"Ardath Mayhar - Khi to Freedom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mayhar Ardath)

and far more easily than IтАЩd ever have dreamed of being able to do.
We had time to find comfortable spots to hide and get bored in. Then I
heard the unmistakable sound of a Ginli party moving in the forest. Owl
was stretched beside me on a thick branch that was screened so heavily
from the ground that we couldnтАЩt see. I wriggled silently up to a crotch
where the limb branched into three segments and peeped through. Sure
enough, there was a tiny space of leaf-strewn soil in view. I lay there
watching it.
The ungodly clamor of Ginli in forest drew nearer. I found myself
wondering what they found to slash and crush and hack in so clear-floored
a wood. Their manual had been written, evidently, by some Ginli who had
had his experience of exploration in a jungle setting. He had stated
explicitly that all vegetation along the line of march must be cut by those
who marched before, so as to implement the movement of those coming
behind. He had not envisioned a forest without undergrowth, and no Ginli
of wider experience had ever seen fit to amend the manual. So I watched
as a broad, booted foot stepped into my patch of ground, paused a
moment, then demolished a small cluster of brown grass. I wondered if the
Ginli attached noise-makers to their implementsтАФthere was certainly
nothing there to account for the vicious тАЬcrusssh!тАЭ that accompanied the
action.
There was commotion in the wood for quite a while, and I guessed that
some dozen must be strung out in a long line. What concerned me was the
fact that, as nearly as I could estimate, they were headed for the Varlian
village. When they had stamped off into the distance, I touched OwlтАЩs arm
and pointed back along the way we had come. She chattered something,
gave an impatient gesture, and called to Lime.
He appeared so silently that I started when his green face came through
the leaves above me. He sat patiently while Owl explained my question to
him. Then he chuckled that indubitably human chuckle that had endeared
his kind to me. Calling me to attention, he stood on the limb and gestured
toward the village. He mimed so well that I could all but see the grove and
the hanging nests and the busy inhabitants.
 He sketched in the Ginli, stamping and hacking through clear forest.
The Ginli spied the village and stood for a short time, evidently planning
what they would do. Then Lime became the council of eldersтАж each one
came into being for a fleeting moment as he adopted his or her gestures
and posture. The elders reached out and folded somethingтАж very carefully,
very painstakingly, as though it were of the utmost importance.
There followed a demonstration that I couldnтАЩt follow, try as I might.
Lime erased the Ginli gesture and seemed to indicate that the aliens were
not where they had been, but the connection and the method of their
removal escaped me. At last the Varlian sighed and made the curving sign,
pointed westward. We took up the trek again, and I followed Owl with a
head full of unanswerable questions.
For two days we traveled, without any frantic haste but with all
convenient speed. Ginli ships zipped over at intervals, but the road we
took was invisible to them. Below our lofty way, however, I noticed that
there were many trails and paths and the beginnings of a fairly well-worn
track that spoke of some sort of organized foot-travel. When I pointed