Chapter IX. SCRAMBLE FOR JEP DEE.

HENRY PEACE, having observed that one of the two planes above was spiraling earthward, stopped jacking the light switch and sending out Morse code. He climbed out of the Haven plane c.o.c.kpit and narrowed one eye at the sky.

"I hope," he muttered, "that the men in that plane are who I think they are."

Having put feeling into that remark, he tramped through the weeds toward the spot where he had left the Havens. En route, he was hooked by some bushes which had thorns. He examined these.

"Blackberries," he muttered. "Ripe."

Ripe blackberries gave him an idea and he gathered handfuls of them, squeezed them and got dark-red juice. He poured blackberry juice in his hair, smeared it down the side of his face, made rather a gory-looking mess.

"I've been shot!" he said in a loud, worried voice.

He wasn't surprised to find the Havens stirring, trying to sit up. The gas was rather harmless, producing unconsciousness which lasted only a short time.The Havens sat up. Tex patted the ground and felt of it, apparently amazed to find the solid earth under him. Rhoda peered at Henry Peace until she made sure of his ident.i.ty.

"You are shot!" she gasped.

"Ain't serious," Henry Peace told her.

"Let me see it!" Rhoda commanded.

Henry Peace withdrew hastily. "Ain't nothin'," he insisted. A bullet just hit my head and careened into s.p.a.ce."

"I suppose you got it out," the young woman said.

Henry Peace decided the remark meant she believed there was only s.p.a.ce inside his head, so he grinned at her. The grin irritated the young woman.

Rhoda Haven tried to stand. The effect of the gas still had hold of her muscles and she failed to stay erect. Having slumped to the ground, she was even angrier.

"What happened?" she snapped.

"I don't know," Henry Peace lied cheerfully. "I was unconscious. I guess my prospective daddy-in-law here landed the plane."

"That's a lie," Tex barked. "Something put me to sleep."

"You must have done some flying in your sleep then," Henry Peace a.s.sured him.

There was a swooping roar, and the moon shadow of a plane pa.s.sed low overhead. Its landing lights dived upon them like white monsters. Then the ship banked steeply, pointed down and the pilot began fishtailing it. It was going to land.

After taking one look at the smallness and roughness of the field, however, the pilot decided several more looks might be sensible. The plane zoomed up, circled again.

"That isn't Horst's plane," Rhoda Haven exclaimed.

Tex yelled, "I don't care whose it is. Can't have n.o.body grabbin' us now. Too much at stake!"

Henry Peace picked up both the Havens, galloped into the brush and reached a tree. It was huge and hung with Spanish moss. Carrying Rhoda Haven only, Henry Peace clambered into the tree. Perhaps fifteen feet up, he found a well-hidden cradle of boughs and put the girl there.

"Think you can hang on?"

"Yes," she said.

Henry Peace departed and a moment later returned with Tex, who, like his daughter, was still physically helpless from the effects of the gas. He left the Havens there in the tree. "Aren't likely to find you," he said.

"Reckon not," Tex admitted.

Henry Peace said, "Me, I'll try to see what I can do about the situation."

THE darkness then swallowed Henry Peace. He made very little noise, did not appear in the moonlight again, but shortly he was back at the Haven plane. He took a sc.r.a.p of paper from his pocket, a pencil, and wrote on the paper: You will find something interesting in the big tree a hundred and ten yards southwest. Don't tell them about this note.

The tree described was the one in which he had left the Havens. He stuck the note in the edge of the plane door where it was not likely to escape notice.

The darkness swallowed him again. He made hardly more noise than was made by the occasional cloud shadows thatpa.s.sed. Lying among the weeds, he watched the Doc Savage plane swoop three times and rake the field with its floodlights, while the pilot decided upon the safest method of landing.

Then the plane came down, b.u.mped the ground, rolled up the little hill, following exactly the same procedure that Henry Peace had used in landing the Haven craft. This ship was bigger, faster, but scientifically designed wing flaps gave it a much slower landing speed. It rolled to a stop thirty yards or so from the Haven ship.

Monk, Ham and Johnny dived out.

Ham leveled a machine pistol at the Haven plane, yelled, "Come out of there!"

"It's empty, you shyster," Monk told him.

They ran to the plane, found the note which Henry Peace had clamped in the door. They read this.

"Now what in blazes!" Monk exploded.

"Whoever the fellow is," Ham said, "he's trying to help us. Let's look in that tree."

They stalked cautiously through the brush. They carried small spring-generator-operated flashlights of a type which Doc Savage had developed, and these stuck whiskers of light through the underbrush.

Monk led with Ham crowding him, with Johnny having more trouble because his gaunt length kept getting tangled in the underbrush. They had a little trouble with their direction and missed the tree. They were standing in the thicket, pawing Spanish moss off their shoulders-the stuff was like cobwebs, except that it was as thick as baling wire-when the motor of their plane unexpectedly began banging.

Our ship!" Monk squawked.

They struck out wildly for the craft. Shrubs tripped them, boughs knocked against their heads and thorns hooked into their clothing. Monk got sidetracked in a blackberry thicket and stood there screaming and bellowing.

Their plane motors were hot, so the thief did not need to delay to warm them. He simply locked left wheel brake, revved right motor and snapped the plane half around. Exhaust stacks poured flame, the ship leaped forward, and the little hill threw it into the air almost like a catapult. Even then its wheels almost scuffed the tops of trees on the other side of the little field.

Monk and the others stood and gaped at their departing ship.

"Superebullitive!" Johnny exclaimed.

"This is no time for one of them words," Monk growled.

"We're in a fix!" Ham said.

THEY rushed back and removed enough ignition wiring from the Haven plane to make sure that no one would fly off with that one.

"You know what?" Monk growled.

"What?" Ham scowled at him.

"That note in the plane door was a trick. It sent us off looking for that tree so they could steal our plane."

"Then there's probably nothing in the tree," Ham said.

"We might make sure of that," Johnny suggested, using small words.

Five minutes later, they were holding their flashlight beams on the Havens. Tex and Rhoda Haven had not yet mastered enough physical strength to take flight, but there was nothing wrong with their voices; and old Tex had moved his hands enough to get them full of guns.

"Calculate you better start runnin'," Tex advised, "while you're able."Monk muttered, "Say, that's the girl who came for us to help. Show her who we are."

They turned one of the lights upon themselves, giving the lens a twist so that it fanned a wide beam. Their appearance did not impress Tex Haven, because he had not seen them before. Rhoda grabbed one of her father's gun hands.

"Those are Doc Savage's men," she said. "Don't shoot!"

"I don't care who they are!" Tex brandished his guns as much as his muscular instability would allow. "I been messed with too much by different people!"

There was an argument between Monk, Ham and Johnny on the ground, and the two Havens up the tree. They compromised on the Havens remaining armed and suspicious, but climbing down out of the tree with the a.s.sistance of Monk, who had to show plainly that he carried no weapons. They all walked out onto the small field and stood in the brilliant moonlight.

Tex Haven peered at Monk suspiciously in the moon-glow.

"You send one of your gang ahead in your plane, chasing Horst?" he asked.

"No, blast it!" Monk said. "Somebody stole our plane."

"Eh?"

"We don't know who it was," Monk added.

Tex Haven felt of his pockets to make sure that his corncob pipe and stick of black Scotch tobacco had survived. Then he eyed his daughter.

"Henry Peace," he said, "ran off and left us."

His daughter kicked a clod indignantly.

"If he did," she said, "it wasn't because he was double-crossing us."

"He said he couldn't fly," Tex reminded her reasonably.

Rhoda Haven made several starting-to-say-something noises, but apparently could think of nothing satisfactory.

Tex continued, "You take the cussedest att.i.tude toward this Henry Peace. When he's around, you act like he was flu germs. The minute he's out of sight, you start stickin' up for 'im."

Rhoda Haven said nothing to that. Monk, who had a great deal more brains than his appearance indicated, realized that this fellow named Henry Peace must have been making some headway with attractive Rhoda Haven. The idea did not appeal to Monk.

Monk said, "We found a note stuck in the door of the plane-ouch!"

Ham had kicked Monk's shin. "The note said not to mention it," the lawyer whispered.

"The fruit of the peanut bush to you and Henry Peace both," Monk said. He proceeded to tell the Havens about the note.

"Blast that Henry Peace," Tex Haven yelled indignantly. "He framed it so that we'd be caught by you fellows while he got away in your plane!"

Rhoda Haven went into a deeper silence. Monk a.s.sayed two or three casual remarks, intended to break the ice, but she did not seem appreciative of what he had told her about Henry Peace.

Habeas Corpus and Chemistry had been ranging the brush. They approached. Habeas, the pig, came up and rooted at Monk's leg. Monk picked the shote up by an ear and exhibited him proudly.

"My pet," he explained.

Rhoda Haven remained silent."This hog," Monk announced, "couldn't love me more if I was an ear of corn."

That remark did not impress Rhoda Haven either. Monk was mildly disgusted.

"Let's get going," he said.

Tex Haven blinked. "Going where?"

"Why, we'll just keep on following them other two planes," Monk declared.

Chapter X. PEOPLE IN DUNGEONS.

HENRY PEACE, the man who had said he could not fly a plane, made a perfect landing at Key West, Florida. It was also a remarkable landing, because it was on a golf course instead of an airport. The plane skipped a sand trap, rolled down a fairway, and came to a stop on a green, where its wing tip pushed a flag over.

Henry Peace had told a fib when he said he couldn't fly a plane. He had told large fibs about several things. He seemed to be enjoying it.

He vaulted out of the plane.

Henry Peace seemed to have a remarkable knowledge of the layout of Key West. As a matter of fact, his knowledge of other cities over which he had flown-Miami, Key West, Jacksonville, Charleston-had been just as complete, although there had been no occasion to exercise the knowledge.

The plane had landed less than a hundred yards from some palm trees. Behind the palms was the home of the best-posted detective in the Key West police department, the man who probably knew more about what went on in Key West than any other man.

Henry Peace walked to the detective's home, knocked, and the detective appeared in a nightshirt.

"Who the devil are you?" he asked. "What the blazes you want?"