"Andre Norton - Here Abide Monsters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

"There! Turn it up!" Linda urged. "You've got something!"
"But what?" Nick asked.
"But what" was right. This sounded like gasps, clicks, and even a gabbled si
nging, but it made no sense. He thumbed the set off.
"Whatever that was, it was no broadcast of ours," he said bleakly.
"But somebody was broadcasting," Linda pointed out. "Which means we aren't
alone here. Maybe if we can find people they will be able to help us."
Nick was not too sure. The language, if language that had been, was far rem
oved from anything he had ever heard in his life and he had monitored a lot
of foreign broadcasts with Gary Langford when Gary had his ham outfit. But
Linda was right about getting out of here. He had the small compass and th
e lake was northeast-or it should be-if there was still any lake at all.
They could not keep to a straight line, but the lack of heavy underbrush wa
s a help. And with the compass to steer by they wove a path among the tower
ing trees, rounding boles that the two of them together could not have hope
d to span with out-stretched arms.
The bike seemed uninjured, but Nick had to wheel it along, walking beside it.
There was no opening through which they dared ride. Linda carried her duffel
bag slung over her shoulder by its cords and had let Lung down to patter alo
ng over the thick layers of countless years of fallen leaves. The little dog
seemed to have lost his fear. But, while he sniffed at a moldering branch now
and then, or snuffed into a pile of last season's leaves, he made no effort
to pull to the end of his leash, staying close to Linda.
Though the trees about them were awe inspiring, there were sounds in this fo
rest familiar enough to allay some of their distrust. For there were not onl
y birds to be heard and sometimes seen, but those winged inhabitants appeare
d unusually fearless as well as curious about the intruders.
Intruders Nick felt they were. This was a place that did not know man and h
ad no idea of his species' destructiveness. The barked giants about them ha
d never felt the bite of axe and stood in arrogant pride. Had it not been f
or that gabble from the transistor Nick would have suspicions that the phen
omena, which haunted the Cut-Off had brought them to a space where his kind
had never existed at all.
"It-it is so quiet." Linda moved closer, laid one hand on the bike near his.
"Except for the birds. I never saw woods like this before. The trees-they a
re huge! When I was little my aunt had an old copy of Swiss Family Robinson-
there was a tree in it that they turned into a house. You could do that with
most of these."
Nick had one eye on the compass. They had had to make a good many detours,
but they were still heading for the lake. Only here among all these trees i
t was hard to judge distance. Surely they couldn't be too far away from it
now. But-what if there was no lake here?
He wanted that lake, he had to see it. The body of water was a promise of s
ecurity somehow-without the lake they would be lost entirely. Nick hardly h
eard Linda's comment, he was so intent on willing the lake to be waiting fo
r them, hoping that the stand of trees would soon thin so they could glimps
e it.
"Nick!" Linda's hand flew from the bike to his wrist, tightened about it in a
convulsive grip.
But he had seen it too.