"We'll call on Senor and Senorita Oveja and El Rabanos, first," Doc decided.
"But where is their camp?"
Doc indicated the aerial photograph. "It shows on here, and is not very far away. You'll notice the plane they
flew here is lying in the clearing beside their camp, apparently wrecked."
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A grimly silent, purposeful file, Doc and his men clambered down from the ledge which held the macabre
collection of skeletons.
THE night had descended with an unexpected abruptness. Surprisingly, with the coming of darkness, the fog
had disappeared. Bright stars speckled the sky. A fat, milky bag of a moon leaked its beams.
The night was offering better visibility than the fog-filled day.
An air of expectancy gripped the Senor and Senorita Oveja and El Rabanos, in their camp. They had
consumed an evening meal cooked over a gasoline stove which gave forth no smoke.
Pretty Senorita Oveja had cleaned the dishes outdoor fashion, by scouring them with sand, and rinsing them.
From the grimaces she made, she apparently did not think much of dish-washing.
"Is it not about time we were going?" she demanded in Spanish.
"You are staying here!" her father said calmly.
"But I wish to go!" the young woman retorted.
"No!" the elder Oveja refused firmly.
That settled it as far as Cere was concerned. In her country, young people did not argue with their parents.
"You will not harm the bronze man?" she asked anxiously. "What happens to Doc Savage is not your affair!"
her father snapped. He turned to El Rabanos. "Come, senor, let w be on our way. The meeting time is near.',
Senor Oveja went over to get his rifle. It was leaning against a large rock, a rock the size of an automobile.
He reached out for the weapon. Moon shadows darkened the base of the rock like thickly roosting crows.
Senor Oveja suddenly emitted a sound between a whimper and a sob, and fell backward. His body remained
perfectly stiff as it tumbled; it retained its rigidity when it hit the sand.
It was as if the senor had turned to stone. The momentum of his fall caused him to rock, like a frame of
sticks, from side to side. His arms and legs stuck up with weird stiffness.
"Padre!" Cere cried shrilly. "Father!"
Darting forward, the young woman sank beside her parent. She grasped his strangely stiffened arm. The
muscles were rigid under her touch. By wrenching, she tried to change the position of one of the arms.
The arm remained at the angle to which she moved it, like the cold limb of a dead man.
"Oh, oh!" wailed Cere. She turned wildly in El Rabanos's direction. She intended to demand his help. But her
lips parted and her dark eyes became staring.
El Rabanos had also fallen a victim of the fantastic paralysis. The swarthy, girl-faced man was
spread-eagled, as if staked out. His face was turned sidewise, so that moonbeams spilled on it. The features
showed no agony - only an unbounded wonder.
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"El Rabanos!" Cere cried.
She was close enough to see the man's eyes roll in her direction. It was plain that El Rabanos knew what was
going on, but was powerless to move or speak.
WHAT had just happened was the most uncanny occurrence the pretty senorita had ever encountered. She
gazed about in terrified bewilderment.
There was not a mark on her father or El Rabanos. There was not a sound from the surrounding shadows to
show what had happened.
Suddenly, Cere sought to spring wildly to one side. She moved a trifle too slowly, however.
Bronze hands, floating out of the shadows beside her, trapped her arms. The fingers inclosed like steel bands.
The grip, for all of its strength, however, was not tight enough to inflict pain. It was just snug enough to hold
the girl tightly.
Cere gave one violent wrench, then realized the futility of that. She relaxed. She knew that Doc Savage must
be responsible for the uncanny happening to her father and El Rabanos.
"What have you done to them?" she demanded.
Doc did not answer. Renny and Monk, two mountainous figures, came up in the murk. Johnny and Long Tom
approached from the opposite direction.
Doc released Cere. The young woman instantly started to run. She had taken only her second stride when
Doc Savage overhauled her, picked her up, and carried her back. His touch was still impersonally gentle, but
the Castillan beauty found herself absolutely helpless against his strength.
Cere did not learn what had happened to her father and El Rabanos. The huge forms of Monk and Renny
blocked her view as Doc went to the two strangely paralyzed men.
With an experienced sureness, Doc stroked certain nerve centers. Previous pressure on these had induced a
sort of paralysis. Doc's practiced touch relieved this condition.
Use of their limbs did not return instantly to the two men; full recovery required perhaps a minute. During
that interval, Doc searched Senor Oveja and El Rabanos. Each had a pair of revolvers belted about his
middle. Doc removed those. He also took a knife, which he found in a sheath inside Senor Oveja's shirt.
"What does this mean?" Senor Oveja demanded indignantly.
"It means that you weren't as slick as you thought!" rum bled big-fisted Renny.
Oveja glared. "What do you - "
"We have no time for an argument!" Doc interrupted. "Long Tom, Johnny - you guard the prisoners. Monk,
you and Renny come with me."
As he spoke, Doc was already gliding away through the moonlight. Renny and Monk pounded after him.
"Where are we headed for?" Monk demanded.
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"For that machine-gun ambush at the cliff," Doc told him.'
Chapter 15. WHEN TROUBLE DOUBLES
"THEY'RE gone!" Monk exclaimed in his small voice.
"Yeah," Renny rumbled. "You can see that they were around recently, too. Here's a match one of them was
chewing on. The end is still wet."
Doc and the two men stood on the edge of the blind canyon which penetrated the line of cliffs. They had
approached with the greatest of caution. They were sure the ambushers had not seen or heard them. Yet the
gang was gone.
Doc Savage listened intently; training had given his ears a keenness which rivaled that of a jungle creature.
But they picked up no sound.
"The gang isn't in the vicinity," he decided aloud.
"But how'd they get tipped off?" Renny growled. "How did - " [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]