Doc Savage: The Miracle Menace by Kenneth Robeson, Lester Dent, Will Murray Page B

khaki and tan.
    Reaching out, Doc snared the guy wire and, bracing himself, hauled the dirigible down, using only the Herculean thews that nature and a life of intensive, physical conditioning had bestowed upon him.
    Soon, the open hatch was hovering at teepee level.
    “One at a time,” Doc called down.
    And so, one by one, they climbed the knotted rope and worked their way to the hatch. Ham went first.
    The minute he disappeared from sight, the dapper lawyer gave out a violent yell and there was a thrashing commotion followed by a few lusty whacks of Ham’s cane.
    “What’s goin’ on?” Monk bellowed up.
    Out of the hatch flew a solitary bat, wings beating like the Devil himself.
    “Bat took up a roost in the gondola,” Ham called down. “I have chased away the beggar.”
    “Great goblins!” said Johnny. “A fitting omen for a Halloween of a night.”
    The others took their turns climbing; finally Doc Savage swung on board.
    Six men—especially six who weighed as much as they did—made the airship hang logy and sluggish in the air. It bogged down somewhat.
    “The projecto-receptor lens won’t be of any help, now that it’s light,” Long Tom ventured.
    “We have other means,” said Doc Savage, taking the controls.
    They cast off in the usual manner, reeling in the grapple and climbing rope, and began a careful orbit of the patch of woods on the west side of the Chariton River.
    Doc Savage turned the controls over to Long Tom Roberts and brought a pair of binoculars of excellent quality to his ever-active eyes.
    Through them, he scanned the surrounding terrain. It was tough work. The brave had worn deerskins and this, along with his sun-cured hide, enabled him to blend into the autumnal forest to a degree that smacked of magic.
    In time, their patience paid off.
    Along the banks of the Chariton, Doc Savage spied a wisp of white smoke. It was climbing skyward.
    “Camp fire!” squeaked Monk.
    “Possibly someone cooking his breakfast trout,” Doc suggested. Reaching over, he killed the engines and allowed the airship to loaf along. Fortunately, there were few crosscurrents of air and so there was little deviation from the course he set.
    Riding along in an airship is a sometimes uncanny experience, especially when not under power. The ride is smooth, silent and serene. Floating on a cloud may be the closest equivalent—if men could ride clouds, that is.
    In time, they came to a place where they could see the river bank.
    Crouching over a fire, a small figure in buckskins was holding a speared fish over the flames. He turned the stick around, so as to cook the fish evenly, and from time to time pulled off bits of flesh with his fingers.
    “That’s our boy!” said Monk.
    The Indian brave may have been an expert hunter and tracker, but while he looked about from time to time to see if he was being observed, it still did not occur to him to look upward.
    He had no inkling that an airship was stealing silently upon his camp.
    After observing the man for some time, Doc Savage switched on the loudspeaker and microphone hook-up that allowed him to call down commands to a ground crew during landing.
    He spoke a language none of them understood.
    The camping Indian looked startled. His head twisted around, his dark eyes darting this way and that way. It still never crossed his mind to him to look up.
    Using the man’s native tongue, Doc Savage suggested that he do so.
    The Indian craned his thick neck about, seeking the source of the voice. He soon found it.
    Even from a distance, the expression on his well-cured face could be read. It was a twisting, wide-mouthed horror.
    Taking up his stick, he threw it at the airship, steaming trout and all. The only result was that he lost his meal.
    Doc called out something else.
    “You puck-achee!” the Indian called back loud enough to be heard.
    “What did he say?” asked Ham.
    “Scram,” said Johnny Littlejohn dryly.
    “He wants us to go away,” agreed Doc