"123 (B113a) - The Talking Devil (1943-05) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"Doc," Ham said, "I'm worried about something."
"Yes?"
"You know that operation on Sam Joseph?"
"What about it?"
"The news is all over town, in the surgical profession, that you pulled a bloomer. You operated on a man who did not have the slightest trace of what you were operating for."
Doc Savage was not worried. "Just gossip within the profession," he said. "Maybe it is not very nice of us, but it is a very human trait to get a kick out of seeing a big shot make a mistake. We all make them. It just goes to prove he is human, and that we are human to talk about it."
Ham shook his head. "I know. I discounted it at first, thinking it was that kind of talk. But it's more."
"What more?"
"There is some ugly talk about malpractice."
"That is ridiculous - "
"The definition of malpractice," Ham said, "is wrong or injurious treatment. At least that's the way the medical dictionaries give it."
"You need not have gone to the bother of looking it up," Doc told him. "This is just gossip. I have it coming to me because I did make a mistake."
"All right," Ham said. "I just wanted to mention it and tell you that, legally, no one can hang anything on you."
Doc Savage smiled. "That is fine, Ham. But you are making a mountain out of a molehill."
"I hope so," Ham said. "But I don't like the way this malpractice talk is going around through the profession. It looks as if someone might be spreading it."
MR. MONTAGUE Ogden was more blunt about it. He came into Doc Savage's headquarters with his jaw out and his hands made into fists, and he was accompanied by two gentlemen who carried brief cases and looked like bulldogs.
"Mr. Savage," Ogden said, "I am not at all satisfied with the thing you did to poor Sam Joseph."
"Just what do you mean, Ogden?" Doc Savage asked.
"Why did you perform that brain operation on Sam Joseph?"
"For the same reason that you operate for an appendix," Doc said. "It seemed to be the thing to do. The man's symptoms indicated brain tumor."
"So you said."
The most outstanding of Doc Savage's features was probably his unusual eyes, like pools of flake gold always stirred by tiny winds. These took on a rather cold light now.
"You will recall," he said, "that Dr. Nedden and two other brain specialists agreed with me on the diagnosis."
Montague Ogden drew himself up.
"They have admitted," he snapped, "that they took your word for it. As a matter of truth they were so overawed by your-ah-reputation that they did not wish to disagree with you."
Doc decided this was rather unprofessional behavior on the part of the three doctors, but he made no comment on that, saying instead:
"I am sorry it happened," he said. "There is no denying I made a mistake."
"Sorry," said Ogden, "isn't enough."
"What do you mean?"
"I demand," snapped Ogden, "that you make a cash settlement of five hundred thousand dollars on Sam Joseph by way of reimbursing him for the peril to which you subjected his life. I also demand that you publish a half-page advertisement in all New York newspapers admitting that you made an error in diagnosis."
Ham Brooks, who was present, jumped to his feet.
Doc waved Ham back. He digested Montague Ogden's demand.
"That is ridiculous, of course," he said.
"I'll show you how ridiculous it is!" Montague Ogden bellowed. He waved to his two bulldog-faced companions. "These are my lawyers, Flack and Morrow. They'll show you how ridiculous it is."
This was too much for Ham. He shot to his feet.
"Get out of here!" Ham yelled. "I know these two shysters, Flack and Morrow. They're crooks of the first water. The only thing different about them is that they are big thieves!"
"We'll sue you for slander!" bellowed a lawyer.
"Who ever heard of one lawyer calling another lawyer a crook being slander?" Ham snarled.
Ham habitually carried an innocent-looking black cane, and almost everyone in the legal profession knew this was a sword cane, the tip of which was coated with a chemical producing quick unconsciousness.
"Get out of here!" Ham roared, and flourished his cane as he made a rush for Ogden and his lawyers.
Ogden and his attorneys took flight.
As he ran, Ogden shouted, "You can't shut us up this way! We're going to get at the truth about your strange brain operations! We'll unmask your devilish scheme!"
Then they ran for their lives from Ham, got into the elevator and escaped.
"Doc," Ham said, "something isn't up-and-up about this."
THE fight on the speaker's platform at the big Army Relief rally at Madison Square Garden got a great deal more publicity.
It was not much of a fight. Montague Ogden merely popped out of the crowd, dashed across the speaker's platform in full view of the audience of many thousands and tried to assault Doc Savage with his fists.
The police soon hauled Ogden away.
But everyone in the audience heard the words Montague Ogden shrieked at the bronze man. The public-address microphones picked them up and made them loud in the great auditorium.
"There's something devilish behind your brain operations!"* Ogden screamed. "What are you doing to those men? You're a monster!"
The thing got in the newspapers. Montague Ogden was reputedly one of the rich men of the nation, and Doc Savage had a worldwide name. So it could hardly have kept out of the newspapers.