"064 (B063) - The Submarine Mystery (1938-06) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"Well, that talk about people speakin' Sixteenth-Century English sounds wacky, don't it?"
"If it wasn't against my policy to agree with you," Ham muttered, "I'd say it was."
They crossed a bridge over the East River, followed boulevards, and passed beyond the suburbs of New York City. The car rocketed through a flat, sandy region of truck farms.
"The signal is gettin' louder," Monk announced. And later, he declared, "We're right on it! I can hear Doc's generator hum like nobody's business!"
The car passed a low rambling white house with green shutters which sat in a nest of shrubbery. Monk swung the radio loop excitedly.
"They're there!" he barked.
Behind the low white house stood a white shed and a white barn, and they were also surrounded with brush.
"Regular jungle," Ham said.
"Doc said they bumped his car up in a big van, didn't he?" Monk asked.
"Yeah."
"The van is probably in the shed or the barn. We might as well drive right in, hadn't we?"
"That is as good a course as any," Ham said, "even if the idea was yours."
The aids drove up the road a bit, turned around and came back. They might be heading into plenty of trouble, but neither was much bothered. Without looking at all like a rolling fortress, the sedan had bulletproof glass, armor-plate steel sides and gasproof sealing.
And while the car did not look like an armory, compartments held machine-pistols, gas masks, smoke bombs, demolition bombs, and there was a tank slung under the chassis filled with a type of gas which would make a man unconscious whether he wore an ordinary gas mask or not. The stuff would get in through the skin pores.
Ham wheeled the sedan into the driveway.
Out of the shrubbery stepped four men wearing trim blue uniforms and shiny badges.
"Huh!" Monk exploded. "Cops!"
Chapter IV. PRINCE ALBERT
THE men in uniforms peered into the limousine, and one of them said, "Say, aren't you Monk and Ham, the two Doc Savage aids?"
The voice, heard through the armor-plate steel and bulletproof glass, was very faint. Monk lowered the window a trifle.
"That's right," he said. "We're Monk and Ham."
"Quite a coincidence," said the uniformed man.
Monk said, "How do you mean?"
"One of the neighbors around here called the police and said there were some queer-acting characters around here," the man in blue explained. "We came to investigate, and got here in time to catch them making a prisoner of Doc Savage."
"The dickens you did!" Monk said.
"Yep. They had worked the dangdest gag on him. Bumped his ear up inside a big steel moving van."
"Is Doc all right?" Monk demanded anxiously.
"Sure."
"That's swell." Monk opened the car door. "What's it all about?"
"Why was Doc Savage grabbed, you mean?"
"Yeah. Why was he?"
"He says he don't know. We don't know, either. We can't make head or tail of it. They just up and grabbed him."
Monk muttered, "That's queer."
"You bet. It's the dangdest thing."
"Where are the birds who grabbed Doc? And where's Doc?"
"They're all in the house. You want to help us question the mugs who grabbed Doc?"
"I'll say I do!" Monk scrambled out of the limousine. "I'll bet I can make 'em talk. I'll take the arms and legs off 'em!"
MONK started for the house. Ham got out of the limousine and followed him. Habeas Corpus and Chemistry also got out of the car and joined the procession. Habeas Corpus was a runty-looking pig with long legs, enormous ears and a snout built for exploring. Chemistry was a remarkable-looking ape which bore an astounding resemblance to the homely chemist, Monk.
Fully fifteen men sprang up out of the shrubbery without the slightest warning. They fell upon Monk and Ham. Monk began to roar and bellow as he always did when he fought, but the noise did not help much. Within seconds, he and Ham were flat on their backs and ropes were being tied around their ankles and wrists.
The man who had been spokesman of the fake cops took off his uniform cap and blue coat. Both Monk and Ham were then fascinated with the fellow's width and his homeliness.
The wide man addressed one of his companions, a fellow who looked as if he was holding a bad oyster in his mouth.
"Henry," the wide man said, "we'll take them inside as soon as they are tied."
"Aye, sire," said the bilious-looking Henry.
"Where did the hog and the ape go, Henry?" the wide man asked.
"They ran away, sire," Henry explained.
"Then you had better take some of the boys and run after 'em."
"Aye," Henry said.
The wide man now turned to Monk and Ham and showed his teeth with a kind of grim cheerfulness.
"I'm the Prince," the wide man said.
Monk blinked. "Prince?"