Lizard Men of Los Angeles | Page 5

night. I called the police
immediately, of course, and then I took a hot bath and scrubbed my
skin nearly raw. It had begun to itch most fearsomely. In fact," he
confided, mopping his brow again, "it still does."
Suddenly Rosenberg stood stock still. "My God--" he said.
Cairo got to his feet. "Rosenberg? Is something wrong?"
Rosenberg's only reply was a high-pitched moan that seemed to escape
involuntarily from his lips.
Cairo looked at Mrs. Lockhart. "What's wrong with him? Do you see
anything?"
Mrs. Lockhart shook her head but Mildred suddenly gasped and put her
hand to her mouth. "L-look!"
Cairo turned back. Faint wisps of smoke had begun to rise from
Rosenberg's robe.
"What's going on?" Mildred cried.
"Open those glass doors, Mrs. Lockhart, if you please," Cairo said with
icy calm.
"Helllllllp...meeeeeeee..." Rosenberg howled, as the first tiny flames
began to flicker at the back of his head, like an infernal halo. The very
air around him had begun to warp from the intense heat that poured off
his body.
Cairo reached one hand toward Rosenberg, then snatched it back. There
now seemed to be a fire deep inside Rosenberg's chest, like the glow
inside a piece of charcoal whose surface has turned to ash. In fact,
Rosenberg's skin had begun to flutter away in small, gray sheets.

Mrs. Lockhart wrestled open one of the massive glass doors and stood
aside as Cairo snatched a Navajo rug from the tile floor and, using it as
a shield, attempted to wrap it around Rosenberg's body. At that instant
Rosenberg burst into flames as hot as those in a crematorium. The
blanket was consumed instantly and Cairo fell back with his hands
before his face.
When he got to his feet, nothing remained of Emil Rosenberg but a pile
of ashes and one charred gray foot.
*
A policeman burst through the door with a revolver in his hand.
"What's going on here?" He glanced nervously around the room.
"Where's Mr. Rosenberg? And what's that smell?"
Cairo faced him, his eyes intent. He held up his right hand, middle
finger bent and held by the thumb, the remaining fingers extended.
"Listen to my voice," Cairo intoned. "There is nothing wrong here. You
will give us the keys to your patrol car. You will walk us to the car and
explain to the others that I am a high-ranking member of the Los
Angeles police department."
The policeman's eyes clouded over and his brow furrowed as if he were
studying a complex mathematical formula. "Nothing's wrong here. You
can put your badge away, sir. My car is right outside."
Mildred looked at Mrs. Lockhart in amazement. "How did he do that?"
"A very great deal of self-confidence," Mrs. Lockhart replied. "Don't
dawdle."
The officer escorted them to his car and waved to them from the
driveway as Mrs. Lockhart expertly backed the long, black automobile,
lights still flashing, into the street. Cairo turned to Mildred, who sat
wide-eyed in the back. "First we need directions to Galt's apartment,"
he said. "Then I want you to finish telling me about the tunnels."

The night was dark and cool and the stars burned fiercely overhead as
Mrs. Lockhart drove toward the city. Mildred's face, in the starlight,
showed a mixture of fear and excitement, innocence and cupidity. "Mr.
Shufelt, see, he had this idea about a lost city under Los Angeles. He
thought there was gold down there, big tablets of it--I guess like Moses
had, only gold. He said he had maps that he made with what he called
his Radio X-Ray. It just looked like a fancy dowsing rod to me, but
what do I know? He drilled a big hole on Fort Moore Hill this spring
trying to find it."
"I assume he was unsuccessful," Cairo said. "Otherwise it would have
been in every newspaper in the civilized world."
"Bruno says he did find it."
"Then perhaps we should be talking to this Shufelt instead of Galt."
"I don't think even Brother Perdurabo could talk to Mr. Shufelt now."
"Are you saying he's dead?"
"The city gave up drilling, see, on account of being scared the hole was
going to cave in, even though Mr. Shufelt said they were almost
through. So Bruno and Mr. Shufelt went out there one night and Bruno
lowered him into the hole with his Radio X-Ray machine and a pickax.
Bruno stayed up top to watch for cops and all, and after three or four
hours Mr. Shufelt said he found something. Then Bruno heard Mr.
Shufelt say something like, 'Oh my God, they're alive!' Then there was
this awful noise that Bruno said was like bones going through a grinder
and the bottom part of the tunnel fell in. By the time Bruno