"078 (B078) - The Crimson Serpent (1939-08) - Harold Davis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"Sure, we know that." Ham put in. "Your appearance is enough to show you must have battled at least a half dozen."
Renny's eyes became a little baffled. "I fought once last night, and didn't get away," he said, almost as if speaking to himself. "This morning, I seem to remember there was only one man guarding me. I knocked him out, got to the street, but after thatЧ"
"The type of drug used on you often brings recurring spells of blankness," Doc explained briefly.
"But what happened in the swamp?" Monk almost shouted. "You're supposed to be dead."
Renny shook his head. "Bill Craig and I heard sounds of chains, then noise, as if of armor. We went to investigate. He saw something and started firing. There was a big flash, and about that time something must have hit me over the head. I remember nothing more until I realized I was a prisoner some place."
Monk and Ham exchanged glances. It was apparent now that Bill Craig must have been the one killed. He also had been a big man, they had been told. With his features wiped out, a natural mistake had been made.
"What was the flash?" Doc asked.
Ham gasped. Doc, as usual, had caught the one real significant fact in Renny's story. The dapper lawyer would have bet he knew what was coming.
He was not mistaken.
A slow smile spread over Renny's big face. One of his hands went to the belt he wore. The belt was thick and broad, and at each end was a thick roll, the size of a man's thumb. These rolls came together to form the fastening.
Renny flicked back a false top on one of these rolls. From inside it he withdrew a short, stubby, pen-type camera.
"I rigged a flashlight trap around the camp," he explained. "The flash went off when I was right by one of the dozen cameras I had set out. I grabbed this one, put it in my belt just before I was knocked out."
"So you got a picture of that 'Crimson Serpent,' eh?" Monk howled delightedly.
"Give it to me, I'll develop it," Ham blurted.
"I'm so sorry. I will trouble the Colonel Renwick to give the camera to me," came a soft voice.
As one man, the five occupants of the room turned toward the door.
Standing there, the small gun firm in one fist, a look of determination on her pretty face, was Consuelo Manresa.
Chapter VI. A SURPRISE ATTACK
"THE girl crook!" Monk rapped disgustedly.
"Who doesn't like ape-men or gigolos," Ham mimicked.
Fletcher Carter had a startled expression on his face. One hand played nervously with the carnation in his lapel. The private detective looked as though he were witnessing something he couldn't quite believe.
Renny's big fist merely closed tightly about the small camera. With that fist closed the camera disappeared entirely.
"Won't you come in?" Doc asked.
The girl's lips compressed. Her finger tightened slightly on the trigger of her gun. "Give me that camera!" she repeated slowly.
The next moment she gasped, half in fear, half in surprise. Doc had moved so swiftly she could not have fired even had she so wished.
There had been a bronze streak as Doc leaped. Then he held the girl's gun in one hand, had her by the wrist with his other.
"Won't you come in?" he said again.
Slowly, as if drawn more by the impelling quality of Doc's gold-flecked eyes than his grip on her wrist, Consuelo Manresa came farther into the room.
Fletcher Carter gulped. He seemed about to say something, then changed his mind. All attention was on the girl. Fletcher Carter left the room, closing the door softly behind him. Only Doc Savage saw him go.
Swiftly, Ham and Monk between them were telling Doc of the girl's appearance at the bronze man's New York office, and how she had acted then.
"We will be pleased to hear your story," Doc invited politely.
Consuelo Manresa's lips closed tightly. It seemed she was going to refuse to say anything at all. Then she apparently thought better of it.
"You can't make me tell," she said shortly.
She was right. An hour later they still knew no more than they did at first.
Consuelo Manresa had regained her composure, but she wasn't giving any facts. Her large, dark eyes hardly ever left Doc's face. It was plain to see she was taking more than a passing interest in the bronze man.
Doc tried to ignore it. That was made more difficult by ill-concealed snickers from Monk.
Ham, who had been doing most of the questioning, threw up his hands in disgust.
"Send her down to jail and let the cops cool her off for a day or two!" he snapped angrily. "She might talk to them then."
It was then the attack came.
CONSUELO MANRESA was directly responsible for the fact that the attack came as a surprise.
There was only one thing that ever upset Doc Savage. That was feminine admiration. The bronze man knew there was no place in his life for a girl. For that one reason, probably, almost every attractive woman he met seemed to show more than ordinary interest in him.
Consuelo Manresa had been laying it on rather thick. Her long, languorous looks at the bronze man had been highly eloquent. They had embarrassed Doc exceedingly. As a consequence, his highly trained senses were not as alert as usual.
Monk and Ham were too busy badgering the girl to pay attention to anything else, and Renny had been too interested in their attempts to extract information from her to hear the cautious, almost silent footsteps.
The attack came from three directions at once. The door to Doc's suite had not been locked after Fletcher Carter left. In some manner the raiders had gained entrance to adjoining rooms, then into Doc's suite from the sides.
There were a half score of them. They burst into the room without a word. Each man was swinging a vicious-looking blackjack.
Ham didn't have a chance. He was closest to the hall door and had his back turned. One of the swinging blackjacks clipped him just behind the ear, even as Monk was shouting a hoarse warning. The dapper lawyer merely folded up and went to the floor.
Five men swarmed over Doc Savage. The others went after Monk and Renny.
The fight was probably an epic. Monk was never quite sure afterward. It was too fast and too fierce for any clear thinking.
Dimly, the hairy chemist saw Doc go to the floor under the mass weight of his attackers. Renny was working his jaws, but no words came. The big engineer also was working his giant fists. Those fists were doing plenty of talking for him.
Despite the overwhelming advantage the attackers had in numbers, as well as the fact that they had blackjacks, Renny was doing a very creditable job. Each time one of his fists hit, the impact sounded like that of a battering-ram.