Doc Savage: The Secret of Satan's Spine (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage Book 15) Read Online Free PDF Page A

breath away. It was known for its vaulted ceiling and bustling energy. The place was packed, and the concentration of men in Army, Navy and other military uniforms attested to the preferential treatment accorded servicemen over civilians that had been the norm since Pearl Harbor.
    By the time Monk made his ambling way down to the staircase leading to his track on the lower platform, he was early. He set down his baggage, and exchanged it with a porter who handed him his check stubs.
    “I’ll get them right on board,” the porter said. “The train departs in twenty minutes.”
    “Oh, thanks,” said Monk, reluctantly parting with a dime.
    While he waited for Davey Lee, the hairy chemist took an inventory of his wallet. He did not enjoy what he discovered.
    “Well, maybe I should’ve bummed a few bucks off that shyster,” he muttered to himself. “Ham is always rollin’ in dough, just like a lawyer would.”
    Although Ham Brooks devoted a great deal of his time to adventuring with Doc Savage in the odd quarters of the globe, he maintained a law practice and, while he was very selective about his clients, he made an annual fortune. Not so Monk Mayfair, who took on work when his bank balance kept him awake nights.
    Monk swiveled his bullet-shaped head around anxiously, looking for signs of Davey Lee. He checked his watch several times, then one of the big wall clocks. According to the display board, the train was scheduled to leave at nine a.m. sharp, and as the big hands of the clocks inched inexorably closer to the digit 12, there was no sign of the flirtatious blonde.
    Monk began to grow concerned. He knew the Crescent would depart with clock-like efficiency, with or without Davey Lee, for the railroad boasted of the train’s efficient forty-hour run.As he waited, wrinkles making his glowering brows resemble corrugated sheet steel, Monk suddenly remembered a dream he had had the previous night. The attractive blonde had to catch a train. Try as he might, Monk could not recall the dream in detail, which seemed to be a condition of dreams. But he recalled that the blonde woman had acted confused and possibly lost.
    Since Davey was a stranger to New York, it made perfect sense. Monk once read that dreams were a product of daily anxiety. Probably this dream was a consequence of his fear that Miss Lee would be unable to reach Pennsylvania Station in time for the train departure. New York City being the overwhelming metropolis that it was, and women having a distressing tendency to arrive late even to important assignations.
    As Monk’s worried eyes scanned the sea of faces around him, they fell upon a rather large mature individual with striking amber-colored eyes. The man’s hair was neither white nor gray, but some vague hue in between. He had very fine but full hair, and its fineness combined with its coloring reminded Monk Mayfair of cigarette smoke in suspension.
    The mature man with the smoke-colored pompadour appeared to be aping Monk Mayfair in that he was also searching the milling crowd for an expected but overdue face. His own features were weathered to a hue resembling lightly creamed coffee, which contrasted sharply with his vaporously pale hair.
    From time to time, the man’s gaze skated in Monk’s direction and when Monk looked back, the catlike eyes veered away. Monk suddenly thought that suspicious. For he wore the kind of face that made babies laugh or cry, depending on the disposition of the infant. People did not look at his wide, homely face with indifference ever. They were either fascinated, or repelled, according to their lights.
    This man with the weird vaporous hair and the searching eyes seemed to go out of his way to avoid looking directly at Monk. That was strange. In between searching for the missing Davey Lee, Monk kept one eye on the man with the smoky pompadour.
    Eventually, the mature man noticed a figure in the distance that he recognized. He took off like a shot, determination on