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

studied the stitching which held the skins composing the sail. Those watching him realized he was very
interested indeed. A news reel cameraman took pictures of his every move.

Finally, Johnny secured from his plane several ponderous and rare volumes on history which he had
brought along. He poured over these intently. He seemed to be learning things.

The news reel men asked him for a statement. They had asked numerous times, but on this occasion,
Johnny consented.
"Oracular cognoscence of certain recondite aspects. I will hypothesize," said Johnny, who never used a
small word where he could insert a big one.

The news reel man looked stunned by the verbal flow, but hastily got his camera and voice recorder
going.

Johnny fingered his monocle and began.

"Disquisitional recapitulation of imperspicuous symptomatology tends to an unequivocal belief," he
announced.

Twenty million movie-goers were destined to choke over those words. The news reel concern finally had
to run a summary by a commentator at the end, translating the erudite Johnny's remarks for the American
hoi polloi.

The gist of it was that Johnny was thoroughly convinced that the Viking dragon ship was genuine, and
that it had been built many centuries ago and repaired more recently. Furthermore, certain markings,
coats of arms, in effect, discernible on the craft proved it had belonged to the fleet of one certain ancient
Viking freebooter, "Tarnjen," by name.

Tarnjen, stated Johnny, had been the bad boy of his day, so bad indeed that he had been chased out of
Viking land with a number of ships and what loot he had amassed, which was probably considerable. A
year or two later, Tarnjen had returned with only one ship, a vastly humiliated soul. His other ships and
men had been taken by the Qui. Just who the Qui were, historians did not seem certain. Some history
tomes suggested that Qui was a name Tarnjen had given to some savage tribe on some remote
continent.

Whoever or whatever Qui was, they had taken most of Tarnjen's men and ships, all of his loot, and sent
him back, thoroughly broken. Qui, then, was a mystery.

Such was the gist of Johnny's recital.

This was the beginning of the mystery of Qui, a mystery from which amazing things came.

JOHNNY RETURNED to New York, but he was still interested; and since Doc Savage was still out of
town, overseeing the construction of a charity hospital somewhere, and since there was no excitement
brewing. Johnny had nothing to do but dabble with the mystery of Qui and the Viking dragon ship and
the vanished yacht, Sea Scream, which still had not been found.

The raid of the Vikings was unusual news. It went far and wide. Reports came in. A liner captain had
seen the dragon ship off Cape Cod, he reported. A fisherman claimed he had seen such a vessel in the
Nova Scotia fog.