"Doc Savage Adventure 1934-11 Death in Silver" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

"It was the Silver Death's-Heads," the policeman explained before Doc could put a query. "They drove right through the crowd in an armored car. Ran down two spectators. They rushed in, clubbed down the guard at the door, and seized Monk and Ham. It happened so quickly that we could do nothing, although I did manage to fire one shot."

"Did they harm Monk and Ham?" Doc demanded.

The lieutenant shivered slightly at the grim sound of the giant bronze man's voice.

"Both were clubbed over the head," he said thickly. "Ham was caught beside me. The silver devils came up behind us. Monk was in the telephone booth and did not get out in time."

"How badly were they clubbed?" Doc questioned.

The officer moistened his lips. "Pretty hard. I don't know - if they are alive. They were dragged away."

"What about the armored truck?" Doc asked. "Armored trucks are not extremely common on New York streets."

"This one was a steel pay-roll truck," the policeman replied. "It was stolen, we learned, from a company which makes a business of delivering pay rolls. It was taken only a few minutes before the raid here."

"You assemble information very quickly," Doc told the officer. "Good work. Was the truck followed?"

The policeman grimaced. "I'm sorry to say that it got away completely. Of course, every radio patrol car in the city is now looking for it. We expect a report at any minute. it cannot escape."


DOC Savage did not rush off on any wild chase of his own in search of the armored truck. He knew the efficiency of the metropolitan police; he had, in fact, served in a consulting capacity when the present radio car system was inaugurated. A vehicle as prominent as the armored truck would not get far before it was discovered.

The bronze man's first move was to examine the semi-molten silver mass which Monk and Ham had found in the basement fire box. A small bag was brought from Doc's roadster. With chemicals taken from the bag, Doc tested the silver.

"Coin silver," he announced.

"Eh?" The police lieutenant was puzzled.

"The cloth is interwoven with fine wire made from molten silver dollars," Doc explained.

"Does that prove anything?" the officer queried.

"Only that the criminals must be making the garments themselves, which indicates that some of them are highly skilled metalsmiths," said the bronze man. "If the disguises had been purchased, it is almost certain that a different grade of silver would have been used."

The policeman nodded, not greatly surprised, for he knew the amazing detective ability possessed by Doc Savage. He was slightly abashed, however, when Doc went upstairs to the explosion scene and almost at once turned up the cause of the blast.

Doc did not expend much time on the wreckage itself, except to apply chemical tests to some of the powder stains.

"The work of trinitrotoluene," he stated.

"Huh?" asked the officer.

"T.N.T.," Doc elaborated. "The famous World War explosive."

"Oh!"

The bronze man dug into the office walls, probing pits made by bits of wreckage, and brought out, after some work, several bits of steel. He assembled these, studied them.

"We found some of that metal and sent it to a specialist for an opinion," said the officer. "We hoped it would tell us what caused the blast - whether it was a bomb or not."