"A. E. Merritt - Dwellers In The Mirage - v1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merritt A. E)

Jim. I'll go down to the stream and get some water."

"Degataga !"

I started. It was only in moments of rare sympathy
or in time of peril that he used the secret name.

"Degataga, you go north ! You go if I have to march
ahead of you to make you follow . . ."he dropped into
the Cherokee. . . . "It is to save your spirit, Degataga.
Do we march togetherЧblood-brothers ? Or do you
creep after meЧlike a shivering dog at the heels of the
hunter ?"

The blood pounded in my temples, my hand went
out toward him. He stepped back, and laughed.

"That's better, Leif."

The quick rage left me, my hand fell.

"All right, Tsantawu. We goЧnorth. But it wasn't
Чit wasn't because of myself that I told you I'd changed
my mind."

"I know damned well it wasn't!"

He busied himself with the fire. I went after the
water. We drank the strong black tea, and ate what was
left of the little brown storks they call Alaskan turkeys
which we had shot the day before. When we were
through I began to talk.

CHAPTER II

RING OF THE KRAKEN

THREE years ago, so I began my story, I went into
Mongolia with the Fairchild expedition. Part of
its work was a mineral survey for certain British interests,
part of it ethnographic and archeological research for the
British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania.

I never had a chance to prove my value as a mining
engineer. At once I became good-will representative,
camp entertainer, liaison agent between us and the tribes.
My height, my yellow hair, blue eyes and freakish strength,
and my facility in picking up languages were of never-
ending interest to them. Tartars, Mongols, Buriats,
KirghizЧthey would watch while I bent horseshoes,