"052 (B075) - The Land of Fear (1937-06) - Harold Davis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

The alarm bells had stopped ringing. An ominous silence gripped the great building. Overhead, two wires were crossed. Doc had shorted them, stopped the flow of electricity into the house.
With the girl at his side, Doc stepped back into the passageway, started toward the lobby where the elevator shaft was located.
Cautiously, the two advanced and rounded a turn, only to halt. Creeping toward them, submachine guns in their hands, were three men.
Doc grabbed the girl and swung her into a near-by room. The rasp of her shoes made a sound on the floor.
Br-r-r-r-r!
A machine gun cut loose, tearing the wood around the door.
Doc pressed a small tablet into the girl's mouth. "Hold your nose and you will be able to breathe all right," he said softly. He placed one of the tablets in his own mouth.
A gangster swore harshly. "Fool! Don't shoot until you see something to shoot at!"
"IЧ" the other man began, only to pause.
Doc reached into a pocket, pulled out a small glass cylinder and tossed it out into the hall. It made a tinkling sound as it broke.
"Hold your breath!" one of the gangsters shouted.
DOC waited calmly. Seconds passed. A heavy body fell to the floor in the hallway; a second went down and then a third.
Doc had been accustomed to using a type of anaesthetic in his gas bombs that acted instantly and could be avoided by holding the breath for a few seconds. That secret had been printed in the newspapers, and criminals knew about it.
So he had substituted a gas that remained in the air longer, until it was impossible for any normal person to hold the breath longer and still was effective.
The tablet Doc had given the girl and had placed in his own mouth had been invented by the bronze man long before. They gave off oxygen, absorbed the waste material expelled in the breath, and permitted breathing without using either mouth or nose.
Quickly, Doc led the girl from the room.
It was completely dark now, but Doc's marvelous sense of direction kept them on the right course. Gangsters could be heard moving through the halls, as they advanced toward the room from which the alarm had come.
Several could be heard approaching, directly ahead.
"Keep still and follow my lead," Doc whispered. "In the dark it is unlikely that we will be recognized. We can slip by these men, make our way out."
The girl nodded her understanding.
"Shoot to kill," rumbled a strident voice. "The boss wants the girl wiped out. She'll probably be with some one, for some one freed her. Blast him down, too."
Virginia Jettmore's hand tightened on Doc's arm. He moved forward steadily, keeping close to a wall.
"How about lights?" a killer whined.
"We'll use our flashlights when we get close to the room," came the reply. "We know this house better than they do. No use giving ourselves away."
A dim hum came from somewhere far down in the building. Lights flickered overhead for a moment, then came on with a steady glow.
Doc and the girl halted. Facing them, not three steps away, was a massed mob of gunmen, all with weapons in their hands.
The girl bent her head. She had donned Gats's hat; her long, black curls didn't show. And Doc acted instantly.
"We didn't see 'em down that way," he said, in Bunko's voice. "They must 'a' slipped through."
"Somethin' wrong hereЧ" began one of the gangsters.
"This way! This way! I see them!" came a voice from behind the massed mob. The voice sounded like that of Greens Gordon.
The gunmen whirled. Moving with the speed of light, Doc grabbed the girl, slammed her into another room, closed the door behind them. It would take the gunmen only a few seconds to learn that they had been tricked, that Doc had used ventriloquism to make them think Greens Gordon had called them.
It took less than that. A roar of rage came from the passageway. Guns snarled. Hot lead tore through the door, raked the room. Then heavy bodies smashed against the flimsy structure. It was only a matter of seconds until it would give way.
"We are lost," breathed the girl.
DOC drew a flashlight from one pocket, surveyed the room they were in. A dozen doors led from it. One might lead them to safety; another might bring their doom.
Doc's scrutiny was lightning fast. Then he pressed the girl toward a small opening, pushed a slide back and urged her ahead.
They left the trap.
"All the other doors and doorknobs were dusty," Doc explained curtly. "This one alone showed evidence of having been used."
For a space they moved ahead, bent half double. Suddenly, Doc halted the girl. Fear-stricken voices could be heard. They came clearly through the thin paneling.
"It's out!" said the first voice.
"You meanЧ" began a second voice.
"I mean the skeleton death is loose! It was with the boss! These two we're huntin' must be worth a lot!"
There was silenceЧsilence so deep, it almost seemed the two listeners could hear the speaker's teeth chatter.
"I've taken lots of guys on rides," the first voice went on, "but I never was scared before. I am now. An' with that thing runnin' loose, no tellin' who's goin' to get it. It might make a mistake!"
Doc moved ahead, the girl behind him. They stepped from the passageway into a room so dark it was impossible to see a step ahead. Their feet came down on a thick rug.
And across the room a light flashed on suddenly. It showed a hideous, grinning skeletonЧa skeleton that held a gun in one hand. It was enough to make overwrought nerves give way.
EVEN those in the building who had not confronted a grinning skeleton were nervous. Greens Gordon was one of them. He was pacing restlessly, his heavy-set figure swaying.
"I can't understand it. That bronze devil must still be alive!"
His companion looked up languidly. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a peculiar face that plainly showed the marks of artificial make-up, his voice was colorless.
"Perhaps I underestimated this Doc Savage. He escaped your trap at the hotel, you say?"
"Escaped and must have got here!" Gordon grated. "I got my dope direct from the inside. The third man found laid out at the hotel wasn't Doc Savage. That means it must have been one of our men. This Savage must have slipped out here. I am sure he was the one who put out the lights a few minutes ago. Lucky we have an emergency system."