"035 (B071) - Murder Mirage (1936-01) - Laurence Donovan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Both saw the ancient, worn stone with the Himyarite symbolism. Their gobbled words were exclamations which indicated they were familiar with that stone. But it was not now as they had last seen it.
Both Bedouins proved by their excitement they had seen the stone when it glowed with bright, bluish fire. Now the stone was red. It sparkled with the vivid scarlet of running blood from a freshly made wound.
One bony, coppery hand reached forth gingerly. The Bedouin's finger tips touched the Himyarite stone.
A shrill cry slavered from the Bedouin's lips. His hand was flung upward by some invisible force. A strange shiver ran through his long figure. The Bedouin's legs seemed to take on the weakness of water. They collapsed and he fell on his face in the aisle.
None noticed what the Bedouin leader had failed to perceive. The red Himyarite stone was enwrapped with fine copper wires. These were no thicker than hairs. Almost invisible, they crossed the floor and disappeared behind one of the metal switchboards.
The Bedouin's own body had closed a contact. This had given him only a light electrical shock.
DISCOVERING himself, probably to his great surprise, to be still alive, the floored Bedouin scrambled to his feet in bewilderment. He gazed at his long, sinewy fingers. They were slightly marked, as if he had touched fire.
His beady black eyes took on an evil, purposeful gleam. In the dark orbs was fear, but the Bedouin had come into this place upon a mission. That he would attempt to accomplish.
He was, after all, an Arab, sworn even to his life for the man he had designated as the All-Wise One.
One hand swooped upon the red Himyarite stone. He conquered the tremor of the slight shock and jerked the stone away, thrusting it under his coat. The fine copper wires parted.
"Let us depart quickly!" he exclaimed in Arabic, and turned toward the door.
The other Bedouin turned. Both stood as if rooted to the floor. The elevator man shivered and his eyes almost popped out.
A weird blue flame, thin as a sheet, had jumped across the doorway leading back to the library. Spears of hissing, crackling blue rippled up and down and across the only means of egress. The flames formed a barrier over every inch of the space.
The Bedouin with the Himyarite stone ran out of the aisle and over to the wall. He was seeking some window. But there was none.
The Bedouin went carefully, touching nothing more. Lights went out, as a candle might have been snuffed. But the blue flames played mockingly across the door. Then the lights came on again.
The second Bedouin had a quick idea.
"You have the knowledge of all this," he said to the dazed elevator man. "You will release us, or you will die!"
"No! No! What would I know about Doc Savage's gadgets?" howled the operator.
The Bedouin pushed the point of the knife into the flesh of the operator's neck. The young man screamed. Blood oozed and reddened the polished blade.
"That will be quite enough of that," spoke a calm voice. "You will remove the knife at once. He cannot aid you."
THE Bedouin stared. At the end of the long aisle stood what to them was a giant. His body would have made the two of them in its weight. His skin was shining bronze. His smooth hair seemed to be almost a continuation of the golden hue of his corded neck.
Renny, Johnny and Long Tom stood beside him. Renny's big hand held a supermachine pistol
"With this," his voice boomed, "I can, and will, pulverize the both of you, if that knife isn't dropped instantly!"
The Bedouins knew firearms. They had never seen a weapon just like this one, but they were well aware it must be deadly. The knife was released. It clanged on the floor. With a scarlet thread trickling and staining his collar, the elevator man staggered to one side and sat down on the floor.
Renny walked around the two Bedouins and stood between them and the doorway of blue flame. Long Tom went over to the wall and pushed a button. The crackling barrier vanished.
Doc Savage took a slip of paper from a pocket. He pulled the elevator man to his feet.
"I'm sorry this happened, and you showed good nerve," he said to the elevator man. "You can go now."
The operator found a slip of paper in his hand. He walked out, rubbing the slight wound in his neck. His face was still chalky, but he mustered a grin. The paper was a hundred-dollar bill.
"Put them in chairs," said the man of bronze. "Then we'll have a little talk."
Renny and Johnny whipped the Bedouins into chairs facing the open library door. They were within a few inches of the doorway. At a signal from Doc, cords were whipped around the man who had taken the Himyarite stone. Renny stood close guard over the other Bedouin.
The black eyes of the man with the stone became almost opaque. The little whirlwinds in the flaky gold eyes of the bronze man stirred, and he spoke.
"You will tell me who sent you here," Doc stated.
The Bedouin started. Points of flame came into his black orbs. Doc Savage had spoken in the purest of Arabic. The Bedouin's eyes lanced at him defiantly, but the man could not conceal his amazement.
The Arabic tongue is one of the most difficult. Never before had the Bedouin heard any ferengi, foreigner, speak it with such fluency. Still the Bedouin clutched the Himyarite stone under his coat. The cords holding him to the chair had not been fastened around his arms or feet.
"You are not the one I expected," announced Doc, still speaking in Arabic. "But you will tell me about him."
The man of bronze was looking deep into the Bedouin's eyes. He was employing his hypnotic power to compel an answer. But the black orbs were unyielding. The Bedouin smiled fleetingly, mockingly. He would not permit his will to be overcome.
"We electrocute murderers in this country," Doc advised. He had some trouble finding an Arabic word for electrocute, but he managed to convey his meaning. "You are a murderer. You will tell all."
The Bedouin made only one answer.
"I am in the hands of Allah."
LONG TOM pressed the button on the wall. Blue flame hissed and crackled with a weird glowing over the man's coppery skin. A movement of the slightest would have caused the Bedouin to touch the lethal barrier across the doorway. The spears writhed close around his knees. They seemed to be reaching for him.
The Bedouin's lips moved, but he said nothing aloud.
"Holy cow!" grunted Renny. "Do we really have to bump him off?"
Doc Savage shook his head and smiled.
"It is the sheer fatalism of his kind. He has determined he will die rather than talk."
The hands of the bronze man were busy. He had been filling a small hypodermic syringe. The plunger was held conveniently under one thumb.
The blinding mass of electrical flame was close to the Bedouin's face. He closed his eyes, but otherwise he remained imperturbable. The high-frequency current was a lurid wall, horribly close. The Bedouin, knowing only the desert code, had no doubt but that he was to die soon.
But his head was stiffly upright. As befitted a true son of Islam, he still retained his own thoughts. His companion also remained silent, but watching closely.
"Who sent you here?" demanded Doc. "Why are you in this country?"
The words were in Arabic, but they elicited no reply.
The Bedouin was murmuring now. The words were, " Bismillah el Rahman el Rahhim." The prayer of the faithful Mohammedan in extreme peril. "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate!"