"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 005 - Pirate of the Pacific" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"If you was to ask me, we didn't have to barge into it," Monk grinned. "It came right out and grabbed us
around the neck. Who were them guys who just tried to lay eggs on us?"

For answer, Doc Savage drew two radio messages from a pocket.

"You all saw the first one of these when it came," he said.

THE five men nodded. They had been far within the arctic regions when the first message had reached
them by radio. It was very short, reading:

IN DESPERATE NEED OF YOUR HELP. JUAN MINDORO.

Doc Savage had promptly turned the submarine southward. There was no need of lingering in the arctic,
anyway. They had just completed the mission which had sent them into the polar regions - a desperate,
adventurous quest for a fifty-million-dollar treasure aboard a derelict liner.

That treasure now reposed in the submarine - a hoard of wealth that had threatened to cost its weight in
the blood of men.
Doc had not told his five men what meaning Juan Mindaro's mysterious message might have. They had
not asked questions, knowing he would tell them in good time. Doc was sometimes as much of a mystery
to his five friends as he was to the rest of the world.

They had guessed there was danger ahead, however. Several days ago, Doc had hailed a liner they
chanced to pass, and had put aboard the vessel three persons who were passengers on the submarine.
These three people - a famous violinist and his wife and daughter - were, with Doc and his five men, the
only survivors of the grisly episode in the arctic through which they had just passed.

The radio commentator had not mentioned these three. He had not known of them. Nor would he ever
know, for the polar episode was now a closed book.

The fact that Doc had transferred the three passengers to the safety of a liner showed he wanted them
out of danger and told Doc's men they were headed for more trouble. They didn't mind. It was the thing
they lived for. They went to the far corners of the earth to find it.

But they had not known Doc had received a second message from the same source.

Doc extended the missive. "I copied this myself a few days ago. Read it."

Crowding about, the five men read:

I HAVE BEEN FORCED TO GO INTO HIDING AT THE HOME OF THE MAN WHO WAS
WITH ME WHEN I LAST SAW YOU. MEET ME THERE UPON YOUR ARRIVAL. AND BE
PREPARED FOR ATTACKS ON YOUR LIFE. JUAN MINDORO.

"Huh!" ejaculated Monk, wrinkling his flat, apish nose. "That don't tell us any more than the first one."

"Exactly," Doc replied. "And that explains why I have not informed you fellows what we're headed for. I
don't know myself - except that it has something to do with the Orient.