Chapter IV

24

STRANGE FISH

“Let's hope to Jehovah he is.”

The three men began stowing their artillery out of sight. They ran to guns of the flat type, automatics. Each had two, and they didn't carry them in their clothing. They had leather briefcases for the guns and ammunition.

“Now we go after Mayfair and Brooks, eh?” one of them said.

“Monk Mayfair and Ham Brooks. That's right.”

“How'll we do it?”

“The direct way might be best,” the small man said. “If they do not go to South America with Savage, we will have to see what luck we have shooting them.”

Chapter V

DOC SAVAGE had driven two blocks, turned right a block, turned right again, driven four blocks, then made another right turn. This round−about business had put him where he could watch the house he had just left.

He got the camera−radio Monk had given him, and fiddled with it. The gadget struck him as silly. He didn't have much faith in its working. To his astonishment, it functioned perfectly.

Monk was over hopeful of excitement.

“We'll be right out, Doc! Where are you?” were his first words.

“Keep your shirt on, Monk. I am not in trouble. At least not in need of help. I think we have a lead to something.”

“You find the guy who talked rough over the phone?”

“Not exactly. I found one out of the same nest, though.”

“Yeah?”

“The address was a residence,” Doc explained. “The yard and shrubbery was all neatly trimmed. It looked as if the grass and the shrubs had grown carelessly most of the summer, then given a thorough job of trimming in the last few days.

“Inside the house, there was evidence of a recent job of furnishing. Some furniture new, some from second−hand stores. On the second−hand furniture, different kinds of polish had been used, indicating it had come from various sources. There were un−faded patches on the living room wall paper where pictures had been hanging.”

Monk said, “That sounds as if the house had just been moved into.”

“That's right.”