"Doc Savage Adventure 1934-01 Brand of the Werewolf" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

"What a man!" Wilkie ejaculated.

The traveler who owned the suitcase, mistakenly thinking the remark was directed at himself, looked indignant.

Wilkie reached the drawing-room; and found the porter. "I'm hunting for this man," he said, and showed the name on the telegram.

"Yassah!" gulped the porter. "Golly me! Dat's de stranges' lookin' man Ah evah saw!"

"What's strange about him?"

"Man, he am de bigges' fella yo' evah laid yo' eyes on!" The porter gazed ecstatically ceilingward. "When he looks at yo', yo' jus' kinda turns inside out. Ah seed him with his shirt off, takin' some kinda exercises. Ah nevah seed such muscles befo'. Dey was like big ropes tied around him."

Wilkie nodded. He had come on duty at the last division point, and had not seen all the passengers. "In the observation car, eh? And I'll know him when I see him?"

"Yo' cain't miss him! He's a great big bronze man!"

Wilkie headed for the observation car.


BACK in the tiny way station, the telegraph sounder was clicking noisily. The operator sat down at his typewriter to receive.

He copied the incoming message number, the office of origin, and the address. The missive was destined for a passenger on another train.

The telegrapher reached over to his key and "broke."

"Wrong number," he transmitted.

Telegrams were numbered in consecutive order. This was to prevent a telegrapher sending one "into the air" - trans mitting a message which was not received at the other end.

"It's the right number," the man at the distant key tapped.

"You're shy a number," explained the station wireman. "You sent me a message half an hour ago."

"The last message we sent you was four hours ago," rattled the sounder.

The telegrapher shook his head in bewilderment. Getting out his carbon copy of the message which he had given to Wilkie, he "traced" it to the distant man - outlining its contents.

"We sent no such message," he was informed.

"I received it," the station operator clicked back. "There's something strange about this. Do you think the wires were tapped?"

"Search me."

The telegrapher sat and pondered. He reached a decision. Grasping the key, he transmitted: "I'm going to wire ahead to the next station, and let Wilkie know what happened."

"Why go to all that trouble?" the distant operator demanded.

"Because both Wilkie and I thought the contents of that message were strange. We both remarked that it was an unusual communication for this man to receive."

"What do you know about the business of the man the message was going to?"