Doc savage 033 murde.., p.19
Doc Savage - 033 - Murder Melody, page 19
The grim, desperate faces of Homer Pearson Caulkins, the economist, and Salvatore Umbrogia Cassalano, the mineralogist, appeared. The disheveled, chagrined scientists stumbled to the ground.
"The buried Uni-Ship made a very secure prison," smiled the man of bronze.
Chapter 20. LAND OF TOMORROW
"BUT we believed you to have been imprisoned in the wrecked Uni-Ship?" exclaimed King Lumos. "Your message seemed to spell disaster for all of our hopes."
"We radioed only because it was necessary," stated Doc Savage. "We were sure Zoro would hear that call. It was the only manner in which Long Tom and I could take over the roles of Caulkins and Cassalano. These two tell me they were seeking to escape when we found them fleeing from the Land of Beyond."
"But how could you have found them with the Uni-Ship?" questioned Princess Lanta. "In the place where they were, it must have been utterly dark."
"It was plenty dark," put in Long Tom. "But Doc had brought along the searchlight that creates the infra-red rays. With the ray invisible to the human eye without aid, we used the binoculars that made the surface below us brilliant as daylight. We saw Caulkins and Cassalano hiding. Doc landed the Uni-Ship and we seized them."
"They imagined we were Zoromen," said Doc. "They made the mistake of trying to explain in the darkness. They said they had merely gone out for a walk and became lost. Before they identified us, they were pledging themselves to carry out the plot to destroy the solar system of Manyon."
"So Doc took them into the Uni-Ship and locked them up," stated Long Tom. "Then he sent it for a dive underground."
"I don't understand how that could have been done," declared King Lumos. "In Subterranae we have been much more advanced in our discoveries and inventions than those of the upper world. Yet, within a few hours, you have developed our own forces until they accomplish unheard-of feats."
The man of bronze smiled a little.
"We merely employed remote control," he stated. "It is the same force with which we now have suspended the Uni-Ships of Zoro. Reversed, it brought out the Uni-Ship containing Caulkins and Cassalano. It is one of the devices I hope to leave with the Kingdom of Subterranae."
"Leave with us?" said, King Lumos.
"That is our purpose," smiled the bronze man. "With the light of the infra-red ray, you have the means of observing the movement of any future enemies in the darkness. You can turn off your solar system, yet you will be able to see what your foes are doing."
"And this other you call remote control?" said the king.
"Perhaps it will serve with more elastic power than your supermagnetic towers," said Doc. "You will be able to so adjust it that you could at any time interfere with the controls of your enemies' Uni-Ships. But at the same time you could have your own controls out of tune with the radio beam."
Crado cried out from a little distance.
"We must not forget the buried explosive force inside the magnetic cavern! If something should cause it to let go, all of our transmission generators would be wrecked!"
Doc Savage shook his head slowly.
"You need never fear the trinitromite," he stated. "The explosive force of our world is now lacking any means of concussion. Still it might be best to have it removed and destroyed as soon as possible."
"You mean," said King Lumos, "the explosive force now is inactive."
"That is it," said Doc. "Only the detonating caps especially designed for it will set it off. None of the caps have been placed with the charge in the cavern. When Long Tom and I had succeeded in misleading Zoro into the belief we were Caulkins and Cassalano, we substituted harmless dummy caps for the real ones without Zoro's knowledge."
"And the real concussion caps were packed in the detonating boxes, which Zoro and I exploded with the weapons of the metallic drums," said Princess Lanta. "Clark Savage made himself known to me. When the boxes were torn to pieces, all of the caps were destroyed."
She indicated the deep excavation where the detonating boxes had been set. The blast had appeared to tear open the side of the hill containing the magnetic bed.
IN the air, a thousand feet up, the helpless ships filled with Zoromen were drifting. The remote-control machine devised by Doc and Long Tom made their descent impossible. The ring-leaders of the revolution, who intended to place Zoro on the throne, were imprisoned in the strangest possible manner.
In the inner room of the palace King Lumos reported a clamoring of his people for the execution of all those of the Land of Beyond.
"Among your subjects you have perhaps one of surgical skill," suggested Doc Savage. "From among those we have brought from the Land of Beyond we will select two for a demonstration. To your surgeon will be imparted the power to bring about a new form of banishment for the discontented and those of warped mind."
"Yes, Clark Savage, we have learned of your treatment of crooks in the upper world," said Princess Lanta. "We can inform our people we are carrying out an execution. The brains that are ill will die, and the rebellious ones will be banished to the Land of Forgetfulness. We need no longer maintain the Land of Beyond."
"What a girl, what a girl!" exclaimed Ham. "Now if she only can find a king fit to occupy the same throne."
Monk had wrought a remarkable transformation in his appearance. So far as possible he had shaved his homely face.
"Dag-gonit!" he grunted. "I've been thinkin' the same thing!"
"Imagine a kingdom of apes without any trees," grinned Ham.
King Lumos quickly agreed to the surgical experiment which would dispense with the need for a land of banishment.
"And now, Doc Savage," he said, "you have brought to us valuable gifts which will be of greatest benefit to the Kingdom of Subterranae. In return, we are prepared to repay you for this and your saving of our people. Gold and diamonds, which will exceed those of all your upper world, shall be conveyed to the surface in our Uni-Ships. We would keep you and your men with us, but we are aware the earth needs your wisdom and courage."
The man of bronze shook his head gravely.
"We have of our own gold all we shall ever require to aid those who are oppressed," he stated. "This is the bequest of my father through a king of an ancient race. This ruler is very like you in kindliness and in the hearts of his people. We can accept nothing."
King Lumos was amazed; but Princess Lanta said, "I had told my father the offer should not have been made. Now I think he understands."
"Perhaps with your new knowledge of the world outside, some of your people might want to come among us," suggested Doc Savage.
"No," agreed King Lumos and the princess.
They said that except for Zoro and his machinations, their land had been peaceful. It had few of the ills afflicting society in the upper world. They would remain as they were, but arrange a means by which Doc Savage could sometimes communicate with them.
"And how shall we dispose of the scientists?" questioned King Lumos.
"They have had their lesson," stated Doc. "Zoro had in some manner communicated with them before he made contact with their ship. He had promised them quantities of diamonds and gold to make them powerful in the upper world. In exchange, they were to provide the explosives with which Zoro could overthrow the kingdom of the inner world. I believe if they escape to our own world, Caulkins and Cassalano will find their own sphere of effort sufficient to occupy them in the future."
Princess Lanta's lovely black-and-white eyes had lingered long on the man of bronze. She sighed deeply. She realized Doc Savage was of another race. More, he had mapped a plan of life in which he would always stand alone.
SOME hours later the earth shook. In the vicinity of the Friendly Islands the ground swayed. Branches of brittle dead trees crackled and snapped.
This was the last of the series of inexplicable earthquakes.
Wise geologists explained them as a shrinking of the earth's crust over the raging fires in the interior of the world.
Doc Savage and his five companions read these explanations and smiled.
Perhaps their smiles would have been a bit grim if they could have looked thousands of miles southward, below the equator, and seen The Fantastic Island. There, in a remote island of the Galapagos, was to be the scene of their next struggle, against odds that taxed Doc Savage's ingenuity to the uttermost!
THE END
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Kenneth Robeson, Doc Savage - 033 - Murder Melody
