"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 097 - The All-White Elf" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"тАФand I got into the apartment house all right," Smitty was saying. "I knocked on the door, and this
Haatz opened it. I had me a story all ready. I told him Audine Million was in trouble, and wanted him to
help her."

Smitty sounded whining and uncertain. Obviously, he was making explanations to someone he feared.

"I couldnтАЩt just fill him full of lead when he opened the door," he wailed. "There was a cop in front of the
place a minute before. I knew the cop was somewhere in the neighborhood. And how was I to know the
guy wouldnтАЩt fall for the story about the girl wanting his help? . . . WhatтАЩs that youтАЩre saying? Oh, why
didnтАЩt he fall? I donтАЩt know. He said he was gonna get his coat and hat, but when he came back, he cut
loose on me with a club. I was damned lucky to get away from there alive. That Haatz guy may look soft
and pink, but heтАЩs hell on wheels."

Haatz was warmed by this praise of his ability. He had been thinking about calling the police. But now he
changed his mind.
He would enjoy some excitement. His daily employment, the hunched-over-a-desk job which he had
held during recent years, was monotonous. For a long time, his life had been dull to the point of despair.
Now he felt a sudden consuming desire to take another whirl at the kind of life he had once led.

He heard the man in the adjacent booth say, "What do you want me to do now?"

Haatz strained his ears.

"What about my car?" Smitty asked. "But that jellopy cost meтАФOh, sure. Sure. I wasnтАЩt trying to argue.
Sure. IтАЩll let the car set where it is. But what if the cops find it?"

The other lowered his voice, and it was more difficult to catch what he said. But Haatz gathered that the
man at the other end of the wire, who was SmittyтАЩs boss, was going to send a third man, a man who had
an air-tight alibi for the time of the excitement at the apartment house. This third man would pick up the
car and see that it was run into the river in an obscure spot, where it would not be found.

Haatz grinned thinly. These men were clever. If he was going to take a whirl at excitement once more,
Haatz thought, these men would be worthy foes.

Haatz slipped out of the telephone booth. He left his rifle behind, because it was too conspicuous. He
wished he had a pistol.

Smitty was not difficult to follow. He used a bus, changed to another bus, then walked. After a time, he
joined a tall, cadaverous, bushy-haired man.

Haatz stared at the man whom Smitty had met.

"What a horrible thing!" he muttered.

He was so shocked that he felt a little sick.

THE man whom Smitty had met had the general aspect of an emaciated crow, and he attempted to
overcome this handicap by wearing bright clothingтАФhis garb just now was gay tweeds, ox-blood shirt,
with emerald tie, handkerchief and socksтАФwith the result that the effect was even more macabre. His
face was long, had the complexion of deceased fish; his nose was large and hooked; his eyes were