Free Doc Savage: Phantom Lagoon (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage) by Kenneth Robeson, Lester Dent, Will Murray Page A

possession.
    Bouncing out of her chair, she swiped the syringe off the table. It shattered.
    Then she took aim at the center of Ham Brooks’ elegant cravat and lunged in with the supple blade, saying, “Gonna inject me, were you? Well, try a taste of your own medicine!”
    The blade probably only pinked Ham Brooks’ throat. But that was enough.
    The concoction on its tip was a chemical compound that brought swift unconsciousness.
    Hornetta yanked out the long blade, and swept after Monk Mayfair, crying, “Next!”
    Monk was no sissy. But years of being threatened by that keen rapier at the hands of the ever-dapper Ham gave him a studied respect for its incapacitating effects.
    Howling, Monk bobbed back. The blade swished several times, slicing open his shirt front and revealing a red mattress of chest hair.
    Doc Savage was moving now. While Hornetta sparred with Monk, he slipped up from behind, seizing her by the neck.
    Hornetta had learned fighting skills somewhere. She kicked backward and barked Doc’s shins, first one, then the other.
    Doc lost his grip momentarily. That was all Hornetta needed. Spinning, she slashed and sliced wildly.
    Hastily, Doc Savage retreated.
    Luck was against him. One heel hooked a fringe of the threadbare rug, upset him. Doc got tangled up in a coat tree, had to arrest it with both hands before the heavy object could crash to the floor and create a commotion.
    Hornetta flung up a window and made for the fire escape.
    She stared down, paused, listened intently. Then, whipping off one shoe and throwing it to the sidewalk, Hornetta raced up toward the roof.
    She was looking down over the stone parapet when Doc and Monk hit the sidewalk, discovered the dropped shoe, and raced in opposite directions in search of her.
    After a while, they returned, dejected and empty-handed.
    The last Hornetta Hale saw of them, they were carrying the unconscious Ham Brooks out to a waiting sedan. It whined off.
    “That,” said Hornetta Hale, peering over the parapet, “brings this evening to a satisfactory conclusion!”
    She passed the night on the roof, and slept like a lamb. Which she was most assuredly not.

Chapter VIII
    THE ARISTOCRATIC ASSASSIN
    THE TIME WAS one week later.
    It had been an uneventful week, all told.
    After explaining to the authorities that they did not yet know who had undertaken to demolish his skyscraper headquarters and his riverfront hangar, Doc Savage had disappeared.
    Doc’s men were not, as a matter of fact, unduly alarmed, because it was Doc Savage’s habit to disappear at times without a word of explanation. Sometimes he was gone for months, completely shut off from the world, in a far-off spot which he called his Fortress of Solitude, where he went to study and experiment. Even his five assistants did not know the exact location of this Fortress of Solitude, although they knew it was somewhere within the Arctic Circle. They were reasonably certain that Doc had not gone there. But the bronze man had many enemies, and it was always possible that someone had slipped something over.
    The authorities had been skeptical. But Doc held a high honorary commission with not only the local police, but with the Department of Justice as well. He was taken at his word, even if there was some doubt on the matter.
    Monk Mayfair had been left in charge of the rehabilitation of the eighty-sixth floor suite of offices. Ham Brooks was attending to legal matters having to do with that. The bronze man had a permanent lease on the building, but did not own it. The owners were irate. This was not the first time destruction had visited the eighty-sixth floor. 1 It was Ham’s job to smooth down ruffled feathers.
    Meanwhile, Monk supervised reconstruction. The reception room was relatively intact. The library was a wreck and the great laboratory was no more. Virtually everything would have to be replaced.
    In the reception room, Monk was busy making telephone calls.
    “Sure wish Renny and the others