked, curiosity on his face.

"Digestive juices!"

"What?"

"Digestive juices!" repeated the police chemist. "Of course, these are infinitely more powerful than those in the human body. But, nevertheless, I can best explain them to the layman by saying they are powerful digestive juices. Of course, to any one with a technical knowledge, I could say they are composed of-"

Doc Savage interposed. "There's no need of going into a lengthy discussion. Digestive juices does cover the stuff."

"Thank you," said the police chemist, flattered.

Long Tom, face bewildered, said, "You mean to stand there and tell us this thing oozes digestive juices through its hide?"

No one answered.

A policeman, who had been telephoning headquarters, came into the room wearing the look of a man who has just been convinced there really are such things as ghosts.

"Listen," he said, hoa.r.s.ely. "This thing is getting worse! The jelly devils have been down in the Seminole Field. That's about forty or fifty miles from Indian Dome Field. They've been seen up near Bartlesville, during the night. Somebody near Cus.h.i.+ng saw 'em, or one of 'em. But that ain't the worst thing!"

He paused and wet his lips. n.o.body spoke.

"The jelly devils got a drilling crew in the Indian Dome Field," he said. "It was at a well about three miles from the Sands-Carlaw-Hill lease, where the things were first reported. Some men on a near-by lease heard the drilling crew shouting and screaming and came over to investigate. They found a bunch of bodies! It musta been pretty bad!"

"What do you mean?" Doc asked.

"The bodies were only partly consumed," said the policeman. "The report said there was that grease stuff where the arms and legs and like were missing, and some of the men were-well, skeletons!"

"Were any of the monsters seen?" Doc asked.

"Yes," said the policeman. "But they went away, apparently because of the lights the approaching mencarried."

The police left after a time, promising to have a general search made for Alonzo Cugg.

Long Tom said, "If you ask me, we'd better find out some way of detecting the presence of these red devil things. I think I can do the job easily with a magnetic capacity balance hook-up."

Enoch Andershott looked at Long Tom, surprised, and demanded, "Who is this chap?"

"Major Thomas J. Roberts, one of my aids," Doc explained.

The telephone rang. Doc Savage, happening to be nearest the instrument, lifted the receiver. "Yes?"

"This is a filling station attendant on the Sand Sprints road," said a voice. "Something queer just happened here."

ENOCH ANDERSHOTT came over. He made no effort to take the receiver from Doc Savage, but put his head close to Doc's head so that he could hear. Over the wire came three pops, a louder pop.

"Go ahead," Doc directed the station attendant.

"All right," the fellow said. "A coupe just drove into my station for a fill-up and a quart of lube. It had a bit rack on the back, and this bit rack was full of what looked like canvas, maybe an old tent. I thought once I saw the canvas move.

"I never said nothing, on account of they might have had a dog or something in there, and anyway, one time last spring I almost got my puss shot off for sticking my nose into a car where some Tant bad boys were ridin'. Them boys just ups with a sawed-off pumpgun and-"

"Just what are you trying to tell us?" Doc interposed.

"That I found a note on the filling station drive after this coupe with the bit rack went on," said the attendant.

"It was wrapped up in a ten-spot, which is probably the reason I'm callin' you so quicklike."

"Read the note!" The three pops, the louder pop, came again.

"It says, 'Tant behind whole thing. It's worse than anybody thinks yet. They're taking me to Tant hide-out, thirty miles due north of One Road Cut.' And it's signed, 'Lonny.' It's addressed to be telephoned to Mister Enoch Andershott. There's a postscript on the address which says Mister Andershott will give me another fifty dollars."

"d.a.m.ned if I will!" growled Andershott.

"Then h.e.l.l with you!" said the attendant. "I always heard you were so stingy you pluck the feathers off the Indians on your pennies before you spend 'em! I've earned the ten-spot, way I figure, so h.e.l.l with you!"

He banged the receiver up, just before the loud pop that was to be expected on the tail end of three lesser popping noises.

"Impertinent n.o.body!" yelled Enoch Andershott. Then, in the same breath, "Come on! We've got to save my partner, Alonzo Cugg! He signed that note! Lonny! That's Cugg!"

"Right!" Doc Savage scooped up the telephone book, looked up the number of the afternoon newspaper and put in a call. "A man named Renwick around there?"

"Prying around in the morgue, over by the oil editor's desk," a voice replied.

A moment later, Doc had Renny on the phone and was asking, "Find anything? You've been looking up recent developments in the oil fields.""Well," replied Renny, slowly, "only thing I've seen concerning anybody involved in this is that Enoch Andershott and Alonzo Cugg have been selling their holdings over the period of the last year until now they own hardly anything except the lease in the Indian Dome Field adjoining the Sands-Carlaw-Hill lease."

Enoch Andershott roared, "And why the thunder shouldn't we conduct our business any way we please?"

He had come up behind Doc, and the bronze man had known he was there, but had not given any sign.

"Meet us as we pa.s.s the newspaper office on the way to Sand Springs road," Doc directed.