"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 024 - Red Snow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

morass, struggling out their hearts in the hopeless tangle. Then Duck-With-No-Wings saw an interesting
thing.

One of the fleeting men paused beside a tree which was dead, and from which the bark was peeling. He
reached up and removed the small package which was slung around his neck. This, he shoved under a
scab of bark, concealing it. Then they ran on.

Duck-With-No-Wings continued to watch. He saw no sign of pursuers. But, not long afterward, he saw
something which caused him to drop his rifle, his dearest possession, into the slime underfoot. And that
meant he was very surprised.

There was no cloud in the sky. It was a very warm December day in Florida. Yet snow had started
failing.

This snow was not white. It was not even a dusty color. Its hue was as red as blood.

ALMOST any one would have been surprised, and Duck-With-No-Wings was no exception. He stared
upward, his round copper face distorted with amazement. There was nothing at all to show from whence
the Red Snow came. It seemed to materialize in the thin, warm air of the swamp.

The flakes were not falling on Duck-With-No-Wings, but they were descending close enough that he
could clearly see that they were flakes. He had seen snow, of course, and he had not the slightest doubt
that this stuff was red snow.

About that time, a series of awful screams began coming from the spot whence had gone the two nearly
naked fugitives. Their squawling was extremely hideous.

The combination of red snow and fearful shrieks made Duck-With-No-Wings decide he would rather be
elsewhere. But before he fled, he ran over to the tree under the bark of which one of the men had thrust a
package.

Duck-With-No-Wings was an acquisitive soul. He drew out the package. Then he ran with great speed
and did not stop until he was far away in the swamp. After a due interval, he found time to examine the
package. He expected to see money, or maybe jewelry. He was disappointed, no little disgusted.

There were many wrappings of oiled paper around the object in the package. Removed, these disclosed
a cube, less than two inches in diameter, of a substance the nature of which defied
Duck-With-No-Wings. It was red-a dull, unimpressive carmine.

Duck-With-No-Wings had seen the sealing wax which they sometimes put on letters at the Indian
Agency, and he at first decided this stuff was sealing wax. Then he thought it over, and was not so sure.
The man who had hidden the stuff had acted as if it were extremely valuable.

Duck-With-No-Wings decided to keep the red substance and, if it was valuable, market it. But he let the
marketing endeavors wait. He was still a little terrified by the red snow which he had seen. He talked
about it some, but after the other Seminoles began to ridicule him, he kept silent.

Duck-With-No-Wings sat much by himself, thinking of the day when he would go to one of the white
man's towns and perhaps get much money from the red lump which he now carried in the pouch around
his own neck. It was nice to think of such things.