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

"They look like a copТs nightmare," he remarked.
Monk blew on his hairy fists, and made ferocious faces. "Do we make Сem talk,
Doc?" he asked.
Doc turned slowly, as if eyeing the walls of the room. Only his four friends
caught the slight flicker which one of his eyelids gave. He wheeled back.
"WeТll have to waste a lot of time to make Сem talk," he said. "TheyТre not
worth that."
From inside his clothing, Doc produced a small case. This disgorged a hypodermic
needle. He walked to one of the prisoners and jabbed the needle into the fellow.
The man fell heavily to the floor.
Doc gave another jab. Another one also toppled.
"What are you doing?" yelled one of the survivors in a frightened voice.
Doc pointed his hypodermic needle dramatically at the two men he had dropped.
"Those two will never know what happened to them," he declared.
An uneasy stir swept the other captives. They changed feet. Their foreheads
began to smoke in the cold air as sweat came out.
"Listen, canТt we make a deal?" one mumbled hopefully.
"No," Doc told him. "But it might help if you talked freely."

THE terrified men looked at the two motionless forms on the floor. The faces of
the two were steaming in the frigid air, but the pair looked entirely lifeless.
"WeТll spill whatever you want!" one man groaned.
"WhoТs your boss?" Doc demanded.
"Velvet and Biff," the man replied uneasily.
"But who gives Velvet and Biff their orders?"
"We donТt knowЧhonest we donТt!" wailed the man. "Listen, hereТs how it is.
Velvet and Biff showed up in New York. They had a deal on. They wanted some boys
to help Сem out, and they hired us."
"Hired you to do what?"
"Well, we been watchinТ all the incominТ steamships from South America," the man
explained. "We always got the passenger list. We hunted for one certain manЧJohn
Acre. Tonight we found out he had come in on the Junio."
"And you decoyed John Acre to the front of the Midas club, where you seized
him," Doc elaborated.
"ThatТs right, boss!"
The man was talking freely, although in a scared voice.
"Where is John Acre now?" Doc questioned.
"We donТt know. Velvet and Biff took him off somewhere."
"Where did Velvet and Biff take the girl?"
"To the same place theyТre holdinТ John Acre, wherever that is."
"This information is not very helpful," Doc said grimly. "You birds had better
cough up something worth while."
"We donТt know much, and thatТs the truth, boss," the crook whimpered. "Velvet
and Biff are from some place in South America. TheyТre workinТ for somethinТ
they call the Little White Brother."
"You mean a man called the Little White Brother?"
The scared crook shivered. "I donТt know if itТs a man or not. Sometimes they
talk like the thing ainТtЧainТt human."
DocТs flaky golden eyes dominated the fellow. "DonТt try to kid me."
"ItТs the truth, mister. The Little White Brother may not be human. ItТs