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

"Yes, but - "

"Isn't that important?"

"Well - "

"A murder is always important," Renny said. "We'll go to Doc with this thing. Wait'll I get my hat and coat."


RENNY went into an adjoining room which, Bob French decided, must serve the big-fisted engineer as living quarters. At least French got a glimpse of a cot and a dresser through the open door.

Now that Renny was out of sight, some of the emotion inside French suddenly appeared on his face. The emotion, a sick apprehension, got the best of him for a moment.

He went to the door leading into the reception room and opened it, not as a man who was in flight, but as a man who was so worried that he felt the need of moving about.

It was when he made the unexpected discovery that the middle-aged office girl was not in the outer office that French's frightened brain hatched a quick plan.

The key in the partition door was on the inside. He had already noticed that. He seized the key and changed it to the other side of the door, stepped through, closed the door quietly, and locked it.

He lifted his voice, yelled, "Renny! Watch out! For God's sake!" He screamed the last part.

He snatched up the office girl's chair and broke it over her desk. He hurled the fragments against the connecting door. He emitted a series of loud grunts and gasps, and shoved the office girl's desk around.

Renny hit the other side of the partition door, rattling the locked doorknob.

"French, what's happening?" Renny yelled.

"They've jumped me!" the soldier howled.

He stamped and slapped the desk. He seized his blouse, deliberately tore it half in two up the back, wrenched off the blouse-half including the sleeve, and threw it on the floor.

Then he ran out into the corridor. He had been afraid someone would have heard the uproar and come into the corridor to investigate. But no one had.

Bob French ran to the door at the end of the corridor which was marked EXIT. This led to the stairs. He went down the stairs in clattering haste.



III


HALF an hour later, Renny Renwick was saying to Doc Savage, "He got a cable from his brother to ask a man named Powell about something called the heavy stuff."

Renny went on with the story, and Doc listened.

Doc Savage was a taller man than Renny Renwick, and probably as heavy, but it was only when he was near Renwick that this was apparent. Standing apart, Doc seemed of slighter stature. Most muscular men and most big men look muscular or big. Doc didn't.

There were two or three startling things about his appearance. His hair was bronze-colored, and only slightly darker than the sun had made his skin. He had golden eyes that were unusual, almost weird. Otherwise he was not particularly handsome. He dressed with an obvious effort to make himself inconspicuous, but with little success. He was a man who would be conspicuous anywhere.

He had received an excited telephone call from Renny. He had hurried to Renwick's office, and now he listened to the story of Bob French's visit.