"Peter Freewheel - Argol the Barbarian" - читать интересную книгу автора (Freewheel Peter)

fascination, as the two creatures, each standing on hind legs, collided, ripping at each others necks, trying
to penetrate their enemy's thick horny layers of armour with their rows of evilly pointed, foot long, teeth.
The two creatures locked into each others necks, and clawed each others backs with their tiny hands,
while their tails thrashed about trying to inflict further punishment on their rival. Usually the meat eaters
preyed only on the huge vegetarian reptiles, that were too large and cumbersome to protect themselves,
and Argol assumed that this was some sort of territorial battle. He heard a crashing of branches and
twigs. He gasped in dismay, as he saw that a tree had been uprooted from the soft marshy ground by a
swipe of one of the creatures powerful tails and was toppling towards him. Before he had time to move,
the mighty trunk had fallen into the marshy ground only a few feet away from him, with a dull, thudding,
squelching sound, spattering him with vile smelling slime. He quickly looked back at the battling reptiles
and decided that it was not very healthy to remain in the vicinity, and remembering the original aim of his
journey, he moved on.

He managed to cover another mile of swampy forest without further incident, and finally emerged into a
rough clearing. He sniffed at the air, and his nose picked up the unmistakable odour of a fire. He scanned
the area, and saw a thick cloud of black smoke belching up into the air, about half a mile from where he
stood. He looked puzzled. He was sure that the ship he'd seen had come down west to the point where
he now stood, and this ship was to the east.

He was quite certain there were no other beings capable of producing fire on this planet apart from
himself, and so he headed towards the rising smoke. As he ran, his heart began to pound faster. If there
was smoke, it probably meant that the ship had crash landed, and therefore might be incapable of leaving
the planet again. If this was to be the case, then fate was playing a very cruel trick on him.

He skirted round a high clump of thorny bushes and saw a medium sized spaceship laying amid an area
of smashed trees and undergrowth. It's front was crumpled, and at the rear, the fires from the exhaust
had ignited a clump of bushes which were now smouldering, the humidity of the swamp having stopped
the fire from spreading further.

Suddenly, a shock of realisation hit him in the stomach. This was a different ship from the one he'd seen in
the sky. Could it be after all this time that two ships had landed at the same time. Having got out of touch
with developments on Earth, Argol was not sure if this ship was a Terran one or not. Although the design
was unknown to him, it could well have been developed in his five years of enforced exile.

He stood at the edge of the disaster area, unsure whether to move nearer the ship or not, when an airlock
opened, and a spacesuited figure emerged uncertainly. Argol realised that this was not an Earthman. the
creature had four arms. He dimly became aware that some sort of gadget was being pointed at him, and
the next second, his whole body was covered with a cramp that paralysed him. He realised with a certain
amount of dismay, that he was being pulled towards the ship by a beam of force, which he was unable to
resist. It was hard to make out the race to which the alien belonged, because his helmet seemed to reflect
the light, and Argol could see his own face, strangely distorted in it, as the beam of force drew him to a
spot a foot or so away from the spaceship's airlock.

"We watched you approach," the creature informed him, using the Galactic tongue somewhat doubtfully,
wondering if Argol could understand him. "We shall require a force of your people to help us get our ship
out of this swamp. What state has your civilisation reached?"

Argol felt the beam removed from him. "Where are you from?" he asked.

"We asked the first question," the alien replied, somewhat taken aback by the 'caveman' knowing the