"071 (B066) - Mad Mesa (1939-01) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

This terminated the bronze man's contact with his five associates.
Doc Savage next did something that appeared to be entirely senseless. Something for which there was no apparent reason. One of the last things he might have been expected to do.
His act was a typical example of the kind of thing which later developed in such a way as to give his enemies unpleasant shocks.
Doc went to police headquarters. Since the Salt Lake City police department was very modern, the rogues' gallery contained a picture of Big Eva, and a description which included the huge convict's measurements and weight.
Tom Idle, in his letter to his sister, had mentioned that a convict named Big Eva was his cellmate. Doc Savage examined Big Eva's photograph and description for some time.
"Thank you," he said thoughtfully.
The bronze man now went to a hotel. He took along two articles, the first being the paper which contained the "weeds" that the garage mechanic had removed from the wheels of Dr. Joiner's plane in Ohio.
Doc Savage mailed the package of "weeds" to himself, care of general delivery, the Salt Lake City post office.
The second article which Doc carried was a metal equipment case. In the privacy of his locked hotel room, he opened this. It contained make-up articles, but nothing as conventional as grease paint and false whiskers.
There was a bottle containing a colorless chemical, and when Doc applied this to his ears and around his mouth, a harmless swelling of considerable degree at once developed, greatly changing the aspect of his face.
Another contained dye which made his bronze hair black, and could only be erased with the proper chemical remover. There were glass eyeball caps, like the "invisible" spectacles which the better opticians supply, and these were dark enough to disguise the flake-gold of his eyes. They were made of transparent, nonshatter compound instead of glass, for safety, and could hardly be detected with a magnifying glass.
Doc Savage, walking out of the hotel room, was a man who bore a striking resemblance to the convict called Big Eva.
Chapter VIII. SKOOKUM'S IDEA
SKOOKUM'S lunchroom had changed. It had lately received an addition which had almost doubled its size, and the exterior was bright with a fresh coat of paint, while a new and elaborate neon sign advertised the place. Inside, there was much new equipment, including booths and a hardwood floor on which couples could dance to music that was furnished each evening by an orchestra of four colored gentlemen.
Skookum had spread himself.
Doc Savage said, "Lesh have shervice aroun' hersh!"
He sounded very intoxicated when he said it. He sank in a booth and pounded a table with his fist. The waiters—Skookum himself no longer stooped to anything as undignified as waiting table—frowned at Doc, and decided it would create more commotion if they tried to throw him out than if they served him. They brought him ginger ale. His pockets already bulged with bottles bearing alcoholic labels.
Doc Savage looked as if he had emptied a number of such bottles. His hair, now black, was down in his eyes. His thick-lipped mouth was loose and his expression was stupid. His speech was none too coherent, and it grew worse as he downed drink after drink.
There was nothing alcoholic in anything the bronze man drank, but there was nothing to indicate such a fact. Only one bottle contained genuine spirits, and he spilled some of the contents at intervals to create the proper smell.
He spent an hour deliberately making a noisy nuisance of himself.
Then he slumped forward, buried his head in his arms and emitted a loud snore.
Skookum had been watching for some time. Skookum had taken to wearing striped trousers, lap-over vest and cutaway coat for his daytime working garb. At night, he wore full dress.
It was the hour when Skookum usually changed to his claw-hammer coat, but he was so interested in watching the big drunk who had invaded his place that he had put it off. When Doc apparently went to sleep, Skookum looked elated.
"Carry him in back room heap sudden," Skookum ordered.
The back room of Skookum's lunch stand was also a new addition, and if the police found out about it, there would be trouble. The room was a high-powered gambling establishment which Skookum had started on the side.
As a number of persons had remarked, Skookum had certainly branched out recently.
"Make track," Skookum told his waiters.
The waiters departed and closed the door.
Skookum seated himself at the telephone and made long-distance telephone calls, each to a hotel in a different city. He began with Kansas City and Tulsa, then worked westward past Pueblo, Denver and Cheyenne. In Sheridan, Wyoming, he located the man he was seeking.
"Hello, Jan Hile," he said.
Skookum listened, and his expression showed that he was being abused over the telephone.
"Sure, chief, the name is Dr. Joiner. Heap sorry," he said. "You fan out ear and listen. Me catchum big idea."
Jan Hile, or Dr. Joiner, as he seemed to prefer being called for the time being, evidently told Skookum where he could take his ideas.
"Now you got me wrong, chief," Skookum said desperately. "Listen. A drunk came in my place a while ago and passed out. He's layin' here on the floor by me, heap much asleep."
The other man's angry demand could be heard all over the room.
"What the hell about it?" he yelled.
"This drunk, he looked plenty like Big Eva," Skookum explained.
"
Eh?"
"
Same size. Same thick mouth, thick ear. Same black hair. Heap alike."
THERE was a long silence, but Skookum could hear the other man whistling thoughtfully, so he knew the fellow had not hung up.
"How much, Skookum?"
"Ten thousand dollar," Skookum said.
"Not a chance!"
"Heap cheap."
"Listen, you crazy Indian-talking hotdog merchant, ten thousand is all you got for helping with the Tom Idle thing. That was different. Five hundred this time. Not a cent more."
There was protracted dickering, during which Skookum was insistent that ten thousand was as cheap as dirt, and the matter was compromised on six hundred dollars, with the added promise that Skookum would get his entrails kicked out if anything went wrong.
Skookum hung up the telephone receiver.
He called, "Hey, Seedy!"