Doc Savage: Skull Island (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage) by Will Murray Page B

truth.
    Bright blue water squirmed and danced where the schooner should be.
    The Orion had vanished!
    “My ship!” croaked the captain, his tone disbelieving. “Gone!”

Chapter XIII
    ON CLOSER INSPECTION, a series of scarlet bulls-eye rings wavered on the spot where the schooner Orion should have bobbed in the swells. Sunlight on the water made the tableau difficult to make out, but when they spotted them, their meaning was unmistakable.
    “Bodies dropped overboard, one by one,” Captain Savage judged, stern features darkening.
    “I count only three rings,” said Doc.
    “One of my Mayans may live yet,” snapped Savage, his harsh gaze raking the surrounding ocean.
    Of the Orion, there was no sign. Only trackless rollers, laced with sea foam.
    Doc moved to the opposite rail.
    “’Ware darts!” his father called after him.
    It was an unnecessary warning, but it may have saved Doc Savage’s life nonetheless. He reached the rail, leaned over, and spied a bangkong lurking directly below!
    Under the rattan awning, a sinister array of blowpipes were trained upward in anticipation of his arrival. Puffing sounds came, expelling fletched missiles.
    Doc retreated ahead of the soft whispers of death flicking by. One hand, moving with amazing reflexive skill, snapped out and grasped a passing dart by its feathered tail.
    Doc had his automatic in hand. Cocking it, he called out, “Dyaks below!”
    They met in the center of the deck, put their silver and bronze heads together.
    “We dare not approach the port rail lest they pepper us with impunity via their poisoned darts,” said Doc Savage, lifting the one he had captured. It was a very long splinter of bamboo, shaved tip heavy with a pasty substance.
    Captain Savage frowned. “We cannot remain here. The devils are certain to attempt a boarding.”
    Doc looked about. Far away, he could see the tops of two masts, and a glimpse of canvas. The Orion. She was being carried away by the trade winds, making remarkable time.
    “I can overhaul her,” assured Doc.
    “Impossible!”
    “Have you forgotten that I sailed on the Titanic, and survived in the water without benefit of a lifeboat?”
    “I have not, sir! And I will not lose you to a similar disaster.”
    “What are our chances marooned on this hulk if I don’t try?” countered Doc.
    The old man looked uncertain. The pressure of the moment paralyzed him. Without his ship, he seemed helpless.
    Doc took command. “Create a diversion.”
    “Who is master here?” Savage roared in frustration.
    “This is Stormalong’s ship, not ours,” Doc advised.
    Captain Savage accepted Doc’s .45 automatic and looked at his fists filled with steel.
    “Distract them,” instructed Doc. “Let me do the rest.”
    He leaped to the starboard rail and went over, clambering down using his metal-hard fingers to go from hull plank to hull plank, using the loose seams for handholds.
    Reaching the surface, Doc charged his lungs with air and slipped beneath the waves.
    The sound of repeating gunshots reached his ears before the warmish waters of the Indian Ocean swallowed him.
    The quickest and safest way to the outrigger was under the Courser’s keel. Doc propelled himself in that direction, releasing air bubbles one at a time.
    He reached the other side and came up on the starboard gunwale of the warrior-packed bangkong.
    All Dyak eyes were aimed upward at the deck of the Courser.
    Doc looked up, too.
    Two sun-burned fists popped in and out, firing downward. The muzzles flared tiny barking tongues.
    A Dyak took a direct hit and screamed. Another lost his ironwood pipe. A third hefted a long spear, but lost his balance while throwing it over tattooed shoulder in preparation for launching. He landed in the brine, losing his weapon.
    Doc Savage came up on their blind side, still holding the single Dyak dart he had captured in mid-air.
    Reaching up, he began sticking the nearest warriors with the vicious needle of death.
    They jumped up,