"050 (B033) - The Terror in the Navy (1937-04) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Near by, in a clump of bushes, Doc found hidden a lump of newspapers, all very late editions.
They were, Doc recalled, the same editions which the elderly "newsboy" had been sellingЧthe "newsboy" who had appeared at the Parkview, then here.
Doc walked toward where he had left Monk.
Five minutes later, he was completing a search which convinced him Monk and the girl, India Allison, were gone. He had found the spot where Monk had fallen when struck down; Monk's apish frame had mashed down the grass perceptibly.
Doc went to his car and switched on the radio, adjusting the wave band to the short wave which he and his men used for intercommunication.
"Ham!" he called into the transmitter microphone.
"Ham," was Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks, the remaining member of Doc Savage's group of five aids. Ham was also the pride of Harvard law school alumni and was frequently nominated by magazines of fashion as the best-dressed man in the United States.
"Ham!" Doc called, a rap of imperativeness in his trained voice.
Ham had been assigned the task of keeping track of Fuzzy and his gang. Doc had directed Ham to keep in touch by radio at every opportunity.
"Ham!" Doc called again.
There was no response, nothing to show how Ham was making out with his job of shadowing snaky, hairy Fuzzy and Shade and the rest of the gang which had gaunt Johnny a prisoner.
Chapter 8. THE DEATH PATROL
LONG, bony, big-worded Johnny was seeking to extract some vague bit of information from his captors.
"This dilemma presents a labyrinthine physiognomy," he murmured. "Truly a cosmorama infinitelyЧ"
"Whew!" muttered Shade, from the driver's compartment. "Have him speak English!"
"Shut up!" directed Fuzzy. "We'll soon be home."
Shortly after this, Shade drove the bread truck up the neat driveway edged by green shrubbery to the trim bungalow with the verdant shutters and tile roof the color of blood. No one got out until the car was in the attached garage.
They all unloaded. It was a bit gloomy in the garage.
Fuzzy selected a man with a finger and directed, "Useless, you go out and kinda gander around the place, just in case. I ain't got no reason to think anything is wrong, but it never hurts to be carefulЧas the rooster said after he flew into the thorn tree."
The designated man went out.
Fuzzy led the others inside. He was in an expansive good humor.
"Doc Savage will find that note and burn it," he said. "That'll be his end!"
"I'd watch that dame, India Allison, if I were you," a man said.
"She's doing what she's told," said Fuzzy. "Don't worry about her." Fuzzy then directed a man to make some coffee in the kitchen, after which he decided he'd get a late newspaper. He walked out to the street.
The newspaper boy who was fifty years old was still there, and Fuzzy bought a paper and made some comments as he read it.
"The whole dang navy is what a prissy guy would call 'in a dither,'" he said. "BoyЧare they balled up and wondering what's coming next!"
In the house, Fuzzy laughed aloud, then stopped and looked suddenly sober.
"Wonder what they'll say when Captain Blackstone Toy's dawn patrol of naval airplanes is destroyed this morning?"
He seemed about to elaborate on this, but there was a shout from outside. The man designated as "Useless," who had been sent to look the grounds over, came slamming back inside.
"Shade!" he bawled. "Shade! Something's got Shade!"
The man who had driven the truck was in the room. He looked bewildered.
"If anything's got me, it's the first time I knew of it!" he snapped.
Useless stabbed an arm at him. "This guy ain't Shade! I found Shade stuck with a sword cane that was lying beside 'im, and there was dope of some kind on the sword cane's point! The sword cane only stuck 'im in the arm, but it made 'im senseless!"
FOR a matter of ten seconds or so, there was comparative silence.
Somebody became choked and gave a loud cough. It was as if he had fired a starting gun.
ShadeЧthe fake oneЧwhipped for the nearest window. Some one skidded a chair in his path. He went down, rolled as he fell, hands tearing at his coat.
He brought from an armpit a gun like a huge automatic pistol with a drum magazine. Some one hit him with another chair. He yelled loudly and his black hat with the yanked-down brim was knocked off. He lost his queer gun.
Johnny looked at the embattled fake Shade and recognized him.
"Ham!" Johnny howled. "I'll be superamalgamated! Ham!"
Johnny promptly became a bundle of flailing arms and legs. Two men had kept always close to him, but these had their attention distracted at the moment. Johnny knocked them both down.
Fuzzy began jumping up and down like a man having a fit.
"Ham is one of Doc Savage's men!" he squawled. "Ham put Shade out with a sword cane he carried and took Shade's place and none of us noticed it!"
Johnny kicked Fuzzy in the stomach. A gun went off. Ham was striking the faces of two men and trying to kick a third in the midriff.
Another gun went off. Chairs were flying. A table came flying across the room and Johnny dodged it.
Fuzzy got his breath and squawked, "Get 'em! Kill 'em! If they get away, the boss'll skin us alive!"
The uproar grew louder, the action more dizzy. Men were all over the floor. Other men came running in.
Johnny and Ham, outnumbered, were seized and held helpless.
FUZZY and his men did nothing but pant for a few moments.
"Talk aboutЧa merry-go-round!" one gulped. "These two birds are the ponies' necks!"
"You oughta be thankfulЧthey wasn't Doc Savage himself!" another puffed.