"James Herbert - Soul Catcher" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert James)

David pulled his jacket close around him. The cold air had raised goose pimples on his
skin. He felt both frightened and excited. An Indian.

He said: "You're not dressed."

"I'm dressed for the ceremony."

Silently, Katsuk prayed: "O Life Giver, now that you have seen the way apart of your
all-powerful being goes. . . ."

David sensed the man's tensions, the air of secrecy. But no place could be safer than
this wilderness camp with that cog railroad the only way to get here.

He asked: "Aren't you cold?"

"I am used to this. You must hurry after me now. We haven't much time."
Katsuk stepped down off the porch. The boy followed.

"Where are we going?"

"To the top of the ridge."

David hurried to keep in step. "Why?"

"I have prepared a place there for you to be initiated into a very old ceremony of my
people."

"Because of the photographs?"

"Yes."

"I didn't think Indians believed in that stuff anymore."

"Even you will believe."

David tucked his shirt more firmly into his belt, felt the knife. The knife gave him a
feeling of confidence. He stumbled in his hurry to keep up.

Without looking back, Katsuk felt the boy's tensions relax. There had been a moment back
on the porch when rebellion had radiated from the Innocent. The boy's eyes had been
uncertain, wet and smooth in their darkness. The bitter acid of fear had been in the air.
But now the boy would follow. He was enthralled. The center of the universe carried the
power of a magnet for that Innocent.

David felt his heart beating rapidly from exertion. He smelled rancid oil from the Chief.
The man's skin glistened when moonlight touched it, as though he had greased his body.

"How far is it?" David asked.

"Three thousand and eighty-one paces."