"Andre Norton - Darkness and Dawn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

sapling among the wood within reach. It appeared almost straight, so he hacked it down
with his knife and trimmed off the branches. With this aid he could get around, and the
more he moved the more the stiffness seemed to loosen. When Lura returned with a
plump bronze-feathered turkey in her jaws, he was in a better frame of mind and ready to
eat breakfast.
But the pace at which they started was not a speedy one. Fors hissed between set teeth
when now and again his weight shifted too heavily on the left leg. He turned instinctively
into what once had been the lane tying the farmstead to the road, and brushed between
the encroaching bushes, leaning heavily on his cane.
Rain made sticky mud of every patch of open ground and he was afraid of slipping
and falling. Lura kept up a steady low whine of complaint against the weather and the
slowness of their travel. But she did not go off on her own as she might have done had he
been himself. And Fors talked to her constantly.
The lane came to the road and he turned into that since it went in the direction he
wished. Soil had drifted across the concrete and made mud patches which gave root to
spiked plants; but, even with that, it was better footing for an almost one-legged man than
the wet ground. Lura scouted ahead, weaving in and out of the bushes and tall grass along
the side of the old thoroughfare. She tested the wind for alien scents, now and then
shaking head or paws vigorously to rid them of clinging raindrops.
All at once she bounded out of the brush to Fors, pushing against him with her body,
forcing him gently back toward the ditch which ran nearby. He caught the urgency of her
warning and scrambled to cover with all the speed he could muster. As he lay against the
greasy red clay bank with his palms spread flat, he felt the pounding long before he heard
the hoofs which caused it. Then the herd came into sight, trotting at an easy pace down
the old road. For a moment or two Fors searched for the herders and then he realized that
none of the horses wore the patches of bright paint which distinguished ownership among
the Plainsmen. They must be wild. There were several mares with foals, a snorting
stallion bearing the scars of battle on his shoulder, and some yearlings running free.
But there was one mare who had no foal. Her rough, ungroomed coat was a very dark
red, her burr-matted tail and mane black. Now and again she dropped to the back,
stopping to snatch a mouthful of herbage, a trick which at last earned her a sharp nip from
the stallion. She squealed, lashed out with ready hoofs, and then ran swiftly, breaking
ahead of the rest of the band. Fors watched her go with regret. If he had had his two feet
under him she might have been a possible capture. But no use thinking of that.
Then the herd rounded a curve and was out of sight. Fors took a moment's breather
before he pulled himself back on the road. Lura was there before him, kneading her front
paws on a mat of grass, staring after the vanished horses. To her mind there was no
difference between one of those foals and the calf she had pulled down. Both were meat
and meant to be eaten. It was in her mind to trail along behind such a wealth of food. Fors
did not argue with her. He still thought of the mare who ran free and followed her own
will.
They came up again with the herd before the hour was past. The road made a sudden
dip into a valley which was almost cup-shaped. At the bottom rich grass grew tall and
there the herd grazed, the watchful stallion standing guard halfway up the rise.
But what caught Fors' eyes was the shell of a building which stood almost directly
below. Fire had eaten out its interior so that only the crumbling brick of the outer walls
remained. He studied it carefully and then tried to identify the horses beyond.
The mare was apart from the herd, grazing close to the building. Fors wet his lips
with his tongue tip. There was just a chanceтАФa very wild chanceтАФ
It would depend largely upon Lura's co-operation. And that had never failed him yet.