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

He said out of one side of his mouth, "Who yez mugs t'ink yer kiddin'? Gwan! Drag yer freight 'fore I pop yez one in de feed hole!"
With that the bony fellow shuffled off, keeping a wary eye on the black sky and its occasional lava rock hailstone.
Snowball Eagan scoffed at his companion. "An eminent archaeologist and geologist, was he?"
The other journalist grinned sheepishly.
"Well—hell, everybody can make a mistake. Buy you a drink on this."
They had a round of Fan Coral toddy, so-called. It was a local beverage. The newshawks had taken to claiming that a native had fallen down and broken a bottle of the Toddy on the side of Ethel's Mama, hence the eruption.
SNOWBALL EAGAN broke away after a time. He walked around until he was sure he was alone. Then he turned up at a bungalow by itself on a closely clipped lawn. He did not enter. He stood under a window and whistled twice, one long and one short.
A muffled, worried voice said from inside, "For the love of mud! Has your disguise flopped so quick?"
"Pipe down, Bert," Snowball Eagan said in a low tone. "Nobody is going to find me out. I used to be a newspaperman, and that makes it a cinch to put this across."
"But what if they find the real Snowball Eagan's body?"
"They won't identify it if they do. The hair and the right hand are gone. I burned them. My hair is dyed like Eagan's. And these patches on my hand are like those Eagan always wore over the bullet hole in his hand that never healed."
"I didn't like the idea of killing Eagan. These coppers here are tough babies to fool around with. You'd better watch your step!"
"What the hell! Eagan was just a newspaper bum headed over here. I had to skip Shanghai. The cops had me covered everywhere. And taking this Eagan's place was my only sure-fire chance of getting here. It's a good thing you got out of Shanghai before they got wise to us."
"We've been over that before," the voice inside said. "Have you decided how we're gonna work this?"
"That's what I came here about," said the fake Snowball Eagan. "As you know, I've been a bit doubtful. I haven't been plumb sure that volcano has coughed up what I think it has. But now I know."
"How come?"
"Because the big time has gotten interested in it."
"Big time? Whatcha mean?"
"Doc Savage. I just saw one of his helpers."
No sound came from within the bungalow for such a long interval that Snowball Eagan leaned closer and said, "Well?"
"I wonder if you've gone crazy?" asked the one inside.
"Is a crack like that necessary?"
"Something is necessary to bring you back to your right mind. Don't you know this Doc Savage's reputation?"
The rascal calling himself Snowball snorted. "Scotland Yard has a rep, too. What did it get them?"
"The Yard is different. They're just police. Doc Savage is—is—isn't quite human. He has some incredible scientific disguises, from what I've heard. And he's put in his life chasing crooks around. From what I hear, not many of them got away."
Snowball started breathing through his nose. He was angry.
"Don't give me an argument!" he gritted.
There was another long silence from inside. "All right."
There was fear in the voice inside.
Snowball said, "We're goin' to work on this Doc Savage right away. If he's down there after the same thing we're after, we'll have to do things about it."
"And what do you think you'll do?"
"I guess Doc Savage and his gang will have to wake up dead," Snowball Eagan growled.
Chapter 2. THE MAN OF MIGHT
SIX little brown tents were pitched in a row under a huge rock on one side of Mount Ettilusamauma. The rock overhung and sheltered the tents. The sea was half a mile west and two thousand feet in the direction the old-time preachers claimed Hades would be found. The top of Ettilusamauma was four miles east, seven thousand feet up, and it looked as if Hades were up there instead of down below.
Tongues of flame, some apparently at least a mile long, went lunging up into the sky. Dust, smoke and rocks came whizzing out. And the crater was boiling over in one place, where a great lava river flowed.
This lava made a red snake down the mountainside, passing within four hundred yards of the six little brown tents, then ran into the sea. Where it entered the sea, it was making almost as much steam as Ethel's Mama was making smoke.
Two small boats carrying motion picture cameramen were fooling around the steam. A plane was flying up and down over the lava river; another cameraman was leaning over the cockpit edge with his movie machine.
The tall man who used the big words, the long bag of bones who had been nearly brained by the lava rock in town, came out of the scorched jungle and approached the tents. Finding no one there he walked toward the lava stream.
Before long, he came in sight of what at first might have been mistaken for an ape lying on its back, holding a smoking cloth to its forehead. The bony man approached.
"Hello, Monk," he said. "Where's Doc?"
The individual on the ground sat up. He was nearly as broad as he was tall, his face was mostly mouth, and he was covered with hair which resembled rusty shingle nails. He held the smoking towel in first one hand, then the other.
"Hyah, Johnny!" he squeaked in a voice that might have belonged to a small child. "What's wrong?"
Johnny pointed a bony finger at the smoking towel. "What's that?"
"Dry ice of a new kind that I invented, and which is all that's keepin' me alive in this place. Brother, is it hot over by that rock river! What's wrong?"
Johnny said, "What makes you think something is wrong?"
"You're usin' little words, professor. Something has to happen to make you do that."
"Two newspaper reporters recognized me in town," Johnny explained. "I think I fooled them. But later, while I was finishing up my shopping, I saw a man trailing me. He was one of these natives. I think I gave him the slip. But Doc won't like this. He wanted our visit here kept secret."
"That last has been eatin' on me," Monk announced. "Why the secrecy? Why the hurry to get here? What's up, anyhow?"
"Why not ask Doc?"
Monk grinned. When he did this, most of his homely face became grim.