"Doc Savage Adventure 1934-03 Meteor Menace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

"Blast it!" Ham grunted. "She's ducked out of sight."

They veered to the right, and when the young woman did not materialize, worked in a circle. Nowhere did they see the attractive bit of femininity who had claimed she had a warning for Doc Savage.

"Let's go back and talk to that Cockney," Monk growled. "There was somethin' suspicious about that mug!"

Monk and Ham furrowed their way back to the spot where they had left the Cockney. Reaching the vicinity, they halted to stare about disgustedly.

"He's skipped!" Monk grunted.

"I'll bet he really was Shrops!" Ham said thoughtfully. A soft hissing came from the public address loud-speakers, which were mounted atop poles. The amplifiers had been switched on.

Monk grasped Ham's elbow. "Have you forgotten that Doc sent you here to make a speech?"

Ham objected. "But that girl has something important - "

"We may be able to spot her from the rostrum," Monk interrupted. "Come on!"

The huge, hairy chemist, and the slender, immaculate lawyer worked toward the speakers' platform.


A STIFF-BACKED, official-looking Chilean gentleman marched up and positioned himself in front of the bank of microphones which fed the public-address system. Waving his arms in the animated fashion to which Latins are addicted, he began to speak.

"We still hope that this bronze wonder man, who is the hero of all Chile, will appear at our ceremony," he said in flowery Spanish. "As you all know, however, this heroic gentleman is not one who likes to accept public acclaim in person. Therefore, he informed me he would not be present."

A profound silence settled over the crowd. The human sea seemed to have frozen, with the exception of one spot, where Monk and Ham were elbowing a path.

"While we wait, hoping that he will come," continued the Chilean spellbinder, "I am going to give you a few facts about this mighty personage to whom Chile owes more than can ever be repaid."

Monk and Ham exchanged glances, and Monk grinned. "I wonder how much this speechmaker really knows about Doc?"

The orator continued: "The bronze man, Doc Savage, is an individual, the like of whom the world has never before seen. He is a superman, a colossus of brawn and brain who has been trained scientifically from the day of his birth to follow his present career."

The speaker paused to let that sink in, then went on: "Doc Savage, by a routine of daily exercise, pursued each day since childhood, has acquired an almost fantastic muscular development, a physical strength beside which that of Samson would pale.

"In addition, it is said that no one ever studied as intensively or as widely as has Doc Savage. This has equipped him with a knowledge which borders on the profound on every subject. Doc Savage is a rare combination of muscular strength and mental perfection.

"Hm-m-m!" Monk grunted thoughtfully, juggling his pet pig's box. "Some of this crowd may think that bird is laying it on thick, but he's not. He isn't even exaggerating, and that's probably something he don't suspect, himself."

"This unusual training was to fit Doc Savage for a unique profession," the speaker went on. "He rights wrongs and punishes evildoers, traveling to the far corners of the earth to accomplish these things. His most recent accomplishment was here in Chile, when he wiped out a gang of fiends who were seeking to get control of the Chilean nitrate industry in order to supply ingredients for explosives to a European nation which contemplates war."

Monk and Ham mounted the rostrum steps, looking about in an endeavor to locate the Cockney and pretty Rae Stanley.

"Doc Savage refused remuneration for his services," continued the Chilean speaker. "But he requested that a hospital be erected to offer free medical and surgical service to the poor of Chile, and a trust fund established to insure its operation for many years. The hospital construction has started, and we are here now to dedicate it. We hope Doc Savage will appear

Ham stepped forward, indicated that he wished to address the crowd, and the Chilean orator stepped back politely.

"I have an unpleasant duty to perform," Ham said in clear, perfect Spanish. "You good people have all heard that Doc Savage is one of those scarce individuals, a genuinely modest man. It embarrasses him to play the hero in public. For that reason, he will not appear on this platform to-day."