"Edmond Hamilton - Alien Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

again.

тАЬA winkтАФbut a hundred times slower than normal!тАЭ Farris exclaimed.
тАЬPulse, respiration, reactionsтАФtheyтАЩre all a hundred times slower. The man
has either suffered a shock, or been drugged.тАЭ

Then he noticed something that gave him a little chill.

The tribesmanтАЩs eyeball seemed to be turning with infinite slowness
toward him. And the manтАЩs raised foot was a little higher now. As though he
were walkingтАФbut walking at a pace a hundred times slower than normal.

The thing was eery. There came something more eery. A soundтАФthe
sound of a small stick cracking.

Piang exhaled breath in a sound of pure fright, and pointed off into the
grove. In the moonlight Farris saw.

There was another tribesman standing a hundred feet away. He, too,
was motionless. But his body was bent forward in the attitude of a runner
suddenly frozen. And beneath his foot, the stick had cracked.

тАЬThey worship the great ones, by the Change!тАЭ said the Annamese in
a hoarse undertone. тАЬWe must not interfere!тАЭ

That decided Farris. He had, apparently, stumbled on some sort of
weird jungle rite. And he had had too much experience with Asiatic natives
to want to blunder into their private religious mysteries.

His business here in easternmost Indo-China was teak-hunting. It
would be difficult enough back in this wild hinterland without antagonizing
the tribes. These strangely dead-alive men, what-ever drug or compulsion
they were suffering from, could not be in danger if others were near.

тАЬWeтАЩll go on,тАЭ Farris said shortly.

Piang led hastily down the slope of the forested plateau. He went
through the brush like a scared deer, till they hit the trail again.

тАЬThis is itтАФthe path to the Government station,тАЭ he said, in great
relief. тАЬWe must have lost it back at the ravine. I have not been this far back
in Laos, many times.тАЭ

Farris asked, тАЬPiang, what is hunati? This Change that you were
talking about?тАЭ

The guide became instantly less voluble. тАЬIt is a rite of worship.тАЭ He
added, with some return of his cocksureness, тАЬThese tribesmen are very
ignorant. They have not been to mission school, as I have.тАЭ