"Curtis Steele - Operator 5 - 3407 - The Melting Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Steele Curtis)

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Operator #5TM THE MELTING DEATH July, 1934
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A production of Vintage New Media(tm)
www.vintagelibrary.com
2
The dedication ceremonies were about to
begin.
The cars which stood first in line were those
of important public men, and from them morningcoated
and silk-hatted officials had alighted to
gather at the center of the bridge. The glistening
lenses of newsreel cameras looked down upon
them. Radio announcers chattered a running
account of the event into microphones.
Across the roadbed hung a shining silk
ribbon, barring the way, and near it stood a child
of five who was holding in her chubby hands a
pair of golden shears inscribed for the occasion.
She was Betty Merwin, only daughter of the
governor of one of the two states joined by this
tremendous link of steel and concrete, and it was
to be her honor to sever the ribbon and
symbolically open the bridge to the waiting swarm
of cars.
On the Missouri side of the span a low-slung,
streamlined roadster was approaching. It passed
on the left of hundreds of parked cars as it
climbed the ramp. Presently it paused, as four
uniformed policemen officiously moved to bar its
way. In answer to their demand that it turn back,
the young man at the wheel produced from his
pocket an envelope, and from the envelope
removed a sheet of stiff vellum stationery. The
policemen read it-a letter signed by Senator
Morrison of Missouri-and waved the roadster on.
ITS motor hummed powerfully with a peculiar
sighing noise as it climbed to a position near the
foremost cars. The young man alighted from it
and promptly strode to a silk-hatted official. The
impressive-looking man turned, holding in his
hand a copy of a prepared speech his eyes
curious.
"You are Wilbur Benson, President of the
Central States Chamber of Commerce?" the
young man asked.
"Yes."
"I must see you privately, sir, at once."
Mr. Benson answered with testy impatience.