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

Inspector Higgins's Adam's apple jumped. Inspector Higgins hopped.
THE body of John Corbin had been covered with canvas. Professor Spargrove swept back the protective cloth with quick but gentle hands. The eyes under his bushy brows missing no detail of his dead watchman's corpse.
One hand rubbed across John Corbin's cold forehead. Into the eyes of Professor Spargrove came a speculative gleam.
"He was like this when the express hit him?" questioned Professor Spargrove.
"Well, he was jumping around and fighting pink elephants or something," volunteered a railroad brakeman.
"Yes?" said Professor Spargrove slowly. "Coroner, have you removed anything from the body?"
The mild deputy coroner bristled.
"It is not my custom to disturb a corpse more than necessary!" he said.
"Curious, most curious," murmured Professor Spargrove. "So John Corbin was running away from something?"
"That's it! That's it!" piped up Inspector Higgins. "An' my men are bringin' up half a case of powder! In about one minute I'm going into that crazy plant of yours!"
Rain slashed across Professor Spargrove's hairy face. The deputy coroner remarked that Doc Savage himself had examined the body of the watchman.
"Then I think Doc Savage went away down the road in a blue sedan," said the deputy coroner. "If there's explosive inside, that Higgins will play the devil. He's a stubborn guy."
Sticks of the yellow-wrapped dynamite were being piled in front of the small, chromium steel door. Inspector Higgins yapped at his men.
"You're being detained, Professor Spargrove!" he rapped out. "Just in case you've really got explosives contrary to duly constituted authority inside this joint!"
Inspector Higgins had slashed one end of a stick of powder. In this he had stuffed an explosive cap.
"You're right, inspector," stated Professor Spargrove. "We would be detained. Too much detained, in fact. So nowЧ"
The hands of the professor fumbled under his hairy coat. He was looking at the chromium steel door. The door swung silently open. A low passage appeared. It was lighted by a row of small incandescent bulbs.
"My gosh!" grunted a railroad man. "The hairy guy just looked at it! An' them cops have been buttin' it with a railroad tie!"
But something else was taking place. Professor Spargrove seemed to have lost his mind. He seemed to be talking into his own mutton-chop whiskers.
"Spargrove speaking. Is it all right, Doc, to permit the police to enter?"
Out of the rainy air came a voice. It might have been an emanation from the hairs of Professor Spargrove's beard. It was a compact radio set attached to his body.
"Let the authorities investigate in your own judgment."
"Come in, Inspector Higgins, and you other gentlemen," invited Professor Spargrove. "I will find my assistant. Undoubtedly she is informed of what has taken place. You will do well to remain in this main room. I will not be responsible for trouble if any one enters other compartments."
The interior of the Spargrove Laboratories appeared to be of cellular construction. One central room seemed to be the assembling compartment for several types of ponderous machinery.
Professor Spargrove directed the body of John Corbin be brought into the main room. He spoke to Inspector Higgins.
"You say my watchman is reported to have seen various strange things which caused those who observed him to believe him suffering from liquor or hallucinations?"
"Well! Well! Well!" grunted Inspector Higgins. "There ain't any doubt but what he had the D. T.'s or somethin'! He was seein' things that wasn't there!"
At this moment Professor Spargrove himself looked a bit off.
"John Corbin really saw those things," he said quietly. "Only I didn't know my assistant knew of the secret. I shall have to inquire into this. You will please wait here."
PROFESSOR SPARGROVE whisked himself through a small inner door. Like those outside, this seemed to open as he looked at it. In less than ten seconds, Professor Spargrove leaped back into view. For the first time, he appeared greatly excited.
He opened another door and shouted. "Jane! Jane! Where are you? Come here at once!"
Professor Spargrove was running from one small room to another. He dashed back into the central chamber. This time, all his calmness had departed.
"My whole life's workЧall gone!" he yelled. "I tell you, it's impossible! All of it's gone! Jane! Jane! Why didn't Doc Savage stop them?"
Inspector Higgins imposed a hard hand on one of the excited professor's shoulders. This copper was not so dumb. He knew the time to break a case was when he had the other fellow somewhat out of his head.
"All right! All right!" snapped Inspector Higgins. "So your whole life's work is gone, is it? What's gone?"
Professor Spargrove led the way through a small door. Here was another large room. Along one side was a loading platform. Switch tracks penetrated all of the vaultlike building.
"Jane Davidson, my assistant, has been kidnaped!" yelled Professor Spargrove. "She preceded me here to attend a meeting with Doc Savage and some of his men! Now they're goneЧgoneЧand the two copper globes weighed more than three tons apiece!"
Professor Spargrove was pointing with a trembling hand at huge concrete blocks. These bore the fresh imprint of other objects. They seemed to have been the foundation for heavy machinery. Two blocks looked as if they had been fitted to the base of immense globes.
"They were both made of copper!" shouted Professor Spargrove. "They weighed more than three tons apiece! There were four big generators on those other bases! The whole thing would be more than ten tons! And they were all here less than three hours ago when I left! Who opened the doors?"
INSPECTOR HIGGINS scratched his nubbin of a head. Anyway, he was sure none of his coppers had opened the doors. The railroad men on duty all night all immediately stated the plant doors had not been opened at any time, except when John Corbin had emerged.
Professor Spargrove was walking around and around the concrete foundations. The other men could see plainly enough that heavy machinery had been removed only recently. The marks of the copper globes were bright. These would have tarnished in a few hours.
"Well! Well! Well!" rapped Inspector Higgins. "So somebody walked in an' picked up ten tons of copper an' iron and walked out with it? Maybe that crazy watchman was carrying it in his pockets when he butted into that train!"
Professor Spargrove appeared to be looking at the big sliding doors through which the tracks had their exit. The big doors went up silently. The professor whipped outside. Inspector Higgins was close beside him.
"Look here!" yelled Professor Spargrove. "These are truck tracks! It was a big truck! Who saw that truck leave here?"
At the edge of the motor highway back of the laboratories was a muddy shoulder. Immense doughnutlike tires of a big truck had cut deep into the soft earth. The tracks were fresh.
"Holy Moses!" growled the yardmaster. "We can't keep track of all the trucks that go by here!"
"All gone!" wailed Professor Spargrove. "Wait until Doc Savage discovers this! I'm ruined!"
"Doc Savage?" barked Inspector Higgins. "He knows plenty about it! We've got to find that guyЧand quick, too!"
INSPECTOR HIGGINS was jotting down many notes. What these meant, he probably did not know himself. The snatching of ten tons of machinery under the eyes of a railroad yard full of men was adding a little too much to this assignment.
Now Professor Spargrove seemed to have forgotten about the reputed missing globes. He had led the way into another long room. This looked as if it might have been an aquarium.