"coffinfortheavenger" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepperman Emile C)

Forsythe clamped his lips shut.

"Ha!" said Strake. "You refuse to answer. Well, you needn't worry. You needn't be afraid
of giving me any information which might help me. You see, I'm remarkably well informed. I
happen to know that Admiral Miles was the only man in Washington who knew of the arrangement
with Crawford. They kept it such a dark secret that it wasn't even placed in the files."

"All right," said Forsythe. "Suppose you're right. Admiral Miles must already have
phoned--"

"Wrong again, my dear sir. It may interest you to know that Admiral Miles was killed in
a seaplane crash today at five o'clock!"

Forsythe's eyes bulged. "You...you're Iying!"

Strake chuckled. He picked up a newspaper from the desk and held it before the helpless
man's eyes.

"Read!"

The headline stared back at Forsythe with the ineluctable surety of doom:


FOUR DIE IN SEAPLANE CRASH!
------
Admiral Miles, Head of Naval Intelligence, Among Those Killed
------
Crash Attributed to Sabotage


Strake chuckled again. "We made sure, Forsythe, that no one would remain alive who knew
about you and your invention. If the Forsythe Down-draft Depth Charge should ever be
perfected for the American Navy it would mean that a destroyer could drop a canister of
explosive over the side which could detonate immediately, without danger to the destroyer
itself."

"That's right," said Forsythe. "We could wipe your damned U-boats off the face of the
seven seas in a month!"

"Exactly, my dear Forsythe. And it is just to prevent such a contingency that we have
sought you high and low for four months and have at last found you. Do you think, Forsythe,
that we will allow anything--anything, I say I--to stand in the way of our acquiring the
secret of your depth charge?"

"You'll never get it out of me," said Forsythe.

Strake smiled. "Within twenty-four hours, my friend, you will be begging to be allowed
to tell your secret!"

He motioned to Lambertini. "When I leave," he ordered softly, "tighten his strait jacket