"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 035 - Murder Mirage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

It was nearly midnight when the first stinging particles whipped the faces of the theater crowds on Broadway.
Amazed voices intoned unbelief.

"Can you imagine? A sleet storm! Of all things!"

These and kindred exclamations greeted the beginning of the storm.



IN the offices of the government weather bureau was even more amazement than elsewhere. A gray-haired,
scholarly observer divided his time between a window and his instruments. He frequently consulted his
various graphs.

"Look at that night map," he growled. "We are directly in the area of high pressure extending a couple of
hundred miles into the Atlantic. So it couldnтАЩt be possible!"

"Sure, thatтАЩs what the map says," boomed a deep voice. "But that stuff on the window isnтАЩt taffy candy,
mister. I felt it, and I tasted it. ItтАЩs snow. YouтАЩll have to make a new map."

The speaker was an authority on maps. For his name stood among the ten or dozen most eminent engineers
in the world. The manтАЩs fists were approximately of the size of his head. And his head was of leonine
proportions.

He was Colonel John Renwick, known to the weather bureau officials, and to thousands of others, as
"Renny." His fame as an engineer was perhaps somewhat less than his position of note as one of the five
adventuring companions of Clark Savage, Jr., better known as the man of bronze, Doc Savage.

"You are correct," stated a smaller man, whose face was thin and of an unhealthy pallor. "It is undoubtedly
snow. Moreover, within a short time there will be a violent thunderstorm."

"YouтАЩre crazy!" promptly declared the grayish weather observer. "How could there be a thunderstorm? Look!
The nearest area of low pressure is south of the Carolinas! So there couldnтАЩt be an electrical storm."

The small, thin man shook his head.

"How could there be a snowstorm in midsummer?"

The thin man was Major Thomas J. Roberts, known as "Long Tom." He was another of the companions of
Doc Savage, an electrical wizard.

This was the incredible part of the snowstorm. For it was midsummer. To be exact, it was the midnight of
July 4th. In a matter of only minutes, it would be the morning of July 5th. So, as the weather observer had
insisted, "it couldnтАЩt be snowing."
The oldest resident of Manhattan had never witnessed such a phenomenon. As long as there had been a
weather bureau there had been no such freakish occurrence.

"Look at this," directed the grayish weather observer. "All of the Middle West is having the worst heat wave of
the summer. Boston and all the way to Portland, Maine, show high temperatures. Right now, Washington
and Philadelphia are in the eighties!"