Mindoro unlocked the royal suite with a key Doc had furnished, entered, and wrote bnelly on the bathroom mirror with a bit of crayonlike substance he produced from a pocket. He wrote near the top.
No stewards encountered the blowsy-looking tropical tramp as he returned to the steerage.
Fifteen minutes after this incident, Ham also entered the royal suite and left a message written near the bottom of the mirror.
The Malay Queen was some miles out to sea before the Hindu and his black man stalked with great dignity to their royal suite and locked themselves in.
Doc turned the ultra-violet lamp on the bathroom mirror.
Mindoro's message read:
The steerage is full of half-castes Chinese,
Japanese, Malays. And Mongols. But I have seen
nothing to show Tom Too is aboard.
Ham's communication was:
No sign of Monk, Long Tom, or Johnny. And how
I hate these clothes!
Renny snorted at the reflection of his own black face in the mirror. "Ham sure cuts a swath in his green hat and blood-colored shoes. I'll bet he breaks the mirror in his cabin so he can't see himself."
Doc took off his turban. He had dyed his hair an extreme black.
"Did you see any sign of Tom Too or his prisoners, Renny?"
"Not a hair." Renny drew funnel-like flaring tubes from his nostrils.
"They came from New York to San Francisco by plane, we know. We located the aircraft they had chartered. And the pilots told us they had three prisoners along."
"The big point is did they sail on the Malay Queen?"
"We have no proof they did. But Monk's message indicated they intended to."
Renny scowled at his sepia reflection in the mirror, apparently trying to see how fierce he could look. The result was a countenance utterly villainous, especially when he replaced the tubes which enlarged his nostrils.
"Holy cow!" be grunted. "I wouldn't even know myself! I don't think Tom Too will recognize us, Doc. That gives us a few days in which to work. That's a long time."
"We may need it. This Tom Too is as clever a devil as we've ever gone up against."
They were not tong in learning just how true Doc's statement was.
HAM gave Doc Savage news of the first development. This occurred the following day.
Ham furnished Doc his information in a rather curious fashion. He did it by smoking his vile cigar. He was seated at one end of the lounge. Doc was ostensibly reading a book at the other.
Ham released short and long puffs of smoke from his lips. The short puffs were dots, the long ones dashes. Using them, Ham spelled out a sentence.
Have you heard the talk going over the
ship about the three maniacs confined to a
stateroom on D deck?
Tom Too or any of his men, were they in the lounge, would hardly have dreamed the silly-looking cockney was transmitting a message. And Tom Too might very well be present quite a few Orientals were numbered among the first-class passengers sitting in the lounge.
Doc shook a negative with his head, making it seem he was mentally disagreeing with something he had read in his book.
The three madmen are in Stateroom Sixty-six.
Ham continued his smoke transmission.
Two Mongols are always on guard outside
the cabin. That's all I've been able to find out.
"And that's plenty," muttered Renny, who had also spelled out Ham's smoke words.
Shortly after this the Hindu and his giant black servant retired to their royal suite.
"That means they've got our buddies prisoners in the cabin!" Renny declared. "They've given out the word they're madmen to explain their keeping out of sight. Probably they're strapped in strait-jackets, and gagged, too."
Doc nodded grimly. "You stay here, Renny. I'm going down and investigate alone."
For the first time, passengers on the Malay Queen saw the exotic-looking Hindu moving about without his black man. Several eyes followed him as he entered the elevator.
"I wish to be let out on D deck," he told the elevator man, speaking the precise English of one to whom the tongue is not native.
D deck, being the lowest on the ship, held the cheapest accommodations. The staterooms were not perfectly ventilated, and it was necessary to keep the ports of the outside cabins closed much of the time lest waves slosh in and cause damage.
Cabin No.66 was far forward.
Sure enough, two slant-eyed fellows lounged before the door. These were not half-castes, but of pure Mongol strain. Both of them looked fairly intelligent.
Blank-eyed, they watched the robed Hindu approach. With each step the Hindu's rich sandals appeared under his robes. He came to a stop within arm reach of the two Mongols.
What followed next was forever a mystery to the Mongol pair.
Two sharp cracks sounded. Each man dropped.
Doc had struck with both fists simultaneously, before either victim realized what he intended to do. Indeed, neither Mongol as much as saw Doc's white-swathed arms start their movement.
The stateroom door was locked. Doc exerted pressure. The door caved in. Doc glided warily through.
The stateroom was empty!
Doc was not given long to digest this disappointing discovery. Two shots crashed in the passage outside. They came close together, deafening roars.
Doc whipped over to a berth, scooped up a pillow, and flashed it briefly outside the door. More shots thundered. Bullets tore a cloud of feathers out of the pillow.
With a gesture too quick for watching eyes to catch, Doc flicked a glass ball of anaesthetic into the passage.
He held his breath a full four minutes not a difficult task, considering Doc had practiced doing that very thing every day of his life since he had quitted the cradle.
In the interim he heard excited shouts. Men ran up. But their shouts ceased and they fell unconscious as the gas got them.
When he knew the anaesthetic vapor had become ineffective, Doc stepped out.
Only stewards and ship officers lay senseless in the passage. Of the man who had fired the shots there was no sign.
Both of the Mongols had bullet holes through their brains.
For the moment no other observers were in sight. Doc hurried past the unconscious sailors and returned to the royal suite.
Renny was disappointed when Doc appeared without their three friends.
"What did you find?" he demanded.
"That Tom Too is about as clever a snake as ever lived!" Doc replied grimly.
"What'd he do?"
"Spread a false story about three madmen being in the cabin just on the chance I was aboard. He figured that if I was, I'd investigate. Well, I accommodated him. And now he knows who I am."
"A bad break!" Renny growled.
"Tom Too is an utterly cold-blooded killer. He sacrificed two of his men, murdering them just so they would not fall into my hands. No doubt he feared they would be scared into betraying him."
Renny jerked a cast of dental composition out of his mouth. It was this which had thickened his lips.
"No need of us wearing these disguises any longer!" he declared.
"No," Doc agreed. "They'd just make us that much easier to find. Ham and Mindoro are safe for the time being in their disguises, though."
The two men busied themselves shedding their make-up.
Remover used by theatrical players took the stain off their skin and hair. Doc peeled his throat scar off as though it were adhesive tape.
"This puts us in a tough spot," Renny rumbled as they returned themselves to normal appearance. "They'll spare no effort to put us out of the way. And no telling how many of them are aboard."
It was a vastly different-looking pair of men who stepped out of the royal suite. They were so changed an approaching deck steward did not recognize them.
"Is the Hindu in?" questioned the steward. "I got a note for him."
Doc plucked the note Out of the startled steward's fingers.