"067 (B083) - The Red Terrors (1938-09) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Harry Day peered at the luminous watch. Four hours was what it read. And there was nothing wrong with the watch. He had been careful to keep it wound and running as he visited the hold daily to see that his instruments were not being corroded by the salt air.
But four hours. It couldn't be!
Then he realized something had hold of one of his legs and was twisting, pulling.
Harry Day remembered two things, and neither one was pleasant. He remembered the giant octopuses which live at great sea depths. And he thought of a thirty-five foot shark he'd once seen.
Then he saw what had hold of him. What he saw was the last thing on earth he expected to see. It was not a shark or an octopus. The thing peered through the bulletproof glass of the diving helmet at Harry Day's face.
"Oh, Mother of Mercy!" screamed Harry Day, and fainted.
Chapter II. DOCTOR COLLENDAR
DOCTOR HUGO COLLENDAR was a man who had made mistakes. His first error was conceivably in being born at all, and that one was the most unfortunate, as far as the world was concerned. Everything that came afterward merely compounded and aggravated the situation.
Doctor Collendar had traits supposed to be desirable. He was persistent. He made up his mind at a very early age to be a doctor and surgeon, and he stuck to that and became one.
He was no coward, and that is also supposed to be a virtue. He did not let any such thing as fear of going to the penitentiary stand in his way when getting something he wanted. He was ambitious. He made up his mind to have a million dollars when he was forty. So have a lot of men. But Doctor Collendar was making good.
When the diver Harry Day disappeared, Doctor Collendar was not quite forty, and he wasn't far from having a million, either.
However, by that time Doctor Collendar had raised his sights. His goal was now unlimited millionsЧand power. Bossing chauffeurs and butlers had given him a taste of telling men what to do, and he wanted to tell the world what to do, and have his word law.
Altering "Snig" Bogaccio's face was still another mistake. Doctor Collendar's desire to earn one hundred thousand easy dollars was the cause of that error.
He contracted to change Mr. Snig Bogaccio's face, fingerprints, and physical contour with plastic surgery so that the increasingly efficient Department of Justice could not find Bogaccio nor identify him if they did find him.
The operation was a great success. So much of a success that Snig Bogaccio sent one of his cronies around for the same treatment. Unluckily, the crony died. Snig Bogaccio was not aggravated; he understood it was just one of those things. He and Doctor Collendar remained good friends.
But the police found the body of Snig Bogaccio's crony and began investigating. Doctor Collendar had made some further mistakes in covering up, the first thing he knew, he realized he'd better be taking a vacation in some faraway place like Madagascar.
Doctor Collendar sailed on the Southern Wind, a craft advertised as a liner, but nearer a freighter with passenger accommodations. Destination Cape Town.
Nothing happened until the Southern Wind was approximately halfway across the South Atlantic.
Doctor Collendar was a tall collar ad. He was aware that he was handsome, and enhanced it by the way he dressed. His large blue eyes were afflicted with astigmatism, but he refused to wear glasses because he thought he didn't look well in them.
Since he couldn't see distinctly, he'd formed a habit of opening his eyes very wide at intervals. At such times, it was as though he had peeled two hard-boiled eggs.
The thing Doctor Collendar resented most about his enforced ocean voyage was the lack of suitable feminine companionship. There were nothing but homely females aboard.
He was standing at the rail, brooding about this lack, when there was a shout on the bridge.
"Distress signal!" yelled the voice on the bridge. "Distress signal! Hard off port bow!"
DOCTOR COLLENDAR peeled eyes several times before he saw a spot of purplish light on the sea ahead. This flashed on and off methodically. The light would make three short flashes, three long flashes, then three more short ones. Doctor Collendar recalled that this was the international distress signal, S O S.
Southern Wind
engines reversed the ship to a standstill. Searchlight beams lunged out from the bridge and licked the sea like anteaters' tongues. The lights did not disclose anything. A sea of some size was running, and it was obvious the sensible thing was to lower small boats and search. This was done.
Leaning against the rail, Doctor Collendar gave himself over to contemplation of the aspects of life, the lack of femininity aboard, and other more personal things. The fact that someone might be in distress on the dark windswept sea did not move him, except impersonally. He was cold to other people's misfortunes.
"Is there a doctor aboard?"
This inquiry came from behind Doctor Collendar. He turned at once to see who had spoken.
"We need a doctor badly," the voice added from the shadow of an awning. Doctor Collendar could not make out the person who spoke, peel his eyes as he would.
Doctor Collendar decided to deny that he was a doctor. Second thought reminded him he was chafing at the monotony of the trip, and it might be a diversion to keep his hand in practice.
"I am a doctor," he admitted.
"Surgeon or physician?" asked the voice.
"Both."
"Are you a pathologist?"
"Why, yes."
"Have you had much experience?" asked the voice.
"A great deal," said Doctor Collendar rather proudly.
"Then we are very fortunate to find you," the voice said.
The speaker stepped out of the shadows. Doctor Collendar stared. He could tell no more about the person than before! The unknown walked directly toward Doctor Collendar and held out a hand.
Too late, Doctor Collendar learned the other did not want to shake hands.
The tall form, draped from head to foot in something wet and clinging which had a dull purplish tint, took hold of Doctor Collendar's hand, and its clutch felt like a thing. The next instant, Doctor Collendar was seized in a grip of great strength.
Doctor Collendar yelled in fright.
"Help!" he bawled. "I'm being thrown overboard!"
His scream was heard on the bridge, and an officer cocked a searchlight on the spot.
Just as the light splattered across the scene, the two struggling figures went over the rail.
No one but Doctor Collendar saw the exact nature of the thing he was fighting.
The crew never forgot what Doctor Collendar screamed as he fell into the sea with his assailant. His words were:
"
The thing is red!"