"063 (B064) - The Motion Menace (1938-05) - Ryerson Johnson" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Doc Savage said quietly, "This place is literally a fortress. It would take a small army to break in."
The prisoner shook and bubbled.
"You c-can't s-stop it!" he gurgled.
THE prisoner did not stop shaking until Doc Savage had him down on the street, in a taxicab. The fellow was still scared, but he had been overjoyed at getting out of the skyscraper.
"You do not think that your employers would kill you in an effort at my life?" Doc asked.
The man shivered. "Brother, them old guys with the whiskers ain't like nobody you ever went up against before."
Doc Savage said quietly, "You are going to have some interesting things to tell me, it would seem, especially since an attempt on my life has just been made."
"Not me!"
A line of taxicabs were drawn up before the Pennsylvania Station, awaiting fares as the bronze man's car neared it.
"Pull in there," Doc directed.
The driver pulled in. The bronze man got out, and went to eight different cabs which were operated by the same concern and therefore looked alike. He gave each of the eight drivers a bill and explained briefly what he wanted. He got in one of the cabs with his prisoner.
What happened next was intended to confuse any one who might have been following. The eight cabs which all looked alike drove in a compact group. They shifted about, one taking the lead, another dropping back. In and out of traffic, they dodged. Doc and his prisoner got down on the floorboards.
"Slick," the prisoner muttered. "I've been making tails for years, and I'd never be able to follow a guy through this."
"So you are an expert?" Doc queried.
"I'm a private detective," the man said.
Their cab stopped suddenly.
"Hey!" the driver squawled. "WhatЧwhatЧ"
There was a series of deafening crashes. Yells. Curses. Breaking glass. Doc lifted for a look.
A STRANGE thing had happened in the street ahead. Several cars appeared to have come to a dead stop. Other cars had smashed into them. Two had upset.
Doc moved rapidly. He whipped out of the rear, got into the front seat, shoved the driver over. The driver was agog. Doc meshed gears, backed, and with expert speed, got out of the jam. Then he stopped the machine, thrust his head out and scrutinized the buildings on each side of the street.
The glance which he gave each side was fleeting, but enough. Doc took two hours of intensive exercise daily. A part of it was devoted to strengthening observation powers.
He saw a man with a beard standing at a fourth-story window of a building on the right side of the street.
Doc got the cab rolling. He took the first cornerЧturning rightЧon two wheels. An alley appeared. The taxi slid into that, stopped.
"Run!" Doc told the driver, and the fellow ran.
The bronze man's fingers then did something to the captive's neck. The fellow became strangely rigid. He seemed fully conscious, but unable to move. Doc heaved him into the cab.
Fire escapes came down the backs of the buildings to the alley. They were supposed to end high enough so that no one could reach them from the alley. Doc ran, jumped, got hold of the fire escape landing. An instant later, he was gliding up the steps.
The fourth-story window was locked on the inside. The bronze man bumped the sash with a palm, and got to the lock. It made some noise, so he did not lose time. The corridor, after the daylight outside, was dark. It smelled of furs. This was the fur district. A bulb on a dropcord made some light at the other end.
Doc had covered about fifteen feet when the light went out.
The bronze man whipped to one side, waited.
A minute passed.
There were cautious footsteps. Some one moving.
Doc eased out into the hall, made for the footsteps. He made no sound. He could hear the other. One man, apparently. The fellow was descending stairs.
Because it was very dark in the old corridor, once he had rounded a corner, Doc kept an arm out ahead, feeling the way.
He reached the stairway. But he never went down it.
Something incredible took hold of his arm.
PAIN was the first thing. Stinging pain, the kind that comes from a healing wound when it is hurt. It was so agonizing that it put strange lights in front of Doc's eyes. It started at the end of his extended arm, and flooded back. He wrenched to get the arm free.
The arm would not come back! An irresistible force had gripped it! His musclesЧgigantic sinewsЧstretched, and the joints seemed to give, but he could not free his hand.
Doc kicked with terrific force. His foot hit something. It felt as hard as bone. The impact stung all the way up to the hip. And the thing grabbed the foot. Held it! No amount of yanking freed the leg.
Then, without warning, and before he could get a light goingЧthe bronze man carried a tiny flashlightЧto tell what the thing was, it released him.
There was no sound, no noise of breathing, no odor of anything. It just released him. And when Doc lunged, kicked and struck, there was nothing.
Silence, except for the patter of footsteps retreating down the steps, now far below. A moment after he had been released, the footsteps paused.
A cackle of laughter came up the stairs. Then an ancient, gleeful voice came gurgling up. It was hollow, as if spoken back of a hand.
"You have been treated gently this time, Savage," the croak said. "You probably do not understand what has happened. Unfortunately, if your curiosity persists, you will not learn much more."
The footsteps hurried on downward.
Doc Savage, instead of going down the stairsЧeven his speed would not catch the one who had fledЧwent toward the front of the building.
The room he entered was grimy, had no furniture. On the floor lay cigarette stubs and a small bottle. The window was open. Doc went to it.
He was in time to see two old men with white beards get into a new, expensive sedan. The car left in a great hurry.
Doc leaned out of the window and called, "Stop that sedan!"
The bronze man's voice was a powerful crash that caused every one within blocks to look up. But it did no good. There was too much excitement where the cars had smashed together.
The sedan got away.