"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 156 - Seh-Pa-Poo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

SE-PAH-POO
A Doc Savage Adventure by Kenneth Robeson
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? Chapter I
? Chapter II
? Chapter III
? Chapter IV
? Chapter V
? Chapter VI
? Chapter VII
? Chapter VIII
? Chapter IX
? Chapter X
? Chapter XI
? Chapter XII
? Chapter XIII
Originally published in Doc Savage Magazine February 1946




Chapter I
HE swung off the passenger train unobtrusively. He moved at a very fast walk across the shallow ditch
and a few yards of right-of-way, squeezed among some shoulder-high mesquite bushes, placed his
suitcase on the sun-hardened earth and seated himself on it. He waited.

The train had almost stopped rolling. Now the locomotive whistle bleated briefly in answer to a signal
from the conductor, then lunged ahead sending a clanking through the train, with a visible surge of energy.
With a series of business-like puffings, the locomotive reached for the speed it had lost, and presently the
whole string of some eighteen baggage and passenger coaches was in full motion again.

The man did not stand up to look after the departing train, but he listened to it. This being let off furtively
in the middle of the desert, had cost him twenty dollars in tips. That was what he was thinking.

He looked around. Twenty dollars had bought him a lot of heat, sand, cactus, mesquite, cholla, yucca,
more sand, more heat.

He remained seated on his suitcase. It was a very good suitcase, but it had seen service. His clothing was
also very good, but conservative, as though he wished not to attract attention to himself. It was a
ridiculous precaution, because he was such a big man, so obviously a muscular marvel, and his bronze
coloring was so striking, his strange-flake-gold eyes so impressive, that wearing plain, good clothes was
about as effective as putting the English crown jewels on a plain oak tray.

The sand a few yards from his feet stirred, parted, and a small blunt reptilian head appeared and eyed
him unwinkingly. The sidewinder rattlesnake evidently did not think he was a congenial companion,
because it emerged the rest of itself and side-crawled away.