"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 046 - The Vanisher" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

the morning.

John Winer had a habit of talking to himself.

"Hey!" he said, suddenly. "What was that?"

There was no one around. He simply asked himself this question because he had heard a small grating
noise. He got up, went to a powerful searchlight and turned it on, raking the prison yard below, and the terrain
outside, with the beam. The light roved like a great, deadly white spook.

Inside the prison wall, in a large open space, stood an ordinary freight car. This had been switched inside the
prison earlier in the evening. It held a great deal of complicated machinery in boxes and crates.

John Winer knew there was nothing but machinery in the car, because he had been one of a squad of guards
who had searched it. The car was billed as holding the new pipe organ which a rich man was giving to the
prison chapel.

The rich man donating the organ was named Sigmund Hoppel. This fact became something to think about
later.

John Winer gave the freight car only cursory inspection, because he knew it was harmless. HadnтАЩt he helped
search it? Freight cars and trucks were customarily frisked upon entering the prison walls, lest they be used
to smuggle guns inside.

But John Winer would have found a closer watch on the freight car productive of interesting things. For
instance, he might have seen a furtive shadow drift swiftly from the car to a near-by wall.

Some one had left the freight car and was now prowling the interior of the prison. The sound which John
Winer had heard was the freight car door opening and closing.



EVEN a close observer might have experienced difficulty in getting an idea of what the furtive prowler looked
like. For one thing, the being kept where the shadows were darkest. Light seemed malign.

If it was a manтАФand there could be no certainty on this pointтАФit was not a large man. The contrary, rather. In
stature, the individual would hardly have topped a youth in his early teens. The Senegambian marauder did
not have the slimness of youth, however; although the legs were spindling, the torso was burly and
misshapen.

Just what gave the prowler the queer look became evident when a faint gleam of light chanced to be
encountered. The creature was a pronounced humpback!

So furtively did this strange individual move that nothing more was seen or heard of the sinister presence until
a tiny light appeared in the section of the prison set aside for offices.

It was evident from the manner in which the light roved about the offices that the strange skulker had not been
there before, and knew little of the layout. Finally, a metal filing case was located. This held cards which
showed in what cells the prisoners were confined.