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

HALF CARRIED into the office, and deposited in a deep chair, Ole Slater found his tongue.

"I got worried and followed you to New York," he told Alice and Aunt Nora.

"You should not have been sneaking around that door," Aunt Nora informed him severely.

"Don't I know it!" Ole Slater touched his arms gingerly, then eyed Doc Savage's metallic hands as if
wondering how they could have inflicted such torment. "I stopped outside the door a minute to listen. I
was just being cautious. Then these men jumped me. I guess I lost my head -- I thought they were Green
Bells!"

Aunt Nora smiled at Doc. "This young man is our friend. I'm sure he didn't mean any harm."

"Of course he didn't!" Alice Cash added her defense.

"I'm terribly sorry about this," Ole Slater said meekly. "I was, well -- worried about Aunt Nora and Jim
and Alice."

Grief returned to Alice Cash's refined features. "Jim has vanished, Ole."

Ole Slater now received the story of what had happened on the New Jersey road, beginning with the
awesome belling sound which had come unexpectedly from the radio.

Aunt Nora Boston added a few more details about conditions in Prosper City. Although Doc questioned
her closely, he learned little that had not been brought out already.

Alice Cash, it developed, was private secretary to Coffison McAlter, a man who owned the Little Grand
Cotton Mills. The Little Grand was the main competitor of Tugg Co., in Prosper City, but was now
closed down, like all the rest of the industries.

The master mind, the Green Bell, for some reason as yet unclear, was keeping all Prosper City business
at a standstill by use of a reign of terror. That was what it amounted to.

They had been talking the situation over for about half an hour when two men dashed excitedly into the
office.

One gesticulated with a slender black cane, and barked: "Doc! You're in a frightful jam!"

THE CANE which the man waved looked innocent, but it was in reality a sword cane with a blade of
fine Damascus steel. The gentleman who carried it was slender, with sharp features and a high forehead.
His clothing was of the latest style and finest cloth.
He was Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks"Ham" to Doc's group, of which he was a member.
He was by way of being the most astute lawyer Harvard ever turned out. He was also such a snappy
dresser that tailors sometimes followed him down the street, just to observe clothes being worn as they
should be worn.

"You've been accused of a murder, Doc!" exclaimed the second of the newcomers.

This man was tall, and so thin he seemed nothing more than a structure of skin-coated bones. He wore