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

TO POLICE
They knew him well and favorably, it seemed. He had once served as instructor in the New York police school, had even been a policeman, and was now a big-time consulting criminologist, one of the practical kind, not a student of theory. Mear was being sought, because his safety was feared for.
POSSIBLE MOTIVE
Maybe crooked enemies made by Mear in the course of his crime-combating activities, had made off with him. But why had they sent a young army for the purpose?
Doc Savage put the newspapers down.
"Have you a prognostication concerning identity of the raiders?" big-worded Johnny suggested.
"The Roar Devil's men," Doc said.
"I think so, too." Johnny frowned. "But what about the girl?"
"She fled," Doc said. "Or Mear sent her away. You recall that he spoke to her, and she left just after he turned us loose."
"She was working for Mear," Johnny murmured, forgetting his big words in his gloom. "I wonder if she was working for the Roar Devil, too?"
"Time may tell," Doc replied.
Johnny grimaced.
"I hope time tells what is behind this. There must be something big at stake. Those fellows were desperate, not afraid of killing. Criminals don't stage things like that in this day, unless they have plenty of reason. And where are Monk and Ham?"
"And Renny," Doc said. "I telephoned Powertown. Renny walked out of the Powertown Municipal Office Building after pointing out that some one had been eavesdropping on the meetings. He has not been seen since."
"What about the eavesdropper?"
"A young woman named Retta Kenn who answers the description of the girl who was with V. Venable Mear," Doc said. "That information came from the hotel in Powertown where she was doing her listening-in."
"I doubt if we ever see her again," Johnny grumbled. "Maybe she was killed in all of that shooting at Mears place."
Knuckles tapped the door. Doc opened the panel.
Retta Kenn came in, and bumped her nose against the sheet of transparent bulletproof glass.
"I'LL be superamalgamated!" gasped Johnny.
Retta Kenn ran her hands over the glass panel and did not find a way past it.
"I thought V. Venable had all of the silly gadgets in the world," she said. "How do you pass this thing - or don't you?"
Doc Savage looked at her closely. He had studied psychology most of his life. He knew all of the character traits of men and could spot the small things which tell whether a man is honest or not, whether he is friend or foe. He could tell an average criminal at a glance, and usually spotted the cleverest of men in a short time.
He could not with certainty tell the first thing about a woman, and he knew it.
He lifted Johnny's machine pistol from its holster, held it in the general direction of the girl, and brought her in. He walked her directly to the laboratory and stood her in front of a large screen. He turned a switch.
A big mechanical box behind the girl began to buzz. Doc walked around on the other side of the screen.
It was a big X-ray machine, and the skeleton of the girl stood out beautifully on the fluoroscope screen. A gun showed just above her left knee.
The gun was probably shoved into the top of a stocking.
"It is common practice to examine bombs in that way," Doc said dryly.
"Well, I like that!" she snapped, suddenly understanding what he had done.
"Is the gun necessary?" he asked.
She hesitated. "Maybe not here."
She handed it over.
"Now," Doc said. "What is it?"
Her voice sounded as if she were thrilled - not in a cheerful way, as if she were enjoying herself, but as if she were getting an enormous kick out of things, and would do the same thing over again if she had the chance.
She seemed about to answer, but it chanced that Johnny walked in front of the X-ray and the girl was in a position where she could view the fluoroscopic screen.
"You don't look much different," she told the incredibly gaunt Johnny.
"Why are you here?" Doc Savage repeated.
"Help for V. Venable," she said. "He needs it. I want you to find him. I think the Roar Devil has him. And I want you to catch Dove Zachies for me."
"All right," Doc Savage told her. "But we'll start with something else."
"With what?"
"With what is behind all this."
"I'll tell you," Retta Kenn said.
"WHO is the Roar Devil?" Johnny demanded.
"Somebody who can shake the earth," the girl said. "Somebody who can stop all sound. Somebody who has a vast organization of desperate criminals at his command."
"His name," Doc suggested.
"My friend, I'd like very well to know that myself," Retta Kenn replied.
"Imperspicuousity," said Johnny.
"I went to school," the girl snapped. "But they didn't have that word."
"Clear as mud," Johnny translated. "I am referring, of course, to the fact that you do not know - "