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

H
common consent. Harker led the way,
lower down across the ridge. They
came out onto open ground, and
Simon was touched beyond measure
to find that he had a shadow.
They paused to get their breath, and
Harker glanced sidelong at Simon, his
eyes full of a strange curiosity.
"How does it feel?" he asked. "How
does it feel to be a man again?"
Simon did not answer. He could
not. There were no words. He looked
away from Harker, out over the valley
that lay so quiet under the shadowy
Sun. He was filled with a strange
excitement, so that he felt himself
tremble.
As though suddenly frightened by
what he had said, and all the things
that were implicit in that question,
Harker turned suddenly and plunged
down the slope, almost running, and
Simon followed. Once he slipped and
caught himself, gashing his hand
against a rock. He stood motionless,
watching with wondering eyes the
slow red drops that ran from the cut,
until Harker had called him three
rimes by Keogh's name, and once by
his own.
They avoided the New Town. "No
use asking for trouble," Harker said,
and led the way past it down a ravine.
But they could see it in the distance, a
settlement of metalloy houses on a
shoulder of the ridge, below the black
mouth of the mines. Simon thought
the town was strangely quiet.
"See the shutters on the windows?"
Harker asked. "See the barricades in
the streets? They're waiting, waiting
for tonight."
He did not speak again. At the foot
of the ridge they came to an open
plain, dotted with clumps of grayish1
scrub. They began to cross it, toward
the outskirts of the city.
But as they approached Moneb a
group of men came running to meet