"Fritz Leiber - Ill Met in Lankhmar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leiber Fritz)

he's supposed to afford us. Bad enough that Krovas did
employ or let himself be cowed into employing a sorcerer
of most dubious, if dire, reputation and aspect, but that"
"Shut your trap!" Slevyas hissed still more softly.
Fissif obeyed with a shrug and employed himself in
darting his gaze this way and that, but chiefly ahead.
Some distance in that direction, in fact just short of
Gold Street, Cash was bridged by an enclosed second-
story passageway connecting the two buildings which
made up the premises of .the famous stone-masons and
sculptors Rokkermas and Slaarg. The firm's buildings
themselves were fronted by very shallow porticoes sup-
ported by unnecessarily large pillars of varied shape and
decoration, advertisements more than structural members.
From just beyond the bridge came two low, brief whis-
tles, a signal from the point bravo that he had inspected
that area for ambushes and discovered nothing suspicious
and that Gold Street was clear.
Fissif was by no means entirely satisfied by the safety
signal. To tell the truth, the fat thief rather enjoyed being
apprehensive and even fearful, at least up to a point. So
he scanned most closely through the thin, sooty smog
the frontages and overhangs of Rokkermas and Slaarg.
On this side the bridge was pierced by four small win-
dows, between which were three large niches in which
stood another advertisement three life-size plaster stat-
ues, somewhat eroded by years of weather and dyed
varyingly tones 'of dark gray by as many years of smog.
Approaching Jengao's before the burglary, Fissif had
noted them. Now it seemed to him that 'the statue to the
right had indefinably changed. It was that of a man of
medium height wearing cloak and hood, who gazed down
with crossed arms and brooding aspect. No, not indefin-
ably quite the statue was a more uniform dark gray
now, he fancied, cloak, hood, and face; it seemed some-
what sharper featured, less eroded; and he would almost
swear it had grown shorter!
Just below the niches, moreover, there was a scattering
of gray and raw white rubble which he didn't recall hav-
ing been there earlier. He strained to remember if during
the excitement of the burglary, the unsleeping watch-
corner of his mind had recorded a distant crash, and now
he believed it had. His quick imagination pictured the
possibility of a hole behind each statue, through which it
might be given a strong push and so tumbled onto passers-
by, himself and Slevyas specifically, the right-hand statue
'having been crashed to test the device and then replaced
with a near twin.
He would keep close watch on all the statues as he
and Slevyas walked under. It would be easy to dodge if