"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 101 - The Green Eagle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"Yeah, sheriff," Ben said.

"How’d you come to mention Doc Savage?" the sheriff asked.

"Don’t tell me you know him, too!"

"Yep. By hearsay, that is."

Ben muttered, "My education has sure been neglected some. I never heard of the gent, but everybody
else seems to know him by reputation."

"He’s sure got a reputation," the sheriff said dryly. "Why’d you ask if anybody knowed him?"

Ben tilted his head back and contemplated the blue-cold sky thoughtfully. "That old jasper," he explained,
"just before he died, asked me if I knew Doc Savage. I was curious about it."

"Ummm. I see." The sheriff drove a small coupé. This pulled a trailer in which he carried a saddle horse.
"I think we’re gonna be able to find out who the old man was."

"There wasn’t anything on him that gave his name," Ben said.

"You looked, eh?"
"Sure."

"You didn’t take anything off the body, did you?"

"What gave you that idea?" Ben inquired innocently.

"It just struck me as curious that he was packin’ around an empty saddlebag," the sheriff explained.

Ben’s grunt was without humor. "He was crazy. He was so locoed that he died of starvation and thirst
while he was carryin’ around a pack full of food. Why wouldn’t he be nut enough to carry an empty
saddlebag?"

The sheriff said nothing more for a moment. Then he pulled out a rather new gold watch that was
obviously expensive. "This watch," he said, "was on the old man. It’s a watch that cost a lot of shekels.
It’s got a number in it. Jewelry stores keep track of the watches they sell. I think we can trace him
through the watch number." The sheriff grinned. "I bet you never thought of that, Ben."

"This county has sure got a good sheriff," Ben said cheerfully.

He helped load the sheriff’s pony into the trailer. The officer drove away. The hearse had already gone.



AN hour and forty minutes later, the sheriff was back. He arrived in the hearse with the coroner. Each
man wore nothing but his underwear shorts, and they were enraged.

"We was road-agented!" the sheriff roared. "Where’s a gun? Loan me a Winchester, somebody.