"017 (B002) - The Thousand-Headed Man (1934-07) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Doc Savage said nothing, but held out both hands and opened and closed them rapidly. The tendons writhing and flowing in the hands were enormous.


MONK CAUGHT the meaning of the pantomime. "They ain't carryin' nothing'," he said.

Doc made pulling gestures in front of his lips, shrugged, shook his head, then shoved both hands out in front of him with a fierce expression.

Monk grinned. He was to pull what information he could out of the newcomers, and if they failed to talk, he was to frighten them away.

Doc Savage swung to the window. It was open, and he eased through. The wall was of brick, the single ornamental ledge less than half an inch wide. But the giant man of bronze grasped this and swung to one side of the aperture. He clung there with an effortless ease which indicated that the fabulous strength portrayed by his hand tendons was very real. He could hear what went on inside the room.

The byplay had transpired with great speed. Doc was out of sight before the orientals reached the big-fisted man seated on the chair in the corridor.

"You fella Doc Savage?" one asked.

"Naw," said the big-fisted man. "I'm Renny - Colonel John Renwick."

His voice was a great roaring, and nothing about his careless English indicated he ranked among the top half dozen of the world's greatest engineers.

"We likee spliekee Doc Savage," stated the spokesman

The homely Monk appeared in the door and offered, "Doc just left."

If Renny was surprised, he did not show it, although he was aware Doc Savage could not depart in conventional fashion without passing his chair.

"Doc Savage, him come back soon, mebbe?" singsonged an oriental.

"Maybe," Monk admitted. "Whatcha want with him?'

The celestials now demonstrated that they were excellent liars.

"Doc Savage got black stick," one declared. "Him velly much vallable. We come help watchee stick."


MONK BACKED away to let the orientals inside. As they entered, the slanteyed fellows kept hands near their pockets - and the pockets bulged as if they might hold weapon.

Understanding dawned on Monk. The two metal boxes in the corridor were part of a device created by Doc Savage. One box produced a magnetic field, the other held a supersensitive galvanometerlike apparatus. Metal introduced into the magnetic field caused a change which this galvanometer picked up and registered, closing a contact that lighted the red lamp on the writing table.

This complicated contrivance was merely to warn Doc Savage if any visitors arrived carrying guns or knives. And it had worked, for the concealed arms of the orientals had been detected by Doc's device.

The visitors perched gingerly on chairs.

Monk went into an adjoining room in which the other three members of Doc's group of five aides lounged.

One of the trio - the snappily dressed man with the black cane - stared sourly at Monk. His expression was that of a man viewing an especially undesirable form of insect.

"Nature's awful mistake," he sneered.

Monk grinned cheerfully at the insult. The speaker was "Ham" - Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks - great light of the American legal profession.