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

Aunt Nora opened a capacious leather hand bag. She produced two big, businesslike blue revolvers.
She gave one of them to Alice Cash, and the blond young woman handled it in a way that showed she
could use it.

"Anybody who monkeys with us won't find it healthy!" Aunt Nora said dryly. "You go on, Jim. We'll be
all right."

Relieved at sight of the weapons, Jim Cash slopped off through the rain. He walked on the left side of the
pavement, where he could see the lights of oncoming cars and evade them.

A few machines passed him, going in both directions. He did not attempt to flag them, knowing it would
be useless. Motorists who pick up strange pedestrians late at night are few and far between.

He descended a small bill. At the bottom, he crossed two bridges -- one over a stream, the other
spanning the line of an electric railroad.
He had barely crossed the second bridge when several flashlights gushed brilliant white upon him. In the
back glow of the flashes, he could discern the figures holding them.

Each was a tall cylinder of black. And upon every figure was the green likeness of a bell.

THERE WAS something hideous in the way the raven figures stood there, saying nothing, not moving.
The rain, streaking down their forms, gave them a shiny look.

Jim Cash stood as if blocked in ice. He had been pale before, now he became positively white.

"Green Bells!" he said thickly. "That radio -- the tolling was meant for us as a -- "

His own words seemed to snap the chill spell which held him. He exploded in action. His right hand dived
into his raincoat pocket like a frightened animal. He wrenched wildly at a pistol which he carried there.

Another eerie black form glided out of the murk behind Cash. It whipped convulsively upon him. Taken
by surprise, he was carried down.

The flashlights now went out, as if directed by some occult signal. The cavernous gloom which followed
was filled with swishings and slappings, as the ebony-cloaked, green-belled figures charged.

Cash's gun was dislodged, and went clank-clanking across the pavement.

His raincoat tore. He tried to scream. The yell was throttled, and ended in a sound which might have
been two rough rocks rubbing together.

The fight noises trailed off. Several moments of ominous quiet followed. Then the entire group moved
back to the bridge spanning the railroad.

They turned off and came to a high fence. There was another short, terrific fight while Cash was being put
over the fence. Then they descended to the railway tracks.

Once a light came on briefly. This disclosed the darksome figures in a compact wad, with Cash helpless
among them.