"Doc Savage Adventure 1938-12 The Devil Genghis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

"Doc Savage is gonna be here tonight," he sald."Who else d'you think that mob is waitin' to see?"

The driver left, horning people aside with his elbows.


DOC Savage sat in the cab a few moments. He made, unconsciously, a tiny trilling note which came from deep in his throat somewhere, a sound as weird and exotic as the call of a strange bird in a tropical jungle. This sound was an absent-minded habit when he was mentally perturbed.

He began to feel an attack of stage fright. During the taxi ride, he had looked forward to enjoying some music quietly. He was in a mellow, human mood, and it was a shock to find a packed, shoving throng hoping to get a glimpse of him.

Maybe the taxi driver was wrong.

Doc turned up his dark coat collar, pulled his black hat down, tucked violin and clarinet under an arm, and got out of the cab.

He accosted a man with, "Just what is going on?"

"Doc Savage is to be here," the man said. "Damn the luck! I don't think I'm gonna be able to get within a block of the door."

That was that.

Realizing that his height put him head and shoulders above the crowd, Doc assumed a stoop.

The crowd milled and shoved. Policemen blew whistles and were helpless. At the entrance to Metropolitan Hall, a battery of powerful mercury-vapor floodlights blazed so that motion pictures could be taken, and a number of movie cameras were visible, mounted on top of cars.

Doc's stage fright got worse. He had always been embarrassed by public attention, and right now the last thing he felt like doing was to run a gauntlet as this one.

He discovered himself retreating, toying with the idea of telephoning that he was ill, a thought he put aside at once. He had promised to appear, and he always kept a promise.

He turned and walked, unnoticed, into the back street which ran along the rear of Metropolitan Hall. It was dark here, and there was no crowd, because there was no door into the Hall.

There were windows, however. But the lowest one was at a height about equal to a third story, and between it and the sidewalk was naked brick, evidently the back wall of the stage. Apparently ingress here was impossible.

Doc examined the wall, particularly a point where the bricks were outset a trifle in a kind of old-fashioned ornamental corner-piece. He was pleased. Removing his belt, he used it to sling violin and clarinet cases over his back.

Then he climbed. An observer would have said it was impossible - incredible. But the observer wouldn't have realized the kind of strength a lifetime of training had given the bronze man.

Having mounted carefully, Doc swung over to the window, found it unlocked, and entered. He stood now on a catwalk beside the huge scenery curtains. An iron stairway led downward, and he descended.

He was greeted profusely by the charity organization officials.

"So you came early and secluded yourself upstairs!" they exclaimed.

Doc let it go at that.

An usher was dispatched to the entrance to announce that Doc Savage had arrived, and that there was no more standing room, and that the doors would be closed.

The audience inside heard the announcement and broke out in applause.

One in the audience did not applaud. This person was a woman. She looked incredulous, then disappointed, and springing to her feet, hurried to the front of Metropolitan Hall and began trying the doors of offices used by the management.

Visitors on the French Riviera a few weeks ago would have recognized the young woman as Toni Lash.