"067 (B083) - The Red Terrors (1938-09) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Long Tom said, "Now look here, Miss Day, we merely came to see you because we have—"
"Thank you, and I don't want any," interrupted the girl. "It's nice to have met you. Good afternoon! Get out!"
"—we have a problem," Long Tom continued. "Your brother, Harry Day, is supposed to have drowned months ago. And now he seems to be mixed up in a fight with something red—"
The girl jumped.
"
What!"
Long Tom said, "That's the rub. We don't know what."
The girl took a tight handful of her frock over her breasts with her right hand, took a handful of her left cheek with her left hand, and began to walk backward.
Ham said in uneasy apology, "I'm awfully sorry we barged in here like this."
Monk, not to be outdone, added, "If it frightens you so, we'll leave."
Big-fisted, sad-faced Renny, as romantic as a chew of tobacco, said, "Like blazes we'll leave! There's somethin' wrong here!" He took a step forward. "What do you know about this red stuff? What in the name of holy cows is this all about?"
The girl began to shake.
"You say—my brother—something red?" She was incoherent.
Renny frowned. "I see you know somethin' about it!"
The girl looked at the floor. Her eyes selected a spot and focused, and she fell toward the spot, stiff and unbending, falling as a tree falls.
Monk and Ham jumped for her simultaneously, collided with each other, and looked foolish. The girl thumped the floor.
"She's dead!" Monk croaked.
"She must have had a weak heart!" Ham groaned. "We shouldn't have cut down on her like that."
Bony Johnny got down on his knees beside the girl and held one of her wrists with a hand that shook until he could hardly hold the wrist. Then he looked sheepish.
"Syncopic lipothymy," he muttered.
"Eh?" Monk looked puzzled.
"He means she just throwed a Joe," Long Tom said.
"Try English," Monk requested.
"She fainted!" Ham squatted by the girl. "I'll rub her wrists until—"
Doc Savage said, "Our best move is to get out of here."
"But Doc—"
The bronze man made a slight gesture. Without more objections, his associates followed him out of the apartment.
Monk and the others had learned it was unwise to argue with Doc. Not that he had any rules against arguments. He didn't. It was simply that his batting average on judgment was so high that it was pretty dependable.
Monk complained. "We shouldn't have left her lyin' there in a faint—"
"She was faking the faint," Doc said, "to keep us from questioning her."
WHEN the elevator came for them, Doc Savage seized the control and ran the car straight to the basement, disregarding astonished glares from other passengers. He whipped across the basement to the telephone connector box, yanked it open, and examined the labels alongside the maze of binding posts. He clipped a line-tapping receiver onto the wire to Edwina Day's apartment.
Half a dozen loud clicks, unevenly spaced, came out of the receiver.
"We cut in as she finished dialing a number!" Monk groaned.
"And too late to learn the number from the clicks," Ham added.
Doc Savage used a pocketknife to span binding posts and make a short circuit, creating the same effect as if the girl had hung up her receiver. The connection which she had set up by dialing was broken.
"Hello," the girl said. "Hello . . . hello!" A moment later: "Oh, darn!"
She had to dial again. Doc listened to the clicking of the dial mechanism with the experienced ear of a telegraph operator trained to counting dots.
"She called Sand Hills 9-3312," Doc said. "Long Tom, you get the location from the telephone company."
The anemic-looking electrical wizard hurried off.
Doc listened, and a voice said, "The Palace Barber Shop."
It was a man's voice.
The girl said, "Harry!" wildly.
"Edwina!" the man said. "What's wrong? Collendar may have this line tapped! I told you not to call!"
"Oh, Harry!" Agitation made the girl's voice hoarse. "A bunch of men were just here!"
The man made a gutteral, frantic noise.
"Collendar!" he barked.
Monk, listening over Doc's shoulder, looked stunned.
"
Harry Day must be alive, too!" he croaked.
The girl's voice said, "Harry these men said they were with someone called Doc Savage. Does Collendar use the name of Savage sometimes?"