DOC SAVAGE: THE INFERNAL BUDDHA (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage) by Kenneth Robeson, Lester Dent, Will Murray

Renny gathered up the leg chain at the point it connected with the vertical chain. They were heavy. Links clattered in his gargantuan hands, whose freakish size made them seem less ponderous than they were. This was in the nature of an optical illusion. The links were exceedingly stout.
    “What are you doing?” Mary Chan hissed.
    Renny’s reply was only a grunt. Conceivably, it was not even meant as a reply. With no warning whatsoever, he separated his giant fistic blocks.
    The chain snapped tight between them. Renny repeated the operation, further along the links. Again, he snapped chain.
    It soon became clear that the big engineer was testing each link for weakness. A sudden frown suggested Renny had encountered defeat.
    Actually, it meant the opposite. Seizing a connecting ring on one end of a link, Renny held it to a stray moonbeam coming in through a chink in the longhouse wall. The maul-fisted engineer gave a protracted strenuous tug.
    His long face reddened from exertion. The tendons at his neck grew thick. Veins bulged along his forehead. Muscles egged in front of his ears.
    Their own eyes bugging, the Chans watched this operation.
    The ring was not weak. It was merely less strong than the surrounding links. Perhaps the weld was not perfect. Or possibly Renny’s muscular exertion was more than forged iron could withstand.
    Whatever the truth, the ring of iron gave a sudden, tortured creak, and separated. Renny redoubled his efforts. The ring opened up further.
    In a moment, there was sufficient space to allow the connecting links to slip off.
    “You are still shackled hand and foot,” Mary Chan pointed out in a pent but impressed voice.
    Renny proceeded to remedy that situation. His legs irons were stout and very tight on him. There would be no removing those, except with heavy tools.
    But the connecting chain offered hope. Wrapping the dangling chain end around the links that were stapled to his right leg iron, the big engineer began to haul with both hands while simultaneously stretching his leg out as far as he could.
    Once again, Renny’s muscles, tendons and veins showed evidence of inhuman strain. This went on for some minutes to no effect. Perspiration popped from every visible pore.
    With a snap and rattle, the leg chain finally surrendered. Renny recoiled from the loosened links. Lashing backward, they narrowly missed his long face.
    Shifting on the floor, the giant engineer went to work on the other. Since the leg links now hung loose, Renny dispensed with the chain used to exert force and simply applied the considerable might of his thews to the leg chain itself.
    Looping three twists of linkage about his oversized hands, Renny pulled until globules of salty sweat stood out on his strained features.
    The Chans, watching this intently, began to perspire in sympathy.
    With a brittle sound, the leg chain snapped off the left leg iron. Evidently Renny sensed the moment of surrender. He yanked his head out of the way of the flailing chain. It made a dent in the bamboo flooring. He flung the useless links aside.
    Renny sat there a moment in the semi-gloom, catching his breath. His lungs sounded like tired bellows working.
    For his part, Mark Chan stared with unbelieving eyes.
    Hoisting himself to his feet, Renny rumbled, “Wait here.”
    Mary Chan gasped. “But—where are you going?” she asked.
    “To find that durn box for myself.”
    “You cannot conceive of the danger it represents.”
    Renny said nothing. He was a tower of elephantine muscle in the jungle dark. His hands were still linked by chain, but he could use them in a limited way. Walking was no longer an impediment.
    Carefully, he lowered himself to the ground, paused, then started off. Evidently, Dang Mi’s warning of poisoned blowpipe darts was so much jungle gas.
    Mary Chan called urgently after him.
    “Whatever happens, do not open that box! If the thing inside gets out, the world will start to end! Do you understand? Once it begins,