"Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future 23 - The Harpers of Titan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

I'll lull you with my own hands!"
Simon smiled.
Harker joined him, and they went
together through the lichen forest,
ghostly under the dim, far Sun. The
tall growths were silent now that the
wind had died. And as they went,
Harker talked of Moneb and the men
and women who dwelt there. Simon
listened, knowing that his life
depended on remembering what he
heard.
But even that necessity could not
occupy more than one small part of
his mind. The rest of it was busy with
the other things - the bitter smell of
dust, the chill bite of the air in the
shaded places, the warmth of the sun
in the clearings, the intricate play of
muscles necessary to the taking of a
step, the rasp of lichen fronds over
unprotected skin, the miracle of
breathing, of sweating, of grasping an
object with five fingers of flesh.
The little things one took for
granted. The small, miraculous
incredible things that one never
noticed until they were gone.
He had seen the forest before as a
dun-gray monochrome, heard it as a
pattern of rustling sound. It had been
without temperature, scent or feel.
Now it had all of these things. Simon
was overwhelmed with a flood of
impressions, poignant almost beyond
enduring.
e gathered strength and sureness
as he went. By the time he
breasted the slope of the ridge, he
could find pleasure in the difficulty of
climbing, scrambling up over
treacherous slides of dust, choking,
coughing as the acrid powder invaded
his lungs.
Harker swore, shambling bearlike
up the steep way among the lichens.
And suddenly Simon laughed. He
could not have said what made him do
so. But it was good to laugh again.
They avoided the clearing by