"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 112 - The Speaking Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

THE SPEAKING STONE
A Doc Savage Adventure By Kenneth Robeson
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by Tom Stephens
? Chapter I. RED VEST
? Chapter II. ABOUT A STONE
? Chapter III. LIFE INSURANCE
? Chapter IV. THE SOUTH AMERICAN WAY
? Chapter V. OLD LADY
? Chapter VI. RED VESTS
? Chapter VII. THE UNEXPECTED TRUTH
? Chapter VIII. THE HIGH WORLD
? Chapter IX. STRANGE ARRIBA
? Chapter X. DEATH WALKING HIGH
? Chapter XI. MOUNTAIN FANTASIA
? Chapter XII. SIEGE OF ARRIBA
? Chapter XIII. THE STONE SPOKE DEATH
? Chapter XIV. THE TALKING-ROCK TRICK
? Chapter XV. THE CLAIRVOYANT
The Speaking Stone was originally published in Doc Savage magazine, June 1942

Chapter I. RED VEST
THE story that brought the newspapermen to the little island of Jinx in the South Pacific had nothing to do
with the little man with the red vest, other, of course, than it accounted for his arriving in the plane with
the reporters.

Doc Savage did not give the little man with the vest any particular notice. Doc was embarrassed by the
coming of the newspapermen, because he had always gone to great lengths to avoid publicity. Therefore,
Doc did not notice the small man right away.

He was an avid little man, this fellow in the red vest. He came with the others to meet Doc Savage, but
he remained in the background. And although he had paper and pencil in hand, he did not ask any
questions.

The small man just tucked a thumb in an armhole of his red vest and listened. He had a small, pinched,
quizzical face that had not much expression, except the quizzical one. Neither did it have a normal amount
of color; it seemed to have been washed with acid, the way a piece of cloth is bleached. The other
newspapermen asked plenty of questions. Their inquiries were a flood.

One could have suspected that the man in the red vest was not interested in the questions. The inquiries
were about an adventure in which Doc Savage had just participated, an affair in which an ocean liner had
been taken over, crew and passengers, by some gentlemen with more greed and nerve than ability to
finish what they had started. Doc Savage had become involved in the affair, and his hard, bronze hand
had ended it on the side of justice, and somewhat on the spectacular side. (See Pirate Isle)

The man wearing the red vest showed interest, though, in the attitude of the newspapermen toward Doc