Chapter V

27

STRANGE FISH

From then on, it was a matter of working back through the coaches carefully. Mostly the doors between the subway coaches were open, but even when they were closed, there were windows in them.

The small sheep of a man and his three friends were in a car about the middle of the train.

From the next coach ahead, Doc watched them.

They got off in midtown. Thirty−fourth Street.

Doc Savage was uneasy. They were near his headquarters now. But the four behaved innocently. They went to a bar in the neighborhood, a large one, and loafed.

Doc watched from a small fur shop across the street. As nearly as he could tell, the four men did nothing but loaf at the bar. Then they got one telephone call, or the sheep did. It was a short call. He didn't make it. He got it.

The narrow margin by which he'd kept their trail when they boarded the subway was worrying Doc. He was afraid of losing them. He decided to get Monk and Ham on the shadowing job.

He had left the trick radio gadget in his car when he abandoned it hastily. So he used the fur shop telephone.

Ham Brooks answered. Ham had a courtroom voice, the deep, modulated voice of a studied orator.

Doc said, “Four men left that house. The sheep and three others. They are downtown now.” He named the bar where the four were loitering. “Better get down here and help me keep track of them. You and Monk both.”

He gave a general description of the men.

Ham immediately asked, “Who is this girl Monk is investigating? How come?”

“How come what?”

“The big palooka is more interested in her looks than in whether she's a crook. You should hear him!”

Doc became indignant.

“Cut that out!” he said sharply.

“Okay,” Ham said. “But I think this Monk put something over on me.”

Doc asked dryly, “Is your indignation going to permit you to get down here and shadow these fellows?”

“Oh, sure. We'll be right down.”

THEY weren't right down. Eventually ten minutes passed. Fifteen. Five should have been ample for Monk or Ham or both to show up. They hadn't come.

The four men in the bar had been looking at the clock above the back−bar mirror. The sheep compared his wristwatch with the clock. They appeared to resign themselves to a considerable wait, and picked up their glasses and went to a table.