"048 (B074) - The Derrick Devil (1937-02) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"Not everything!" Reservoir corrected. "And where there's smoke, there's sometimes fire."
"You actually believe such an insane theory?" the girl asked.
"'Now look," Reservoir grinned wryly. "Don't be so tough on your old partner."
The girl got up and paced. "But it's impossible! It's too ridiculous!"
She paced some more, stopped, reached for the cards, and absently turned over the top one. It was a king.
"Reservoir!" she said suddenly. "Did you ever hear of Doc Savage?"
RESERVOIR HILL sat in the chair, tilted it against the wall and balanced the rifle across his knees.
"I guess there ain't many who ain't heard of that fellow. Once I heard that fellow was going to stop his plane for fuel in Tulsa, and I drove up from Okmulgee, hell-bent for election just to see him. Me, who wouldn't cross the road to see Adam eat the apple."
"Did you see Doc Savage?"
"Nope, He had come and gone."
"But you know Savage's reputation, don't you?" Reservoir Hill eyed his rifle. "I know that he has invented a type of drilling bit that I think is gonna come into general use. I've also heard that a lot of geologists use his theories."
"Do you know what his real business is?"
Reservoir Hill wet his lips, did not lift his eyes from the rifle, and said nothing.
The girl continued, "Doc Savage's life work is supposed to be the righting of wrongs, the aiding of oppressed, and fighting crooks whom the law cannot bring to justice."
"I read that somewhere," Reservoir admitted. "I wondered how he made it pay."
"Doc Savage would probably be interested in this."
Reservoir Hill sniffed. "He wouldn't touch a thing so small!"
Outdoors, a man screamed. He was some distance away. His first scream sounded as if it took out some of his throat lining.
In grabbing her rifle off the table, the girl knocked the saucer ash tray to the floor and it broke. She and Reservoir Hill ran outside.
"That squawk was over toward the wildcat derrick!" Reservoir yelled.
They ran in that direction. Before long, they heard a hideous growling and snarling, sounds loud and utterly ferocious.
Enoch Andershott appeared suddenly. He charged toward them.
"Help!" he squawled. "It tried to kill me!"
It was his voice which had screamed.
He reached Reservoir Hill and the girl and grabbed them both at once.
"A damned jelly thing flowing along the ground!" he screamed. "It almost caught me!"
"Hell!" Reservoir Hill ran toward the oil derrick, holding his inefficient flashlight.
The giant black dog with the fangs came unexpectedly out of the brush, and stalked, snorting, toward Reservoir Hill. Hill spun madly, and beat the dog back to the girl and Enoch Andershott.
"Heel, Whitey!" screamed Andershott, and the dog stopped.
"Keep that durn man-eater here!" growled Reservoir Hill and went back with his flashlight and rifle to search in the darkness.
It was almost fifteen minutes before he finished. "Couldn't find it," he said. "There's another one of them slimy trails coming out of the well casing. It goes around through the brush and back again."
THE giant black dog made hideous slobbering and snarling noises. It had been making them steadily.
Enoch Andershott shuddered. "I was p-prowling around your lease because I didn't believe your story! This thing g-g-got after me! I r-ran!"
"An' didn't fall down!" Reservoir Hill said, gloomily.
Enoch Andershott did not resent the insult. For a man who affected a rugged pioneer air, he looked scared.
"Want us to accompany you to your cabin?" the girl asked.
"If you would!" Enoch Andershott said, gratefully.
Reservoir Hill sniffed.
The cabin on the Andershott and Cugg lease was the customary type. The living room held one rocking chair and only six kitchen chairs. There were no cards on the table. An old pipecap served as an ash tray, and a newspaper was folded so that black headlines showed. The headlines said:
OUTLAW "TOMAHAWK" TANT TRAPPED
POSSES SURROUND ELUSIVE BADMAN
Not much more of the story was readable, because some one had spilled coffee on the paper.
Alonzo Cugg gave them a meaningless stare. Enoch Andershott grunted fiercely at them, having regained his courage. The black dog showed long teeth.
Reservoir Hill said, as he and Vida went back to their own lease, "Fine thanks, we got!"
The girl went into a tiny room that evidently served the Sands-Hill-Carlaw partnership as an office. There was an old country-style telephone beside the desk. She gave the hand ringer a crank.
"Get me Doc Savage, in New York City," she said into the mouthpiece.
"Viddy!" Reservoir Hill yelled. "What crazy thing you gonna do?"
"It has suddenly dawned on me that this mystery is serious!" the girl said, grimly. "I am going to get it solved!"
"Wait a minute!" Reservoir Hill yelled. "I don't think—"
"I want to talk to Doc Savage," the girl said into the telephone.