"Edmond Hamilton - Children of the Sun" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

Curt Newton nodded. Simon's micro-
Belt holds the key of a staggering power.тАЭ
phonic ears, far more acute than any
human auditory system, had picked up
faint rustlings of movement among the
ferns. Now that he was listening for it
CHAPTER II
Newton could hear the stealthy padding of
Citadel of Mystery many naked feet, moving with infinite
caution.
тАЬI don't understand it,тАЭ he murmured.
тАЬThese Vulcanian natives were friendly
AS the echoes of Curt Newton's voice before. This furtivenessтАФтАЭ
died away the four looked at each other in тАЬShall we stop and have it out with
troubled wonder. The rank ferns drooped them ?тАЭ Otho demanded.
unstirring in the weird half- light over the тАЬNo, let's go on. We have to find that
broken arches and falling colonnades. citadel before dark. But keep alertтАФa
Somewhere in the jungle a beast screamed thrown spear can be jus t as final as a
harshly with a sound like laughter. blaster.тАЭ
Otho finally broke the silence. тАЬWhat тАЬNot to me it can't,тАЭ rumbled Grag.
could Carlin have found ?тАЭ тАЬCurt didn't mean youтАФhe meant us
humans,тАЭ gibed Otho.


5
 тАЬListen, plastic-puss,тАЭ Grag began stretched far away and he could catch the
wrathfully. тАЬI'm twice as human as you tawny gleam of Yellow Lake in the distant
andтАФтАЭ dusk.
тАЬThat's enough,тАЭ Newton rapped. тАЬYou
THROUGH the twilight jungle, the Belt
can carry on that old argument some other
time.тАЭ
stretched like a stygian river of deepest
They went on and the unseen escort
black. He could see no building or ruin of
went with them. Soon they encountered the
any kind on his side of the ebon strip.
end of the Belt.
тАЬThis must be the citadel Carlin meant,тАЭ
Black calcined soil, smoking rocks, a
he said. тАЬApparently a landslide has
wave of dull heat from the ground itself
covered it since he was here. We'll have to
attested to the awful heat of the Sun whose
dig a way in.тАЭ
single great ray once each day traveled
They found flat stones in the loose soil
across this strip of Vulcan's interior.
of the slide. Using them as hand-spades
They made Captain Future feel again