Doc Savage - Mystery On Happy Bones Part 7

"Another island, about sixty miles away," she said, "is the proper place for the flying field."

"You mean," Doc said, "that the American government is going to put a flying field in that section."

She nodded. "Either on my island, or on Happy Bones."

"Happy Bones-that is the other island?"

"Right."

"Who owns it?"

"Stony Smith." She pointed at the unconscious leathery man. "Him!"

THEIR taxicab was tied up now in a traffic jam. Evidently some kind of night s.h.i.+ft was going off duty in one of the big government office buildings. Johnny tapped impatiently on the driver's window and said, "A satuvoliclly somniferous ergophobia is unnecessary."

The driver did not bat an eye.

"Sure, buddy," he said. "That's a good gag."

Doc Savage told Hannah, "Suppose you make a clearer statement about this flying field thing,"

She nodded.

"The United States armed forces need an airport in the section, either on Happy Bones or Geography Cay. The establis.h.i.+ng of the airport is in the hands of Major Lowell. A survey of both islands has been made. I was called to Was.h.i.+ngton to talk over the deal for the use of my island for an airport site. I came.

But it was ridiculous."

"What made it ridiculous?" Doc asked.

"There is no place on my island suitable for an airport."

"What about the other island, Happy Bones?""Perfect spot."

Doc indicated the unconscious man. "And this fellow, Stony Smith, owns Happy Bones?"

"That's right."

The traffic jam melted and their cab got moving again. The hotel was not far ahead.

Doc Savage said, "To sum it up, there is a project to put an airport on an island in the Caribbean. You were called to Was.h.i.+ngton to consult with the government agent in charge of the project-Major Lowell.

You do not think your island, Geography Cay, is a suitable spot. You think Happy Bones Island, owned by Stony Smith, is a better location."

"That," said Hannah, "puts it all in the same keg."

"It doesn't," Doc said, "give any motives for what happened tonight."

"Oh, that," said Hannah. "Well, here is what happened. When I first talked to Major Lowell, I got the idea something was-"

She fell silent, glanced at the back of the cab driver's head.

"Tell you later," she said.

The cab driver snorted loudly. "Lady," he said, "you make me feel like an enemy spy."

THEY got out at the hotel, took Stony Smith inside. Hannah paid the cab driver, then grabbed his cap brim and yanked it down over his eyes, seized his necktie, yanked it very tight and tied it in a hard knot.

"Talk wise, will you," she said.

Doc saw Johnny grinning faintly. Johnny was amused by Hannah. Doc thought: Wait until she gets hold of you!

Monk and Ham and Renny had taken a suite on the second floor, rear, away from the street. "Where,"

Johnny explained, "we figured it wouldn't be too easy to toss a bomb in the window."

There was no sign of Monk, Ham or Renny.

"I thought they were supposed to be here," Johnny said. "Monk and Ham were advertising for a parrot and its nest. And Renny was supposed to be checking up on Hannah, here."

"Checking up on me, eh?" Hannah said indignantly. "I'll pay you fifty dollars for every word I've told you that is a lie."

Doc Savage placed Stony Smith on the bed. There was no question but that the man had been drugged.

Doc said, "Johnny, will you go down and get some stuff to revive him." The bronze man wrote out a prescription, which Johnny took with him as he departed.

Hannah looked suspiciously in closets, glanced under the bed, and inspected the windows. She made a trip around the room looking behind pictures and examining the walls closely, obviously to see if there was a microphone hidden.

"Here's the rest of it," she said. "This is why I acted as I did tonight. First, when I talked to MajorLowell, I immediately knew something was wrong."

"He told you there was?"

"He didn't tell me anything," Hannah said. "But I know. Listen, my grand-daddy was a pirate. His father was a pirate. My dad was a pirate. I suppose I'm one, at heart. For about a dozen generations, we've handled the natives on Geography Cay. The natives are pirates. With them, something is wrong all the time. If not, they make it wrong. Don't tell me I can't feel when something is wrong."

Doc Savage let it go. "And so?" he prompted.

"So I got busy keeping my eyes open," Hannah said. "In fact, I snooped. I found out enough to alarm me."

"Which was?"

"That Major Lowell was having me followed. Trailed around."

"What did you do then?"

"Why, I gave him his own medicine. I trailed him around. I saw him make a wire-record, and go to a lot of trouble making up a package and sending it off. So I got the package."

"How did you get it?"

"That was simple. I got a look at the package, made up a duplicate, and swapped it for the real one after he gave it to an express messenger. The express messenger was about sixty years old, and thought he was a diller with the ladies. It was easy to take him in."

Doc said, "I did not get any package."

"The fake I subst.i.tuted had a different address."

Johnny came back with the filled prescription. He asked immediately if there had been any word from Monk, Ham or Renny, and showed plainly that he was worried that there had not been anything from them.

Doc Savage looked at Hannah. "Your story is a little thin," he said.

"Well, it's the truth."

"Thin," Doc said, "because it omitted the matter of a green parrot and its nest."

Hannah looked startled. "Oh! Now I bet you think I'm a liar. I overlooked that part."

"Suppose you add that part to the collection," Doc suggested.

She nodded. "I told you I was following Major Lowell around?"

"Yes."

"Well, I was outside his window at night. He was talking to someone. I don't know who. I don't know whether it was a man or woman, even, because the individual was speaking in a very low voice. Major Lowell was angry. He did some shouting. That was why I heard him."

She looked at them earnestly. She sounded as if she was telling the truth."Major Lowell shouted," she said, "to this other person. He shouted that he had looked at the green parrot and its nest. He shouted that it was the most devilish, inhuman, unholy and fiendish thing he'd ever heard of. He was very angry. Then he ordered this other person out of the house."

"Didn't you see the other person in the act of leaving?"

"No. I had bad luck. The person used a side door, and I expected the front door would be used. I was watching the front door."

"That is all you know about the parrot and its nest?"

"Yes."

DOC SAVAGE gave the prescription, the one Johnny had just had filled, to Stony Smith. The stuff was largely a stimulant, although to some extent it would aid in counteracting the effects of the drug.

They washed Stony Smith's face. He was not seriously injured.

They also searched Stony Smith. There was not a thing in any of his pockets except a handkerchief and an almost new billfold containing four thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars in old-style, large bills.

Johnny remarked about the bills.

"Big ones," he said. "Why, the government stopped printing this size quite a few years ago."

"He's probably a h.o.a.rder," Hannah said. "I wouldn't put anything past him."

Johnny grinned at her. "Coming from a descendant of pirates, isn't that a case of the pot calling the kettle black?"

"There are pirates," Hannah said, "and pirates."

Stony Smith emitted a groan, a tremendously gusty groan; and then while he was still groaning, he had Johnny Littlejohn by the neck, was trying to get off the bed and behind it and choke Johnny at the same time. Doc Savage got hold of Smith and slammed him down on the bed and held him.

Stony Smith released his grip. He looked at them.

"I am sorry, verily I am," he said. "I awaken like an animal."

He glanced around at the room.

"I take it I am among friends," he said. "That is good. It is a welcome change."

They began now to see the startling difference between his appearance and his speech. He was a leathery-looking man, one that short words would seem to fit, words of action. Actually his voice was deep, his speech pompous, his words and his sentences a little archaic, as if they had come out of Shakespeare or some other old work.

"I do believe," he said, "that you are the individual known as Doc Savage."

Doc admitted it, and introduced Johnny. He also introduced Hannah, and Stony Smith winced, and said, "I know the maiden, indeed I do.""That's right, you rat-with-words," Hannah said. "We know each other, all right."

Stony Smith sat up. He looked like a man you would call Stony. He certainly did not talk like one.

"I hope the maid's strong opinions do not prejudice you gentlemen too much," he said. "Words a very black, smelly coat can easily make, you know."

"Tar and feathers," said Hannah, "would fit you better."

Stony Smith shrugged. "She likes me not. I skinned her out of her sea-sh.e.l.l market in an honest deal, once upon a time. The thorn is still in her flesh."

"An honest deal," said Hannah, "is something you wouldn't know if you met it."

Stony grinned, which gave his thin, bony face a startlingly devillike took. "A deal, let us say," he said.

"Honesty is a flexible word, I always say."

He turned to Doc and Johnny. "I am Stony Smith. I live on Happy Bones Island in the Caribbean. Stony Smith, king of Happy Bones. I sell sea sh.e.l.ls. My motto: 'Smith Sells Sea Sh.e.l.ls.'"

"He also sells devilment," Hannah said.

DOC SAVAGE told Stony Smith, "We are interested in your more recent history."

Smith nodded.

"Tonight, you mean?" he said. "Verily, it was a sad evening."

He looked at them grimly.

"A fortnight past, a message came to me asking me to be in Was.h.i.+ngton at once. The object, to discuss using my island, Happy Bones, as an airport site. Major Lowell sent the radiogram to me-"