"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 145 - The Ten Ton Snakes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

It was hard to be sure how many men were going to help do it to him. Thousands of people were on
Fifth Avenue, probably no more nor less than are there any days. The murderers were of the crowd, and
like the crowd. Pointing them out would have been as difficult as picking four maggots who had had
catfish for dinner from a basketful of other maggots who had had sunfish for dinner. Very difficult. They
weren't doing anything to get fingers pointed at them.

Keeping track of the boy, was all. Waiting. But waiting has its end. Suspense can draw out just about so
far, and then something must happen.

So one of the men walked up behind the boy with a long knife and started to put the blade in between
the boy's third and fourth ribs where it would reach the boy's happy heart.



IT was a walk-up-and-stab murder, but the sun was shining gaily, making shadows. The sun made the
shadow of the man with the knife on the sidewalk, and it looked like exactly what it was, a man with a
knife. This the soldier saw.

The soldier did more than dodge. The army had spent a lot in time and patience teaching him what to do
when someone tried to shoot, club or stab him. He did it. He did it so fast you could hardly see it.

Slam, slam. Too fast to follow, but the knife was spinning in the air and he who'd held it was on his back
with teeth loose in his mouth and an awful feeling where he'd been kicked in the belly. It was an army
bellykick, Commando stuff, intended to gut a man if possible. It was no fooling.

The man fell on the sidewalk. He might as well have been dead. He was noisy and he was hurting, but
otherwise he might as well have been dead.

The boy looked at the man.

тАЬYou blank blank,тАЭ he said. тАЬI think I know you.тАЭ

He circled, looking at the man on the sidewalk.

тАЬWhy God bless you, I do know you,тАЭ the soldier said. тАЬWhat do you know about that. Doggone!тАЭ

And he began being un-nice to the man on the sidewalk. What the soldier proceeded to do was
sickening, but it didn't sicken. He had been dealing with Japs, and the only safe Jap was one who
couldn't be anything else.

He kicked in some of the man's ribs. The man was long and skinny, like a wolf with the sickness wolves
get from eating too much carrion, so his ribs were close to the hide and broke easily. The soldier jumped
on to the man's belly with both feet. This was guaranteed to rupture, to burst the bladder, etc.

The soldier got off the man's belly and leaned over the man's face and said, тАЬListen, bub, to what I'm
asking you. Is Tucker French, my brother, all right? Is he going to be all right? What do you
such-and-such plan to do to Tucker?тАЭ
The man on the sidewalk gargled his blood and teeth and pain.