their pained howls like a singing teacher.
Across the lobby, two more mean-eyed men cowered in a corner. They had their arms wrapped tightly about their faces. Each was trying to crawl into the corner behind the other.
The cause of their terror was a slender, waspish man who danced lightly before them. This man was probably as immaculately clad a gentleman as ever twirled a cane on a New York street.
Indeed, it was with a sword cane that he now menaced the pair in the corner. A sword cane which ordinarily looked like an innocent black walking stick!
This man was 'Ham.' On the military records, he was Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks. He was one of the leading civil lawyers of the country. He had never been known to lose a case. But there was no sign of poor blind Victor Vail.
DOC SAVAGE addressed the grinning gorilla of a man.
'What happened, Monk?'
'Monk!'
No other nickname would have quite fit the homely, long-armed, and furry fellow. The highly technical articles he occasionally wrote on chemistry were signed by the full name of Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Mayfair.
There apparently wasn't room back of his low brow for more brains than could be crammed into a cigarette. Actually, he was such a great chemist that other famous chemists often came from foreign countries to consult with him.
'We were coming in the door when we met our friends.' Monk gave his three captives a squeeze to hear them howl. 'They had guns. We didn't like their looks. So we glommed onto 'em.'
Reaching forward, Doc Savage placed his bronze right hand lightly against the faces of each of Monk's three prisoners. Only Doc's finger tips touched the skin of the men.
Yet all three instantly became unconscious!
Hurrying over, Doc also touched lightly the pair Ham menaced with his sword cane.
Both fell senseless!
Ham sheathed his sword cane. He twirled the innocent black stick which resulted. He was quite a striking figure, sartorially.
Indeed, tailors often followed Ham down the street, just to watch clothes being worn as they should be worn!
'You didn't see more of these rats dragging a white-haired, blind man, did you?' Doc asked.
'We saw only these five.' Ham had the penetrant voice of an orator.
Neither Ham nor Monk seemed the least surprised by the way in which their prisoners dropped unconscious at Doc's touch.
Ham and Monk were accustomed to the remarkable feats of this mighty bronze man, for they were two of a group of five men who worked with Doc Savage. Each of the other three was a master of some profession, just as Monk was a fine chemist and Ham a great lawyer.
The five men and Doc Savage formed an adventuresome group with a definite, although somewhat strange, purpose in life. This purpose was to go here and there, from one end of the world to the other, looking for excitement and adventure, striving to help those in need of help, and punishing those who deserved it.
Doc suddenly went outside. He moved so effortlessly he seemed to glide. He had been seized by a suspicion. Either Victor Vail was still in the skyscraper, or he had been removed by way of the freight elevators.
Hardly was Doc on the walk when a bullet splashed chill air on his bronze face.
Two sedans were parked down the street, near the freight entrance of the giant building.
One machine lurched into motion. It ran rapidly away. Doc did not get a chance to see whether Victor Vail was in it!
Doc flashed over into the shelter of a many-spouted fire hydrant. The hydrant had couplings for several hose lines. It was nearly as large as a barrel.
Down the street, the driver hopped out of the sedan which remained. He was a big man, very fat. He wore a white handkerchief mask.
'Git a hump on yer!' he howled.
The cry was obviously directed at some of his fellows who were still in the skyscraper.
Monk and Ham popped out on the walk. The shot had attracted them. Monk held a pistol which, in his hairy paw, looked small as a watch chain ornament.
The sedan driver leveled a revolver to fire again. Monk's fist spat flame.
The driver jumped about wildly. like a beheaded chicken. His spasmodic actions carried him into the street. He caved down finally and rolled under the sedan.
Three or four evil heads poked out of the freight entrance. Another red spark jumped out of Monk's paw. The heads jerked back.
Suddenly, Doc's low voice reached Monk's ears. Doc spoke half a dozen staccato sentences. Silence followed.
When Monk glanced at the fire hydrant a moment later, Doc Savage was gone!
Several times in the next minute guns roared in the gloomy street. The reports echoed from the man-made walls on either side like satanic laughter.
The driver of the sedan abruptly appeared! The fellow still wore his mask. He hauled himself laboriously to the sedan door. Getting it open, he fell limply into the machine.
This seemed to embolden the fellows in the freight entrance. They launched a volley of bullets at Monk and Ham. The pair were driven out of sight.
A tight group, the gunmen sprinted from the freight entrance to their sedan. They made it safely. They piled in, trampling the prone, white-masked form of the driver.
'T'row de stiff out!' snarled one man, seizing the driver. The driver kicked the man who had grasped him.
'I ain't no stiff, damn yer!' he cursed. 'Dey jest winged me!'
'It's a lousy deal, us goin' off an' leavin' our pals in dat buildin'!' growled a gunster.
'What else could we do?' retorted another. 'Dey was saps to go bargin' out wavin' our rods. If we hadn't heard 'em squawk, we'd have been caught, too.'
'Dry up, you mugs!' snapped the man who had taken the wheel.
The sedan rolled down Broadway. It veered into a side street many blocks downtown.
The street became shabby. Smell of fish permeated the air. Ragged derelicts of men tottered along the thoroughfare. Men in seamen's clothing were plentiful. Raucous music blared out of cheap honkatonks.
It was the water front district — a region of sailor lodging houses, needled beer, and frequent fights.
'De others got here first!' growled a gunman. 'Dere's de car dey was drivin'.'
The machine the man indicated was the first sedan to pull away from the uptown skyscraper.
THE EVIL fellows left the two sedans parked close together. 'Honkey,' the former driver, staggered out, but nearly fell.
'Help 'im, you guys!' directed the man who seemed to be the straw boss.
Honkey was half carried across the walk. This side street was very dark. They did not bother to remove the white mask Honkey still wore.
'Gosh, but he's heavy!' complained a man helping the driver.
They mounted a stairway. The rickety steps whined like dogs when they were stepped on. There was no light, except that from a match a man going ahead had struck.
Into a lighted room, the group went. Several other men waited here.
Still there was no sign of Victor Vail.
'Put Honkey on de bed in de nex' room!' commanded the straw boss.
The two thugs hauled Honkey into an adjacent chamber. It was a slatternly looking place. Wall paper draped from the walls in great scabs. The one bed was filthy.
