Doc Savage: Los Hombres Moteados

"Los Hombres Moteados" (The Spotted Men), a Doc Savage adventure by Kenneth Robeson, begins when young engineer Tink O'Neil tests a revolutionary new steel alloy called T-3 in a racing car for steel magnate J. Henry Mason. During the high-speed trial, the axle crystallizes and shatters catastrophically, nearly killing O'Neil. Upon investigation, O'Neil discovers the brake drums have also fractured—impossible for such superior material. Mason mysteriously vanishes from the isolated test track, leaving only oversized footprints. Panicked because T-3 was also used in an airplane Molly Mason and Pat Savage plan to fly that morning, O'Neil contacts Doc Savage by telephone from a trackside booth. While reporting the danger, O'Neil is confronted by a seven-foot-tall figure—Jeff Hanson, a foundry worker—whose body is covered in livid red blotches resembling pustules, his left eye closed and crossed, his demeanor deranged.