Chapter V
30
STRANGE FISH
“Don't be a fool,” Doc told him. “They haven't fired all their ammunition, probably, and they might be waiting.”
“Give me your gun.”
“Stay down here,” Doc said impatiently. “How did you two get caught?”
Monk said, “They were waiting down in the lobby for us. Waiting at the elevator, two of them. They just stepped out and told us what to do.”
“After,” said Ham, “they showed us they had guns.”
“Any idea what they intended to do with you?”
Ham Brooks said, “I can tell you every word they said. One said, 'Where is Doc Savage?' And Monk said you had gone to South America in a hell of a hurry.”
Monk shivered. “Then one said, 'Why not pop it to them here?' to the other one. And the other one said, “They may be lying about Savage. Better get the truth out of them first. Anyway, if they were knocked off here, Savage would hear about it and come back.'“
“Was that all they said?”
“Just about all. The rest was just stuff about where we should walk and what we should do.”
“Mostly it was do nothing,” Ham said. “Doc, they were going to kill us.” His voice had turned strange.
Ham looked as if the significance of the thing was just getting to him. As if he was just realizing that death had taken a clip at him. He didn't lose color. But he got a funny look.
Doc looked at them narrowly. “How come they caught you flat−footed? You knew there was something going on.”
Ham glanced at Monk. They exchanged looks. Guilty.
“We weren't on the ball, was all,” Monk said.
Doc was skeptical.
“Sure you didn't pick the wrong time to quarrel about a woman?” he demanded.
Monk blurted, “How did—” and then changed it to an innocent look and said, “Of course not!”
Doc let it drop.
After a while, they went out on the street. The sheep and his friends were gone. The police had arrived. So had the owner of the car Doc had taken. For the next two hours, there were questions and explanations.
“It's too danged bad we lost the trail of those fellows,” Monk said wearily. “What do we do now?”
“We go to Oklahoma,” Doc told him.