"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 029 - The Quest of Qui" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

then picked up a pair of binoculars and focused them.

"Something dead ahead, sir," he called.

The Sea Scream lunged on, bows knocking up spray. Owner, guests and crew glanced idly ahead, not
nearly so interested as they were going to be soon.

The helmsman used the binoculars again, staring very hard this time, after which a blankness came on his
face.

"I hope to swab a deck!" he grunted. "Captain, sir. Have a look."

The snappily uniformed captain took the binoculars and stared through them.

"Bless me!" he said, and hastily went to the owner.

"Want to have a glance at an unusual vessel?" he asked, and presented the glasses.

The owner looked. So did the guests, one a lady. They murmured, interested.

"Strange-looking thing," said the owner.

"Never saw one like it," offered a guest.

"I have," said the lady. "A picture, I mean. In my history books, when I was a girl."

More to be polite than anything else, for his job depended on that to an extent, the skipper asked, "What
would you call the craft, miss?"

"A Viking dragon ship," replied the woman.

THE MEN laughed, for the idea was, of course, a little preposterous, Viking dragon ships having gone
out of style shortly after the days of Eric the Red and other noted Norsemen.

But the woman was correct. The Sea Scream swept up to the strange craft.

Double-ended, perhaps sixty feet long, the vessel had some of the aspects of a giant, fat canoe. Bow and
stern reared up to support platforms, and amidships was deck planking, while along the rail, on the
outside were fastened round things of rusty steel, objects which certainly resembled shields such as were
carried by ancient warriors. There was a mast, and a sail draped around it, unfilled because there was no
wind. The sail seemed to be made of animal skins from which the hair had been removed.

There was not a soul in sight on the decks of the weird craft. One of the yacht guests had an idea.

"Bet it broke away from some water carnival," he laughed.

"Let's go aboard," suggested the lady.

"Of course," agreed the owner. "It should be interesting."