"039 (B073) - The Seven Agate Devils (1936-05) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Doc Savage, inquiring at the desk, learned that their luggage had been taken to a four-room suite on the top floor. They rode the elevator up. Approaching the door of the suite, they began to hear noises.
The noises were of two kinds. One was a squeaking and chattering, almost humanlike. The other sounds were grunts and squeals.
The instant he heard the sounds, Monk looked very indignant.
"That blasted Chemistry!" he growled. "He's picking on Habeas again!"
The dapper Ham looked very cheerful.
They entered the suite.
ABOUT the living room stood numerous stout-looking metal cases and a few hand bags. The metal cases held Doc Savage's equipment—innumerable scientific gadgets which he frequently found occasion to use. The bags, of course, contained their clothing.
"Hey!" Monk howled, and lunged forward. "Blast that Chemistry! I'm gonna make a grease spot outta him!"
Chemistry, it now developed, was a very remarkable-looking tailless monkey—remarkable-looking because of the almost startling resemblance he bore to Monk.
Chemistry belonged to Ham. He had gotten the monkey in South America, in the Republic of Santa Amoza, while on an expedition with Doc Savage.
Chemistry had been tied by a lead chain to a chair leg; but the chain had enough scope to permit him to capture Habeas Corpus. Chemistry was holding Habeas Corpus by one oversize ear and industriously parting the animal's hair as if he expected to find something interesting therein.
Habeas Corpus was Monk's pet pig. Monk had found him in Arabia. Habeas had some qualities of appearance all his own. He had elephantine ears, a tremendous inquisitive nose, a body of no consequence, and legs of amazing length.
"Get your animal away from mine!" Monk yelled, and launched a kick at Chemistry, which missed.
Ham snapped, "Stop that!" and partially unsheathed his sword cane.
Chemistry and Habeas Corpus got along together about as smoothly as did Monk and Ham.
Doc Savage gave no attention to the quarrel of his two aids. They were always squabbling.
From a pocket, Doc brought forth the cover of the telephone book which he had secured in the drug store. It was on this cover that the man who had later died had placed his paper to write the note which the taxi driver had carried away.
Next, Doc Savage opened an equipment case. From it he took a phial of very white powder, which he sprinkled over the directory cover, making an even film. He shook the powder off.
Out of the same case, the bronze man brought a small projector of ultra-violet light. He darkened the room, and played the rays of the ultra-violet projector on the telephone book cover. The results might have surprised one not acquainted with modern scientific detective methods.
Writing became visible in thin lines of fluorescence. They all gathered around to decipher it:
Savage and men told of Safe-deposit Box 1772 at Cinema Trust. Better beat them to it.
The note was unsigned.
Lawyer Montgomery Medwig Pell seemed dumbfounded at the manner in which the latent writing had been brought out, and demanded, "How did you do that?"
"The pencil point pressed the paper fibers together," Doc Savage explained. "The white powder was of a type which glows when subjected to ultra-violet light. That is a common property. Ordinary aspirin has it, among other substances. The powder remains in the depression, in many cases in quantities invisible to the naked eye, and the ultra-violet light brought it out."
Monk growled, "I'm thinking we'd better head for that bank."
"Exactly!" the bronze man said.
THE Cinema Trust Company was not a large bank. It was wedged in among other and bulkier buildings.
Doc Savage led the way into the marble lobby of the bank. Everything seemed normal and sleepy inside. Tellers were in some of the cages. There was a substantial sprinkling of big men in gray uniforms—guards. No doubt the fact that the bank was open at night, increased the likelihood of robbery. Hence the augmented force of guards.
At the far end of the lobby a neon sign said:
SAFEDEPOSIT VAULT
Doc Savage and his party walked under the sign, descended a staircase and were confronted by a guard who stood in front of a grilled wire enclosure. The gate in this was shut. Beyond was the round door of the vault, through which could be glimpsed tiers of deposit boxes.
Doc Savage showed the credentials which lawyer Montgomery Medwig Pell had supplied. The uniformed man considered, frowned over the credentials, then made an entry in a book, and said, "Sign, please."
Doc Savage did so. The guard unlocked the gate.
Obeying a slight gesture from Doc Savage, Monk and Ham were first through the gate. Lawyer Pell trailed them.
Doc Savage did a strange thing before he followed the other three—strange, that is, to any one knowing the bronze man well. Doc drew a pipe from his pocket and clamped the stem between his teeth. The action was strange, simply because the bronze man had never been known to use tobacco.
There was a reason for the pipe. Around its bowl was a ring of brightly polished metal. This, at first glance, seemed a perfectly simple ornament. As a matter of fact, the brightly polished surface of the ring served as a mirror.
By carrying the pipe in his teeth at a jaunty angle, Doc could see most of what went on behind him.
He saw plenty. The uniformed guard had followed them through the gate and locked the gate behind him. He followed them into the vault. There the guard's features changed, became a snarling mask. The fellow turned, seized the heavy vault door, got it closed. Then he turned back, dipping a hand into a pocket for a gun.
Doc Savage went to a knee, got both hands on the uniformed man's ankles, jerked. The fellow crashed on his back to the floor with a loud smack.
The shock made the man's gun go off. The report all but split their ears in the confines of the vault. Dizzily the guard tried to turn the gun muzzle on Doc Savage.
A second gun explosion did not come. Instead, there was a milder report—the brisk crack of Doc Savage's bronze fist contacting the man's jaw. The fellow went to sleep.
"The vault door!" Monk bawled. "We're locked in here!"
Doc Savage had dived forward with amazing agility to land his blow. He continued his dive, straightened, got to the vault door. The thing was equipped in such a manner that, should bank employees be locked in by robbers, they might free themselves.
Doc got the door open.
Outside a gun went off, making a booming sound in the confines of the bank basement. A bullet came through the wire enclosure and into the vault, wailing and whizzing as it ricocheted.
Uniformed men were coming down the stairs toward the safe-deposit vault. More bank guards! They were shooting as they came.
"No!" Doc Savage barked. "Everything is all right now!"
The men in uniforms continued shooting.
"Get that bronze guy!" one of them yelled.
"We're in a trap!" Monk barked. 'Them guys are all here to kill us!"