"077 (B041) - Merchants of Disaster (1939-07) - Harold Davis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Chapter 3



VISITORS ARRIVE





WORD of the army's conclusion reached the press. It increased the clamor in the newspapers.



Pacifist organizations claimed the army deliberately was trying to cover up a blunder that had cost the lives of two hundred men. They charged officers had allowed men to walk into a new and deadly gas without adequate safeguards.



Militarists were just as far on the other side of the fence. They charged that enemies of foreign powers had operated a death machine, one that paralyzed the lungs, killing American soldiers wantonly. Had the United States gone to war with all the countries accused, she would have been fighting more than half the world.



Scientists were interviewed. They gave as their solemn opinion the statement that the soldiers could not have been killed, that it was impossible for them to have suffocated in the manner described, and that, as a matter of scientific fact, they could not be dead.



A mass funeral was scheduled for the soldiers just the same.



And special orders went to all army posts calling for extra precautions. No one knew where the terror might strike next.



The affair attracted attention in other countries also, particularly those countries whose leaders made threatening speeches and pompous declarations about "our rights." Strangely, those leaders quieted for the time. Intelligence departments of the various nations were instructed to get and learn just what had caused the mysterious deaths.



Doc Savage's fame was world-wide. Word was sent down the line to keep an eye on the bronze man and his aids.



Those who received the orders tried to do just this. Certain secretive individuals suddenly manifested great interest in office space at the building where Doc had his quarters. The investigators were disappointed. Doc's offices were deserted.



An effort was made to pick up the trail either of the bronze man or of his five skilled aids. For a time, this also proved in vain.