Chapter IX

53

STRANGE FISH

To get out of this mess, he suspected they would have to do some active scrambling.

The catch, of course, was what to do?

Paris seemed to take it for granted they would stay for a while. She talked to Johnny Toms, and Johnny in turn got the cowboys together.

About half the cowboys, according to Johnny Toms' plan, were to spread over the neighborhood and hunt for the fat man, the sheep of a man, the fellow who had told the lie to the Sheriff, the man in the cowboy boots who had directed Doc and his aids to the landing area near the ranch—in short, look for enemies. The cowboys were to enlist the aid of all of their Indian friends in the neighborhood who could be trusted.

There was a hot discussion about what Indians could be trusted to keep their mouths shut. Also what Indians had wives who would talk their heads off. The squaws, it was the general opinion, would be the real gossip carriers.

Johnny Toms supervised this discussion expertly, and got the cowboys on their way.

Monk gazed after Johnny Toms.

“That guy,” Monk said, “can say more than one word at a time, after all.”

“He's a funny duck, though,” Ham said.

Doc Savage decided to look over the ranch vicinity himself, to be sure it was safe. This did not mean that he distrusted Johnny Toms and the cowboys. Doc was in the habit of checking on important things to see that they were done. Also, he was impatient, anxious to be doing something. He hoped that while he was prowling around the ranch, some kind of an idea would come to him.

Doc's prowl around the ranch consisted of standing in the dark shadows—it was night now, and a black one—and listening, thinking. Between times, he poked into the buildings he came to, to find out what was inside.

He found two cowhands guarding the buildings. They were alert, and discovered him, although he moved with stealth. He was satisfied with their guarding job. No one would be able to get too close. The cowboys told him that other cowboys were farther away from the ranch buildings, watching the roads and paths. They had, they explained, done another thing to make it difficult to approach the ranch without being discovered.

Doc came finally to a bungalow. He surmised the place was Johnny Toms', the foreman being the only one who would logically rate private quarters. Because he was checking, and passing up nothing, he decided to take a look through a window to be sure.

He was thinking about that when Johnny Toms appeared in the door.

TOMS stood looking out into the night. His manner was nervous, which was understandable. But it struck Doc that he was furtive. Or possibly it was what Toms did next which gave him the impression of furtiveness.

Because Toms drew the window shades.

It could be nervousness. Doc frowned. Yes, it could be nervousness.