"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 117 - They Died Twice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

“Anybody know anything about the little fellow?”

No one did.
But then, the seven days had passed, and Renny Renwick came back.

And it was obvious something strange had happened.



RENNY RENWICK had lost thirty pounds. He was a big man, very big-six feet four, two hundred
sixty-so that loss of thirty pounds should not make him look as cadaverous as he did. Obviously, he had
lost more than weight.

Just what Renny had lost was the thing that began to puzzle them.

He was scared, or dulled with horror, or stupefied from some awful discovery, or something. They began
to wonder what.

First, though, he was uncommunicative. Silent. Desperately silent.

When he returned he merely walked into headquarters-the latter was situated on the eighty-sixth floor of
a midtown skyscraper-and sat in a chair. Collapsed in the chair was a better word. He said, “Hello.
Anything been going on?”

They stared at him in surprise and growing amazement. His face had no expression at all. It was a face
normally gloomy in expression, but now it was blank. Blank, they began to decide, because he was
holding it that way by great force of will.

“What happened, Renny?” Monk demanded.

“Nothing,” Renny said vaguely.

A poor lie.

Later, he began to tremble. The trembling was a kind of uncontrollable thing that began in his hands and
crept up to his arms, and then went all through him. He was quite pale. He looked weak and hungry.

“Where you been?” Monk asked.

“Oh, different places,” Renny said, and looked sick, as if the illness was in his soul.

“Hungry?” Ham asked.

Renny shook his head vaguely. “No,” he said.

“When did you eat last?”

Renny said, “Last Tues-” and did not finish.

“Last Tuesday was the day you disappeared!” Ham exploded. “Mean to say you haven't eaten since