"Doc Savage Adventure 1945-03 The Ten Ton Snakes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

Renny nodded thoughtfully.

"Of course any one of those freak things could happen in a fight," Doc added. "But it isn't likely that all of them would happen in the same fight."

"Holy cow!" Renny said. "Now that you bring this up, I remember that French didn't seem so happy about bringing you into the case."

"Oh, he showed some reluctance?"

"Yes, he did. At first, he didn't seem to know who you were. Then it dawned on him that he had heard of you, and right away he suggested that we shouldn't bother you with his trouble."

"Did he give any reason?"

"No. He only said that he didn't think we should bother an important man like you with the matter," Renny said. "Doggone it, I should have attached more importance to his reluctance."

"It looks as if he staged a fake attack, then escaped down the stairs."

"That's the way it seems, all right."

Doc asked, "When French first began asking you for help, did he seem sincere?"

"As sincere as anything."

"When did he change?"

"When he realized who you were."

"As I understand it, you first told him that you would bring me into the thing, calling me by name," Doc said. "Was that when French got excited?"

"No. He got excited when it dawned on him who you were. He'd heard of you as the man of bronze. I mentioned that was who you were, and that was when he changed his mind about wanting you in it."

Doc looked thoughtfully at the half portion of Bob French's coat.

"He wanted us to investigate the thing," Doc said. "But he didn't want to appear in it himself any more."

Renny was startled. "How you figure that?"

"He must have staged the fake attack to get us excited," Doc pointed out. "Otherwise he would have merely slipped away from you."

Renny clapped a hand to his forehead. "By God, that's right. What's the matter with my brains, anyway!"


DOC went through the half of Bob French's blouse. In the pockets he found cigarettes, book matches, two Chinese cash coins with square holes in their middles, an English shilling coin, a cigar.

Renny scrutinized the book matches. "None of this stuff means anything. I thought the matches might, but they're from a chain outfit that has branches all over the city."

Doc indicated a small white cloth tab clipped to the blouse collar. It had inked markings.

"Laundry tag," Doc said.

Renny brightened. "By golly, that's as good as an address. Doesn't the New York police have a directory of these laundry marks?"