"Robeson, Kenneth - Doc Savage 1938 01 - Living Fire Menace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

from an old inner tube had been bound about those feet. The strips had cut into
the flesh until blood drops marked the trail, but the man did not pause.
His body seemed sheathed in many clothes. And about those clothes other strips
of rubber had been bound. On his hands were heavy rubber gloves.
But it was the manТs eyes that held attention. Fear blazed from sunken
orbsЧdeadly, unhealthy fear.
Some might have doubted that the reeling man was sane. And the words he babbled
sounded like those of a man in the grip of a nightmare:
"The living fire! The death that cannot be avoided! The fire that spurts from
within, that burns and destroys! A hell-fire! And itТll get me! I cannot
escape!"
The manТs heart pounded as he thought of the secret he carriedЧa secret he must
reveal at once if he were to prevent untold calamity.
Once again his head twisted so that he looked behind him. A faint cloud of dust
showed on the road over which he had just come. A big car came into view.
Frantically the man tried to run faster, his cherry-red face twisting with
renewed anguish, his eyes popping.
"IТve got to go on!" he gritted. "IТve got to get word to Doc Savage!"
The girl in the big car did not look dangerous. She looked as if she might be
one of the movie stars visiting at Palm Springs.
Long black curls framed a face that was almost perfection. Only a stub nose
broke the faultless symmetry of her features. Her eyes were dark pools of
bewitching enchantry. Shorts and a halter did little to hide the seductiveness
of her form.
But as the girl caught sight of the reeling man ahead, her face changed subtly.
An expression almost of craftiness flashed in her dark eyes; her soft lips
tightened.
The man had almost reached the filling station. The girl braked the big car,
slowing it instantly until it was barely moving.
The girl glanced behind her. Something like a sigh escaped her lips as she saw
the road was clear.
She reached into a side pocket of the car, even as she brought the machine to a
stop at the edge of the road.
Then she had opened the door, had slid to the ground, was moving rapidly toward
the filling station where the reeling man had vanished. The sunlight flickered
wickedly on the small, deadly automatic she carried in her hand.
The filling-station attendant did not see her. He was gazing open-mouthed at the
strange apparition that had materialized before him.
The queerly dressed man seemed oblivious of the attendant. With glazed eyes, he
rushed toward the old-fashioned-type telephone in one corner of the room.
"IТve got to tell them! There she is! IТve got to get word to Doc SavageЧ"
Hands awkward in their heavy gloves, the man spun desperately on the crank to
signal the telephone operator.
"Number, please," came a cool, crisp voice. The frightened manТs words tore from
his swollen lips.
"Get me Doc SavageТs office, in New York!" he half screamed. "Tell him this is
Z-2 calling. Get Doc Savage! Get him!"

THE filling-station attendantТs mouth dropped open even farther. His eyes tried
to jump from his head.