"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 012 - The Man Who Shook the Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Velvet was dressed in evening clothes, but he had tied a large black handkerchief around his neck, so that it
hung down and concealed his white collar and white dress-shirt front. He carried himself with the studied
squareness of a man proud of his physical strength and looks.

The big man, knocked back against the building wall by the blow, dragged finger tips over his crushed mouth.
He sobbed: "CanтАЩt you hear the noise itтАЩs makinтАЩ as it comes?"

The rumble underground grew louder and louder. Metal gratings on near-by windows jingled in their sockets.
Warm, ill-smelling air gushed up through a grille in the sidewalk.

Suddenly the innards of the earth seemed to suck the uproar away. It vanished, leaving only sounds of traffic
and moan of a cold wind.

"A subway train, you dope!" sneered Velvet, and tucked the black handkerchief more securely in his collar.

It was night. Enough light reached them from the corner street lamp, however, to show the expression on the
big manтАЩs scarred, stupid face. It was utterly blank.

He gulped: "The subway!"

Velvet laughed harshly. "Even if you ainтАЩt been in New York before, Biff, you should have read of subways.
Oh, thatтАЩs right, too. You canтАЩt read."

"Biff" rolled his eyes, and they grew sullen, ugly. Crouching there, he seemed to become as dangerous and
savage as a beast. He hated to be reminded that he could not read.

"Some day IтАЩm goinтАЩ to get fed up with you," he told Velvet fiercely.

Velvet laughed again. An animal-like ferocity had come into his tone, also. "Any time you feel lucky, cull!"

They glared at each other. It was Biff who first twitched his gaze aside.

"Never mind," he mumbled. "LetтАЩs talk about Doc Savage."



WITH a bestial savagery, the two had snarled at each other. Now, with the swiftness characteristic of
animals, they dropped their belligerency. Shoulder to shoulder, they moved over into the gloomy lee of a
parked truck.

Biff made impatient grumbling noises.

"What are we waitinтАЩ on?" he demanded. "ItтАЩs on the eighty-sixth floor. AinтАЩt that what the back-number
newspaper you was readinтАЩ said?"

"ThatтАЩs what it said." Velvet scowled in the gloom. "Say, how do you think weтАЩre going to do this?"

"Go up and bust in andтАФ"

"And get busted!" Velvet finished disgustedly.