"Doc Savage Adventure 1943-05 The Talking Devil" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

There were seven men already seated in the room. All were enveloped in the surgical robes and masks.

Dr. Nedden was still shaking. Butch had had to tie the strings of Nedden's robe.

Nedden hurried to a cabinet containing medicines, got out a few pills out of a bottle, and swallowed them with water.

The other masked men watched him intently.

Dr. Nedden faced them.

"Gentlemen," he said. "It worked. Doc Savage is trapped."


DR. NEDDEN then sat down and explained, "I am suffering from nervous shock. The Strain has been very great on me, gentlemen. If you will wait a few minutes, please."

They waited patiently. Judging from the eyes visible above the surgical masks, all of them were vastly relieved. Even elated.

The sedative took effect on Dr. Nedden. His agitation subsided and he arose and drank more water. He added a hooker of whiskey.

He faced the men.

"It was an incredibly difficult and ticklish business," he said. "Doc Savage is unquestionably the world's greatest general surgeon, and probably the greatest brain surgeon. To pull this, we had to deceive him at his own business.

"Fortunately, mental difficulties are the most uncertain to diagnose," continued Dr. Nedden. "By the use of drugs, largely types of barbiturates in overdoses, I was able to produce fake mental symptoms in Sam Joseph. A number of very cunning devices were resorted to in order to deceive Doc Savage, but I will not take up your time describing them, and you would not understand them anyway, not being doctors yourselves."

A man interrupted, "What about the devil-statue mix-up?"

Dr. Nedden shrugged.

"We had a narrow escape there," he said. "A devil statue containing a small loud-speaker and radio had been used to fool Sam Joseph into thinking the little statue was talking to him. Through an oversight, this statue was still in Montague Ogden's den when Doc Savage wished to see it."

"I heard," said the other, "that you had to knock out one of Doc Savage's men, that fellow they call Monk, and swap a harmless statue for the trick one."

"We did that," admitted Dr. Nedden. "We pulled it without a hitch."

Butch said, "I pulled it. I popped him one on the head. Then Ogden made him think a picture had fallen off the wall just as he was going under it, and conked him."

"That was a goofy explanation to give him."

"Its goofiness made it good," Butch declared.

They seemed satisfied.

One said, "That fixes everything so we can go ahead with the next step of the plan."

"Not everything," reminded Dr. Nedden. "There is still the Harrison matter."

A man growled, "I'd call it the Duster Jones matter."