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

"Man up there now checkin' them over," the man said. "They're fixed to open a big gas container. The gas will roll down here in the canyon because it's heavier'n air, and it'll get Savage and your other pal."
Monk gargled angrily.
"You ain't the only scientist around here," said the man.
Then the fellow paused to watch the plane. It had come droning back and swooped almost overhead. The pilot seemed to be using binoculars this time.
Then the pilot began gesturing—his arm moved right, then left—twice to the right, once to the left. It kept moving.
"That fool will tip Savage off!" snapped the girl.
Buddy Baldwin swore and waved his arms angrily.
The plane went away.
"Maybe Savage won't barge into the canyon," some one said doubtfully.
"Sure he will. We'll be farther up, on the cliff, and he can see us."
The man who had examined the apparatus of the trap joined them. They went on.
MONK kept his eyes opened and reached an absolutely unpleasant conclusion. The trap was perfect. The canyon was a bleak place, and with one glance Doc could tell that no one lurked there in ambush. He would certainly walk straight into the photo-electric device beam.
The captors were in a hurry now, so much so that Monk judged Doc and Renny were not far behind. They had had to climb the cliff, of course.
Anxious to delay the flight, Monk started his swinging from side to side again. It was effective, causing the two who carried him to fall down. Then one of them got a rock. Each time Monk swung he got clouted with the rock. It discouraged him.
The caravan reached the opposite end of the canyon. From here they started up a steep slope. There was some jungle here, but not much. They were in the open a good deal.
Doc could see them from below. It would draw him on.
Monk turned his head. He could see straight down to the far end of the canyon.
Doc and Renny were already in view.
The bronze man and the big-fisted engineer were running. Doc was carrying what seemed from that distance to be a box of apparatus.
What followed was over quickly. Doc and Renny did not wear the transparent hoods, so the gas got them almost immediately. It was not a visible gas—not visible from that distance, at least.
Renny went down first, but before he did so he threw back his head and a cry poured from his lips, a grisly scream which raised the hair. When he fell, it was slowly, and he twisted about.
Doc went down next, but without an outcry. Yet once the bronze giant was on the ground, he, too, squirmed slowly; his giant frame tied into a tight bundle at first, then he grew more slack, spread out, seemed to grow larger.
It was as if his giant body were unwinding after the life had left it.
Chapter 9. THE TRAPPER TRAP
THE two Baldwins cracked orders. Monk and Ham were rushed back down the hill to the canyon. They stopped just outside the gash, and the girl opened a small knapsack she was carrying and withdrew what looked like a square of blotting paper and a bottle of blue liquid. She soaked the paper with the liquid, then advanced cautiously into the canyon, watching the paper.
It turned slightly pink.
"The wind has blown most of the gas out!" Bess Baldwin called.
Monk scowled. It was some kind of litmus test for gas, a new one on him. This gang must have somebody who was no scientific slouch.
A moment later they were surrounding Doc Savage. The bronze man was slack, his eyes shut. Renny had both big hands fastened around his own throat.
"Doc!" Monk choked.
The homely chemist gave a mighty flounce. It upset his porters, and he tumbled down almost upon Doc. He hit the ground heavily, clawed to get erect, and his hands dug into a soft place in the ground.
It was only by chance that he happened to be looking at the place where his hands dug in. He saw something metallic, small and bright. It had been freshly buried.
Monk gave another mighty flounce—and covered the buried object again before anybody else saw it.
"Doc!" Monk moaned. "He's dead!"
The men who had carried Monk sprang upon him. They kicked him until they felt better.
Doc and Renny still wore the metal-over-silk diving suits, but had discarded the transparent helmets.
"Be careful with those diving suits," Bess Baldwin ordered. "The chief will be interested in them."
"Good thing they discarded the helmets," a man muttered. "It would 'a' been a heck of a note if they'd been able to walk right through the gas."
They found out how to unfasten the suits, and carefully stripped them off. They got the portable radio loose from Renny's midriff. They worked over the one around Doc's belt. Grunted, strained, and said things when their fingers lost skin and nails. The belt was metal, locked, secure.
"We're gonna have to smash it," one said.
"Don't," directed Bess Baldwin. "Let the radio stay there. It won't do him any good. And the chief will want all those radios. He hasn't anything like them."
A man went over and picked up the case which Doc and Renny had been carrying. That was locked, too. He got a rock, beat at the lock. He made smoke sparks fly, but that was all.
"Let it ride," said the girl. "We do not want to ruin any of Doc Savage's equipment. The chief wants it all. Savage is a mechanical genius."
"Let's roll," ordered Buddy Baldwin.
Monk saw a man looking over the ground for anything that might have been dropped. Instantly, Monk began to kick and flail and hoot through his nose.
They knocked him over the head with a rock, as he had expected they would. It got black.
A MAN had his foot on Monk's stomach and was working it up and down, and some unconscious reflex caused Monk's big lungs to work as a bellows, pumping air in and out. As the air went in and out it made hootings and gobblings, and all the men standing around slapped their hips and held their stomachs and laughed.
"Wake up, evolution!" the man was telling Monk between titters.
Monk opened one small eye and made it mean. The tape was off his mouth. He showed them his teeth. He was still bound hand and foot.
"He's absolutely and positively the funniest-lookin' geezer I ever saw, or I hope my mother paddles me if he ain't!" the man chortled.