"Doc Savage Adventure 1939-07 Merchants of Disaster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

ds20.TXT■0"┌└8"а
┌8.Y    ─?├S┼юИ┌└┼TEXT????
    ╣a
▓╘+▓M\╡??з■MERCHANTS OF DISASTER

A Doc Savage Adventure by Kenneth Robeson

(Originally published in "Doc Savage Magazine" for July 1939. Bantam Books reprint October 1969)

* * *

BACK COVER

THE SKYROCKETS OF SLAUGHTER

The deadliest weapon ever devised is unleashed upon the world. A twisted message, scrawled by a blind man, is the only clue to the flashing lights of shuddering death. DOC SAVAGE calls upon every known secret of science in his fierce battle with THE OXYGEN DESTROYER!

* * *



Chapter 1

A MYSTERY MESSAGE

JOE Goopy encountered it first. Two of his companions saw it happen. Those companions didn't believe what they saw and took the attitude that it didn't matter much anyway. Joe probably would have agreed with them. He was rather tired of living.

The three were making their way to the hobo jungles outside Washington. Not one of them was sober. Panhandling had been better than usual. They had bought some canned heat, squeezed the alcohol out and gulped it down.

That was one reason Joe's companions believed their eyes had deceived them. They had seen strange things before when under the influence of canned heat.

It was just after dusk when it happened. Joe had plunged on ahead of his drinking partners, was weaving his way along the railroad tracks.

Joe's once tall figure was bent. His faded blue eyes were blank. He kept putting one foot in front of the other only because his subconscious mind told him to do so.

Then he paused suddenly. His skinny arms beat the air about him and he tried to run.

Behind him, his two companions had halted, mouths open. There was a faint burning odor in the air, and a sight such as they had never seen before directly ahead of them.

A faint cry came from Joe. It was a strangled sort of cry, apparently for help. It shut off in mid-beat as if strong fingers had been applied to his neck.

His companions turned and ran. It was some minutes before their courage returned enough for them to come back and investigate.

When they did, everything was calm and peaceful. Even Joe looked calm and peaceful. There were no marks of violence of any kind on his body. But he was very dead.

The body was picked up later that same night. The deputy coroner who examined it did his job hurriedly. The death of one human derelict more or less meant nothing to him.

He did note on the record that Joe Goopy's death was not homicide. Then he wrote "acute alcoholism" as the real cause, and let it go at that.

Being young and with a fair amount of curiosity, he wondered just what had killed the aged tramp, but he wasn't curious enough to perform an autopsy. Had Joe's companions told their story there might have been an investigation. As it was, the death was left a mystery.


LES QUINAN was confronted with a mystery also - a minor mystery, he believed at first. And to begin with, he paid but little attention.