Ask Doc Savage's Journal (original) (raw)

The Man of Bronze Returns

Chapter One: The message from beyond

April 14, 1954
New York City, New York
Empire State Building, 86th floor

"I'll be Superalgamated!" the tall gaunt figure leaned over an inlaid ornate table covered with mildewed manuscripts, crumbling codexes and ruined foolscap documents; each dating from different eras of human history. Any of these tomes would have required an encyclopedic amount of cryptic knowledge to peruse- written as they were in a variety of scripts and tongues; Egyptian hieroglyphs, medieval Latin, Chinese cuniform were three of the more recognizable writings. Yet the very tall, skinny man who was bent over reading them all, was doing so as if they were the sunday funny pages. His curious way of reading each was to loom over a page with a monacle that also seemed to double as a magnifying glass, and scan each document with speed reading skills that left a interested onlooker breathless and a little dizzy. A growing pile of books and scrolls scattered around the table indicated that this skinny academic giant had been reading thus for hours. The curious expletive that he unconciously emoted, as he finished a Mayan book of the Dead, brought a stirring of interest from two other men in the room.

"What is it, Johnny? Did you find something to help Doc?" The man who spoke was of a stature equal to the scholar he addressed. He was well over 6 feet tall, with a dour expression. He was stretched out a plush sofa that barely contained his mighty frame. He appeared to be reading manuals on radio-telescopes and cross referencing them with several college texts on atomic physics. His fists were giant size; and his massive hands cradled each tome like they were mere children's picture books. The reading was dryer than he had liked and he welcomed the chance for a distraction. The giant swung off the sofa, hurled the textbooks to one side- and slapping one huge fist into another- went to peer over the shoulder of the first man at the ornate table.

The third man did not welcome any distraction. He was the shortest of the three, being only 5 feet and he seemed the physical weakling of them all- his skin was an unhealthy pallor and his ears stuck out from his sandy head like wings. But it was apparent his mental capacites were equal to his comrades as he knelt in front of a massive television monitor rested on an oaken desk. The monitor was open to the back and the scientific runt was deftly wielding a sodering tool and a some unusual electronic tuning device. Wires and cables, vacuum tubes, screws, wirecutters, and various other electronic equipment littered the floor around him. He had been very intent on his work and the tall second man's apparent shirking of his research made him frown.

"Doggone it, Renny!" He said, "You know Doc asked us to work on these items for him! He said we didn't have time to waste."

"Keep your shirt on, Long Tom!" swore Renny. "We been at this for three days- and this is the first thing that geek Johnny has found to shout about!"

William Harper Littlejohn, the scholar in question, backed off his research for a stretch and turned to the others. "It would appear gentleman, that mystic past prognostications were scrupulous in detail and their veracity is beyond question!", he said replacing his monacle and peering at the other two as if testing their vocabulary. Renny's brow clouded for a minute and an audible groan of disgust came from the electrician on the other side of the room.

"In English, this time egghead!"

" I was merely stating that certain sections of the Mayan Popul Vul when compared with lost pharonic texts and crossreferecnced with forgotten research of Roger Bacon, yields astonishing results..." Johnny was warming up to the subject and began pacing back in forth in front of Renny. His movement was arrested by a massive fist that grasped his skinny arm, like a terrier shaking a rat. "Break it down for us, professor." Renny said threateningly.

"As astounding as it seems - these various cultures predicted the future to an incredible degree! Not like the lost Biblical patriarchs who heard voices or medieval sorcerors who read votives of flame to predict the future. These texts prove an advanced scientific knowledge existed for centuries to predict future events! In short gentleman- the future is a book waiting to be read, if only we could discover how!" Johnny paused and twirled his monacle in deep thought.

"So you're saying that mumbo jumbo like Nostradamus and reading gypsy fortune telling cards is right?" scoffed Renny.

"Well they confined their predictions to astronomic phenomenon,"admitted Johnny. "They predicted the creations of novas and quasars, in a fashion wholy unexplainable- centuries before these events happened!"

Long Tom continued tinkering on his bizarre television set, but uttered disdainfully, "I don't believe in no hocus pocus..."

To Be Continued-