"046 (B052) - The Vanisher (1936-12) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"In dying he muttered the name of Doc Savage. For what reason, I do not as yet know. At any rate, this resulted in Doc Savage being called on the scene."
ONE of the convicts got up from the floor where he had been lying. He was noticeably paler than he had been. "We're bucking Doc Savage, and there's a murder rap?"
"Yes."
"Count me out of this!"
"I have taken measures to dispose of Doc Savage for the time being," said the humpback, ignoring the other. "He has been tricked into following a false scent to Mexico City, and by the time he learns he has been tricked, we shall have our plans so far along that even Doc Savage cannot do a thing about it. In fact, Doc Savage's frenzied efforts will only add to the unrest."
"I don't care to be the object of his efforts, frenzied or otherwise!" snapped the man who had gotten scared.
The fellow's recalcitrant attitude appeared to be contagious, because the other crooks began to bristle. There seemed to be nothing much between themselves and freedom but a humpback who did not appear to amount to much.
"Thanks for getting us out of the big clink," one said ironically. "But if you think we're going to buck Doc Savage and especially that—that other—You're as crazy as we think you are! We're blowing!"
The humpback made no effort to retreat or to draw a weapon. The misshapen figure seemed pitifully dwarfed in the face of the grim assemblage.
"I am an alchemist, in a sense," said the humpback. "Or perhaps you might call me a foresighted witch."
"You're a cuckoo!" growled a voice. "Plumb nuts!"
"You were given, a few minutes ago, a black pill apiece," said the humpbacked one. "The pill caused you to revive from a sleep which, if it had continued another two hours, would have resulted in death."
A black-gloved hand groped, brought out the pill sack and presented it.
"You will find in here a single pill as a sample."
"So what?" some one snapped.
"So you will die unless you receive these pills regularly," the hunchback replied, calmly. "You can take my word for that, or you can leave here and find out I am right."
The convicts hesitated. This was something to think about.
"I've heard of the gag being tried before!" one snorted at last. "It's a bluff! He—she—got it out of a book."
"It is not a bluff!
No one but myself has the slightest idea of how those tablets are made up. And do not think you can go to a physician or a chemist and do yourselves any good. None of them are smart enough to help you."
There was a brittle decisiveness about the voice that tended to make the words sound true. The convicts shifted. uncomfortably.
"I took no chances on you walking out on me," said the new master.
JULES R. MCGINNIS said, quietly, "You really think we have a chance against—the organization?"
"I am sure of it," retorted the humpback. "I have a plan. It involves a reign of terror."
"Placing those twenty men in the penitentiary in our places was part of that terrorism plan?"
"It was."
"It will take more than that to whip the organization."
"I have got more than that. Much more."
"Yeah?" said McGinnis skeptically.
"I have," said the misshapen one, "a weapon which is the most incredible and effective thing ever developed."
McGinnis shook his head slowly. "More and more, I am beginning to think your sanity is as distorted as your body. You can't have a weapon which will whip the organization."
The humpback leaned forward suddenly and whispered something. The whisper reached no one but McGinnis.
McGinnis reacted as if he had been hit between the eyes with an invisible hammer. He squinted incredulously, massaged his forehead with his finger tips, filled his lungs with air and let it out slowly.
"That's impossible!" he gulped.
"I can assure you it is entirely possible," said the hunchback levelly. "What do you think of it as a weapon?"
"Incredible!"
"Will it work?"
"It will!" McGinnis stared at the humpback. "Just who are you?"
"That, I am not going to tell you."
"Are you one who has been persecuted by the organization?"
"I am."
"And you have no other motive?
"None."
"Good love!" gulped McGinnis. "I'm glad of that! With this weapon you've got, you could just about take anything in the world that you happened to want!"
The humpback laughed. It was not a very pleasant laugh.
Chapter 7. MUSIC BOX AGAIN
DOC SAVAGE was expressing, almost simultaneously, about the same opinion of the intellect behind the mystery.
"The guiding genius, whoever he or she is, can think quickly," said the bronze man. "The public hardly had the word that I had been involved in the escape of the twenty convicts when the dying guard mumbled my name, and preparations were underfoot to send us off on a wild goose chase after an imaginary oil field, presumably in Mexico."
Doc, Monk and Ham were not on their way to Mexico City. They were in Doc's sedan, rolling through the outskirts of the city.
The blond, Sandy Yell, was with them.