"William G Bogart - Killer 'Round The Bend" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bogart William G)

The detective looked suddenly worried. He said, "Benny Smith was a very ill man. Perhaps he
would have died anyway but someone hurried that death along. I 1earned just tonight that he
had diphtheria--"

"Diphtheria!" the capiain exploded.

Bill Shane nodded. "So you'd better seal the cabin and get everyone out of here. I--"

But the efficient skipper was already pushing the crew from the cabin. He said bluntly, "Damn
right we will! And the first town we make, we'll quarantine the boat, remove the body and have
the room fumigated--before proceeding upriver. Everybody out!"


BILL SHANE went out, too, and shortly afterward slipped away from the excitedly taiking men and
moved quietly toward the stern of the packet.

In the semigloom of night, Bill Shane walked gingerly along the catwalk. One misslip and he knew
he would be hurtled beneath the great thrashing blades of the monstrous paddle. Stinging spray
lashed his face; his clothes were soaked.

And yet he crwched there on the catwalk and waited, eyes fastened on the water. Off to the
starboard he saw the great bend they were taking in the river. Kentucky was off there in the
gloom, a few lights of a small town blinking in the night. The shore was perhaps a quarter of a
mile away.

Bill Shane kept watching!

And suddenly he saw the form bob past the stern, the figure of a man swimming. For a short
moment water boiling at the stern swallowed the swimmer's figure; then he appeared again, far
in the wake of the boat.

Bill Shane waited another instant, then tipped off his coat and shoes, stiffened and leaped far
out from the menace of the grinding paddle wheel. His smooth dive took him weli beyond the boat.

And then he broke the surface cautiously and drifted a moment with the strong tide of the channel.

Off toward shore, he heard the steady sounds of the man swimming. He could see no figure now, but
the swimmer's arm strokes were distinct on the still night air. Bill Shane took out in that
direction.

Fifteen minutes later, his feet touched the sandy bottom Iocated right where the shore curved out
into this bend of the river. Lights of the little shore town glowed feebly ahead in the night. And
thraugh the willows growing close along that shore a man was moving without trying to be silent
about it.

Shane followed!

Followed through the sleeping town, along a single main street that was mostly in darkness.