"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 125 - Mystery on Happy Bones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

“You're in the right place, kid.”
“The right place for what?”

“To deliver a package to Doc Savage.”

The messenger eyed them. “Huh-uh! Neither of you two mistakes is Doc Savage.”

“This,” explained Monk patiently, “is a way-station on the route to Doc Savage. Things go through us to
get to Doc. We're the quarantine and inspection station.

“A quarantine and inspection station,” said the messenger, “is where they stop your car and look on your
fruit for bugs.”

“That's the idea.”

“I'm a bug, huh?”

“Let's not complicate it,” Monk said. “What have you got there?”

“A package.”

“Where did you get it?”

“The office gave it to me to deliver. I work for an outfit that delivers stuff.”

“Alt right,” Monk said. “Now I'll show you how we function. What is your name and your employer?”

“Neddie Wooster,” said the messenger, “and the outfit is the Winged Foot Delivery Service,
coast-to-coast, with offices in all the principal cities.”

Monk picked up a telephone directory, found a number, dialed it, got the Winged Foot concern, and
asked if they had a messenger named Neddie Wooster. Monk had to explain who he was. He said he
was Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Mayfair, affiliated with the Doc Savage organization. He made
it sound impressive. Eventually, he got his information. He hung up.

“You see how it works?” he asked the messenger. “Winged Foot says Neddie Wooster is O. K. Now if
you hadn't been O. K., we would have had you.”

The messenger was not impressed.

“What is this?” asked the messenger. “A nest of half-wits?”

“A nest of precaution-takers,” Monk said.

“We want to die of old age,” Ham Brooks said.

“We want Doc to die of old age,” Monk corrected. “You see, Neddie Wooster, Doc Savage is an
unusual fellow and everybody on this earth is not his friend. In fact, there are people who shake and turn
white all over at the idea of Doc. Now and then some such try to get rid of Doc, so they can live a more
peaceful, and more crooked, life. Get it?”