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

He heard the door of his office open and close. Dimly, he made out a tall, lean figure approaching him.



"Busy! Can't see you!" he almost shouted. "Come back some other time!"



His visitor's slow, unhurried approach did not pause.



The tall man's eyes flicked over the glasses the lawyer wore, noted the scribbled paper with its group of letters on the desk. He nodded, almost sadly, as if confirming something that pained him.



"Were you going to telephone someone?" he asked politely. His voice was low, refined.



"Get out, I said," Quinan barked. "I've got to get Doc Savage. I've - " His lips shut firmly, as if he had said more than he had intended.



"Ah!" The other's voice remained low. "So you were going to call the famous adventurer and mental marvel, the man who spends his life fighting evildoers. How touching."



Les Quinan came to his feet. There had been a subtle change in the other's tone, a touch of menace. For the first time the lawyer felt a touch of fear, realized the secret he had learned might be dangerous.



"Will you go?" he snapped. "I - "



The tall man moved, swiftly. Quinan saw the move but faintly. Instinctively, he tried to dodge. Then he swayed drunkenly for a moment and collapsed to the floor.



His visitor calmly drew a handkerchief, wiped a faint stain of crimson from a long, slender knife.



Still calmly, the tall man gathered up the papers on the lawyer's desk, put them in his pocket. On his way out he gathered up the notebook Quinan's secretary had used in taking his excited dictation.