"Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage 141 - Satan Black" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

The bronze man made himself a sling under the pipe. A hammock, a tight, snug little place to lie
supported by the rope he'd been in such a wild haste to find. When he was done, and hauled up snug in
the sling-hammock, one could look under the truck and not see him.

But if one happened to crawl under the truck, even partly under it, and poke around with a flashlight
beam, he was sure to be seen. And once found, for a moment or two he would be helpless there. It was
a good place to hide, but it wasn't a good place to be caught hiding. Not if one took into consideration
the kind of a thing that was happening.

The bronze man lay very still. He coiled the end of the rope on his stomach. He wouldn't, he thought,
care for more than half an hour of hanging like this. But it shouldn't take that long.

He listened to the night sounds, the crickets and the frogs and the owls, the rumbling of trucks in the
distance, the heavy iron animal noises of bulldozers, the grinding of tripod-winches. The noises that go
with the laying of a twenty-four-inch petroleum pipeline.

The noises sounded sharp and hearty enough. There was nothing sick-sounding about them, nothing at
all.

There should have been.



SHORTLY another man came to the pipe-truck, coming idly, sauntering, pretending he was out for a
walk. He was whistling softly so that no one would think he was trying to sneak or prowl. He reached the
pipe-truck and leaned against the trailer duals and whistled. But he wasn't a good actor, and his whistling
was unnatural.

The second man came more quietly. “Joe?” he said.

“Right.”

“Nice night.”

“Uh-huh,” Joe said.

“Got a flashlight?”

“What you want a flashlight for?”

“Want to take a look around.”

“I ain't got one. Pack'll have one. Pack carries one alla time.”

Pack came shortly. Another man was with him, a man called Dave. Pack said he had his flashlight. He
said he'd look around.

“Want to see how bad that axle's broke,” Joe said.

He didn't want to see how bad the axle was broken. He couldn't see anyway, because a truck axle was