Doc Savage: Glare of the Gorgon (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage Book 19) Read Online Free PDF Page B

look.”
    The dapper lawyer did. He perceived the shadowy internal organs, but nothing untoward leaped out at him immediately.
    “Examine the head,” directed Doc.
    Once Ham saw what the bronze man was indicating, his eyes grew worried and his mouth tightened.
    “What is that mass in his skull?”
    “It would appear to be in the man’s brain,” said Doc.
    “And why is it so dark, like a stone?”
    Instead of replying, the bronze man went to a tray of instruments, and lifted a surgical scalpel.
    He employed this to lift, first one, then the other of the man’s eyelids, and showed that the glassy orbs had retreated into his skull, giving him something of the aspect of a death’s head still clothed in flesh, his smooth, hairless crown aiding in that resemblance greatly.
    “Ghoulish touch,” murmured Ham. “But I fail to understand its significance.”
    Then Doc Savage inserted the scalpel into one of the man’s nostrils, plunging it in deeply and working it around like a dentist probing a tooth cavity.
    Ham Brooks winced as an unpleasant grating was produced.
    “Good Grief! What is making that sound?”
    “It is possible to insert a scalpel into a man’s nostrils and penetrate to the brain,“ said Doc. “Certain difficult brain surgeries are performed via this method, inasmuch as it is the only method of reaching the lower brain. The scalpel is grating against his frontal lobe.”
    Ham looked flummoxed.
    “This fellow’s brain,” explained the bronze man, “has seemingly turned to stone.”

Chapter IV
    VOICE OF MEDUSA
    HAM BROOKS WAS one of the most astute attorneys practicing modern law, and had won several landmark arguments before the Supreme Court. During the late world war, he had been a brigadier general, and his lightning wits preserved entire regiments from destruction. To say that he was quick-witted was to understate the matter.
    When the dapper lawyer heard Doc Savage’s diagnosis, he became momentarily tongue-tied.
    Ham still clutched his sword cane in one hand, and now he gripped it in both fists. He worried the thing, swapping it around, and acting like a befuddled elder gentleman, which he was most assuredly not, despite his carefully cut prematurely white hair.
    Finally, the awestruck attorney got his tongue and his vocal chords untangled.
    “But, how is that possible?” he blurted out. “This man was conversing with me only minutes ago.”
    Doc Savage shook his head slowly. “It is baffling. The human brain is made of soft matter. In death it would typically liquefy, not harden. Yet the brain of this man appears to have achieved a consistency approximating granite.”
    Placing one bronze hand at the back of the man’s head, Doc Savage lifted Ned Gamble’s bald skull experimentally.
    “This man’s head weighs more than the volume of his brain should permit,” stated Doc. “This adds to the evidence of my nasal probe.”
    “I fail to comprehend this,” murmured Ham. “It smacks of the supernatural.”
    “Taken with the silhouette of Medusa outside on our corridor wall,” said Doc slowly, “your conjecture is not without foundation.”
    “But Medusa was a mythological creature—wholly imaginary. Was she not?”
    Doc returned Ned Gamble’s head to its resting place. “Where is the newspaper he carried?”
    The dapper attorney had laid it on a telephone stand. Now he retrieved it.
    Doc Savage took the sheet, unfolded it, and read the headline.
PROMINENT INVENTOR SUCCUMBS
TO MYSTERY MALADY
    The news article was lengthy, but much of it was in the manner of an obituary. It told how Myer Sim had been struck down in his own home on the eve of attending a scientific conference in Chicago. Prior to this, Mr. Sim had intimated he was going to make an important announcement that would rock the medical world.
    However, before he could attend, Sim was found slumped down on the desk of his home office in a suburb of Chicago.
    A maid had heard him uttering sounds of distress, and when