"061 (B050) - Devil on the Moon (1938-03) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

the girl cried.
"Yes." The green man's voice was weak.
"You disappeared two years ago!" The girl bit her lips. "But you look so—so much older."
Agony made the green man's lips peel. "I am thirty-one."
Bob Thomas realized the man looked fifty at least. The fellow seemed to be getting worse.
"I have been on the moon!" he screamed suddenly.
BOB THOMAS sniffed skeptically. Then he turned to the girl. But Lin Pretti was stark rigidity from head to foot.
The green man stirred weakly, moaned.
"Have you got a knife?" he croaked.
"Knife?" Lin Pretti looked puzzled. "No."
The green man's hollow eyes sought Bob Thomas. "Have you?"
"Er—not much of a one," Bob Thomas said, showing his knife, a tiny thing on the end of his watch chain.
"Give it to me!" the green man ordered.
Curious to see what the fellow wanted with the knife, Bob Thomas unhooked the tiny blade. He opened it for the man.
The green man twisted, got at his left leg, inserted the blade, and opened the green cloth. The ridge of a healed wound was revealed.
"If you're squeamish, you had better turn around," he said to the girl.
Lin Pretti quickly faced the other way.
The green man had courage. A moment later his shaking fingers were wiping the object he had excavated.
The object was a dark-blue, glasslike cylinder less than half an inch in diameter and no more than two inches long. The glasslike substance was too blue to reveal what was inside.
"Here is what—we were after," the green man said. Lin Pretti took the cylinder.
"I understand," she said queerly.
The green man pointed toward the inlet. "Go down there and look," he ordered. "It will be interesting."
"We'd better do it, Bob," Lin Pretti said quietly.
Bob Thomas reached reluctantly for the flashlight, and they ran toward the inlet. Bob kept roving the flashlight beam. The bushes were small and thick. When they finally stood on the shore of the inlet, its glassy surface seemed to mock them. Reflection of clouds and stars created an eerie mural on the surface of the water.
There was nothing to be found. They did a good job of searching.
"Queer he'd ask us to come down here," Bob Thomas muttered.
When they went back to where they had left the green man, he was gone.
Chapter II. STRANGE MEN AND STRANGE QUESTIONS
UNEXPECTED absence of the green man was such a shock that Bob Thomas extinguished his flashlight. He could not have explained just why, unless it was a feeling of some terror lurking. Now and then a disturbed bird made a fluttering noise in the brush. Cloud images on the bay resembled monsters and seemed to crawl over the tiny light points of the stars.
"He tricked us!" Bob Thomas muttered.
The girl said nothing.
Bob Thomas pointed his flashlight beam at the ground. Faint bloodstains could be distinguished where the green man had lain. "He was hurt too bad to have gone far. We'll hunt him."
"No!" the girl gasped. She took hold of the young man's arm. "Please, Bob—we've got to leave here," she said wildly.
And because he was in love with her, he followed her. They reached the top of the hill and started down toward the Spanish Plantation before he spoke.
"Lin," he said sharply, "what is this all about?"
The girl walked faster. "Please, Bob! You mustn't ask questions!"
Bob Thomas turned the flashlight on Lin Pretti's face. He saw so much fear that it shocked him. He had thought the girl sounded scared; he had not expected such utter terror. Bob Thomas's skin began to feel as if it wanted to crawl. He suddenly knew there was some incredible terror here, something hidden, something he did not see.
"That stuff about the moon—" Bob Thomas demanded suddenly. "What did the fellow mean?"
The girl shook her head slowly. "You would not understand, Bob."
"You're in trouble!" Bob Thomas grumbled. "I should have known that much when you asked me to investigate Doc Savage."
The girl stopped.
"Oh, that!" She shook her head. "That had nothing to do with this. I was just—just curious."
"Do you have to lie to me?"
The young woman threw up her chin and seemed about to fling something biting. Instead, she whirled and ran toward the Spanish Plantation. She flounced inside and slammed the door behind her.
Bob Thomas, his expression more puzzled than hurt, started to open the door. Then he reconsidered. His car, a small coupй, was parked in the nearby lot. He got behind the wheel, tore the top off a package of cigarettes and sat and smoked thoughtfully. After about ten minutes, an idea occurred to him, and he seized his flashlight and got out of the car.
He was going to hunt the green man.
Topping the ridge, he was surprised to see a light moving down near the bay, where he had last seen the green man. When he saw who was using the light, Thomas stopped very still.
Lin Pretti! The girl was removing the bloodstains where the green man had been!
Watching her, Bob Thomas was again impressed by her terror. In fact it was catching. Bob Thomas put a finger inside his collar as if it was tight and was choking his Adam's apple, then rubbed his forehead in puzzlement. His brain would not accept such insanities as the dying man in green had revealed to him and Lin Pretti. And as for being on the moon, that too was ridiculous!
Bob Thomas knew Lin Pretti well enough to believe that she did not scare easily. And yet she was utterly frightened. He wondered what he should do. If he accosted her now, she would be angry. And he doubted if she would answer any questions.