"145 (B114b) - The Ten Ton Snakes (1945-03) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

TEN TON SNAKES



A Doc Savage Adventure by Kenneth Robeson



(Originally published in "Doc Savage Magazine" for March 1945. Bantam Books reprint December 1982.)



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BACK COVER



A war hero running for his life and a mysteriously heavy cargo of exotic snake skins send Doc and his crew racing into the steaming jungles of Brazil. There, the Man of Bronze unearths a bizarre secret buried for centuries - and battles a sinister force that marks him for instant execution!

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I





YOU ought to know about ribbons. The yellow one with the two red stripes is for China Service. The red ribbon with the pair of triple white stripe, good conduct. Purple with white ends, Purple Heart. Blue, red and white stripes, Distinguished Service Cross. Blue, yellow and red bands, the Yangtze Medal.



The years and the terrors of a man's life worn over his heart. This boy had all of these ribbons. Except the good-conduct one. He didn't have that one.



He was wearing them, too. They looked like a flag on his chest. Normally he didn't wear them; he carried them in his pocket, in a little teakwood velvet-lined case wonderfully made for him by a Karen in Burma. The boy felt very deeply about them, but he wouldn't have admitted it for anything. However, he wasn't exactly a boy.



He was over twenty-eight. Not old enough for that gray to belong in his hair. He was leathery and rangy and long-nosed and blue-eyed and he looked at you as if he owned you. That is a thing American soldiers are beginning to do, look at you as if they own you. And they do, in a way.