"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 111 - Pirate Isle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

saw the parts of him that stuck out of the crow's nest when he threw.”

Captain Hardgrove inspected Mr. Weed very thoughtfully. At length, he asked, “You still insist, Mr.
Weed, that there were snowballs?"

“Yes, I do!” snapped the officer.

“All right, Mr. Weed, I merely wished to be certain.” Captain Hardgrove gestured with one hand. “Could
you tell me where they went, please?"

“They melted.” Mr. Weed added pointedly, “It is a hot day, sir.”
“To be sure.” Captain Hardgrove smiled faintly. “Can you as glibly explain where they came from?"

Mr. Weed's neck became encrimsoned once more.

“Snowballs,” he said, “are an impossibility. And you know it, sir. On a day like this, I mean. A day this
hot.”

A commotion came out of the hollow mast. It was muffled because it came all the way down from the
crow's nest. But then it clarified, for it began coming through the air. Captain Hardgrove and Mr. Weed
stepped back, so the bend in their necks would not be so sharp to look upward. They saw a hat sail out
of the crow's nest. It belonged to a sailor.

“Good mercy!” gasped Mr. Weed.

A sailor seemed about to follow the hat. The sailor fought furiously to avoid doing this. He hung to the
crow's-nest rim with his left arm and used his right arm to club at someone.

“Ahoy up there! Ahoy! Avast and belay that!” bellowed Captain Hardgrove in the voice he could employ
to stand on the bridge and make a sailor jump a foot on the taffrail deck. “Stop it! Stop whatever's going
on up there!”

The fight up in the crow's nest pursued its uninterrupted course to a conclusion. After it ended, a sailor
thrust his head over the rim.

“We got the swab,” shouted the sailor. “He seems to be a bit ting-a-ling.”

“A bit what?” roared Captain Hardgrove.

“Crazy, sir.”

“Naturally, he would be,” commented Captain Hardgrove. “Are there any snowballs left?"

“No, sir. No snowballs.”

“Any ice machine—or snow-making machine?”

“No, sir. Nothing of any kind.”

“Search him,” snapped Captain Hardgrove, “and see what you find.”