"051 (B034) - Mad Eyes (1937-05) - Laurence Donovan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

The entire load of that huge truck was indeed strange. For it consisted of that one small, unbreakable glass tank. And one human passenger. It was this man who had been shouting. He was still screaming.
Yet, in all the crash, the victim did not seem to have suffered more than a bumped nose and a blackened eye. This gave his face a queer, distorted appearance. But the man's voice did not lack in strength.
"See 'em!" he squawked. "Millions of 'em! They're big as houses!"
"The gentleman seems to enjoy a remarkably wide perspective," remarked Johnny, climbing to the side of Professor Spargrove.
"What do you make of it, professor?" Johnny added.
The professor had no time to reply.
The passenger suddenly caught the edge of the broken side of the truck. He swung himself out. A policeman grabbed for him and missed. The man started running among the rocks. Such hair as this man had left was fuzzy and gray at the edges.
Inspector Higgins let out a shout.
"Get 'im! Don't let 'im hurt himself! Good gosh! That fella's Howard Van Ronzen, the millionaire! He's been batted on the bean or somethin'!"
"Van Ronzen," stated Johnny, "lives at Great Neck, Long Island. I visited once on one of his yachts. He's worth millions."
VAN RONZEN, the millionaire, proved to be an agile man for his age. He climbed on a rock. His thin hands slapped at invisible objects. His coat had been removed and his shirt was partly torn off.
"It's got a thousand heads!" screamed Van Ronzen. "Take 'em away! I'll give you anythin' I've got!"
Inspector Higgins and his men encircled the rock. But Professor Spargrove was the first to reach the yelling millionaire. The professor sopped his handkerchief in a pool of water on the rock. When the coppers reached him, he was bathing Van Ronzen's head.
This application seemed to have a remarkably soothing effect. The millionaire's eyes were closed. He opened them, but he no longer yelled. He stared at the men around him as if he had no idea of where he might be.
Then in a perfectly sane voice, Van Ronzen said, "Did, you see them? One had a thousand arms. They followed me. What am I doing out here in the rain?"
Inspector Higgins's Adam's apple had almost rubbed a hole in the skin of his scrawny neck. He gulped and looked at Van Ronzen.
"I think perhaps he will be all right now," said Professor Spargrove calmly. "He should be brought to a hospital at once."
"We'll attend to that!" said Inspector Higgins. "Where have you been, Mr. Van Ronzen? How did you get in that truck?"
"Was I in a truck?" said Van Ronzen dully. "Have I been somewhere? There were so many of those things trying to wrap their tentacles around me, I lost track of where I was."
"I believe Mr. Van Ronzen should not be questioned now," advised Professor Spargrove.
The medical examiner, the pudgy deputy coroner, had been in the police car. He was as puzzled as the other. But he said, "I agree that now is no time to ask questions. Get the man to a hospital."
"Well," snapped Inspector Higgins, "now where are all those big copper balls you was talkin' about, professor?"
Professor Spargrove stroked his mutton-chop whiskers. A cunning look came into his almost hidden eyes.
"It does not matter greatly at this moment," he said calmly. "The globes are not in operation. Apparently they were not in this truck. The dead driver can be of no assistance."
All of this was indeed evident. With the assistance of an army of piano movers, two three-ton copper globes might possibly have been transferred from the Spargrove Laboratories to the big truck. That is, if the vehicle could have hauled these along with the other machinery Professor Spargrove reported as missing.
Inspector Higgins had made a swift investigation.
"Them license plates on the truck are phonies," he announced. "They don't belong on that kind of job."
STILL moaning and showing evidence of having been through a terrible ordeal, Van Ronzen, the millionaire, was carried up to the highway.
In the midst of this, Professor Spargrove lost all of his recent calm attitude.
"They're on again!" he yelled. He danced up and down. "I am ruined! My life's work is gone! We've got to find the globes before there is great disaster which even Doc Savage cannot prevent!"
Johnny was close to the professor. He whipped suddenly upon him. But the professor was quick. He sprang nimbly up the hill. He showed in the headlights of a car that had just arrived.
"Howlin' calamities!" squealed a childlike voice. "What's happenin'? Hey, Renny! Johnny! Is Doc with you?"
Inspector Higgins hopped up the embankment. He peered into the furry, ugly face of Monk.
"My good gosh!" groaned Inspector Higgins.
In the window of the halted car appeared another face. There was an angry, chattering voice. Something like a pig squealed.
Inspector Higgins was speechless for a moment. He was looking into the glittering, bright eyes of Chemistry, Ham's baboon.
Chapter VI. HAM SEES MONSTERS
INSPECTOR HIGGINS was not a fainting man. He had been a county copper too long to keel over. But he almost did keel over as Chemistry's hairy face and wicked eyes showed in the glass of the car.
He made a valiant effort. This time he seemed to swallow his Adam's apple completely.
"YouЧyou're lookin' for this Doc Savage?" he groaned. "An' why did you expect to find him out here, if you can speak the English language?"
"Daggonit!" yelped Monk. "I'll push some of the English language down your skinny throat! I'm lookin' for Doc because he's the only one who can straighten out all this mess! Renny, you seen him?"
"That's exactly what I thought!" snapped Inspector Higgins. "So is everybody else lookin' for Doc Savage! It looks like he could explain a few little things about crazy monsters, an' bumping off people, an' stealin' copper globes, an'Ч"
"And don't forget," said a cool, angry voice from the seat of the halted car, "Doc Savage also might explain a kidnaping!"
"Jane! Jane!" shouted Professor Spargrove. "How did you get here? Where have you been?"
"All I did," said the young woman with the snapping, black orbs, "was to make the mistake of looking into Doc Savage's eyes. The next thing, I was stuck in some thorn bushes on a hill. The car I was supposed to be killed in was scattered along the railroad tracks. Then this Monk and Ham come along with their menagerie, and Ham beats it."
Inspector Higgins was writing furiously in his notebook. If he knew what he was putting down it was a miracle.
The deputy coroner was still a relatively sane man.
"Affairs seem to grow more complicated as we go along," he commented mildly. "I suppose there are more bodies back by that wrecked car on the crossing?"
"That's the funny part of it," said Monk. "There were five people in that car an' it was smashed to pieces. Then Ham went up the hill and disappeared. This Jane Davidson is the only one of the five we found, and she don't know if she was in the car to start with."
Inspector Higgins snapped off his pencil violently.