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

The gun slammed again. Monk emitted a piercing scream, a cry such as a man might give in the throes of violent death. Then there was silence.
The silence did not last long. There was a flurry of blows. Awful blows. They sounded as if a stake maul was beating a quarter of beef. A body fell.
Monk said, "You missed me farther the second time, you dope! I like guys like you! Easy to deceive!"
Other guns banged. Feet came running toward Doc. One man. The tread was a peculiar shuffle and skip which went with Monk's squatty physique and bowed legs. The homely chemist came close.
"Monk," Doc said.
"Boy, oh boy!" Monk chuckled. "Have I been having me a time! What makes this place so dark? It ain't night."
"Windows curtained," said the bronze man. "How did you get away?"
"Some lug came and opened the door enough to let my fist out," Monk said. "He fell over and me and Ham barged out."
"Where's Ham?"
"I told him which way to run and it made him mad, so he ran the other way," Monk explained. "Here I am and no telling where he is."
THERE was more shooting. A lone bullet came down the corridor.
"This way," Doc said.
They ran on tiptoes and opened a door. This room was lighted by sunbeams stringing in through a tall window at the opposite end.
A man stood outside this tall window, his back braced against a porch railing, holding a submachine gun at a level with his waist. When he saw Doc and Monk, the gun opened up.
Glass fell out of the window. Doc and Monk separated. Doc picked up a chair crossing the room, to one side of the window, where the gunner could not see them. The fellow was driving short bursts through the window, nervously.
It had not occurred to him that his bullets might go through the wall of the house itself, the construction of which was not overly thick. But he would think of that soon.
Doc swung the chair through the window without showing himself. The gunner cried out just as the chair hit him. Doc glanced through the window and saw the fellow's heels sliding out of sight over the porch railing.
"Humpty Dumpty fell off his wall," Monk said, cheerfully. "Say, Doc, just what has happened, anyway?"
"The twenty men found in the convicts' cells seem to have organized a raiding party," Doc said.
Chapter 11. THE WORD TWISTER
THERE was swearing below the window, where the man with the machine gun had fallen. He had evidently taken quite a spill, since this portion of the house, which faced the Potomac, was high, due to the downward slope of the ground. Sounds indicated other men were running toward him.
"Hadn't we better do something?" Monk wanted to know.
Doc said, "We will try to find my gadget vest where that chap Landerstett removed it."
"Wherever that guy is, I bet he's talking," Monk grunted, and followed the bronze man.
It was surprising that they got through the house without being sighted or shot at, for the place seemed to be alive with the raiders. Once they came to a window, and through it could see a large hole blown in the ground beside one of the neat, white outbuildings. The outbuilding was no longer neat and white, but a wreck.
"They blew that hole there," Monk muttered. "But why?"
Doc indicated pipes and a liquid which was pouring into the hole.
"They blew up the pipes which carried the poison into the lawn sprinkling system," he pointed out.
"Oh!" Monk looked wise. "Then they had been here before. They knew how things were fixed."
Doc did not reply, but entered the room where Max Landerstett had placed the articles taken from Doc Savage and his two aides when he had searched them. The bronze man scooped up the vest with many pockets holding his scientific gadgets.
"I'll take Ham's stuff," grunted Monk. "We'll run into the strong-headed shyster around here somewhere. I hope he gets pushed around some by these guys, though. Running off like that because I told him which way to go!"
Monk sounded worried, and was plainly talking because he was afraid something had happened to the dapper Ham.
Doc slipped into the vest and stripped the zipper fastening shut. The foundation of the vest was a light chain mail of a metal alloy of remarkable strength. It would stop anything short of a modern military rifle bullet with an armor-piercing cap.
Monk was also slipping into a bulletproof undergarment. He draped Ham's bulletproof vest over an arm.
"Now I'm really ready to go to town," he said.
They eased over to a window, looked out. The window faced the Potomac, and the scene looked calm. The waves caused the flashy cabin cruiser to snub gently at her springlines.
Monk began, "She's a nice-looking boat, but—"
Doc caught his arm.
"Huh?" Monk gulped.
Doc pointed, saying nothing.
Monk peered, saw. "The girl!"
Sandy Yell was prone in the shrubbery, crawling furtively across the lawn and doing a very good job of it. They would not have seen her at all, except for a tiny open space which she had to cross.
"I don't see her pal, Mister Talking Machine Landerstett," Monk muttered.
"You'll have to follow her," Doc said, and began opening the window.
"Me?" Mohk gulped. "But Ham is—"
"You," Doc told him. "I will do my best about Ham."
Monk said earnestly, "Believe it or not, I'd give my right eye if Ham don't get killed!" He eased out of the window and crouched in the shrubbery below.
"But I hope he gets his socks whipped off!" he added, and crawled away, following the girl.
Doc Savage remained where he was, just inside the window. Monk was taking no small chance, and if he were discovered, Doc intended to divert some of the attention in an effort to enable the homely chemist to get to safety.
But they did not discover Monk.