"WEST FROM SINGAPORE" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Amour Louis)

from Dago Frank's body. Then Jim jerked him across his knee. Unsnapping his belt
with a deft twist of the fingers, he jerked down Dago's trousers, and while the raging
man gasped for breath, proceeded to whip him soundly!
Then, jerking him erect, Mayo jolted another six-inch punch into his midsection and
dropped him to the floor. Coolly, he picked up his beer and drank it, and then he
turned and looked at Lucieno. The fat Portuguese began to back away, his face white.
Jim grinned. "Okay, pal," he said cheerfully. "It was just a little lesson to teach
your boyfriend to talk nice to his superiors. Next time-" He shook his finger warningly
and turned away.
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16
Louis L'AMOUR
Arnold was standing on the boardwalk as Jim strode through the swinging doors. He
chuckled, clapping Jim on the shoulder. "That was great! Everybody in the Dutch East
Indies has
been hoping to see that pair get called. But you've made an enemy, and a nasty one."
"That's just the fifth episode," Mayo said, shrugging. "I beat them out of a cargo
of copra and pearl shell down in the Friendly Islands about three years ago. About
six months later they tried to kidnap old Schumann's daughter over in the Moluccas.
They were going to sell her to some native prince. I put a stop to that, and a couple
of their boys got tough."
"What happened to them?"
"You know, William," Jim said seriously, "I was trying to remember the other day.
They had an accident or something."
He straightened his tie, and gave the automatic a hitch into a better position.
"By the way, William," he asked carelessly, "where's the Natuna bound this trip?"
"To Port Moresby, with general cargo."
Ponga Jim walked down the street, and when he turned at the corner, glanced back.
Major Arnold, his neat, broadshouldered, compact figure very casual, was standing
in front of Chino John's. Jim grinned, and turned the corner carelessly. Then, suddenly
alert, he wheeled and darted down an alley, turned into a side street, and cut through
the scattering of buildings toward the dock. The British Intelligence was convenient
at times, at others, a nuisance.
There was no one in sight when he reached the dock. He let himself down the piling
and crawled into a skiff moored there in the dark. Quickly, he shoved off.
Overhead there was a heavy bank of clouds. The night was very still, and the skiff
made scarcely a shadow as it slipped through the dark water. Staying a hundred yards
off, Ponga Jim avoided the lighted gangway and cautiously sculled the boat around
to the dark side of the
Natuna.
There was no one in
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17
EAST OF GORONTALO
sight, so with painstaking care he drifted the boat nearer and nearer to the silent
ship. When he came alongside he laid his paddle down and stood up, balancing himself.
Fortunately, the sea was still. Picking up the heaving line lying in the stern of
the boat, Mayo tossed the monkey's fist around a stanchion of the taffrail, and catching
the ball, he pulled it down.
Once aboard that ship he would be practically in the hands of his enemies and with