"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 042 - The Midas Man" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

As a matter of routine, an examiner, on Monday morning, began checking the books of the bank which
Mandebran ownedтАФThe Mandebran Trust Company. That afternoon, they took the examiner to a hospital, a
potential nervous wreck.

There was slightly more than twenty million dollars missing.

When this came out, not a newspaper in town carried the story. They were afraid to. Such a colossal
shortage in the accounts of one previously as honest as Jethro Mandebran smacked of impossibility. The
editors of the journals, visioning big libel suits, would not allow a word in their columns. But after a corps of
examiners corroborated the findings, the front pages of the newspapers could hardly hold the story.

An examiner who liked the bright light of publicity gave out a list containing the names of those whose money
was among the missing funds. The list was a long one. It contained the name of almost every prominent
person in Philadelphia, as well as numbers of financiers in New York, Boston, and elsewhere.

Clark Savage, Jr., was the three hundred and seventy-sixth name on the list.

The next day, Clark Savage, Jr.тАЩs name as a loser made the headlines. Clark Savage, Jr., was the stuff that
newspaper copy is made out of. Most of the journals, however, instead of calling him Clark Savage, Jr.,
designated him as Doc Savage.

The mention of Doc SavageтАЩs name in the newspapers led to his being involved in one of the most incredible
adventures of a remarkable career.



NEWSPAPER reporters and cameramen made a rush for a headquarters which Doc Savage maintained on
the eighty-sixth floor of New YorkтАЩs most distinctive skyscraper. They were met at the door by a tall bag of
bones who wore a suit many times too large. A monocle with a thick glass was attached to this manтАЩs coat
lapel by a ribbon. He received a certain deference from the newspaper reporters, which was surprising,
reporters usually being unimpressed by big-shots.

The string of bones with the monocle was William Harper Littlejohn, one of the most famous archaeologist
and geologists. He was asked where Doc Savage could be found.

"Prognostication effectuates diaporesis," the bony gentleman replied.

One journalist, fortunately, carried a pocket dictionary, so the reporters managed to gather that these
seventeen-dollar words were meant to convey that Doc SavageтАЩs present whereabouts was a puzzle to the
bony gentleman. Further questions got more replies that had to be translated. Approximately half an hour
elapsed before it dawned on the reporters that they were being kidded and told nothing.

The scribes then retired to the nearest bar, which happened to be on the corner, and swapped information.

There was conjecture about what could have happened to Jethro Mandebran. Had he vanished of his own
accord? Did he have the twenty millions with him in a couple of motor trucks, which would probably be the
size of the vehicles necessary to haul away such a sum? Why had a man previously so honest done such a
thing?

These newspapermen later had occasion to remark on just how far wide of the facts were their conjectures on