Doc Savage: Glare of the Gorgon (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage Book 19) by Kenneth Robeson, Lester Dent, Will Murray Read Free Book Online Page B

room’s interior to be seen from the hallway when the portal was shut.
    The inspector resumed his account, saying, “According to the bellhop, the guest refused to open his door. Didn’t seem to want his hat, but told them to leave it in the clothes hatch. When the hatch was opened, there was a bright green light and a whole lotta smoke. You can’t smell anything now, but the poor barber staggered back and practically died on the spot. The hop fled to the lobby, spilled his story, and that’s when we were called.”
    Hardboiled concluded, “We found the inner and outer hatches open, but the guest had vanished. The window was open, so it wasn’t hard to see how he eeled away.”
    Doc stepped in the room, looked around, and said to no one in particular, “It would seem that Gamble opened the hatch to observe the commotion on the other side of the door.”
    Hardboiled grunted. “We kind of figured he opened the hatch to retrieve his hat.”
    Doc shook his head slightly. “Ned Gamble was not interested in his hat. Otherwise, he would have opened the door and accepted it. He wanted the person who was following him to be thrown off the trail by his lack of hair, hat and distinctive overcoat.”
    The bronze man then pointed to the discarded ulster lying on the bed, adding quietly, “Gamble believed that his overcoat and bright red hair made him conspicuous to any trailer. So he dispensed with those items, had his head shaved, and changed hotels.”
    “Gamble figured he was followed to this establishment?”
    “That appears to be his assumption,” said Doc, looking around.
    Without asking for permission, the bronze man began to go through the closet and the bureau, but found nothing. Ned Gamble had not occupied this room long enough to leave articles lying about.
    In a wastebasket, however, was a discarded newspaper. Doc extracted this and unfolded it.
    The paper was the Chicago Tribunal . An Extra edition, dated the previous day. The sensational headline told of the sudden death of scientist Myer Sim only hours before. There was hardly any detail.
    Doc committed the story to memory and dropped the paper into the wastebasket as if it held no significance to him.
    “Let me talk to the bellhop,” he requested.
    THE FELLOW was a nervous wreck when confronted, but he told his story as best he could. He contributed nothing new to their understanding.
    “Describe the flash of light,” prompted Doc.
    “It was green as all get-out, and it practically blinded me. I thought it was a bomb, so I lit out of there.”
    “What did you smell, if anything?” asked Doc.
    “I didn’t stick around long enough to sniff. I dived through the fire door and practically somersaulted down the stairs. It wasn’t until I reached the lobby that I saw that I wasn’t injured.”
    Doc Savage turned to Monk and said, “Monk, take samples from the hatch and the silhouette on the wall.”
    “Gotcha, Doc,” Monk had toted with him a metal case that comprised his compact chemical laboratory. Setting this on the corridor table, he began taking out various items, which he used to scour the inside hatch doors for chemical residue. He did not test these. When he was done, the simian chemist did the same with the silhouette on the wall.
    Monk had not seen the silhouette at Doc Savage’s headquarters, and so took a few moments to study the image. As a chemist, he could study shades of color and deduce underlying chemical constituents. Here, the greenish-yellow splotch seemed to baffle him. His homely features gathered up in a puckered puzzlement.
    Muttering under his breath, Monk took a ball of cotton and attempted to swab up a specimen of whatever had created the yellow-green shadow.
    “I’ll be daggone,” he said suddenly.
    Ham Brooks, who had been watching everything with deep suspicion in his eyes, turned and demanded, “What is wrong now?”
    Monk nodded, “I thought this was painted on somehow, but it’s not coming off. I don’t get