"036 (B027) - Mystery Under the Sea (1936-02) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Doc Savage was using a quick-developing process of his own on the motion picture film, which was of miniature size. The whirring of the device which wound the film through the developer solution ceased. He transferred the film to a reel and carried it to a projector.
"When did you start that camera?" Monk asked, curiously.
"Just before leaving to take the man to the 'iron doctor,'" Doc replied. "The camera control, you know, is just inside the library."
The film clicked through the projector.
"There it is!" Monk exploded, suddenly. "Say, we got a fine shot of that message!"
"We will run the rest of the film," Doc Savage said. "Another look at that woman would be interesting."
IT had happened about as Monk and Ham had said. The film showed Monk peering at the inscription on the rug and scratching his head, when the door opened and Ham came in, closely followed by a blonde girl.
"Boy, oh boy!" Monk murmured. "Is she a queen!"
The girt, twentyish, arrestingly blonde, might have stepped out of some particularly excellent chorus. Her frock had that careless modishness which only the best designers achieve.
One thing in particular caught their eyes: her jewels. DiamondsЧon her fingers, on her throat, circlets of them about her wrists. They were all large stones.
"She was wearing a fortune," Ham said.
Monk growled, "Look at the gorilla with her."
Monk had called the girl's companion a gorilla. It would have taken a psychologist to explain why he did that. Probably because he secretly resented any man being in the company of a specimen of the feminine sex so entrancing.
The diamond girl's companion was a tall, sturdy and not unhandsome young fellow with a markedly weather-beaten face. His hair was either naturally light or sun-bleached, and was wavy; it bore a close resemblance to molding clay. The young man wore a blue pea-jacket, and trousers that did not have an ordinary cut.
Monk promptly drew attention to the trousers.
"Lookit," he grunted. "Sailors' pants, big at the bottoms."
Ham began, "They wear them with large bottoms merely because it is the styleЧ"
"Wrong!" Monk snapped. "They're big soЧ"
"There is a sound track on this film," Doc Savage interposed. "We will connect the scanning cell and the amplifier to the loud-speaker. Whatever they said might be of interest."
The necessary connections did not require long. As the film began moving again, the loud-speaker hummed and the blows which struck down Monk and Ham were distinctly audible. Monk had emitted a tremendous groan in the course of his Waterloo and Ham now seemed to find this vastly amusing. He chuckled over it until a speech from the diamond girl silenced him.
"Quick, Seaworthy," snapped the young woman. "We won't try to smear that message on the rug. We'll cut it out."
She had a voice which recorded beautifully.
Her companion, whom she had called Seaworthy, frowned at the rug and said, "Just what was Verne trying to write? Can you make it out?"
The girl moved over and studied the rug.
"Oh!" she gasped. "That would have put Doc Savage right on the trail! He would have learned all about Taz. We must get rid of it. Cut it out."
Seaworthy produced a knife and went to work.
The girl stood to one side during the cutting operation, and it was apparent that she was under strong emotional strain. Once she made a sound very like a sob.
"Poor Verne," she said, quietly. "They must have caught him. I wonder if he got the acid into the bilge of their ship."
"If he did, the tub'll sure sink," grunted Seaworthy. "That'll cook their chances of getting to Taz ahead of us."
The girl shuddered. "I wonder if it's worth it. It means millions, and more than money, too. But is it worth it? Sometimes, I wonder why money isn't abolished. It causes so much trouble."
"Something else would take its place for people to fight over," said Seaworthy, who seemed to be something of a philosopher.
Seaworthy rolled the piece of rug, tucked the bundle under his arm, then squinted at the diamond girl.
"Why don't you want Doc Savage in on this?" he asked her, suddenly. "We might make a deal with him."
She stamped a foot at him.
"I'm greedy," she said with frankness. "I want the money, the power that will come from Taz. I wouldn't get it, if Doc Savage mixed in the affair. He would throw the thing open to the world."
The two now took their departure. Following which the movie filmЧit had run on and onЧbecame rather uninteresting. Nothing in the room moved. Except that the part of the rug bearing the writing was gone, there was nothing which really held interest.
"There won't be nothin' else," Monk said.
"No harm in running it through to the end," Doc Savage replied.
Perhaps a minute later Monk let out an excited whoop.
"Look at that!" he squawled.
"That" was the figure of a man who had glided furtively into the anteroom.
THE newcomer's appearance partook of the more flamboyant qualities of a rainbow. His pants were plum-colored. His coat was of distinct red and blue checks. His shirt was a jaunty yellow; his tie a checkered green. A lemon handkerchief, a green hat and bright yellow shoes completed the ensemble.
The picture of this apparition was projected in the full brilliance of its color. For Doc Savage had long ago ceased using ordinary black and white negatives for photography.
The rainbow man peered furtively around the reception room, then ducked into the library and was lost from sight.
The man returned shortly and stood staring at the section which had been cut out of the rug. Then he went over and kicked Monk and Ham in turn, as if he thought that might awaken them.
"I wondered how I got that sore place on my ribs," Monk growled.
A voice came from the loud-speaker. The exotically clad man had not spoken, for they could see that his lips had not moved.
"Find anything, Cap'n Flamingo?" the voice demanded.
"Nothin'!" boomed Captain Flamingo in a powerful voice.
"Flamingo, the bird of brilliant color," Ham murmured. "That name certainly fits the gentleman."