Cover Date: July 1939
Volume 13 # 5
Submission Date: Wednesday, August 17, 1938
Copyright Date: Friday, June 16, 1939
Author: Harold A. Davis
Editor: John Nanovic
Bantam Edition #41, October 1969
Sanctum Edition #45
Story Length: 42, 073 words in 20 chapters
WHMC: The collection contains one folders for this story, f.584 which includes only an outline.
Recurring Characters. The entire Iron Crew are all present in this story.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
“Merchants of Disaster” by Kenneth Robeson
“Submarine Strategy” by Wallace Brooker
“Shadow of the Gallows” by Harold F. Cruickshank

Departments
Doc Savage Club
-Carry On
-Guiding Ships
-Doc Savage Award
-Cosmic Rays
Editor’s Page

“Merchants of Disaster” opens with two baffling deaths. A tramp named Joe Goopy dies mysteriously near Washington with no visible injuries, and patent attorney Les Quinan is stabbed after decoding a strange light-signal message that warned of a “new death weapon” to be used against soldiers that day. Quinan had been trying to reach Doc Savage when he was killed.

I think “Merchants of Disaster” is probably Davis’ best story. I suspect Davis was tipping his hat at Lester Dent by naming the patent attorney “Les” and tossing in the bit about continental code which would fit right in with Dent’s early work as a telegraph operator.  Davis may have also been poking fun at Dent’s attempt at law school while working for the Associated Press in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Davis was fond of geo-political thrillers. This one fills in all the blanks. Everything in it is bigger-than-life.  The number of deaths is staggering. In rapid success two hundred army troops are killed.  A second attack leaves nearly 300 more dead.  An ambush in the San Francisco area near Richmond kills every government agent in the area.  Toss in another ten or so civilian deaths, including all the villains, and the total exceeds 500 deaths.

The masterminds are columnists Leon Spardoso and Grant Holst, working with chemist Carl Zolg. They possess an “oxygen destroyer” invented by Paul Payne (Olivia Payne’s father). The chemical, released in the air, temporarily destroys oxygen and suffocates anyone in range; it produces the eerie colored sparks witnesses have seen. Gas masks are useless against it.

The destruction of the building is another big action scene.  The master spies have Doc and Johnny at their power. They can eliminate them at their leisure.  Then they hear a load voice blaring from outside their building.

“This is Doc Savage,” came the unmistakable tones of the bronze man. “Two desperate criminals will soon seek to flee from this building. Guard all entrances. Do not let them escape. But under no circumstances permit anyone to enter the building!”

The pair flee the building after turning the building into an inferno.  And yet again, through scientific genius and forethought, Doc and Johnny live to fight another day

In a final confrontation inside a Golden Gate Bridge tower rigged as their headquarters and radio station, Doc has already developed a neutralizing agent. When Zolg tries to kill everyone with the oxygen destroyer, Doc’s antidote saves his group. Spardoso and Zolg die in their own weapon. Holst is shot by Payne. The remaining network is rounded up by infrared signals, and the formula is locked away by the U.S. government as too dangerous for use.

“Merchants of Disaster” is probably my favorite story by Davis.  I think it would have been an excellent candidate to turn into a movie serial.  If only…