"Gordon R. Dickson - 8 Short Stories and Novellas" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

that he had not thought of water up until this moment. He wondered if the
Tomah had been suffering for it in silence, too polite or otherwise to ask for
some.
This latter thought decided him against eating any of the food that the
boat was also provided with. If they would reach land inside of another
twelve or fourteen hours, he could last until then. It would hardly be kind, not
to say politic, to eat in front of the Tomah when nothing was available for
that individual. Even the Lugh, if he had eaten at all, had done so when he
was out of the raft during the night and storm, when they could not see him.
Chuck and the envoy drank and settled down again. Sundown came
quickly; and Chuck, making himself as comfortable as possible, went to
sleep.


He woke with a start. For a second he merely lay still on the soft, yielding
bottom of the raft without any clear idea as to what had brought him into
consciousness. Then a very severe bump from underneath the raft almost
literally threw him up into a sitting position.
The planet's small, close moon was pouring its brilliant light across the
dark waters, from a cloudless sky. The night was close to being over, for
the moon was low and its rays struck nearly level on the wave tops. The sea
had calmed, but in its closer depths were great moving streaks arid flashes
of phosphorescence. For a moment these gleams only baffled and
confused his eyes; and then Chuck saw that they were being made by the
same huge scavengers that had bothered the raft earlier тАУ only now there
were more than a dozen of them, filling the water about and underneath the
raft.
The raft rocked again as one of them struck it once more from below.
Chuck grabbed at the nearest ring-handhold and glanced at his fellow
passengers. Binichi lay as if asleep, but in the dark shadow of his
eye-sockets little reflected glints of light showed where his eyeballs
gleamed in the darkness. Beyond him, the envoy was fully awake and up on
all four feet, his claw extended high above him, and swaying with every
shock like the balancing pole of a tightrope walker. His front pair of handed
limbs were also extended on either side as if for balance. Chuck opened
his mouth to call to the Tomah to take hold on one of the handgrips.
At that moment, however, there rose from out of the sea at his elbow a
pair of the enormous ridged jaws. Like the mouth of a trout, closing over a
fly, these clamped down, suddenly and without warning, on the small, bright
metal box of the thrust unit where it was fastened to the rear end of the raft.
And the raft itself was suddenly jerked and swung as the sea-creature tore
the thrust unit screeching from its moorings into the sea. The raft was
upended by the force of the wrench; and Chuck, holding on for dear life
from sliding into the sea, saw the creature that had pulled the unit loose
release it disappointedly, as if sensing its inedibility. It glittered down
through the dark waters, falling from sight.
The raft slammed back down on the watery surface. And immediately on
the heels of this came the sound of a large splash. Jerking his head
around, Chuck saw the envoy struggling in the ocean.
His black body glittered among the waves, his thrashing limbs kicking up