"Leinster, Murray - The Fifth-Dimension Tube UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

УIТve found some cartridges, Tommy,Ф she said constrainedly, Уand a pistol I think will work.Ф
УThen listen for visitors,Ф commanded Tommy, Уwhile I look for more.Ф
For half an hour he scoured the area around the shattered Tube. He found where some clumsy-wheeled thing had been pushed to a spot near the TubeЧundoubtedly the machine which had sprayed the flaming stuff upon it. He found two pockets full of shells. He found an extra magazine for the submachine gun. It was nearly full and only a little bent. That was all.
УNow,Ф he said briskly, УweТll start. IТve got a hunch the jungle thins out over that way. WeТll find a clearing, try to locate the Golden City either by seeing it or by watching for aircraft flying to it, and then make for it. TheyТre making war on Earth, there. They donТt understand. WeТve got to make them understand. 0. K.?Ф
Evelyn nodded. She put out her hand suddenly, a brave slender figure amid the incredible growths about her.
УIТm glad, Tommy,Ф she said slowly, Уthat ifЧif anything happens, it will be theЧthe two of us. Funny, isnТt it?Ф
Tommy kissed the twisted little smile from her face.
УAnd now that thatТs over,Ф he observed, ashamed of his own emotion, УletТs go!Ф


THEY went. Tommy watched the sun and kept approximately a straight line. They traveled three miles, and
the jungle broke abruptly. Before them was a spongy surface neither solid earth nor marsh. It shelved gently down to a vast and steaming morass upon which the dull-red sun shone hotly. It was vast, that marsh, and a steaming haze hung over it, and it seemed to reach to the worldТs end. But vaguely, through the attenuating upper layers of the steamy haze, they saw the outlines of a city beyond: tall towers and soaring spires, buildings of a grace and perfection of outline unknown upon the Earth. And faint golden flashes came from the walls and pinnacles of that city. They were reflections of this planetТs monster sun, upon walls and roofs of plated gold.
УThe Golden City,Ф said Tommy heavily. He looked at the horrible marsh between. His heart sank.
And then there was a sudden screaming ululation nearby. A half-naked man was running out of sight. Two others danced and capered and yelled in insane glee, pointing at Tommy and at Evelyn. The running manТs outcry was echoed from far away. Then it was taken up and repeated here and there in the jungle.
УThey saw our tracks near the Tube,Ф snapped Tommy bitterly. УOh, what a fool I am! Now theyТll ring us in.Ф
He seized EvelynТs hand and began to run. There was a little rise in the ground a hundred yards away, with a clump of leafy ferns to shade it. They reached it as other half-naked, wholly mad human forms burst out of the jungle to yell and caper and make derisive and horrible gestures at the fugitives.
УHere we fight,Ф said Tommy grimly. УThe groundТs open, anyhow. We fight here, and very probably we die here. But first . .
He knelt down and drew the finest of fine beads upon a bearded man who carried a glittering truncheonlike club which, by the way it was carried, was more than merely a bludgeon. He pulled the trigger for a single shot.
The bullet struck the capering Ragged Man fairly in the chest. And it exploded.

CHAPTER V
The Fight in the Marsh

TWICE, within the next two hours, the Ragged Men mustered the courage to charge. They came racing across the
semi-solid ooze like the madmen they were. Their yells and shouts were maniacal howls of blood-lust or worse. And twice Tommy broke their rush with a savage ruthlessness. The submachine gunТs first magazine was nearly empty. It was an unhandy weapon for single-shot work, but it was loaded with explosive shells. The second rush he stopped with an automatic pistol. There were half-naked bodies partly buried in the ooze all the way from the jungleТs edge to within ten yards of the hillock on which he and Evelyn had taken refuge.
It was hot there, terribly hot. The air was stifling. It fairly reeked of moisture, and the smells from the swamp behind them were sickening. Tommy began to transfer the shells from the spare bent magazine to the one he had carried with the gun.
УWeТve a couple of reasons to be thankful,Ф he observed. УOne is that thereТs a bit of shade overhead. The other is that we had the big magazines for this gun. We still have nearly ninety shells, besides the ones for the pistols.Ф
Evelyn said soberly:
УWeТre going to be killed, donТt you think, Tommy?Ф
Tommy frowned.
УIТm rather afraid we are,Ф he said irritably. УConfound it, and IТd thought of such excellent arguments to use in the City back yonder! Smithers said the Death Mist was two miles across, to-day, and still growing. The people in the city are still pouring the stuff down through JacaroТs Tube.Ф
Evelyn smiled faintly. She touched his hand.
УTrying to keep me from worrying? Tommy. . . .У She hesitated until he growled a question. УPleaseЧremember that when Daddy and I were in the jungle before, we saw what these Ragged Men do to prisoners they take. I just want you to promise thatЧwell, you wonТt wait too long, in hopes of somehow saving me.Ф
Tommy stared at her. Then he decisively reached forward and put his hand over her mouth.
УKeep quiet,Ф he said gently. УThey shanТt capture you. I promise that. Now keep quiet.Ф


THERE was only silence for a long time. Now and again a hidden figure screamed in rage at them. Now and again
some flapping thing sped toward the jungleТs edge. Once a naked arm thrust one of the golden truncheons from behind its cover, pointing at a flying thing a few yards overhead. The flying thing suddenly toppled, turning over and over before it crashed to the ground. There were howls of glee.
УThey seem mad,Ф said Tommy meditatively, Уand they act like lunatics, but IТve got a hunch of some sort about them. But what?Ф
Sunlight gleamed on something golden beyond the jungleТs edge. Naked figures were running to the spot. An exultant tumult arose.
УNow they try another trick,Ф Tommy observed dispassionately. УI remember that at the Tube they had pushed something on wheels. . .
The sub-machine gun was unhandy for accurate single shots, and no pistol can be used to effect at long ranges. To conserve ammunition, Tommy had been shooting only at relatively close targets, allowing the Ragged Men immunity at over two hundred yards. But now he flung over the continuous-fire stud. He watched grimly.
The foliage at the edge of the jungle parted. A crude wagon appeared. Its axles were lesser tree-trunks. Its wheels were clumsy and crude beyond belief. But mounted upon it there was a queer mass of golden metal which looked strangely beautiful and strangely deadly.
УThatТs the thing,Ф said Tommy dispassionately, Уwhich made the flare of light last night. It blew up the Tube. And Von Holtz told meЧhmЧhis friends, in the City. . .
He sighted carefully. The wagon and its contents were surrounded by a leaping, capering mob. They shook their fists in an insane hatred.
A storm of bullets burst upon them. Tommy was traversing the little gun with the trigger pressed down. His lips were set tightly. And suddenly it seemed as if the solid earth burst asunder! There had been an instant in which the bullet-bursts were visible. They tore and shattered the howling mob of Ragged Men. But then they struck the golden weapon. A sheet of blue-white flame leaped skyward and round about. A blast of blistering, horrible heat smote upon the beleaguered pair. The moisture of the ooze between them and the jungle flashed into
steam. A section of the jungle itself, a hundred yards across, shriveled and died.

STEAM shot upward in a monstrous cloudЧmiles high, it seemed. Then, almost instantly, there was nothing left of the Ragged Men about the golden weapon, or of the weapon itself, but an unbearable blue-white light which poured away and trickled here and there and seemed to grow in volume as it flamed.