"012 (B043) - The Man Who Shook The Earth (1934-02) - Lester Dent (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

concoction alone had made Monk a fortune.
It was biting cold outside. In the sedan the temperature was comfortable, due to
a combination air-conditioner and heater.
A great assortment of knobs and meters decorated the instrument board. Long Tom
reached up and adjusted some of these.
"What are you doing?" rapped the young woman.
"I donТt need to be told how to drive this car," Long Tom replied brusquely.
The sedan rolled northward. By now they had left the limits of New York City.
Snow fell faster. A strengthening wind shoveled the flakes about.
"Turn left at the next corner," the gilded girl advised.
Long Tom obeyed. A few rods farther on, in compliance with a second order, he
wheeled the sedan into a large yard.
The headlights picked out a house. It was a frame building. Missing patches of
shingles made the roof look like a mangy dog. Windows were boarded up. Numerous
evergreen shrubs were blackish humps in the blizzard.
Long Tom stopped the sedan.
"Get out," said the girl, "and open the door. We areЧ Oh! Oh!"
The adjacent evergreen bushes seemed to hatch the leaping figures of men. An
ominous ring, they converged on the car. They were heavily armed.
"The Little White Brother!" shrilled the girl.

TWO men, widely different in appearance, led the gang. One of these was natty in
evening garb, and handsome in an evil way. The second man was big, slovenly. His
nostrils were a pair of fuzz-rimmed holes. A deep scar slanting across his face
gave him an appearance utterly villainous.
Long Tom and Renny were not acquainted with these two unsavory gentlemen. They
did not know the pair were Velvet and Biff.
Velvet took charge of the affair.
"Drop your gun!" he snapped at the girl.
The young woman had been taken by surprise. At the moment, her weapon was
pointed at Long Tom and Renny. She tried to swing it toward Velvet.
Velvet leaped. He was carrying an automatic in his hand. He threw it. The heavy
weapon struck the girlТs arm, knocked it aside.
Velvet, diving like a football tackler, wrapped his arms around the girl in
gold. The momentum of his leap carried both him and the girl to the sedan floor
boards. His legs, however, still projected outside.
Renny, sitting in the front seat, tried to close the bulletproof doors of the
sedan. VelvetТs legs prevented that. Renny reached down to jerk Velvet inside.
Two revolver snouts were thrust through the door.
"One jump and youТll get croaked!" two harsh voices chorused.
Renny looked at the lowering visages behind the weapon. On other occasions he
had seen the will to do murder on menТs faces. He saw it again now.
With an abrupt meekness, Renny lifted his tremendous hands.
"Go easy," he advised Long Tom from the side of his grim mouth. "These palookas
look like poison."
Long Tom jutted his own arms above his head.
The gunmen converged on the sedan. Long Tom and Renny were searched. Their
captors seemed surprised when no weapons came to life. They did not search the
girl in gold. They merely looked her over.
"She isnТt hiding anything under that gown," Velvet decided.