Quest of the Spider

Long Tom nodded. "I presume it would be best to first tap the lines to the companies we know are in the power of the Gray Spider. Worldwide Sawmills, Bayou Sash & Door, and so on."

"That's the idea."

It was to Joh

"What is my part in this quest of the Gray Spider?" he asked.

"It's the toughest job of all, Joh

"Meaning?" Joh

"That you are to enter the swamps as a high priest of voodoo!" Doc replied.

JOHNNY nodded eagerly. "That is right up my alley! I made an extensive study of voodooism in the southern United States, Haiti and Africa."

"This is highly dangerous!" Doc warned.

Joh

"How is your command of the gibberish these swamp men speak?"

"Only fair," Joh

"O.K." Doc got to his feet. He stepped swiftly to the door. He opened the panel.

A man lay outside in the hall. He was curled up and breathing regularly, as though asleep.

"Well, for cryin' out loud!" Monk gulped. "Who's he?"

"He is called Bugs," Doc replied. "He's one of that pair of crooked lumber detectives."

"But what's happened to 'im?"

"He crept up to the keyhole to listen," Doc said dryly. "And he went to sleep on the job."

Monk snorted. "Quit ru

Doc Savage indicated several small glass bulbs on the floor. These were thin-walled, about the size of grapes, and held a colorless fluid.

"A very powerful anaesthetic," he explained. "I spread them here as a matter of precaution before we started talking. Bugs simply had the misfortune to step on one."

It was this which Bugs had mistaken for a bit of cracker or a crumb of dry bread crushing underfoot—although he never did discover that fact.

Chapter IX. THE SWAMP ENCOUNTER

MONK departed to become an outlaw chemist fleeing from spies of a foreign country. Re

Doc and Joh

"Twelve, thirteen, fourteen," Joh

"But they'll be fourteen upright citizens when they're turned loose from that institution," Doc replied.

"I don't understand how it's done!" Joh

"It's too complex to go into now," Doc told him. "It is done by many methods. Most undergo intricate brain operations that wipe out all memory of their past. Then they are taught a trade by which to make a living, as well as upright citizenship.

"In other words, we merely reduce their minds to a blank and give them the sort of training they should have had. When they're released, crime does not occur to them—simply because they don't know they've ever been criminals."

They left the hotel where the prisoners slept. Going to his plane at the airport Doc secured a metal case about the size of an old-fashioned telescope bag such as granddad used to carry. They retired to a room they engaged at a private residence.

"Strip!" Doc commanded.

Joh

With ingredients from the box, Doc proceeded to dye Joh

"None of this stuff will wash off," Doc reminded.

"Holy smoke!" Joh

"Sure," Doc chuckled. "That'll only be six months or so."

DOC SAVAGE continued to work over Joh

"From now on, you're in blackface!" he smiled.

Where Joh

"Bien!"

ejaculated Joh

"And how!" Doc declared. "You'll do. What's your name, swamp boy?"

"Name ees plain Pete. Mees swell name, Pete ees. Oui?"

"The name will do," Doc replied, judiciously. "But you're about a foot and a half taller than the rest of the swamp dwellers. Maybe they'll overlook that."

The two men now separated.

Doc Savage returned to the Danielsen & Haas building to keep watch over Big Eric and his daughter, and to await reports from his men.

Joh

The net result was that he wasted an afternoon. From the look of things, New Orleans might never have heard of any kind of a voodoo cult, much less the Cult of the Moccasin with the fiendish master mind, the Gray Spider, at its head.

"I'll have to tackle the swamp," Joh

Joh

"My results so far are what the little boy shot at," he reported. "Thought I'd tell you I probably won't communicate with you again for a while."

"Go to the Lake Ponchartrain water front, near the old Spanish fort," Doc directed.

"Huh?" grunted Joh

"Be there shortly after dark," Doc added.

"O.K." Joh

DUSK had dropped a steamy, clammy grasp upon New Orleans and environs. A faint, hot fog lent the moonlight pallor. The Gulf breeze, stirring the fog, made it seem as though the air were full of fine ashes. On the horizon in all directions, heat lightning flickered luridly.

Joh