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

“Where you going?” Ham demanded.

“Don't you think we had better tell Doc about this?” Monk asked.

Ham said, “That statue looked exactly like Renny.”

“That's what I mean,” Monk said.



Chapter II. THE HORRIFIED MAN
NOT all famous men look like great men at first glance, but in a little while, when you get to know them,
the quality that makes them great always comes out. Greatness does not hide its light under a basket.

Doc Savage was stronger in this aspect than the usual celebrity, for two reasons. First, nature had given
him a combination of bronze hair, bronze skin-suns had helped darken the latter-and a remarkable pair of
flake-gold eyes, the gold of which seemed always in motion, as if stirred by tiny winds. Second, the
scientists who had trained him from childhood had given him a body so unusual that it was instantly
evident he was far above the average.

Doc Savage was working in his laboratory, but stopped and came out into the reception room to listen to
the story about Renny Renwick.

“We didn't want to bother you about what might have been nothing,” Monk explained. “But now it seems
to be something.”

Monk then told the story of Renny's seven days of vanishment, and of the statue of Renaticus.

Doc Savage listened without interruption. Doc was a physical giant, but a quiet one, and seemed never
knowingly to dominate a group or a situation. Yet there was such power in him, physically and in
personality, that he seemed able to command any situation without effort. His close associates knew that
this, like his other abilities, was a carefully mastered achievement. Not only scientists had contributed to
his development; there had been philosophers, thinkers of all kinds, even deep mental students of India
and Tibet.

Doc asked, “Did you investigate this Renaticus?”

Monk said, “Ham stayed behind to do that. He should be reporting in soon.”

They waited for Ham. He came in accompanied by Chemistry, his pet chimpanzee, an eccentric and
unpredictable animal which he had collected in South America. Monk did not care for Chemistry,
because the animal bore a distressing resemblance to Monk himself. That, Monk knew for a fact, was
why Ham had collected the pet.

“Renaticus,” Ham said, “was a Spaniard who lived at the time of Columbus. He was quite a fellow in
Spain in that day, a sort of a noble around the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. He took a big part in the
conquest of the Granada Moors, which was going on about that time. He was also a bitter enemy of
Alonso de Quintanilla, who was Columbus' friend, and influenced the queen's confessor, Fray Hernando
de Talavera, to report on Columbus' project to find a new route to the Indies as impractical. That's all I
know about him. He was a prominent opponent of Columbus in his day.”