"Murray Leinster - The Pirates of Zan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

fifty, we may live to ride away. If more, we may even reach Don Loris' castle. How many?"
"We'll see what we see," said Hoddan dourly. "But I'd better charge these other pistols. You can come with me, or
wait. I haven't killed these men. They're only stunned. They'll come around presently."
He went out of the warehouse, carrying the bag which was again loaded with uncharged stun-pistols. He went back
to the grid's control-room. He pushed it open and entered for the second time. The redhead swore and rubbed at his
hand. The man who'd smiled unpleasantly lay in a heap on the floor. The second unshaven man jittered visibly at
sight of Hoddan.
"I'm back," said Hoddan politely, "for more kilowatts."
He put his bag conveniently close to the terminals at which his pistols could be recharged. He snapped open a
pistol butt and presented it to the electric contacts.
"Quaint customs you have here," he said conversationally. "Robbing a newcomer. Resenting his need for a few
watts of power that comes free from the sky." The stun-pistol clicked. He snapped the butt shut and opened another,
which he placed in contact for charging. "Making him act," he added acidly, "with manners as bad as the local ones.
Going at him with knives so he has to be resentful in his turn." The second stun-pistol clicked. He closed it and began
to charge a third. He said severely, "Innocent touristsтАФrelatively innocent ones, anyhowтАФare not likely to be
favorably impressed with Darth!" He had the- charging process going swiftly now. He began to charge a fourth
weapon. "It's particularly bad manners," he added sternly, "to stand there grinding your teeth at me while your friend
behind the desk crawls after an old-fashioned chemical gun to shoot me with."
He snapped the fourth pistol shut and went after the man who'd dropped down behind a desk. He came upon that
man, hopelessly panicked, just as his hands closed on a clumsy gun that was supposed to set off a chemical
explosive to propel a metal bullet
1:
"Don't!" said Hoddan severely. "If I have to shoot you at this range, you'll-have-blisters I"
He took the weapon out of the other man's hands. He went back and finished charging the rest of the pistols.
He returned most of them to his bag, though he stuck others in his belt and pockets to the point where he looked
 like the fiction-tape version of a space-pirate. He moved to the door. As a last thought, he picked up the bullet-firing
weapon.
"There's only one spaceship here a month," he observed politely, "so I'll be around. If you want to get in touch
with me, ask Don Loris. I'm going to visit him while I look over the professional opportunities on Darth."
He went out once more. Somehow he felt more cheerful than a half-hour since, when he'd landed as the only
passenger from the spaceliner. Then he'd felt ignored and lonely and friendless on a strange and primitive world. He
still had no friends, but he had already acquired some enemies and therefore material for more or less worthwhile
achievement. He surveyed the sunlit scene about him from the control-room door^
Thai, the purple-cloaked man, had brought two shaggy-haired animals around to the door of the warehouse.
Hoddan later learned that they were horses. He was in furious haste to mount one of them. As he climbed up, small
bright metal disks cascaded from a pocket. He tried to stop the flow of money as he got feverishly inta the saddle.
From the small town a mob of some fifty mounted men plunged toward the landing-grid. They wore garments of
yellow and blue and magenta.. They waved huge knives and made bloodthirsty noises. Thai saw them and bolted,
riding one horse and towing the other by a lead rope. It happened that his line of retreat passed by where Hoddan
stood.
Hoddan held up his hand. Thai reined in.
"Mount!" Thai cried hoarsely. "Mount and ride!"
Hoddan passed him the eliemical gun. Thai seized it frantically.
"Hurry!" he panted. "Don Loris would have my throat cut if I deserted you! Mount and ride!"
Hoddan painstakingly fastened his bag to the saddle of
his horse. He unfastened the lead rope. He'd noticed that Thai pulled in the leather reins to stop the horse. He'd seen
that he kicked it furiously to urge it on. He deduced that one steered the animal by pulling on one strap or the other.
He climbed clumsily to a seat.
There was a howl from the racing, mounted men. They waved their knives and yelled in zestful anticipation of
murder.