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

The girl in the marvelous golden evening gown was nowhere about. Nor were Velvet
and Biff present. The two men had departed some time ago, taking the girl with
them. As to where they had gone, Long Tom and Renny had no idea.
"Are you fellows from South America?" Renny boomed at one of their hosts.
"No," said the man, "weТre hometown boys. Velvet and Biff are from South
America, though. They just hired usЧ"
"Gonna blab your head off, eh?" interrupted another man.
The fellow who had started to give information fell silent, much to RennyТs
disgust.
"Who is The Little White Brother?" Renny asked.
No one answered. The men slouched about in attitudes of unconcern. But it was
noticeable that their eyes rolled uneasily.
Renny tried a random stab. "I betcha we have an earthquake before long."
Again no one replied, but the words had a marked effect. The men looked somewhat
uncomfortable.
"You know quite a bit, donТt you?" sneered one.
"Not as much as weТll know before weТre done," said an entirely new voice. The
tone was shrill, quarrelsome.
The men looked about wildly. They could see no new arrival.
"Over this way, boys," said the voice. "In the window!"
Every eye leveled upon the window. Jaws fell. Bewildered gasps caused plumes of
steam to dribble through their teeth.
This was a second-floor room. Outside the window was only a swirling maelstrom
of snow.

AT the first note of the strange voice, Long Tom and Renny had glanced at the
window. They had thought it was coming from there. But they had seen nothing.
Then they had realized the truth. They waited, faces suddenly eager, expectant.
The door into the ramshackle hallway was partially ajar. The figure of a giant
man appeared in the aperture. He might have been a cloud of bronze-hued smoke
for all the sound he made. He hurtled across the floor.
The men staring at the window did not yet realize it was the voice of a master
ventriloquist which they had heard. Not one in the group was aware of DocТs
presence.
Doc reached the first of the gang. One of his hands drifted out and up. He
seemed merely to caress the back of the manТs neck. The ligaments on the hands
of the bronze man stood out like drawn steel.
The man Doc had touched gave a violent twitch. Then he fell to the floor.
Something unearthly and horrible seemed to have happened to him. His body was in
the grip of a strange paralysis. His arms and legs projected stiffly.
He hit the floor like a wooden man. His limbs remained rigid, sticking up at
grotesque angles.
The noise of his fall aroused the other men. They whirled. Then they yelled, and
grabbed for their guns.
Two of them were either more brave or less wise than their companions. They
tried to seize Doc with their bare hands. Headlong, they pitched at him.
Doc Savage couched as if to anchor himself more firmly on the floor. His hands
grasped with a blinding speedЧone hand for the head of each man. The thewed
bronze fingers found their mark.
With apparent ease, Doc knocked their heads together. He exerted just sufficient