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

THE police departments in various American cities were doing some thinking about this time, too. In
Cleveland, they were thinking about what could have happened to Valdemar Svelaska.

Valdemar Svelaska was a plump, pleasant-looking man who, years ago, had designed war planes for
Germany; but now he was an American citizen, and perhaps the greatest designer of aircraft, as well as
the owner of a large plane factory.

He had disappeared, had Valdemar Svelaska. His family insisted he had gone rabbit hunting with his dog.
He had simply not been heard from again.

There was a farmer who told of seeing a cloud of what looked like red snow fall upon the portion of his
field where it was thought Valdemar Svelaska might have gone rabbit hunting. But this farmer was known
to be something of a spiritualist, a fellow who frequently claimed he had seen manifestations. No one
gave his story a great deal of attention.

It was thought that the famous airplane designer might have suffered amnesia and wandered away.

H. U. Summervane Lawmer was the next one to disappear. Lawmer was a gentleman who had the right
to place numerous letters designating university degrees after his name, and he had just been appointed to
the chair of chemical research in one of the nations most erudite universities. He was visiting in South
Carolina.

After taking off in his private plane, flying alone, H. U. Summervane Lawmer was not seen again.

A fisherman reported seeing a cloud of reddish substance in the sky, and said this seemed to fall toward
the earth and disperse, as if it were snow melting.

Now it happened that this fisherman was a notorious liar who was always seeing things, usually sea
serpents. No one credited his story.

This was unfortunate. The other witness had been a farmer who saw visions. The second witness was a
confirmed liar. So the significance of their stories was entirely missed, and thereby was also missed a clue
which might have saved the world much terror and grief.

In the next week, five more men vanished. All were, colloquially speaking, "big shots"; one was an
international banker, another a famous mechanical engineer, the third a United States senator, the fourth a
noted manufacturer of automobiles, and the fifth an extremely brilliant young under-secretary in the
United States War Department.

Such is the phlegmatic nature of the American public that these disappearances did not gain a great deal
of attention. No one had seen any more red snow.

No one suspected there was a connection between the disappearances. No one dreamed that the
disappearances had a profound importance, that they were of a magnitude vital beyond any importance
of the separate individuals themselves.

And then Doc Savage came to Florida.

Chapter 2. THE TRUNK SNATCHERS
DOC SAVAGE saw the two fruit peddlers when they first drove up and stopped before the Hotel