"044 (B077) - The South Pole Terror (1936-10) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"Telegram," said a masculine voice outside. It sounded like the voice of a youth.
Velma Crale was too foxy to take a chance on what might be an old ruse.
"Shove it under the door," she called.
A yellow telegraph envelope was promptly shoved under the door.
The young woman looked relieved, picked up the telegram, saw the name of Derek Flammen through the transparent window, and tore the envelope open. She plucked out a folded yellow sheet.
Then she gave a loud gasp and fell to the floor.
Chapter III. THE MYSTERIOUS CABLE
A KEY immediately clicked in the door, and the lock tumblers were operated, after which the door opened.
Half a dozen men stepped in silently, and the last one closed the door hastily. The men were quietly dressed, and had the look of outdoor fellows. Their faces were not what could be called "angelic-looking." All of them had a rather pronounced sunburn, or what appeared to be a sunburn.
"Tie her up and gag her," said the leader. "That gas stuff in the envelope will only knock her out for a minute or two."
The leader stood out from his followers for several reasons. He was bigger, and he looked meaner. He also wore spectacles with unusually thick lenses of a slightly yellowish glass.
A man bent over the girl. He promptly made a gasping sound and all but fell, then managed to stumble to one side.
"Hell, Cheaters!" he gulped. "Some of that stuff is still in the air!"
"Drag her to one side to tie her and gag her," ordered the leader, answering to the cognomen of "Cheaters."
His unusual spectacles made it no mystery why he happened to be called Cheaters, this being a slang term sometimes applied to glasses.
The orders were carried out on the girl, and none too soon; for she began to mumble from behind the gag, and her eyes sparkled irately.
Derek Flammen rolled and wrenched at the sheets with which his wrists and ankles had been tied by the young woman.
"Turn me loose!" he barked.
Cheaters leered at him.
"Take it easy, blondy!" he growled. "You ain't out of the woods yet."
Derek Flammen relaxed, a peculiar expression on his ponylike features.
"I am at a loss to understand what this is all about," he said.
"That's swell," said Cheaters, ominously. "If you understood, you would probably be at a greater loss. You would lose your life."
CHEATERS now went over to Velma Crale.
"I don't think you'll be squawking for the police," he said. "They're looking for you for sending that bomb to Doc Savage. The attendant in the skyscraper's package room remembered that it had your name on the return address. It's all in the extra editions of the newspapers."
He ungagged Velma Crale.
The young woman stared at Derek Flammen.
"I thought you were the leader of the other mobЧof this outfit!" she said in a puzzled manner.
"I don't know anything at all about anything!" snapped Flammen.
Cheaters nudged the girl gently with a toe. "You know me?"
"Cheaters Slagg!" she grated. "You're a rogue; and you'll eventually get hung!"
"After you, my dear," grinned Cheaters. Then he scowled. "On second thought, I don't think well give them a chance to hang you. Even though they'd probably lynch you for killing Doc Savage, in spite of the fact that you're a woman."
Velma Crale sniffed. "Nuts to you."
She did not sound very enthusiastic.
Cheaters Slagg rocked on his heels. He lifted his thick, colored spectacles and rubbed his eyes as if they ached. This gesture was, in fact, a habit with him.
"So Thurston H. Wardhouse is working with you now?" he growled.
"No," Velma Crale said, promptly.
"We listened outside the door, so don't lie about it!" retorted Cheaters Slagg. "We've been shadowing you for days, my female go-getter, and we have copies of the cables you've sent to Wardhouse. We know Wardhouse is taking the liner Regis to-night."
Slagg bent forward suddenly. His ugly face wore an expression far from benevolent.
"We're taking precautions!" he gritted. "Wardhouse will never see New York again!"
The girl nipped her lips and apparently could think of nothing by way of reply.
"Bring them both!" Slagg rapped suddenly.
Velma Crale and Derek Flammen were lifted bodily and borne out of the room. It developed that the mob had a freight elevator waiting, with a frightenedЧand evidently crookedЧhotel flunkey in charge. He took them down, then grasped a twenty-dollar bill greedily when it was passed to him.
"I won't say nothing about this!" he gulped.
Cheaters Slagg, seizing an opportunity a moment later, calmly inserted a long knife into the hotel flunkey's heart from behind.
"Not in this world, you won't say nothing!" growled Slagg, holding the dying man's mouth so that he could not make a sound.
They got out into an alley without being noticed and distributed themselves in two cars which were waiting there.
"A lot of guys are going to get themselves dead if this keeps up," Cheaters Slagg said, calmly. "But my idea is that it's worth it."
THE men were fairly confident of themselves, and, anyway, too much looking around would have been likely to attract attention as they drove out on the street, so they did not notice a shadowy form near the mouth of the alley.
Had they noticed, they would have been interested, for the lurking individual had a very furtive manner. Moreover, the person kept so thoroughly concealed in the shadows that it was impossible to tell whether it was man or woman.