"The Hunters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

lions do. Yes, Carolyn and Doris, you're going to be lions. You are waiting in
your lairs, ready to pounce on the unwary hunter. Crouch now, behind that chair.
Closer and closer he comesЧyou act it out, Mr. George, please, that's the
wayЧever closer, and now your muscles tighten for the spring, and you open your
great, wide, red mouths in a great, great big roarЧ"
A deep and tremendous roar, as of thunder, crashed through the auditorium. A
roarЧand then, from the audience, an outburst of terrified screaming such as he
had never heard. The bristles rose at the back of his neck, and his heart froze.
Facing him across the platform were two lions, tensed as if to leap. Where they
had come from he didn't know, but there they were, eyes glaring, manes ruffled,
more terrifying than any he had seen in Africa. There they were, with the threat
of death and destruction in their fierce eyes, and here he was, terror and
helplessness on his handsome, manly, and bloodless face, heart unfrozen now and
pounding fiercely, knees melting, handsЧ
Hands clutching an elephant gun. The thought was like a director's command. With
calm efficiency, with all the precision of an actor playing a scene rehearsed a
thousand times, the gun leaped to his shoulder, and now its own roar thundered
out a challenge to the roaring of the wild beasts, shouted at them in its own
accents of barking thunder.
The shrill screaming continued long after the echoes of the gun's speech had
died away. Across the platform from him were two great bodies, the bodies of
lions, and yet curiously unlike the beasts in some ways, now that they were dead
and dissolving as if corroded by some invisible acid.
Carol's hand was on his arm, Carol's thin and breathless voice shook as she
said, "A drinkЧall the drinks you want."
"One will do. And you."
"And me. I guess you're kind ofЧkind of useful after all."