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

"I'm not picking on you!" Ham said. "I'm going to simply assassinate you for teaching my Chemistry to chew tobacco and expectorate in my pockets! I've had to sew my pockets shut!"
Chemistry, object of the verbal fray, hunkered on the floorboards of the sedan and kept one eye on Habeas, the pig. Chemistry was probably a monkey, although there might have been room for argument. Except for size, Chemistry was almost a double for the homely chemist, Monk. Chemistry was Ham's pet, acquired not many months before.
The blond girl, "Sandy" Yell, addressed Doc Savage, who was driving, nervously.
"That squabbling is making me jittery," she said.
"You will get used to it," the bronze man suggested.
"But they may hurt each other!"
"They have not yet," Doc said, "and it has gone on for years."
He stopped the sedan in front of the Beaux Artiste and they went in. A clean-looking clerk told them Igor De Faust had a suite on the ninth floor.
"But I'm afraid you won't find Mr. De Faust in," the clerk added.
"No?"
"He had me reserve a plane ticket on the Mexico City plane," explained the clerk. "A short time ago, he left with his baggage, picking up the plane ticket."
"We will have a look at his suite," Doc Savage said.
"Well, I hardly know what to—"
Doc showed him a commission as inspector on the police force. It was an honorary commission which Doc had carried for a long time, but was none the less effective for being honorary. It persuaded the clerk that it was all right for them to go up.
IGOR DE FAUST seemed to be a gentleman of simple tastes. There was some clothing in the closets, and the suits were reserved, the ties not too loud.
Doc Savage got the girl aside and asked, "What did De Faust look like?"
"He had yellow hair," said the girl.
Later, Doc asked the hotel clerk what De Faust had looked like.
"He had yellow hair," declared the clerk.
De Faust was also a slender man of average height, judging from his suits.
Doc Savage, down on all fours, hooked a folded square of paper out from under a divan.
It was a cablegram. It had been sent from Mexico City the day before, was addressed to Igor De Faust, Beaux Artiste Hotel, and read:
OIL PROPERTY PROVEN AND WORTH MILLIONS STOP MAN HERE AFTER IT AND INTENDS APPROACH DOC SAVAGE FOR FINANCIAL AID STOP IMPERATIVE GET DOC SAVAGE OUT OF WAY STOP THEN YOU COME AT ONCE TO MEXICO CITY.
The fact that the cablegram was unsigned was not unusual, since such missives are often sent without a signature.
"I think," said Sandy Yell, "that explains it."
"Sure," Monk agreed. "He played you for a sucker in his scheme to get rid of Doc."
In the bedroom they found a small assortment of tools such as might have been used to put a gun barrel, sawed-off, inside a miniature camera. The tools were neatly oiled and wrapped in protective paper.
"This Igor De Faust must have headed for Mexico City," said the dapper Ham.
They went downstairs when it was evident that the suite held no more information.
Doc asked the clerk, "What air line did De Faust order the ticket upon?"
"Ammex Airways."
Doc Savage went to the telephone and called the Ammex airport.
"Police business," he said. "Can you hold the Mexico City plane? Or has it taken off?"
"There is a Mexico City bus warming up on the runways now," the airport attendant replied. "And we can hold it if this business is very official."
"It is very, very official," Doc said.
THEY made fast time through the city traffic out to the Ammex Airport, which was on Long Island, south shore. Doc's sedan was fitted with a siren, big and loud, and that helped get them through.
That the bronze man had an excellent knowledge of the city was evident from the short-cuts which he selected. An attendant ran to meet them at the airport. The minute he spoke, it was evident he was the one who had been addressed over the telephone.
"Who do you want off the Mexico City ship?" he asked."
A man named Igor De Faust," Doc Savage replied.
The attendant swore. "Why didn't you say so over the telephone?"
"Would that have helped, besides letting the De Faust man know, perhaps, that he was wanted?"
"It would have helped," said the attendant. "For instance, I could have told you that this was the second Mexico City plane. De Faust was a passenger on the first one. It left an hour ago."
Blond Sandy Yell teetered on her heels and remarked, "A nice wild goose chase for nothing."
The dapper Ham scowled at her.
"Doc," he groaned, "we can get the route of that plane and radio the pilot to hold this De Faust at the first landing place."
"We can radio the pilot of the plane and have De Faust himself put under arrest on board," Monk pointed out.
"Don't be silly!" Ham snapped. "We wouldn't want to start trouble on a passenger plane!"
Sandy Yell said, cheerfully, "While you gentlemen argue, I am going to get a bite of breakfast, of which I have had none."
She turned and walked to the airport lunch room. This was a square building, situated on a plot of ground depressingly bare of vegetation. It was a building which could be watched most effectively, so Doc Savage and his aides let the young woman go.
"Country sausage, two eggs, buttered toast and a telephone," Sandy Yell told the waitress in the lunch room.