"Doc Savage Adventure 1942-07 The Man Who Fell Up" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

Monk shrugged. "I can't help that," he said. "You can talk to us."

"Who are you?" Strand inquired.

"We help Doc," Monk explained. "I'm Monk Mayfair. This guy with the fancy clothes here is Ham Brooks."

Strand thought for a while. The desperation in his mind moved across his face like grim reflections in a mirror. "I ... I would like to talk to you, then," he said.

Monk and Ham conducted Strand to an elevator. They had met in a small office in a lower floor of the building, an office which the elevator starter had informed Strand was used to interview persons who wished to see Doc Savage. They rode to the eighty-sixth floor. They crossed a corridor, opened a plain bronze door which bore the name "Clark Savage, Jr.," in small print.

Strand found himself in a reception room furnished with a few comfortable chairs, a safe big enough for a bank and an inlaid table that was really an unusual piece. He was shown a seat.

"What's got you looking like that?" Monk asked.

"I... looking like what?" asked Strand, surprised.

"As if the Indians were coming."

Strand tried to be nonchalant and lighted a cigarette. His first impression of Monk and Ham had been that they were a pair who had some bolts loose. But now he was not so sure. They were as direct, now, as two roosters after a worm.

Ham said, "What is worrying you? What is this trouble you want Doc Savage to help you out of?"

Strand, startled, said, "I have not mentioned any trouble."

"Sure," Ham said. "But you would not be coming in here with that look on your face unless that was it."

"I see," Strand said. "You are accustomed to this sort of thing?"

"Somewhat."

"I see."

Monk, who was no diplomat and had never yearned to be one, said, "What you had better see is that we haven't got all day to sit around and listen to you stall. Did you come up here with something to say?"

Strand frowned. "If you wish me to be blunt, I will be that," he said. "I want help. I want you to get something. It is very valuable."

"Does this thing," asked Monk, "belong to you?"

"It certainly does."

"Where is it?"

"Some men have it."

"Where are they?"

"I can show you where they are," said Strand.

"What is this thing?"