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

LIEUTENANT COLONEL ANDREW BLODGETT MAYFAIR received the telegram when he was
eating breakfast in the coffee shop of the hotel where he lived in New York. It was not an important hotel
and in fact had very little to recommend it except a willingness to extend to Monk Mayfair an item which
he frequently neededтАФcredit.

Monk Mayfair, one of a group of five men who usually worked with Doc Savage, was by profession an
industrial chemist, a noted one. But he liked excitement better, so he was perpetually in a state of financial
malnutrition, the result of not attending to business. He infinitely preferred chasing excitement. This
morning, though, he was flush, having been driven by straightened circumstances to doing a trouble
shooting job for a plastics manufacturer. Yesterday evening he had collected his fee, last night he had
rested well and slept long in anticipation of getting rid of his funds as soon as possible in riotous living.

A short, extremely wide man, Monk Mayfair had the build and appearance of a hammered-down Cardiff
giant. His mouth was too large, his eyes too small and too humorous, his forehead was inadequate, and
the general effect was that dogs invariably barked at him.

Betsy, the waitress at the Forty-First Street Hotel Coffee Shop, approached with the yellow envelope.

тАЬHello there, lovely but cold-natured,тАЭ Monk said, reflecting that he would like to promote Betsy. He had
reflected this on other occasions. тАЬWhat you got there?тАЭ he added.

Betsy did not give him the telegram immediately. тАЬListen, you,тАЭ she said, fists on her hips. тАЬI don't like
guys telling me they're not married.тАЭ

тАЬMe?тАЭ Monk gasped.

тАЬYou hairy ape!тАЭ Betsy added. тАЬJust a wife would be bad enough, but thirteen children too! What are
you, a rabbit?тАЭ

тАЬThirteen . . . ah!тАЭ Monk said. тАЬAh, I begin to see. . . . My good friend, Ham Brooks, has been talking to
you, hasn't he?тАЭ

тАЬNever mind who it was,тАЭ Betsy said. тАЬI'm wise to you, brother.тАЭ

Monk became indignant. тАЬYou tell that Ham Brooks, the overdressed shyster lawyer, that he better cut
out telling that lie on me!тАЭ Monk's indignation increased. тАЬYou tell him when I catch him, I'll choke him on
one of his own torts.тАЭ

тАЬI don't think he was lying,тАЭ the pretty waitress said. She threw the telegraph envelope on the table.
тАЬHere's a telegram came for you. Probably a fourteenth arrival!тАЭ

She left in indignation.

Monk glared at a fried egg on his plate for some time, thinking of several ways it resembled Brigadier
General Theodore Marley тАЬHam" Brooks, his close associate and good friend of whom and to whom he
never spoke a pleasant word, if he could help it. He proceeded to jab the egg out of shape with his fork,
and pushed it on the back of his plate distastefully. He would, he decided, have to spend the morning
figuring out a way of getting even with Ham.