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

of the councilors, here and there on a
helmet of barbaric design. Voices,
clamoring over and through each
other. A feeling of tension so great
that the nerves screamed with it.
Dion pressed his arm and said
something that Simon did not catch,
but the smile, the look of love and
pride, were unmistakable. Then the
boy was gone, to the shadowy benches
T
beyond.
Simon stood alone.
At one end of the low, oblong hall,
beside the high, gilded seat of the
king, he saw a group of helmeted men
looking toward him with hatred they
did not even try to conceal, and with
it, a contempt that could only come
from triumph.
And suddenly from out of the
uneasy milling of the throng before
him an old man stepped and put his
hands on Simon's shoulders, and
peered at him with anguished eyes.
"It is too late, John Keogh," the old
man said hoarsely. "It is all for
nothing. They have brought the
Harpers in!"
CHAPTER IV
The Harpers
IMON felt a cold shock of recoil.
He had not looked for this. He had
not expected that now, this soon, he
might be called upon to meet the
Harpers.
He had met them once before, years
ago. He knew the subtle and terrible
danger of them. It had shaken him
badly then, when he was a brain
divorced from flesh. What would it do
to him, now that he dwelt again in a
vulnerable, unpredictable human
body?
His hand closed tightly on the tiny
metal box in his pocket. He must
gamble that it would protect him from
the Harpers'power. But, remembering
that experience of years ago, he
dreaded the test.