"You don't have a radio on Happy Bones," Hannah interjected.

"We do. We are more modern than you think."

Doc Savage said, "Let us keep on the subject of this trip you made to Washington to see Major Lowell."

Stony Smith nodded. "a.s.suredly, if the wench will stop interrupting me."

"Wench!" Hannah said. "Keep a civil tongue in that head, you baboon!"

Stony Smith told Doc, "I came to Washington and sought to confer with Major Lowell. I did confer with him. I a.s.sured him my island was a perfect site for the projected flying field, and that I would donate the island-"

"There," interrupted Hannah, "is a lie on the face of it. You never donated anything to nothing in your life!"

"-donate the island for a suitable remuneration," continued Stony Smith. "But imagine my astonishment when I found that this wench, this Hannah, was attempting to force the government to use her island, Geography Cay, and pay her a nice profit."Hannah stared at him.

She seemed struck speechless.

"Hannah's island is worthless for an airport," said Stony Smith, "because there is no spot level enough for a runway."

Hannah stood very still, getting red and beginning to look like a firecracker preparing to explode.

"Major Lowell asked me to come back tonight," said Stony Smith. "And while I was there, those rascals came upon the scene. They pummeled me unmercifully, injected some concoction into me and made me swallow pills. This produced in me a state of unconsciousness which seems to have persisted until a few minutes ago."

Hannah put both hands on her hips. Her hands were fists.

Stony Smith pointed at her.

"This hen-hussy," he said, "is probably at the bottom of whatever rascality is afoot."

Hannah seemed on the verge of giving off sparks.

"Hen-hussy," she said. "Well, what do you know!"

HANNAH then leaned forward, took hold of one of Stony Smith's arms, the left one, and proceeded to try to remove the arm from the body. She was strong and she knew jujitsu. Stony Smith bawled like a bull with a twisted tail. "Don't! I'm a sick man!" he squalled.

"You'll know what sick is," Hannah said, "when I get done with you."

Johnny, alarmed, sprang forward and grasped Hannah, saying, "Now, now, lacination is hebetudinous."

Doc Savage decided to look on. He was glad Johnny had taken the initiative. In any dealings with Hannah, where force was involved, he preferred to be a bystander. It was against his conscientious scruples to pick up the handiest object and knock a woman senseless, which was the only feasible way of dealing with Hannah.

Stony Smith stopped yelling. Johnny began. Hannah seemed hardly to take hold of Johnny, and he was on the floor. Hannah immediately walked the length of his gaunt kicking frame, high heels and all.

"Call me a crook, will you!" Hannah cried.

She grabbed one of Stony Smith's hands and bent it back agonizingly.

"I'll settle this myself," Hannah said angrily. "Because you fellows don't show any signs of knowing what it is all about."

Johnny was gasping from pain. Stony Smith was howling.

"You," Hannah told Doc, "are a big, handsome false alarm!"

She picked up a chair and threw it at Doc, who dodged successfully.

Hannah then walked out of the room, without bothering to lock the door."You try following me," she said, "and I'll wring me some necks."

Stony Smith stopped howling, and shouted, "Stop her! Catch her!"

Doc Savage looked at him and said, "Go right ahead. She should be easy to catch."

Stony Smith looked thoughtful.

"Verily, brother," he said. "Not I. Thanks."

Doc glanced at Johnny. "Chase her, Johnny."

Johnny snorted. "I'll run from her," he said. "I won't chase her."

Chapter VII. AIR TRAIL.

DOC SAVAGE opened the bedroom window. There was a narrow alleyway outside. He pointed a flashlight beam down, saw that the alley pavement was smooth, no ruts to turn an ankle, or boxes or barrels. He went out of the window and dropped.

From the alley mouth, he could see the hotel entrance. He waited there watching.

He heard Stony Smith, at the window, say, "Verily, the drop should have broken the man's bones."

He heard Johnny say, "An anthropological Brobdingnagian."

"Would you ring that bell again," said Stony Smith.

"I just remarked," said Johnny, "that Doc is a physical marvel."

"Verily," agreed Stony Smith. "But what a way of saying it."

Hannah came out of the hotel then, and Doc heard no more of the conversation above. Hannah walked with the quick, purposeful strides of a young woman who was angry and doing something about it.

She was obviously looking for a cab. Doc was fortunate, and got a cab before she found one. It was a piece of luck. He directed his machine down the block, loitered, and was handy when Hannah got a taxi.

She drove straight to an airport, where she paid and dismissed the cab driver.

The airport was one which also accommodated seaplanes. Hannah opened a locker in the office, one which obviously she had rented the way you rent lockers in railway stations. It was even the same dime-in-a-slot-and-you-get-the-key type found in bus and railway depots.

From the rented locker, Hannah took a pair of coveralls, a small handbag. She went into the rest room and came out shortly wearing the coveralls.

She had a conference with the airport officials. They rolled a plane out of a hangar for her.

It was a two-motored seaplane, a cabin job which would accommodate more than a dozen pa.s.sengers.

The plane was neither cheap nor shoddy, although it was not fast by military standards.

While the plane was being put in the water and floated off its wheel cradle, Hannah visited the C. A. A.

weather station and got weather reports, and apparently filed a flight plan and went through the otherdetails necessary before a civilian plane could use the air along the coast.

She went to her plane, got in and took off. She disappeared into the south.

Doc Savage visited the C. A. A. office and made his ident.i.ty known. He showed credentials which would get him information.

"Where is she headed?" he asked.

"For Geography Cay, in the Caribbean. That is supposed to be her home."

"I take it she had the authority to have such a flight plan approved."

"She did. She flew in from Geography Cay several days ago. Major Lowell, who is doing important procurement emergency work, arranged approval of her flight. At the same time, he also arranged an O.

K. on her return flight, effective whenever she wished to leave."

"She came alone?"

"Yes."

"Is there," Doc asked, "much chance of her getting off the route she filed in her flight plan without it being known? In other words, could she say she was going to Geography Cay, and go somewhere else?"

The C. A. A. attendant grinned. "I don't think so. With this defense plane-spotting set-up, they can keep track of an individual duck flying south, if they want to."

"Will you get me an hourly report on her progress?" Doc asked.

"Sure."

JOHNNY LITTLEJOHN was excited when Doc returned to the hotel suite. He looked as if he wanted to wave his arms. He had their equipment cases on the bed and packed. He had put Stony Smith to work packing clothes into suitcases.

"Your bait," Johnny yelled at Doc, "caught a fish."

"What bait?"

"The parrot and its nest."

"Just what," Doc asked, "did we catch?"

Johnny waved at the telephone. "I think Renny's still holding the wire."

Renny was.

Renny said, "Holy cow, Doc! I think we've got something. I'm calling from an oyster fisherman's shack on the north bank of the Potomac River about thirty miles out of Washington. Monk and Ham are here."

He stopped speaking. Apparently, he was listening.

"We're waiting," he said, "for two plane-loads of guys to take off.""How did you get on this trail?" Doc asked.

"The advertising for a parrot and a nest. Monk and Ham put an address in the advertis.e.m.e.nt, if you remember. Well, they watched the place. A couple of suspicious-acting guys showed up. What made them suspicious was the fact that they had a couple of rifles in a golf bag, and a bomb in a bowling-ball-carrying bag. Monk and Ham found that out. So they kept track of the pair.

"About an hour ago," Renny continued, "the pair got a hurry-up visit from a third guy, who was excited.

They all climbed in a car, and rushed out of Washington and down the Potomac to this place, where they had a pair of seaplanes waiting.

"In a little while, some more guys showed up. They had a man with them, tied hand and foot, and gagged. We think he's that Major Lowell.

"So," Renny concluded, "here we are waiting for them to take off so we can follow them."

"What are you going to do, outrun the plane?" Doc asked.

"Oh, Monk and Ham have got the plane that Johnny and I came down from New York in," Renny explained. "They're loafing around about twelve thousand feet in the air, far enough up that their motors can't be heard."

"Don't lose the two planes."

"We won't," Renny said. "These fellows apparently are going to taxi their ships well out on the river before they take off. The river is wide here."

"How do you know they will do that?"

"These seaplanes are equipped with outboard motor brackets. They're attaching outboards to them now, so it looks as if they're going to get out of earshot, down where the river is very wide, before they take off."

Doc Savage did not keep the satisfaction out of his voice.

"Follow them," he said. "And keep in contact with me by ultra-short wave."

AS soon as Doc Savage put down the telephone, Stony Smith turned around and waved his arms indignantly.

"Those are my planes!" Smith shouted. "They're stealing them!"

Doc Savage examined the man thoughtfully. "You have not mentioned flying up here in two planes to consult with Major Lowell."

"'Twas oversight on my part," said Stony Smith. "I flew but one plane. The other one was in Baltimore, being overhauled. It was one I bought recently, a second-hand ship considered too slow for military service, hence released to me by special permit."

The man sounded enraged.