"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 049 - The Mental Wizard" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Expeditions have gone in search of these men. In no case was a substantial trace found of the lost men. In
an instance or two, the searchers were not heard from again.

The American Legion organization in the Panama Canal Zone recently sponsored, it is reported, a search
for one of these lost men, an aviator. This aviator’s name was Redfern. Many attempts have been made
to find another prominent individual who was lost, Fawcett by name.

In no case has a great deal of success greeted the searchers, for the region they had to penetrate is the
terrible jungle country on certain headwater branches of the Amazon River in South America.

What is there in that particular jungle which has kept so many men from coming back?



Chapter I. THE WEIRD GIRL
MIRACLES do not occur too often. El Liberator "Amber" O’Neel very nearly fell over with surprise
when one happened to him. But he lost no time in taking advantage of it.

It was, incidentally, a fact that if O’Neel had known what he was letting himself in for, he would probably
have crawled under the roots of the nearest mangrove and let the miracle go moaning past.

Carl O’Neel, alias Amber O’Neel, alias El Liberator—he was El Liberator Amber O’Neel just
now—was a brave Yankee, too, which was bad, because he was also crooked, cruel, without morals,
and all other kinds of a rascal.

Bravery and such qualities are a rare mixture, and a bad one. But O’Neel did not crawl under a
mangrove. Instead, he bellowed enthusiastic orders.

"Quick!" he squawled, in Spanish. "Get out there in the clearing! Line up and wave your arms!"

El Liberator
Amber O’Neel had been standing at the edge of an open glade in the South American jungle, wishing
that a plane would happen along. No sooner the wish, and presto! The sound of an airplane motor was
approaching!
"Wave your arms, damn you!" O’Neel howled. "Get that plane down! Then see that it does not get up
again!"

Amber O’Neel was in great need of a plane, because the authorities of this South American country of
Colombia were looking for him to stand him against a stone wall and see if he were bulletproof. This by
way of proving that it is not wise to murder and rob under the guise of being a leader of a gang of patriots
trying to make Colombia a land of the free. Colombia was already enough of a land of the free to satisfy
almost every one.

"Wave, damn it!" bawled O’Neel. "Wave them arms!"

If he had a plane, Amber O’Neel reflected, he could scout for groups of Colombian soldiers or police,
and there would be less likelihood of his raiding a trading post when authority was too near. He
chuckled. He would claim the plane was his military air force.

"Get the pilot’s attention!" O’Neel yelled. "Make him think we’re in distress or something!"