"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 074 - World's Fair Goblin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

huge ball of the Perisphere and spike of the TrylonтАФwere the most important buildings, which housed
exhibits having to do with branches of modern science. These structures were large and, of course,
modernistic. They were brilliantly colored, for color was the theme of this vast WorldтАЩs Fair, if one was
to believe the words of the men who had conceived the thing.

Prominent among the centrally located Fair buildings was the Hall of Mines.
It was inside the Hall of Mines that the goblin walked.

Men and women spectators began to come out of the Hall of Mines, yelping at every jump. They were
frightened. Not as scared as Professor Martin Uppercue had been, but almost.

A Fair cop grabbed one of the runners. "WhatтАЩs gone wrong now?"

The man jerked a thumb at the Hall of Mines. "Dud-dud-dud-damnedest thing in there!"

The cop ran in to see. The Hall of Mines was an enormous structure, well-lighted; it contained exhibits
intended to depict the progress of mining and metallurgy from the beginning of things down to the present.
There were hundreds of exhibits and as many scared people. A great deal of confusion, in fact.

The cop jumped on top of an ore-processing mill where he could be seen.

"WhatтАЩs going on here?" he yelled.

"Over here," voices told him. "In the mine!"

The mine they referred to was a reproduction of one of the famous gold shafts of the old West. It had
been a popular spot, for the artists who had created it had done a very lifelike job. The shaft sloped into
an embankment and disappeared into the depths of the earth. There were shovels and picks stacked
about.

If the mine shaft had unexpectedly turned into a tiger den, the vicinity could not have been more deserted.

The cop planted himself in front of the shaft. He did not know what to think.

"It come out," someone yelled for his information. "Then it went back in again."

"What did?"

"It looked like a hobgoblin."

"A what?"

"You get a look at the thing," the informant told the cop, "and youтАЩll understand."

At this point, the cop heard the soundтАФand the short hairs on the back of his neck began to want to get
up on end. The noise came from the mine shaft. It was a whimpering, a hoarse throat-tearing whimper.

The cop rubbed a hand over his head to make his hair lie down again.

"Hell, thatтАЩs a dog!" he said. "ThereтАЩs just a stray dog in there."