"H. Warner Munn - The Ship from Atlantis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Munn H Warner)

The tide came gently in, lifting the prow of the Feathered Serpent from
its trough in the sand, and because the other stones had been lifted from
the sea by the other attackers, there was nothing to hold it upon the
beach.

The breeze blew softly that morning from the shore and the
dragon-ship drifted away, spinning slowly with no hands at the whipstaff.
Later an easterly wind gave it speed and direction, away from the coast,
out into the open ocean.

After long hours the edge of the Gulf Stream caught it and hurried it
on, away from Alata, away from his homeland and away from the island of
death. Centuries later the Spaniards landed and christened it Cayo de los
HuessosтАФIsland of the Bones. Today we call it Key West.


II
THE GOLDEN BIRD
Gwalchmai woke, but he did not know that his name was Gwalchmai.
He knew that he was a man and that he was on a ship, but what manner
of ship it was or how he came to be there was lost knowledge. Yet nothing
looked strange to him.

He knew that this was a mast and that was a sail. He swung the tiller
and the Feathered Serpent answered the helmтАФsluggishly, because the
sail was furled. He climbed up and cut the lashings and made the sheets
fast. Now the gentle breeze bore him eastward. He felt that he was
traveling in the right direction, but could not have said why it seemed
right to him.

The reason for his satisfaction was buried deep in his injured memory.
He frowned, trying to remember, and the wrinkling of his forehead pulled
at the stiffened hair where it was stuck to the wound above his right
temple. He explored the damage with his fingers and winced. The cut was
wide and swollen. He let down a leather bucket overside and brought up
water and bathed away the blood. The salt stung and burned, but
afterward he felt better.

It came to him that he was very hungry. He seemed unusually weak and
when he discovered the ship's stores, it was hard for him to open a tightly
knotted sack of pemmican. He remembered having seen a long knife lying
on the deck among some bones and went after it. It seemed a long journey
and after he had retrieved it and brought it down into the hold he sat in
front of the sack which smelled so good trying to recollect what he had
meant to do with the knife. After a moment in thought he stabbed the
sack and the rich food gushed out.

He gorged with both hands until he was satisfied. The lean pulverized
sun-dried antelope meat, mixed with fat, dried wild cherries, marrow and