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

Ham slid into the water. He gulped great mouthfuls. He was gasping, choking.
LONG TOM ran around the pond. This spectacle of the usually calm and self-possessed lawyer suddenly losing his mind was terrible for the electrician.
"Keep quiet, Ham!" Long Tom called out. "You'll have all the cops in Manhattan here! Wait a minute! I'll pull you out! There ain't anything after you!"
Ham struck at him with both fists and yelled. Long Tom grunted. It looked as if there was only one remedy for this. He took it. His hard fist cracked Ham expertly under one ear. Ham quit fighting.
The lawyer rolled over and lay still as Long Tom got him onto the grass.
Long Tom looked around. He wanted to get Ham away without having to make explanations. He groaned as a big car skidded and stopped in the nearest driveway. Then he gasped with relief.
The figure of a big, bronze giant glided from the car. His eyes glowed like dull copper as he looked at Ham and Long Tom.
"What happened, Long Tom?" the man said quietly. "How did Ham get into that state?"
"That's what I'd like to know, Doc," replied Long Tom. "I heard he had disappeared last night. Renny told me you couldn't be found. I was hurrying downtown when I saw Ham walking along. Then he started batting things in the air and yelling."
"There's something very mysterious about all this, Long Tom," the bronze man stated. "I fear we are opposed by a terrible power. Last night I had some contact with Ham and Monk; then I lost control of the radio."
Ham was recovering from the blow to his jaw. He was slowly sitting up. He stared wildly, but he had ceased fighting.
"Doc, you here?" said Ham dazedly. "What became of those things? My heavens! The whole park was full of them!"
"They must be gone now, Ham," said the bronze man quietly. "Long Tom, you go at once to headquarters. I will take Ham in the car to his club. Tell the others I shall join you presently. We have work to do."
Ham, the cool lawyer, never had been so shaken. He walked with the bronze man to the bulletproof car in the driveway.
"We got a lucky break that no cops came along," said Long Tom. "I'll tell Renny and the others everything is all right."
LONG TOM watched the big car with its sponge rubber tires disappear. It went in the direction of Park Avenue. Long Tom hailed a taxicab at the nearest street. He reached headquarters.
"Holy cow!" thundered Renny. "Ham in Central Park? And him seein' things? Why can't we get in touch with Doc?"
"Doc said something had happened to the radio," explained Long Tom. "He said we were to be prepared to fight some great power. It seems he already has started something. But he wanted Ham taken care of at his club."
"That's funny," declared Monk. "I never knew Doc to act like he's been doing since last night. An' if it's somethin' could make Ham see things, it's plenty bad."
"Wait a minute," called out Renny. "I've got Doc on the radio."
A message was coming through. Undoubtedly it was in Doc's own code. But he was evidently having some trouble with the transmission. Johnny figured it out.
"Doc says we are all to go at once to the plant of the Twentieth Century Alloy Metal Works in the yards across East River," interpreted Johnny. "Says it is important we waste no time. He thinks there will be some trouble there very soon."
"The Twentieth Century?" said Long Tom. "Say, that isn't so far from the Spargrove Laboratories. They've been making some special stuff this Spargrove was using in some of Doc's experiments, I'll bet the whole thing's mixed up with what happened last night!"
"Howlin' calamities!" exploded Monk. "Have we got to start that all over again? I've still got a headache tryin' to figure out what happened! Anyway, I wish I could see Ham an' find out where he went on that hill!"
Monk's wish was almost immediately gratified. The door opened slowly. Ham staggered in. His eyes were red and bloodshot.
Chapter VII. DOC'S STRANGE ATTACK
THEODORE MARLEY BROOKS, legal light and Beau Brummell, never before had been in such a state. Monk looked at him and scratched his nubbin of a head. Ham's condition ordinarily would have called forth insulting comment from the apelike chemist.
But Monk was in no mood to jeer at Ham. Long Tom stared at the lawyer.
Ham's Park Avenue stripes clung to him in soggy rags. Traces of pond weeds stuck over his ears. Ham stood in the middle of the room. Suddenly, he jumped to one side and looked all around.
"I guess they're gone," he croaked. "There were millions of them! Monk, you made a mistake turning that car on its top."
"Holy cow!" grunted Renny. "Long Tom said Doc took you to your club! Why did you leave him?"
"Doc?" said Ham slowly. "Yes, that's right. Doc and I went for a ride in Central Park. That was after Monk upset the car. Then Monk ran off with that black-haired dame."
Johnny was preparing a hypodermic. Ham made no objection to having it thrust into one arm. The needle contained a sedative which Doc Savage had devised for control of the most serious mental ailments.
The bronze adventurer was noted as a great surgeon. This was only one of the many accomplishments he had gained by a lifetime of the most rigid training and exercises.
Ham's nerves became more quiet. He glanced in a mirror.
"I'm in a devil of a mess," he said quietly. "I'll bet I've been talking wild. But if you had seen the things I did, you'd all be ready for the bughouse."
"Howlin' calamities, shyster!" squeaked Monk. "You still believe you saw somethin'?"
"I saw a lot of things that were uglier than you, insect!" was Ham's sarcastic reply. "Then Doc came along and took me in his car. Say! Something must have happened to Doc! The next thing I knew, I was walking along a street down on the East Side. I had one devil of a time convincing a cop who I was, and then he didn't seem sure."
"Brothers, perhaps all of this has been mere hallucination," stated Johnny. "But we've had a radio call to go to that Twentieth Century plant. It came in our code. It was Doc's voice. I don't know what this is all about, but I'm sure Doc needs us."
ALL agreed that Doc Savage would not have summoned them unless there was urgent need for their presence. Ham continued to be jumpy, but he prepared with the others for a fast ride to the railroad yards across the East River.
At this moment a strident, whining noise came from one wall. Into what appeared to be a black square of glass jumped two figures. This glass was merely the electrical arrangement whereby callers at Doc's headquarters could be inspected from the inside.
"I was afraid that piece of bad news would be coming along," grunted Johnny. "That means, anyway, the police haven't picked up Doc. And Inspector Higgins has got your black-haired friend with him, Monk."
The ugly chemist let out a growl.
"That Jane Davidson ain't any friend of mine, an' she ain't to be trusted," declared Monk. "Now what do you suppose they want?"
Inspector Higgins followed his Adam's apple into the outer reception room. The snappy-eyed Jane Davidson accompanied him.
"Well! Well! Well!" rapped Inspector Higgins. "Now don't any of you fellows make any resistance! I've got this place surrounded! I'm havin' a look for this Doc Savage!"
Doc's five companions grinned slightly. All the police of two of the world's most thickly populated counties could have surrounded that downtown Manhattan skyscraper, and the occupants of the eighty-sixth floor could still have walked right out.
Doc Savage had been one of the designers of this immense pile of stone and steel. His headquarters had many exits which the most searching scrutiny would not have revealed.
"I presume you came armed with a search warrant?" suggested Ham, who was now nearly recovered.
"Warrant?" yelled Inspector Higgins. "I'm the duly constituted authority! This young lady with me was abducted last night, and an attempt was made to murder her!!"