"Who filed this?"
"I don't know," insisted the radio man. "I discovered it lying on the counter, together with the payment for transmission and a swell tip. Some one came in and left it without being observed."
"This Tom Too must be half ghost!" Renny muttered. He still held the captain's revolver, although neither the skipper of the Malay Queen nor First Mate Jong were offering resistance.
Doc studied the cipher message. It read:
JOHN DUCK
HOTEL KWANG SAN FRANCISCO
DTOSS EARVR AAGSE IAHBR OOAFR ODIRDA
There was no signature. Radiograms are often unsigned, which made this fact nothing unusual.
"Whew!" Renny grunted. "Can you make heads or tails of that mess of letters, Doc? It seems to be a five-letter code of some kind."
"The last word has six letters," Doc pointed out. "Let's see what a little experimenting will do to it."
Seating himself before a sheet of blank paper, a pencil in hand, Doc went to work on the cipher. His pencil flew swiftly, trying different combinations of the letters.
Five minutes later he got it.
"The thing is simple, after all," he smiled.
"Yeah?" Renny grunted doubtfully.
"The first cipher letter is the first in the translated message," Doc said rapidly. "The second cipher letter is the last in the message. The third cipher letter is the second in the message; the fourth cipher letter is next to the last in the message, and so on. The letters are merely scrambled systematically!"
"Hey!" gasped Renny. "I'm dizzy already."
"It sounds complicated until you get it down on paper. Here, I'll show you."
Doc put down the cipher as it stood.
DTOSS EARYR AAGSE IAHBR OOAFR ODIRDA
Under that he wrote the translation.
DOCSAVAGEABOARDRADIOFORHISARREST
Renny scowled at this. Then its meaning became clear the words were merely without spacing.
"Doc Savage aboard. Radio for his arrest!" he read aloud.
"The Instructions Tom Too sent to a confederate in San Francisco," Doc explained. "Evidently they had agreed upon a course of action should we be discovered aboard."
POWERFUL equipment was a part of the installation aboard the Malay Queen. Using this, it was possible for passengers aboard to carry on a telephone conversation with any one ashore, exactly as though there was a wire connection.
Using this, Doc now proceeded to do some detective work.
He called the Hotel Kwang in San Francisco.
"Have you a guest registered under the name of John Duck?" he asked.
"John Duck checked out only a few moments ago," the hotel clerk informed him.
Doc's second call was to the San Francisco police chief. He cut in a loud-speaker so every one in the Malay Queen radio room could hear what the police chief had to say.
"Have you received any request to arrest Doc Savage," Doc asked.
"Certainly not!" replied the San Francisco official. "We have a suggestion from the New York police that we offer Savage every possible cooperation."
Doc rested his golden eyes on Captain Hickman. "You satisfied?"
Captain Hickman's ruddy face glistened with perspiration. "I er yes, of course."
Doc severed his radio connection with San Francisco.
"I wish your cooperation," he told Captain Hickman. "Whether you give it or not is up to you. But if you refuse, you may rest assured you will lose your command of this ship within thirty minutes."
Captain Hickman mopped at his face. He was bewildered, angry, a little scared.
Doc noted his indecision. "Call your owners. Ask them about it."
The Malay Queen commander hurriedly complied. He secured a radio-land-line connection with the headquarters of his company in San Francisco He gave a brief description of the situation.
"What about this man Savage?" he finished.
He was wearing earphones. The others did not hear what he was told.
But Captain Hickman turned about as pale as his ruddy face permitted. His hands shook as he placed the headset on the table. He stared at Doc as if wondering what manner of man the big bronze fellow was.
"I have been ordered to do anything you wish, even to turning my command over to you," he said briskly.
First Mate Jong stared as if this was hard to believe. Then he made a gesture of agreement. "I will start an immediate search of the ship. And I can promise you it will be done so smoothly no one will as much as know it is going on."
He hurried out.
Doc and Renny returned to the royal suite.
Renny eyed Doc curiously. "Just what kind of a pull have you got with the company that owns this boat, anyhow?"
"Some months ago the concern got pinched for money," Doc said slowly, reluctantly. "Had it ceased operating, several thousand men would have been out of jobs. A loan of mine tided them over."
RENNY sank heavily into a chair. At times he felt a positive awe of the mighty bronze man. This was one of the occasions.
It was not the fact that Doc was wealthy enough to take an important hand in a commercial project such as this, that took Renny's breath. It was the uncanny way such things as this turned up the way the bronze man seemed to have a finger in affairs in every part of the world.
Renny knew Doc Possessed fabulous wealth, a golden treasure.trove alongside which the proverbial ransom of a king paled into insignificance. Doc had a fortune great enough to buy and sell some nations.
Renny had seen that treasure. The sight of it had left him dazed for weeks. It lay in the lost Valley of the Vanished, a chasm in the impenetrable mountains of the Central American republic of Hidalgo. This strange place was peopled by a golden-skinned folk, pure-blooded descendants of the ancient Mayan race. They guarded the wealth. And they sent burro trains of it to the outside world as Doc needed it.
There was one string attached to the wealth Doc was to use it only in projects which would benefit humanity. The Mayans had insisted Upon that. It was to he used for the cause of right.
Their insistence was hardly needed, for it would not have received any other disposition at Doc's hands. Doc's life was dedicated to that same creed to go here and there, from one end of the world to the other, striving to help those who needed help, punishing those who were malefactors.
This was the one thing that motivated Doc's every act.
The same creed bound his five men to Doc. That, and their love of adventure, which was never satisfied.
Chapter 12
TREACHERY
THE search for Monk, Long Tom, and Johnny drew a blank.
"I can assure you we searched every stateroom aboard, and every box and bale of the cargo!" declared slant-eyed First Mate Jong. "There was no sign of three prisoners."
"I don't believe they're aboard!" Captain Hickman Captain Hickman had taken to speaking in a low voice when in the presence of the big bronze man. He was completely in awe of Doc, and his manner showed it.
"I'm still betting they're aboard!" Renny grunted. "Unless " He wet his lips. His enormous fists became flinty blocks. It had just occurred to him that Tom Too might have become alarmed and slain the three captives, shoving their bodies overboard.
Renny's fears were dispelled by a plain white card they found under the door of the royal suite the next day. It said:
The straw did not break the back of the
camel, you may be glad to ]earn. But
it came very near.
TOM TOO.
"That snake is getting cocky!" Renny gritted. "How could the search have missed our three pals, granting they're aboard?"
"No telling how many of the crew have been bribed," Doc pointed out.
THE Malay Queen stopped at Honolulu for a few hours. Doc had gotten instructions to the flashy cockney and the disheveled tropical tramp, otherwise Ham and Mindoro, and they all kept close watch on such persons as went ashore.