"054 (B089) - Ost (The Magic Island) (1937-08) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

The man on the ground was the eminent archaeologist, geologist and Doc Savage aid, William Harper Littlejohn.
The big man carried both Johnny and Lupp and left the vicinity.
After a while, Johnny revived enough to say, "I'll be superamalgamated!"
Chapter VII. THE BRONZE MAN
JOHNNY let the exclamation, his favorite and the one he used on all possible occasions, suffice until he had gotten his head cleared. Then he did some thinking. The cogitation led him to making a mistake, as it sometimes does.
He hauled off and tried to knock the big man carrying him senseless. He did not quite succeed. But he did cause the big fellow to fall down with his double burden.
"Johnny!" said the big man reproachfully.
"Doc Savage!" Johnny exploded.
"Yes," said the remarkable individual who had been first a pigeon-eyed sailor, then an eminent psychiatrist from Vienna and Berlin.
"An indefeasible eventuation—I mean, I didn't know it was you!" Johnny gulped.
Johnny was addicted to his amazing words on most occasions, but when he was alone with Doc Savage, he did not use them.
For Johnny, it was a marked token of respect to the bronze man, or possibly he was afraid of misusing some of his tongue-twisters, which it was to be suspected he did occasionally, although no one had ever caught him.
"What happened?" Doc Savage queried.
"Well," Johnny said dizzily, "you disguised yourself as a sailor this afternoon and entered the hospital to talk to Ben Brasken. You left Long Tom, Renny and myself posted around the hospital grounds to watch for anything suspicious. Then—"
"With a reference to a moment ago," Doc put in. "What occurred?"
"I heard somebody cutting the wires of that fence, ran to the spot, and got the most beautiful knock on the head I ever received," Johnny said.
"You feel all right?"
"Not all right. Not by a long shot. But I think I'll live."
"Can you walk?"
"I might run if I had to," Johnny admitted.
They walked quickly through the gloomy streets, Doc Savage carrying Lupp.
Johnny had a flashlight on his person. He turned it on Lupp.
"I'll be superamalgamated!" he exclaimed. "His con-naturalness of physiognomy—I mean, he is the guy Monk and Ham described as being in the car with the Oriental and Kit Merrimore in New York!"
"Yes," Doc Savage agreed. "And the Oriental was the same one who just knocked you out."
"Ouch!" Johnny felt the back of his head where he had been struck. "What does it all mean?"
"Ben Brasken is evidently the key," Doc Savage said. "They carried him off to get him in a spot where he would not be questioned, is my guess."
"You think Ben Brasken could tell us what all the shooting is about?"
"An examination of him might be of assistance, would be a more accurate way of putting it."
"Well, we should not have much trouble finding him," said Johnny.
The gaunt geologist had been a little flippant for a few moments, which was vastly unlike his usual self. It must have been some after effect of the blow, or perhaps his real nature had loosened up for a moment and asserted itself. At any rate, he was getting his dignity back now.
"What do you mean 'no trouble finding Ben Brasken'?" Doc queried.
"Long Tom and Renny were left at the hospital with myself," Johnny said.
"Of course."
"Well, we saw them carry off Ben Brasken. Long Tom and Renny followed them. They should find where Brasken was taken."
DOC and Johnny reached a car. This was a rented machine which Doc Savage had secured for their use. The bronze man drove, heading for his hotel.
Johnny seemed to have a headache by now. He held his rather large cranium and muttered. "It would seem that our elaborate precautions to let no one know we were coming to San Francisco, as well as your entering the hospital in disguise, were wasted."
Doc reminded, "The disguise was largely to avoid public attention and newspaper notice. Too much publicity for us would not only point out to any possible enemies what we were doing, but it would draw down a swarm of well-meaning amateur detectives which would hamper us."
"Circumstantiality indistinguishable—er—to say nothing of the flood of imaginary and worthless clues which would descend upon us," Johnny said.
The fake Ben Brasken—Lupp, if that was his name—stirred feebly.
"He seems to be drugged," Johnny remarked. "How did it happen?"
By the time Doc Savage had explained the needle in the beard, and touched briefly on the fundamental urge which seems to dwell within every human being to grab the whiskers of a foe, immediately he gets in a fight with one, they had reached the hotel.
"Women apparently are driven irresistibly to seize hair when in a conflict," Doc expounded. "A beard seems to offer the same temptation to a man."
They drove into an alley at the rear of the hotel. From this, access could be had to the freight elevator without disturbing the hotel guests. The elevator operator looked deaf, dumb and blind as he took them up.
Johnny spoke when they were carrying Lupp down the corridor to Doc's room.
"Long Tom and Johnny were going to report to the hotel here when they found where Ben Brasken was taken," he said. "But I wonder if it was the best idea to let them take Ben Brasken away?"
"By trailing these men who seized Ben Brasken, we may be able to find their headquarters, and by eavesdropping or planting hidden microphones, learn what is back of this excitement," Doc explained.
Johnny nodded. "I hope Long Tom or Johnny has reported. If they have, it will be attached to that photographic recording device we left in the room, hooked to the telephone."
They reached their room.
Doc and Johnny entered with their captive.
Pale, undersized Long Tom and big-fisted Renny stood in the room. Long Tom looked gloomy. Renny looked moderately cheerful, which was bad, considering that the better things went, the more gloom he would register.