The Robot Brains [with w_cat] | страница 4

In the long cabin Captain Christian sat reading the day's newspapers and smoking a thin black cigar. He was a tall man, well-dressed; he had a blond beard and sea-blue eyes. As he turned the pages of the newspaper, the light of the lantern shone on the headline:

52 GIRL SCIENTIST NEW VICTIM OF STRANGE MURDERER

53 Lovely Margaret Greenways, research biologist, is a new victim of the killer. Her body was found early this morning, beheaded, as all the victims of this madman.

54 Miss Greenways has been working on a secret method to improve the quality of potatoes.

55 As usual, the head was not found - the fifth murder of this kind. When will the police make an arrest? The public have a right to...

56 Christian remembered the newspaper articles about the other murders of this kind:

57 A headless body... the neck cauterized.

58 He put the newspaper aside, stood up, put on a cap and went upstairs. He felt he needed fresh air.

59 When he was on desk, he heard the sound of a motorcycle. Soon he saw a telegraph boy riding towards him.

The young man stopped his motorcycle and called:

"Captain Christian?"

60 "That's me." Christian took the telegram and read it quickly. "No reply," he said.

61 The young man rode away, and Christian started the diesel of his yacht and headed it up the Thames. Standing at the wheel, he re-read the telegram from his old friend:

62 Need your help at once stop Life and death Stop Meet me Bull Hotel Reading stop Fox.

63 As soon as Christian entered the Bull Hotel in Reading, Fox came running to meet him.

64 Christian smiled, pressed his friend's hand and said: "Well, what is it this time? A fall of frogs? Lights in the sky? Or some servant girl who set fire to a house by simply thinking of it?"

65 "Murder," Fox replied quietly and led Christian into the bar. They took two glasses of beer and sat down at a table.

66 "I think," said Christian, "you have some theory which explains the murders."

He lit his cigar and prepared to listen.

67 "That's right, Chris," said Fox "I've been to the police, but - it was no good, of course. They did not take me seriously."

68 The captain smiled a little; many times in the past, he had laughed at his friend's theories, but in the end it usually turned out that the doctor was right.

69 "Well, what have you discovered?"

70 "I think I know something," said Fox "Each time one of these murders takes place, the Burkholder Fair is nearby. Every time - I checked carefully. The Fair is here now."