"Robeson, Kenneth - Doc Savage 1937 12 - The Golden Peril" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

leaped toward those donkeys. With anxious, feverish hands they were tearing
loose the covering on the packs the donkeys carried.
"Gold!" one breathed softly.
"Much gold!" said a second.
"Retie those packs!" snapped the general. His lips were working with quick
anger. "This is only a drop in the bucket compared with what we will have
later."

UNWILLINGLY, the covers were restored. The khaki-clad men looked at the packs
with greedy, cunning eyes.
"This must be taken to Blanco Grande. You shall be its escort. Do not try to
escape with it!" the general went on harshly.
One of the men shivered slightly. Escape! That would be impossible! Well he
remembered the scarred, evil shape of the mountainous country over which they
had been flown to reach this point of ambush. And they had dropped from those
planes by parachute. There was no way of returning except to walk. They could
have walked to this destination, but that would have meant loss of time. Other
troops of gold-hungry men would meet them when they left the mountains.
The men had to do as they were ordered.
"This will be a blow to Doc Savage," the general’s aide said craftily. "Are you
not afraid?"
The general sneered. "Why be afraid of him?"
"But I have heard of many marvelous exploits of his," said the aide. "He is
dangerous to evil-doers. He has done almost uncanny things."
For a moment, a faint flicker of worry passed over the general’s hard face. Then
it was gone. "Do not worry," he jeered. "The Leader knows how to handle him.
Besides, Doc Savage will know nothing of this—until it is too late."
"And when will that be?" There was a cunning, shrewd look in the aide’s eyes.
"When we have launched our plans. When the entire world is rocked. When power
such as men seldom dreamed of—" The general broke off. One hand strayed to the
heavy gun at one hip.
"It could not be that you desire too much information, that you are a spy, could
it, mi amigo?" he queried softly.
The aide took a step back. "No—no!" he cried. "I am just naturally curious. That
is all."
"Curious!" A peculiar expression flared in the general’s glacier-cold eyes. The
gun came to his hand, lifted. "We do not encourage curiosity in our ranks, mi
amigo."
The other jumped back, turned to run.
Blam!
The general’s gun spoke once. A section of the other’s skull vanished. He was
dead.
"I think you were not a spy, and that you were just curious," the general said.
"However"—he whirled on the other khaki-clad men—"let that be a warning. You
will take my orders. You will be paid in gold—as long as you obey those orders.
You will be paid in bullets if you become curious. In bullets by me, or paid by
The Leader in another way."
The khaki-clad men were silent. They had heard how "The Leader" paid.
Hard-bitten, vicious as they were, they showed fear.
"Now take the gold in. I have a plane waiting for me near here. I fly back to