"009 (B022) - The Czar of Fear (1933-11) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

THE CZAR OF FEAR



A Doc Savage Adventure



by Kenneth Robeson



(Originally published in "Doc Savage" magazine November 1933. Bantam Books reprint March 1968)







Chapter 1



GREEN BELL





THE MIDGET radio squawked away noisily beside a cardboard sign which read: "Our Special To-day -- Roast Beef Plate Lunch, Twenty-five Cents."



The man on the lunch-room stool sat sidewise, so he could watch the door. His eyes were staring; pale fright rode his face. He wolfed his sandwich as if it had no taste, and gulped at his fourth mug of scalding coffee. He was tall, lighthaired, twentyish.



One of the two women beside him was also tall and light-haired, and in her twenties. She was some degrees more than pretty -- hers was a striking beauty. A mudfreckled raincoat and a waterlogged felt hat seemed to enhance her charm.



Her eyes were dark-blue pools of fear.



The other woman was a pleasant-faced grandmother type. Around sixty was probably her age. She had a stout, efficient look. Her cheeks were ruddy as apples, and pleasant little wrinkles crow-tracked from her eyes.