"A. E. Merritt - Dwellers in the mirage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merritt A. E)

away.

"It's going to be a job getting down there," I said.

"And hard going when we do," said Jim. "Where the hell did all those rocks
come from, and what spread them out so flat?"

"Probably dropped by that glacier when it shrunk," I said. "It looks
like a terminal moraine. In fact this whole place looks as though it
had been scooped out by the ice."

"Hold on to my feet, Leif, I'll take a look." He lay on his belly and
wriggled his body over the edge. In a minute or two I heard him call,
and pulled him back.


file:///F|/rah/A.Merrit/Merritt%20-%20Dwellers%20in%20the%20Mirage.txt (26 of 155) [1/15/03 4:51:35 PM]
 file:///F|/rah/A.Merrit/Merritt%20-%20Dwellers%20in%20the%20Mirage.txt


"There's a slide about a quarter of a mile over there to the left," he
said. "I couldn't tell whether it goes all the way to the top. We'll go
see. Leif, how far down do you think that valley is?"

"Oh, a few hundred feet."

"It's all of a thousand if it's an inch. The cliff goes down and down.
I don't understand what makes the bottom seem so much closer here. It's
a queer place, this."

We picked up the packs and marched off behind the wall--like rim of
boulders. In a little while we came across a big gouge in the top,
running far back. Here frost and ice had bitten out the rock along some
fault. The shattered debris ran down the middle of the gouge like giant
stepping-stones clear to the floor of the valley.

"We'll have to take the packs off to negotiate that," said Jim. "What
shall be do--leave them here while we explore, or drop them along with
us as we go?"

"Take them with us. There must be an outlet off there at the base of
the big mountain."

We began the descent. I was scrambling over one of the rocks about a
third of the way when I heard his sharp exclamation.

Gone was the glacier that had thrust its white tongue in among the
rubble. Gone was the rubble. Toward its .far end, the valley's floor
was covered with scores of pyramidal black stones, each marked down its
centre with a streak of glistening white. They stood in ranks, spaced