"056 (B028) - Repel (The Deadly Dwarf) (1937-10) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Doc added, "He seems to have had a partner in most of his crimes. A man named Stage Chinkins, alias some others. Stage got his name because he was once a ham actor."
"I wonder," Monk pondered aloud, "if Stage Chinkins is around here, too?"
DOC had asked Renny and Johnny and the girl to meet him with Monk and Ham at the Fan Coral City municipal dock, and the trio were on hand. Johnny was about to burst over something he had just learned. He used small words, and whirled his monocle around a finger by its ribbon, as he did when perturbed.
"This young lady"—he whirled his monocle at the girl—"is a journalist!"
"A free-lance feature writer," the young lady corrected. "My name is Alberta Mantle, and I came here to cover the volcano for the American Journal of Geological Science."
Johnny looked startled. "The American Journal of Geological Science! Why didn't you say so? That takes you out of the class of ordinary reporters. You have to be a crack geologist to write for that."
"I am a crack geologist," the girl, announced.
"Prove it," Johnny requested. "What are some varieties of chalcedony?"
"The forms of agates and onyxes," said the girl.
"Correct."
The young woman looked at Doc Savage rather warmly. "I know your abhorrence of publicity. But I do not write stories of sensationalism for the newspapers. I am a scientific writer. I wish you would let me stay with you and work along with you until this mystery is solved."
Doc was silent, no expression on his remarkable bronze features. Homely Monk waited anxiously. Monk was very much susceptible to femininity. Almost any one would have been susceptible to this young woman.
"I think that'd be all right, Doc," Monk ventured hopefully.
"It probably will be," Doc said. "Yes, Miss Mantle, you can stay with us."
"Thank you very much," said the young lady sweetly.
Big-fisted Renny looked somewhat dazed. It was a rare occasion when Doc Savage had ever let an outsider join them. Renny, however, was not averse to the idea.
Alberta Mantle struck him as a touch that could dress up any mystery.
Doc Savage now approached a group of uniformed men on the end of the wharf. They were officers off a cruise ship which had put in at Fan Coral during a South Sea tour to give the passengers the unusual privilege of seeing a volcano in eruption. The bronze man spoke with the captain for some time. That individual hastily put out to his ship.
When he came back shortly it was in a roomy lifeboat equipped with a Diesel motor.
"You are welcome to use this as long as you wish," the captain said.
Monk scratched his head. "How'd Doc manage to promote that so sudden?"
Ham said, "I don't know, you missing link, but I have a hunch Doc owns a slice of that steamship company."
Monk did not look surprised.
Big-fisted Renny looked at the power lifeboat. "What're we doin' with this, Doc?"
"Diving for that thing which came down into the sea in the lava," the bronze man replied.
"Holy cow! How about Long Tom? We gotta find him!"
"Diving for the mystery thing," Doc said, "is probably the quickest way of learning what did happen to Long Tom."
Renny dropped his eyes to his enormous fists soberly. Did that mean the unknown horror had taken Long Tom into the sea? He did not ask. He didn't care about hearing what the answer might be.
MONK and Ham were not very happily surprised to discover they had been delegated to remain ashore, on the rim of the cliff over which the stream of lava flowed into the sea.
"Merely watch for anything that might be interesting," Doc suggested.
Then the bronze man eyed the young woman thoughtfully. "You had best remain with Monk and Ham. No telling what will happen when we dive after that thing."
"But I want a close contact with what you do!" Alberta Mantle said.
"The boat may be destroyed, and we may be drowned. I can assure you that might readily happen. There is a great deal more danger connected with this, probably, than any of us have dreamed."
"I am not afraid," the girl declared.
"You will stay with Monk and Ham," Doc said with finality.
Monk and Ham began to look more cheerful.
Long, thin Johnny was sober. Doc Savage had intimated there was more danger than any of them thought. Johnny did not think Doc had sounded as though he were exaggerating. The bronze man had seemed serious.
Johnny, who was a student and inclined to meditate, chanced to drift off to one side by himself. The others did not particularly notice.
Nor did they notice when Johnny fell to watching Doc Savage's hands steadily.
The bronze man was standing where only Johnny could see his hands. His metallic fingers were moving swiftly, forming letters in the deaf-and-dumb alphabet. The bronze man and his aids had all mastered that method of conversation.
Johnny eventually went over to a sack of copra and sat down. He sighed a number of times, wiped his forehead, opened and shut his mouth. He got up finally and shuffled over to the others.
"I'm—sick," he said weakly.
"Huh?" Monk barked. "Maybe you been poisoned?"
Johnny shook his head, then held it with both hands. "No. To tell the truth, I made a silly mistake. There is a candy bar Monk invented, one with a chemical in it which keeps you from going to sleep. Monk will probably make a fortune selling it to truck drivers who make long hauls. I had several bars of what I thought was candy in my pocket, and ate them, but they turned out to be Monk's stuff. It's made me as sick as a dog."
"It wouldn't if you hadn't made a hog outta yourself!" Monk said indignantly. "But it won't do anything serious."
"I'm sick!" Johnny groaned. "I cannot go with you. I'm going to the hotel."
"Renny and myself can manage the diving," Doc said quietly.
DOC SAVAGE and his men had come to Fan Coral Island in one of the bronze man's giant speed planes, which was anchored out in the harbor, among a number of yachts and other airships. The didoes of Ethel's Mama had made Fan Coral Island a popular place. Doc's plane bore no distinguishing marks, and it had been mistaken for another commercial craft.
Doc and Renny drew alongside the plane in the borrowed power lifeboat to get diving gear. Doc, when he went far from his New York headquarters, took a remarkably complete equipment. Everything he would need, as nearly as possible.
The diving gear consisted of suits of light waterproof fabric backing a featherweight alloy chain mail which would discourage the teeth of any eels, barracudas or sharks that might want to test their appetites with a man.