"028 (B088) - The Roar Devil (1935-06) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

The two of them ran for a car. The gorilla of a fellow swerved to one side and grabbed up an animal which had been asleep on a small mound of cloth. It was a pig, an incredibly homely member of the poker family, with long legs, and ears that might have been meant for wings. It was by one enormous ear that the animal was being carried.
The dapper "Ham" glared. "You're not taking that insect along!"
"Watch me," said the owner of the terrible-looking hog. "And if you don't like it - swell!"
The two men traded throat-cutting looks. Then the nattily attired one grew pale and gripped his cane with both hands, separating it at the handle to disclose that it was in reality a sword cane with a vicious-looking blade. He seemed on the point of having a fit.
"Something you ate?" demanded the homely one.
"My coat!" Ham gurgled. "That nasty hog was sleeping on my new topcoat! Monk, you put him up to that!"
"The idea!" "Monk" sniffed. "I think more of this hog than to - We better get going!"
They dived into a small coupй, Monk carrying the pig by one oversize ear. The coupй ran up an inclined drive and out onto the street.
Anxiously, the two men strained eyes at the few pedestrians abroad at this hour of the morning. It was the homely Monk who first picked up Dove Zachies. Zachies was swinging jauntily along northward.
"There he is," Monk pointed out.
They followed Zachies.
"THROW that hog, you!" Ham commanded grimly, when they had covered two blocks.
"Nix," Monk refused. "Habeas Corpus is a bloodhog. You know all about bloodhounds, probably, but I'll bet this is the first bloodhog you ever seen - "
"Ugh!" Ham choked. "You'll buy me a new topcoat."
"I'll put that in my will," Monk said.
The quarreling continued, and at points it reached a heat which an unknowing observer would have been sure was to result in a fight. But fireworks never quite came off. As a matter of fact, the quarrel had been going on pretty continuously for years. The two were actually friends in their peculiar way.
Ham now mentioned the name of the archaeologist and geologist of Doc Savage's group - William Harper Littlejohn.
"Where was Johnny tonight?" he demanded.
"Spouting his big words to a bunch of tomb robbers up at the Egyptian room of the museum," Monk said. "He should be due back at headquarters about now."
Ham attempted to kick the pig, Habeas Corpus.
"Cut that out!" Monk gritted.
"I'll cut his tail off right back of his ears, if he don't stop trying to chew on my shoes!" Ham snarled.
That quarrel lasted them until Dove Zachies, who had taken a taxicab, alighted from his hack far uptown. Zachies was evidently making sure that no single cab driver should take him all the way to where he was going, because he flagged a second taxi.
That one took him up into Westchester County, where there were many palatial estates. Zachies dismissed the hack, walked to the entrance of an estate, one encircled by a tall stone fence, and let himself through a massive iron gate.
Monk, Ham and the pig, Habeas, were close on his trail. Monk carried a leather hand bag which he had taken from the coupй.
"We gotta get in there," Monk decided. "Let's climb that wall."
"Let us listen at the gate first," Ham suggested.
They crept forward. When very near the gate, they heard voices. One was Dove Zachies, and the other probably the gatekeeper.
"Watch the gate closely," Dove Zachies was saying. "Things are getting very tough. Never mind the wall. No one can climb over that, because there is a fancy burglar alarm - wires strung on top of the wall, so that if any one gets near them, they make a bell ring. It's the latest thing, and it sure works."
"Nobody'll get by me," said a bull-like voice.
Monk and Ham withdrew a safe distance.
"Who wanted to climb the wall?" Ham asked sarcastically.
"Nuts to you," Monk told him. "How we gonna do this?"

Chapter VII. WATERLOO FOR TWO

THE two men pondered in deep silence.
"We might," Ham suggested, "go up to the gate and pretend we had lost our way. The guard might come out to point the correct road. Then we could gang him."
"That guy didn't sound like a bird who would accommodate anybody that much," Monk retorted. "We gotta do better than that."
There were a few clouds in the sky now. It was very dark. Cars, moving swiftly on a distant highway, made long moaning noises. The aroma of spring was in the air. The pig, Habeas, grunted softly.
"I'll kick your gizzard out, hog," Ham gritted.
"Hah!" Monk breathed. "An idea!"
"Treat it gently," Ham advised. "It's in a strange place."
Monk ignored that, and seized Habeas. He pointed the pig's long snout at the gate.
"Bite 'em, pal!" he directed. "Go eat 'em up!"
Habeas trotted off. The night swallowed him completely. Then there was silence, more of it than Monk had expected. The cars on the distant highway seemed nearer, probably because the two men were straining their ears in the night.
Ham said, "I might have known that hog - "
There was a stifled gasp of pain from the gate. A man stamped, cursed, gasped again in pain.
Monk and Ham glided forward.
The guard was stamping around inside the estate, gritting profanity.