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

The guard straightened and growled "Doc Savage shot you? Who the hell is Doc Savage?"

"If I was that dumb, IтАЩd at least keep quiet," said another guard. "DonтАЩt you ever read the newspapers?"

"No. Reading hurts my eyes."

John Winer at this point gave one final great, violent kick and let out a breath that sprayed crimson over the
surrounding shoes and trouser legs. When the guards looked again, he was dead.

"Poor Winey," they said.

"It was a guy named Doc Savage who shot him," growled the man who never read the newspapers. "DidnтАЩt
you hear him say so?"

"YouтАЩd better read the papers some, even if it does hurt your eyes," he was advised. "YouтАЩll learn this Doc
Savage is not the kind of a lad who goes around shooting pen guards."

A deputy warden came up, bawling orders. He wanted the prison looked over to see if anything else was
wrong.

They looked the place over and they found plenty wrong.



THEY found twenty strange men in their penitentiary. Twenty men who had never been convicted by any court
of law, or committed to the pen through regular channels. Twenty men whom nobody had seen in the pen
before.

The twenty men were asleep. They could not be awakened immediately, so it was judged they had been
drugged. The prison doctor went to work administering stimulants in an effort to awaken the strangers.

The senseless guards in the cell house were found. It was also realized that twenty genuine prisoners were
missing from the cells in which the strangers had been found.

The siren, a big one which was used only to announce an escape, began shrilling. Squads of searching
guards left the prison in cars.

The senseless guards awakened and muttered about a humpbacked witch of a creature who had invaded the
place and made them senseless. There was expressed doubt as to whether the camel-backed one was male
or female.

About this time, something else that was strange happened. Guards gathered about the freight car and
listened. They were hearing a weird noise. It came steadily from the box car.

The noise was like nothing so much as the tiny tinkling of a childтАЩs toy music box.

The guards did not pay particular attention to the tinkling notes at first. At least, the true importance of the
sounds as relating to something mysterious having to do with the freight car did not immediately impress
them. But they were curious after a bit.