Escape from Loki - Philip Jose Farmer, ebook
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Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
archived at
to read more Doc Savage novels, go to
Doc Savage Magazine #183 -
"Escape From Loki"
by Philip Jose Farmer - August/1991
{Bantam Cover by Steve Assel}
Doc Savage's very first adventure recounts how he was shot down behind enemy
German lines and imprisoned in escape-proof salt mines where experiments on human
guinea pigs could result in a sinister weapon of Total Destruction.
It is here that he meets the men who will be his trusted future associates.
Originally printed and copyrighted circa 1933 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Copyright renewed circa 1963 by
The Conde Nast Publications, Inc. Printed in paperback by Bantam Books. It doesn't appear that these will be reprinted in
the near future. So the following out-of-print editions may be read only for your personal interest and may not be otherwise
duplicated or published for profit.
The adventurers of Doc Savage originally appeared in magazine format in
1933-1949
. Note that
this timeframe was before jet planes and the semiconductor technology to which we are
accustomed today. The fastest planes were 400-mph propeller jobs and vacuum tube
technology still ruled radio. The most fantastic weapons encountered by Doc may have been
based
on
of
John Keely's
"vibrational"
and
Nikola
Tesla's
"scalar-wave"
theories
that were popular then.
At times, the writing style of the various Doc Savage "ghostwriters" was influenced by the
prevailing sentiments of the Nation's reading audience of that era. As a result, a few portions
might not be
"politically correct"
in today's society.
Minor editing
efforts have been made in
these archives to "update" these. Finally -- as a rough estimate -- multiply all dollar($)
amounts by 10 to convert to '2004' dollars
(e.g., $5 back then would be $50 today) .
Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
Contents
#183 Escape From Loki
by
Philip Jose Farmer
(August/1991)
the Adventures of
Doc Savage
by
'Kenneth Robeson'
(house name)
Bantam Cover Artists
Lester Dent
(creator and main author)
James Bama
(created 72 covers)
Harold A. Davis
(wrote 13 adventures)
Bob Larkin
(created 77 covers)
Laurence Donovan
(wrote 9 adventures)
Fred Pfeiffer
(created 14 covers)
refer to
DS000.doc
for a biography of
all the Kenneth Robeson "ghostwriters"
Philip J. Farmer
(wrote 1 adventure)
Boris Vallejo
(created 6 covers)
Will Murray
(wrote 7 adventures)
Doug Rosa
(created 2 covers)
William G. Bogart
(wrote 14 adventures)
Jim Aviati
(created 1 cover)
Ryerson Johnson
(wrote 3 adventures)
Mort Kunstler
(created 1 cover)
Alan Hathway
(wrote 4 adventures)
Peter Richardson
(created 1 cover)
Roger Kastel
(created 4 covers)
{limited editing/embellishing and electronic formatting by
'StealthSkater'
- April/2005}
CONTENTS
to skip to a given chapter,
<click> on it from the list below
1
9
14
21
26
31
38
43
49
59
70
77
Chapter XIII
81
92
105
2
Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
Contents
120
125
132
142
157
168
3
Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
Chapter I
Chapter I
Spiders, men, and Mother Nature make trapdoors.
This trapdoor was Hers. It was made of air and water.
But the springing mechanism was confusion in the mind of the man who had ventured onto it. What
seems 'Up' may be 'Down'.
Like a young god who had stepped onto a trapdoor, Lieutenant Clark Savage fell from the heavens
into hell.
He had not known that he was flying his airplane on its back. Cloud-wrapped and unable even to see
the instrument panel before him, he had been as ignorant of his danger as a hog heightened to the
slaughterhouse.
His chaser biplane plunged nose-down out of the dark mists. The bright French afternoon sun of
March 31, 1918 dazzled him. Not until then did he know that his senses had tricked him.
He had been upside down for how long he did not know. His Nieuport 28 was heading vertically for
the earth at 200 mph and picking up speed far too rapidly. He had to being it out of its dive.
But not too abruptly. The Nieuport shed its upper fabric if it was put beyond a certain stress. Once a
piece of fabric parted from the others, the propeller slipstream got under the covering. Then all of it was
ripped off.
He had no parachutes. The Allied commander had decreed that parachutes were for sissies.
If the wings did crumple, then he would cry out:
"Mon Dieu! Pese! Sacre bleu! Merde! A mon
secours!"
Of similar phrases in 10 other languages which he spoke fluently though he was only 16 years old.
At the moment, he was thinking French because he had speaking only that for several months.
That the wings could collapse did not bother him. He was very young and bursting with spring sap,
exploding hormones, and headlong optimism.
However, unlike most for his age, he did not live just for the moment. He had plans for the rest of
his life. But an Allied combat flier -- regardless of age -- had to be keenly aware at every second what
was happening around him. If he daydreamed, he would go to the "Land of the Permanent Nod".
Today was Easter. He hoped that he would see at least 84 more of the days on which the
Resurrection was feted and -- in America -- rabbits laid eggs.
But he knew the aerial warfare statistics.
Here
today …
and possibly
gone
today, too!
Just as he eased the Nieuport out of the dive, he noted that it was at 5,000 feet altitude. He also
looked behind … above … below toe the right and the left.
4
Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
Chapter I
No aircraft in sight. So far, he eluded the 2 German fighters pursuing him when he taken cover in
the cloud.
Below was the wasteland of the battlefield. It looked as if a frantic
leprechaun
had been digging in
it for days trying to find the pot of gold stolen from him. High-explosive shrapnel-filled shells and
mustard-gas-filled shells had blown thousands of holes in the ground.
Then more shells had blasted holes in the holes and in the spaces among them. And then these holes
had been moved around again and again. If holes had ghosts, the field would be covered with a thick
gray
ectoplasm
. Phantoms in a traffic jam.
To the south were the half-wrecked trenches of the French Sixth Army. They were occupied by
half-wrecked men who had somehow survived the apocalyptic bombardments or by bottom-of-the-
barrel reserves rushed up from the rear.
To the north were the German trenches. Behind them several miles-or-so, the Gallic sun of the
Picardy region glittered on rows-on-rows of Teutonic cannons (silent at the moment).
Savage had a peculiar feeling then. It was as if he had been seeing with blurred vision and had just
put on spectacles. Where he had thought there was nothing unusually significant 5 miles behind the
Boche artillery, there was now a German observation balloon.
The
Dracheballon
("dragon balloon) was tiny at this distance. But its yellow semi-sausage shape
with at one end 3 inflated stabilizers (like fat short wings) and a swollen ruder and the basket below it
were unmistakable.
The ropes suspending the basket were invisible as were the anchoring cable and the telegraph line
from the basket to the ground. The flatbed truck holding the winch to which the cable was attached was
not too small to make out. Nor were the rings of antiaircraft cannons (called "Archie" or "ack-ack") and
the sandbagged emplacements for heavy machine-gun pits.
Savage again glanced around, up and down. Eternal vigilance helped keep you alive.
But it also
gave you a stiff neck.
The wind was, as usual, from the West. To fly home, he had to buck it thought it pushed him
sideways and not straight on. His fuel gauge told him
"There's enough gas if you switch soon to reserve
to get us tour aerodrome. But don't dillydally around! Get going!!"
Later recalling this moment, he knew that he had not had to decide what he was going to do.
Without thinking about it, he had turned North.
And in that direction to his right were 2 others tethered yellow sausage-shapes marked with black
crosses. These were space about 3 miles apart. He should have spotted them at the same time as he did
the first one.
By now, the defenders around the nearest aerostat must have his plane. They would be aiming their
weapons at this lone plane even though they would not expect it to be a foe. What pilot would be stupid
enough to attack now that he knew he was detected at such a distance?
5
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl upanicza.keep.pl
Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
archived at
to read more Doc Savage novels, go to
Doc Savage Magazine #183 -
"Escape From Loki"
by Philip Jose Farmer - August/1991
{Bantam Cover by Steve Assel}
Doc Savage's very first adventure recounts how he was shot down behind enemy
German lines and imprisoned in escape-proof salt mines where experiments on human
guinea pigs could result in a sinister weapon of Total Destruction.
It is here that he meets the men who will be his trusted future associates.
Originally printed and copyrighted circa 1933 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Copyright renewed circa 1963 by
The Conde Nast Publications, Inc. Printed in paperback by Bantam Books. It doesn't appear that these will be reprinted in
the near future. So the following out-of-print editions may be read only for your personal interest and may not be otherwise
duplicated or published for profit.
The adventurers of Doc Savage originally appeared in magazine format in
1933-1949
. Note that
this timeframe was before jet planes and the semiconductor technology to which we are
accustomed today. The fastest planes were 400-mph propeller jobs and vacuum tube
technology still ruled radio. The most fantastic weapons encountered by Doc may have been
based
on
of
John Keely's
"vibrational"
and
Nikola
Tesla's
"scalar-wave"
theories
that were popular then.
At times, the writing style of the various Doc Savage "ghostwriters" was influenced by the
prevailing sentiments of the Nation's reading audience of that era. As a result, a few portions
might not be
"politically correct"
in today's society.
Minor editing
efforts have been made in
these archives to "update" these. Finally -- as a rough estimate -- multiply all dollar($)
amounts by 10 to convert to '2004' dollars
(e.g., $5 back then would be $50 today) .
Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
Contents
#183 Escape From Loki
by
Philip Jose Farmer
(August/1991)
the Adventures of
Doc Savage
by
'Kenneth Robeson'
(house name)
Bantam Cover Artists
Lester Dent
(creator and main author)
James Bama
(created 72 covers)
Harold A. Davis
(wrote 13 adventures)
Bob Larkin
(created 77 covers)
Laurence Donovan
(wrote 9 adventures)
Fred Pfeiffer
(created 14 covers)
refer to
DS000.doc
for a biography of
all the Kenneth Robeson "ghostwriters"
Philip J. Farmer
(wrote 1 adventure)
Boris Vallejo
(created 6 covers)
Will Murray
(wrote 7 adventures)
Doug Rosa
(created 2 covers)
William G. Bogart
(wrote 14 adventures)
Jim Aviati
(created 1 cover)
Ryerson Johnson
(wrote 3 adventures)
Mort Kunstler
(created 1 cover)
Alan Hathway
(wrote 4 adventures)
Peter Richardson
(created 1 cover)
Roger Kastel
(created 4 covers)
{limited editing/embellishing and electronic formatting by
'StealthSkater'
- April/2005}
CONTENTS
to skip to a given chapter,
<click> on it from the list below
1
9
14
21
26
31
38
43
49
59
70
77
Chapter XIII
81
92
105
2
Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
Contents
120
125
132
142
157
168
3
Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
Chapter I
Chapter I
Spiders, men, and Mother Nature make trapdoors.
This trapdoor was Hers. It was made of air and water.
But the springing mechanism was confusion in the mind of the man who had ventured onto it. What
seems 'Up' may be 'Down'.
Like a young god who had stepped onto a trapdoor, Lieutenant Clark Savage fell from the heavens
into hell.
He had not known that he was flying his airplane on its back. Cloud-wrapped and unable even to see
the instrument panel before him, he had been as ignorant of his danger as a hog heightened to the
slaughterhouse.
His chaser biplane plunged nose-down out of the dark mists. The bright French afternoon sun of
March 31, 1918 dazzled him. Not until then did he know that his senses had tricked him.
He had been upside down for how long he did not know. His Nieuport 28 was heading vertically for
the earth at 200 mph and picking up speed far too rapidly. He had to being it out of its dive.
But not too abruptly. The Nieuport shed its upper fabric if it was put beyond a certain stress. Once a
piece of fabric parted from the others, the propeller slipstream got under the covering. Then all of it was
ripped off.
He had no parachutes. The Allied commander had decreed that parachutes were for sissies.
If the wings did crumple, then he would cry out:
"Mon Dieu! Pese! Sacre bleu! Merde! A mon
secours!"
Of similar phrases in 10 other languages which he spoke fluently though he was only 16 years old.
At the moment, he was thinking French because he had speaking only that for several months.
That the wings could collapse did not bother him. He was very young and bursting with spring sap,
exploding hormones, and headlong optimism.
However, unlike most for his age, he did not live just for the moment. He had plans for the rest of
his life. But an Allied combat flier -- regardless of age -- had to be keenly aware at every second what
was happening around him. If he daydreamed, he would go to the "Land of the Permanent Nod".
Today was Easter. He hoped that he would see at least 84 more of the days on which the
Resurrection was feted and -- in America -- rabbits laid eggs.
But he knew the aerial warfare statistics.
Here
today …
and possibly
gone
today, too!
Just as he eased the Nieuport out of the dive, he noted that it was at 5,000 feet altitude. He also
looked behind … above … below toe the right and the left.
4
Doc Savage: #183 - "Escape From Loki"
Chapter I
No aircraft in sight. So far, he eluded the 2 German fighters pursuing him when he taken cover in
the cloud.
Below was the wasteland of the battlefield. It looked as if a frantic
leprechaun
had been digging in
it for days trying to find the pot of gold stolen from him. High-explosive shrapnel-filled shells and
mustard-gas-filled shells had blown thousands of holes in the ground.
Then more shells had blasted holes in the holes and in the spaces among them. And then these holes
had been moved around again and again. If holes had ghosts, the field would be covered with a thick
gray
ectoplasm
. Phantoms in a traffic jam.
To the south were the half-wrecked trenches of the French Sixth Army. They were occupied by
half-wrecked men who had somehow survived the apocalyptic bombardments or by bottom-of-the-
barrel reserves rushed up from the rear.
To the north were the German trenches. Behind them several miles-or-so, the Gallic sun of the
Picardy region glittered on rows-on-rows of Teutonic cannons (silent at the moment).
Savage had a peculiar feeling then. It was as if he had been seeing with blurred vision and had just
put on spectacles. Where he had thought there was nothing unusually significant 5 miles behind the
Boche artillery, there was now a German observation balloon.
The
Dracheballon
("dragon balloon) was tiny at this distance. But its yellow semi-sausage shape
with at one end 3 inflated stabilizers (like fat short wings) and a swollen ruder and the basket below it
were unmistakable.
The ropes suspending the basket were invisible as were the anchoring cable and the telegraph line
from the basket to the ground. The flatbed truck holding the winch to which the cable was attached was
not too small to make out. Nor were the rings of antiaircraft cannons (called "Archie" or "ack-ack") and
the sandbagged emplacements for heavy machine-gun pits.
Savage again glanced around, up and down. Eternal vigilance helped keep you alive.
But it also
gave you a stiff neck.
The wind was, as usual, from the West. To fly home, he had to buck it thought it pushed him
sideways and not straight on. His fuel gauge told him
"There's enough gas if you switch soon to reserve
to get us tour aerodrome. But don't dillydally around! Get going!!"
Later recalling this moment, he knew that he had not had to decide what he was going to do.
Without thinking about it, he had turned North.
And in that direction to his right were 2 others tethered yellow sausage-shapes marked with black
crosses. These were space about 3 miles apart. He should have spotted them at the same time as he did
the first one.
By now, the defenders around the nearest aerostat must have his plane. They would be aiming their
weapons at this lone plane even though they would not expect it to be a foe. What pilot would be stupid
enough to attack now that he knew he was detected at such a distance?
5
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]