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

little dashes and glitters of phosphorescence. Chuck hurled himself to the
far end of the raft and stretched out his hand, but the Tomah was already
beyond his reach. Chuck turned, and dived back to the box at midraft,
pawing through it for the line he had used to tie them in the boat earlier. It
came up tangled in his hands. He lunged to the end of the raft nearest the
envoy again, trying to unravel the line as he did so.
It came slowly and stubbornly out of its snarl. But when he got it clear at
last and threw it, its unweighted end fell little more than halfway of the
widening distance between the raft and the Tomah.
Chuck hauled it in, in a frenzy of despair. The raft, sitting high in the water,
was being pushed by the night wind farther from the envoy with every
second. The envoy himself had in all this time made no sound, only
continuing to thrash his limbs in furious effort. His light body seemed in no
danger of sinking; but his narrow limbs in uncoordinated effort barely
moved him through the water тАУ and now the scavengers were once more
beginning to enter the picture.
These, like any fish suddenly disturbed, had scattered at the first splash
of the Tomah's body. For a short moment it had seemed that they had
been frightened away entirely. But now they were beginning to circle in,
moving around the envoy, dodging close, then flirting away again тАУ but
always ending up a little closer than before. Chuck twisted about to face
Binichi.
"Can't you do something?" he cried.
 Binichi regarded him with his race's usual unreadable expression.
"I?" he said.
"You could swim to him and let him hang on to you and tow him back,"
said Chuck. "Hurry!"
Binichi continued to look at him.
"You don't want the Tomah eaten?" he said at last.
"Of course not!"
"Then why don't you bring him back yourself to this thing?"
"I can't. I can't swim that well!" said Chuck. "You can."
"You can't?" echoed Binichi slowly. "I can?"
"You know that."
"Still," said the Lugh. "I would have thought you had some way тАУ it's
nothing to me if the Tomah is eaten."
"You promised."
"Not to harm him," said Binichi. "I have not. The Tomah have killed many
children to get at the sea. Now this one has the sea. Let him drink it. The
Tomah have been hungry for fish. This one has fish. Let him eat the fish."
Chuck brought his face close to the grinning dolphin head.
"You promised to sit down with us and talk to that Tomah," he said. "If
you let him die, you're dodging that promise."
Binichi stared back at him for a short moment. Then he bubbled abruptly
and went over the side of the raft in a soaring leap. He entered the water
with his short limbs tucked in close to his body and his wide tail fanning out.
Chuck had heard about, but never before seen, the swiftness of the Lugh,
swimming. Now he saw it. Binichi seemed to give a single wriggle and then
torpedo like a streak of phosphorescent lightning just under the surface of
the water toward the struggling envoy.