Savage. The really bewildering thing about these discoveries was that they were made in widely different fields, ranging from surgery, chemistry, and electricity to the perfecting of a new, quick-growing species of lumber tree.
'Amazement seized me as I listened to eminent scientists discuss Doc Savage, the man of mystery, in the most glowing words. It seemed impossible they could speak in such terms of one man without exaggerating. Yet these were men certainly not given to exaggeration. I am going to give you a word picture of this man of mystery of whom they talked.
'Doc Savage is, despite his amazing accomplishments, a young man. He is a striking bronze giant of a figure. His physical strength, my informants assured me, is on a par with his mental ability. That means he is a marvel of muscular development. One of the scientists at the banquet told me in entire seriousness that, were Savage to enter athletic competition, his name would leap to the headlines of every paper in the country.
'This man of mystery has been trained from the cradle, until now he is almost a super being. This training, given by his father, was to fit Doc Savage for a definite purpose in life.
'That purpose is to travel from one end of the world to the other, striving to help those who need help, punishing those who deserve punishment.
'Associated with Doc Savage are five men who love excitement and adventure, and who have dedicated themselves to their leader's creed of benefiting humanity.
'A strange and mysterious group of men. this! So unusual that the hare facts I am telling you now cannot but sound unreal and far-fetched. Yet I can assure you my information came from the most conservative and reliable sources.'
The listening man blinked as he digested the words that came to his ears. 'This Doc Savage must be quite a guy,' he grunted.
Then the sneaking face was near. As unknowing as the watchman's companion at the gate, the man in the plane fell before the blow of the weapon, crumpled in his seat, unconscious or dead — the attacker did not look to see.
SLANT-EYED men poured into the hangar. No orders were uttered. The half-caste Orientals were still following their plan. Their efficiency was terrible, deadly. The whole group worked as one unit, an expert killing machine.
Two opened the hangar doors. Others busied themselves making four pursuit planes ready for the air. These ships were the most modern craft. yet the sinister men showed familiarity with the mechanism.
Three yellow raiders rushed up to the planes. carrying guns and bombs. The guns were quickly attached. the bombs were racked in clips on the undersides of the planes.
More men secured four parachutes from a locker room. No time was wasted in scampering about the airport hunting for things. They knew exactly where everyt hing was located.
The planes were strong-armed out of the hangars. Four Orientals dug goggles and helmets out of their clothing. The helmets were a brilliant red color.
The men cinched on the parachutes, then plugged into the cockpits. The scarlet helmets made them resemble a quartet of red-headed woodpeckers.
Exhaust thunder galloped across the tarmac as the motors started. Prop-streams tore dust from under the ships and pushed it away in squirming masses.
The planes flung along the runway, vaulted off, and slanted up into the now moon-whitened sky.
The Orientals who had been left behind lost no time in quitting the airport. Racing to the three laundry trucks, they entered, and drove hastily away.
Three or four minutes after the planes departed, no one was left at the airport. The two watchmen lay where they had dropped, still unconscious. In the ditch beside the road sprawled the three slain drivers of the laundry trucks.
The adjacent countryside slept on peacefully. The four planes booming overhead attracted no attention, since night flying was not unusual even at this quiet port.
Within ten minutes, Long Island Sound was crawling under the craft. The surface of the Sound was like a faintly pitted silver plate, shimmering in the brilliant moonlight.
The planes spread out widely and flew low. Each Oriental pilot had high-magnification binoculars jammed to his eyes. With the same machine thoroughness which bad stamped their bloody actions at the airport, they searched the Sound surface.
It was not long before they found what they sought — a narrow craft trailing across the Sound at the head of a long wedge of foaming wake.
The planes headed purposefully for this vessel.
Chapter 2
SEA PHANTOM
THE quarry came rapidly closer. More details of the craft were discernible. The half-caste Mongol pilots continued to use their binoculars. They tilted their planes down in steep dives toward the unusual vessel below.
It was a submarine. It resembled a lean-flanked, razorback whale several hundred feet long. Big steel runners extended from bow to stern, sled fashion. Amidships, a sort of collapsible conning tower reared.
The underseas craft floated high. On the bows, a lettered name was readable:
HELLDIVER.
It was this submarine which had been the subject of the radio news commentator's broadcast.
With deadly precision, the four planes roared down at the submersible. The Orientals had discarded their binoculars, and had their eyes pasted to the bomb sights. Yellow hands were poised, muscles drawn wire-hard, on bomb trips.
A naval bombing expert, knowing all the facts, would have sworn the submarine didn't have a chance of escaping. It would be blown out of the water by the bombs.
The Mongol pilots were hot-eyed, snarling — yellow faces no longer inscrutable. They were about to accomplish the purpose of their bloody plot — the death of every one aboard the under-the-polar-ice submarine.
They got a shock.
From a dozen spots, the sub hull spewed smoke as black as drawing ink. Heaving, squirming, the dense smudge spread. It blotted the underseas boat from view, and blanketed the surface of the Sound for hundreds of feet in every direction.
With desperate haste, the Orientals deposited bombs in the center of the smoke mushroom. These explosions drove up treelike columns from the black body of the smoke mass. It was impossible to tell whether the sub had been damaged.
The four planes might have been angry, metallic bees droning over some gigantic. strange, black blossom. as they hovered watchfully. They did not waste more bombs, since the smoke cloud was now half a mile across. In it, the sub was like a needle in a haystack.
Several minutes passed. Suddenly, as one unit, the four planes dived for the western edge of the heavy smoke screen.
Their sharp eyes had detected a long, slender mass moving some feet beneath the surface. This was leaving a creamy wake.
In quick succession, the war planes struck downward at the object under the water. Four bombs dropped. The half-caste Mongols knew their business. Each bomb scored an almost perfect hit.
Water rushed high. The sea heaved and boiled. The concussions tossed the planes about like leaves.
Swinging in a wide circle, the planes came back. The commotion in the water had subsided. The pilots made hissing sounds of delight.
The long, slender mass was no longer to be seen. Oil filmed the surface. Oil such as would come from the
