"Doc Savage Adventure 1945-01 The Hate Genius" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

"Yes, but -- " Mr. Dilling squinted thoughtfully at Savage. "Well, now -- I think I begin to get your thought."

"It might work."

"If it does, it'll definitely be a short-cut," Dilling said. He began to show some enthusiasm. 'You might get on their trail immediately. You might, at that"

"I hope so."

"Can we help you?"

"When I get something definite in the way of information," Doc told him, "you'll know it immediately, if possible. I have no intention of trying to wade through a thing as big as this single-handed."

Mr. Dilling looked relieved. "I was worried about that," he said. "I had heard that you preferred to work alone."

"Only when it seems better," Doc said. "where can I go over the reports in your dossier?"

"There is a private room in the back."

Doc Savage made a rather queer request before he parted from Monk, Ham and Pat. "Pat," he said, "would you do me a favor?"

"Eh?"

"Loan me your six-shooter."

"You could get hold of a lot better shooting iron," Pat said. "After all, this was made before the day of Jesse James."

"But would you loan it to me?"

"Sure," Pat said.

She was puzzled. Since Doc had made an issue of having the gun, she had a suspicion it had somehow become important.



IV


MONK and Ham and Pat had a conference. They held it in the back of the room, where they were by themselves, and Ham began it by remarking that he was impressed by the kind of men who were here. "The more you think about it, the more it begins to stand your hair on end," he said.

Pat leaned forward and whispered nervously, "I'm not enthusiastic about this."

Monk was surprised. "what's the matter with you, Pat? There'll be some hell-tearing excitement before this is over with, and that's what you were interested in."

Pat shook her head. "I didn't mean that."

"No?"

"Listen, the Nazis and everyone else has known for months that Germany is licked. So this scheme probably wasn't hatched up on the spur of the moment."

Ham said, "You have something, I would say. Take the matter of the fingerprints He had all his finger prints collected years ago, which would indicate something like this has been in the back of his mind a long time."