"Doc Savage Adventure 1934-12 The Annihilist" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

The first policeman shrugged. "High adventure, I guess. He likes excitement. And he goes around getting people out of trouble. But what I mean, he tackles things on a big scale. He saves thrones for kings and stops wars. That's his calibre."
The cop who was asking questions said, "He has five birds who help him, hasn't he?"

"Yeah. Scientists, electricians and so on. Each one of the five is a topnotch specialist in some line."

The other policeman nodded at the body, then at the telephone. "How come you called him?"

"That identification disk

"I know. But that's business for Inspector Hardboiled Humbolt. He won't like it, your calling this Doc Savage."

"I don't give a damn," said the other officer. "This Doc Savage has done more good for the world than any other ten living men you can name. Yeah - any fifty you can name."

"Hardboiled Humbolt is gonna lay an egg because you called Savage," grunted the first cop. "You could call the president and the governor and the marines, and Hardboiled would still kick. He likes to run things."

"Let him lay the egg," snorted the other policeman.

They went out to stand guard. Down in the street, the caterwauling of a police siren was becoming louder.


THE roadster had a long wheelbase, but it was not flashy and there was nothing particularly outstanding about its appearance. Only close inspection would have shown that the body was moulded of armor plate and the tires were filled with sponge rubber which would not be affected greatly by bullets. The glasswork was also of bulletproof construction, and the machine was fitted with apparatus for laying either smoke or gas screens.

Under the hood, a siren whined softly.

It was hard to say whether it was the whining of the siren or the appearance of the remarkable bronze man at the wheel which caused traffic to be parted with alacrity. The siren was the type reserved for police squad cars. Furthermore, the license plate consisted simply of three letters and a number - DOC 1.

More than a few persons on the streets recognized the bronze man. His picture was often in the newspapers; his name was mentioned even more frequently in the prints.

"Doc Savage," some one said, and there was a small stampede for the curb to get a glimpse of the bronze man.

The roadster was a large one, a car in which an ordinary large man would have seemed small. But the bronze man had the build of a giant, even in the open machine. Tremendous muscular strength was apparent in his cabled hands and in the vertical muscles in his neck, which were like hawsers coated with a veneer of bronze.

This bronze hue was the giant's motif throughout, his unusually fine-textured skin having a metallic hue imparted by long exposure to intense sunlight; his hair, straight and fitting like a metal skullcap, was of a bronze only slightly darker; the quiet brown of his business suit added to the symphony in metal.

Perhaps the eyes of the bronze man were the most impressive thing about him. They were weird, almost fantastic eyes, like nothing so much as pools of fine golden flakes continuously stirred by tiny winds. In them was a hypnotic, compelling quality.


THE bronze man wore no head covering, and his eyes roved ceaselessly, seeming never to devote attention to the driving but rather to the streets through which the roadster passed. In spite of the seeming inattention, there was an expert ease about the way he drove.

He reached the building which housed the Association of Physical Health, drew to the curb and switched off the engine. Little more than the sudden death of the ammeter needle indicated the motor had stopped, so silently had it operated.

The bronze man drifted a metallic, muscle-cabled hand under the dash and touched a switch. Soft static crackle began coming from a radio loud-speaker. He brought a hand microphone to view.

"Monk - Ham," he said into the mike.

A voice that might have belonged to a small child came from the radio speaker.

"We're only a few blocks away, Doc," said this small tone.