"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 009 - The Czar of Fear" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Aunt Nora laughed grimly. "I've told everybody that if anything happens to me, it'll be Judborn Tugg's
doing! If the Green Bells should murder me, or drive me insane, my friends would lynch Tugg. That's why
I haven't been harmed."

"What's this about insanity?" Doc interrupted.

Alice Cash shivered. "It's something that happens to workmen who are persistent about going back to
their jobs. No one knows how it is done. The men simply -- go crazy. It's happened to more than a
dozen of them."

For a few moments Doc and Monk mulled over what they had been hearing. It was an amazing story, the
more so because the motive behind the affair was unclear.

"Why hasn't martial law been declared?" Monk demanded.

"Chief Clements claims be has the situation in hand!" Alice Cash replied. "The distressing situation in
Prosper City has come about gradually. To an outsider, it merely looks like strike trouble."

Aunt Nora had maintained a short, tense silence. Now she exploded.

"Jim Cash as much as admitted he had found out who the Green Bell is!" she announced. "And that very
thing makes me think he has been killed!"

Alice Cash gave a soft, grief-stricken moan, and buried her face in her hands.

Monk got up as if to comfort her.

There was a loud interruption from the corridor outside. Blows chugged. Men grunted and gasped.

Doc gilded over and whipped the door open.

Two men stood in the hall, hands lifted, facing a third man who held a flat automatic.
The hands which one of the men held up were so huge it seemed a wonder they did not overbalance him.
Each was composed of considerably more than a quart of bone and gristle. He had a somber, puritanical
face.

This man of enormous fists was Colonel John Renwick, known more often as "Renny." Among other
things, he was a world-renowned engineer, a millionaire, and loved to knock panels out of doors with his
big fists.

The other fellow with upraised arms was slender, with a somewhat unhealthy complexion. He had pale
hair and eyes. Alongside his big-fisted, rusty-skinned companion, he seemed a weakling.

He was "Long Tom." The electrical profession knew him as Major Thomas J. Roberts, a wizard with the
juice.

Renny and Long Tom were two more of Doc Savage's five aids.

The man with the gun was a chap Doc had never seen before. He was tall, athletic, and not