"Philip Jose Farmer - Riverworld 2 - The Fabulous Riverboat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

mothth. Thothe vere the good old dayth."
He shuffled forward, then stopped. "Tham! Vhat hap-
pened! You're bleeding! You look thick!"
Bellowing for his guards, Erik Bloodaxe stepped
backwards from the titanthrop. "Your friend went mad!
He thought he'd seen his wife-for the thousandth
time-and he attacked me because I wouldn't take him in
to the bank to her. Tyr's testicles, Joe! You know how
many times he's thought he saw that woman, and how
many times we stopped, and how many tunes it always
turned out to be a woman who looked something like his
woman but wasn't!
"This tune, I said no! Even if it had been his woman, I
would have said no! We'd be putting our heads in the
wolfs mouth!"
Erik crouched, ax lifted, ready to swing at the giant.
Shouts came from middeck, and a big redhead with a flint
ax ran up the ladder. The helmsman gestured for him to
leave. The redhead, seeing Joe Miller so belligerent, did
not hesitate to retreat.
"Vhat you thay, Tham?" Miller said. "Thyould I tear
him apart?"
Clemens held his head in both hands and said, "No.
He's right, I suppose. I don't really know if she was Livy.
Probably just a German hausfrau. I don't know!"
He groaned. "I don't know! Maybe it was her!"
Fishbone horns blared, and a huge drum on the mid-
deck thundered. Sam Clemens said, "Forget about this,
Joe, until we get through the straits-if we do get through!
If we're to survive, we'll have to fight together. Later . . ."
"You alvayth thay later, Tham, but there never ith a
later. Vhy?"
"If you can't figure that out, Joe, you're as dumb as you
look!" Clemens snapped.

Tearshields glinted in Joe's eyes, and his bulging cheeks
became wet.
"Every time you get thcared, you call me dumb," he
said. "Vhy take it out on me? Vhy not on the people that
thcare you the thyit outa you, vhy not on Bloodakthe?"
"I apologize, Joe," Clemens said. "Out of the mouths of
babes and apemen. . . . You're not so dumb, you're
pretty smart. Forget it, Joe. I'm sorry."
Bloodaxe swaggered up to them but kept out of Joe's
reach. He grinned as he swung his ax. "There shall soon
be a meeting of the metal!" And then he laughed and said,
"What am I saying? Battle any more is the meeting of
stone and wood, except for my star-ax, of course! But
what does that matter? I have grown tired of these six
months of peace. I need the cries of war, the whistling