"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 130 - The Spook of Grandpa Eben" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Mr. Harland Crown Copeland, piloted by a large Negro chauffeur in his limousine, pulled into the filling
station where Billy Riggs was employed. Harland Crown Copeland rolled down the rear window of the
limousine and gave young Billy Riggs a look of contempt and mean, unforgiving hatred.

“I will take four gallons of gas, jailbird,” Harland Crown Copeland said.

Harland Crown Copeland was president of the town's largest industry, Copeland Chemical Co., and a
generally hated man. He was practically without admirers, and certainly without friends. A summary of his
character would include most of the unpleasant words in the dictionary. He was selfish, ignoble, sneaky,
stingy, baleful, malignantly hateful, and diabolically vengeful. You could say everything about him except
that he was not important. He was about the most important man in town, but that was only because he
owned most of the town. He was a hound after a dollar. He thought a lot of his dollars. Take one of his
dollars, and he hated you worse than if you had chopped off one of his fingers.

Billy Riggs ran gasoline through a hose into the tank of Harland Crown Copeland's limousine. Billy's neck
was red with embarrassed rage.

Another car drove into the filling station at this point, and stopped on the other side of the pump island.
The driver of this car was Ezra Strong, a pleasant young man who was general manager of a small local
concern which was now engaged in manufacturing torpedo driving mechanisms. Ezra Strong waited
patiently, smiling at Billy Riggs.

“I'm surprised you're not back in the State penitentiary,” Harland Crown Copeland said to young Riggs.

Riggs flushed. “Mr. Copeland, you haven't any right to talk to me like that.”

“You're a born thief.” Harland Crown Copeland pointed at the gasoline gauge. It registered just a
fraction of a cent short of the exact amount. “You have swindled me out of a little of my gasoline,”
Copeland said. “In the course of a day, I imagine you rob enough people to make it worth while.”



BILLY RIGGS was sick with embarrassment, because Harland Crown Copeland was speaking loud
enough for Ezra Strong to hear. Ezra Strong had heard, and he was frowning.

“You'll be back in the penitentiary, Riggs,” said Harland Crown Copeland emphatically.

Billy Riggs was not a sheep. Enough was enough. He stepped grimly to the limousine window.

“Mr. Copeland, I never stole a nickel of that money which came up missing when I was working for
you,” he said. “I am convinced the money got into the wastebasket by mistake and was burned. But I
couldn't prove that. So you had me tried and sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. I served my
sentence. I paid my debt to society. Let me alone.”

“You haven't been cured of being a thief.”

“I never was a thief. Let me alone.”

The chauffeur was sitting very still with a wooden expression on his face, obviously not liking the way his
employer was acting. The chauffeur was a new man, hadn't had the job over two weeks, and Billy Riggs