"008 (B018) - The Sargasso Ogre (1933-10) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

The Cameronic had been added to the scalp belt!



Bright and new, sewed in place, a bit more carelessly than the others, was the cap insigne of a Cameronic officer. It ha been added while the belt was in the hands of whoever ha taken it, then returned it.



"This beats me!" Long Tom grunted. "Why was it returned to us -- as a hint?"



"A warning, more likely," Doc decided. "Our enemy -- enemies -- is trying to get our goat. Too, the act smacks bravado. Our opponents want to show us they're not afraid of us."



"But why take the belt, then return it?"



"Probably they learned of the message from Scotland Yard."



This latter possibility became an evident fact, when consultation with the radio operator on duty during the day r revealed that his file of message carbon copies had been ran sacked. This had happened, he believed, when he had stepped( out of his office for a moment to smoke a cigarette.



Further inquiry disclosed that Captain Ned Stanhope had lost his dress-uniform cap.



"Scrub my scuppers, if I can figure what happened to that cap!" complained the Cameronic skipper in expressive seafar ing lingo.



Doc Savage did not tell him his head gear must have be lifted to get a decoration for the strange belt.



Neglecting the evening meal, Doc and his five men continued their search. To facilitate things for the three who had not seen the white-bearded strong man Bruze -- if that was real name -- Doc made a pencil sketch of the fellow, emphasizing predominant features.



"Bruze is probably his name," Doc explained. "That signature was written freely upon the purser's record, as if the man had enscribed it often."



The night hunt proved as barren as the one during the day.