"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 008 - The Sargasso Ogre" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

had learned from masters of diving -- the pearl gatherers of the South Seas.

He returned at length to his quarters, carrying the beard, Just inside the door, he stopped, staring at his
quarters.

For twenty seconds -- perhaps thirty -- his mellow, weird trilling sound permeated the
parlor-bedroom-bath suite which he was occupying. An eerie, exotic song without tune, the melody rose
and fell. And all the while, his flake-gold eyes roved.

The place had been ransacked. A thorough job. The searcher had made no effort to conceal his
handiwork.

Doc stepped quickly into each of the rooms. Only one thing was gone -- the curious belt of cap
insignias.

Doc showed no fluttering of excitement. But he told his men about it at breakfast. Told them also of the
strong man who had lost his false white beard.

"Well, what d'you know about that!" Renny thumped explosively. "It looks like we weren't mistaken
when we thought that fellow was acting suspiciously around the strong room!"

Long Tom eyed Doc curiously.

"How come you didn't take particular pains to hide the belt. Doc?"

"Why should 1? We examined it to our satisfaction. And I remember the names of all the ships that were
on it."

"Maybe the dang thing was proof of something!"

"It was. It's my guess that we'll find that out when Scotland Yard answers our radiogram sometime this
morning."

"Would you recognize the strong man without his whiskers?" Johnny queried.

"Probably. But he seems to be clever at disguises. He might don another."
The rest of the meal was consumed in silence, except for a minor explosion from Ham, who claimed
Monk purposefully squirted grapefruit juice on the immaculate suit the lawyer was wearing.

During this outburst, alarmed waiters hovered about, thinking of a certainty that there was going to be a
fight, if not a murder.

"Now we'll do some investigating in connection with that decoy note sent to Long Tom," Doc declared.

"Huh!" grunted Renny. "Did the fellow who got the belt miss that?"

"He missed it by about half the length of the ship," Doc replied, and showed where he had been carrying
the message, inclosed in a waterproof, flat box, secured under his bathing suit with a strip of adhesive
tape.