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

uld not be affected by the bumpy ride in. His boots thumped on the porch as
he reached for the knob of the screen door. Behind the screening a black s
hape opened its jaws in an almost inaudible but plainly warning hiss.
Nick jerked off his helmet. "I'm no Martian invader, Rufus," he said to the b
ig tomcat.
Unblinking blue eyes stared back but the jaws closed.
"Rufe, you there-move away from the door. How many times am I going to te
ll you if you sit there you're going to be stepped on someday-"
Nick laughed. "By whom, Ham? Some customer pounding in for bargains, o
r one going out because you ran the prices up on him?"
The cat moved disdainfully back a little, allowing him to pass by.
"Nick Shaw!" The youngish man moved out from behind the counter on the l
eft. "Your folks up for the weekend?"
Nick shook his head. "Just me."
"Sorry your Dad couldn't make it. Larry Green sighted some big ones in the
cove. He was just saying to me no more'n an hour ago that Mr. Shaw sure o
ught to come up and cast a line for one of those. He hasn't been here for
a long time now."
- Ham was being tactful, but not tactful enough. Nick shifted his feet. Th
ey never mentioned Margo, but she was always right there, in their minds a
s well as his, when they talked about Dad. Before Margo Dad had loved the
lake, had been here in the summer and the fall every minute he could get a
way. How much longer would he even keep the cabin now?
"No," Nick answered in a voice he kept even with an effort. "He's been pre
tty busy, Ham, you know how it is."
"Don't suppose I can sell you any bait-"
Nick managed a smile. "You know me, Ham. I'm about as much a fisherman as
Rufus is a dog lover. What I do want is some stuff to eat-what I can car
ry on the bike without a smashup. Any of Amy's bread to go?"
"I'll see. No reason why we can't spare some baking-"
Hodges turned to the back of the store and Nick moved around to pick other
items. A package of bacon from the freezer bin, some cheese. From all the y
ears he had been stopping at Ham's he knew where most things were. Rufus wa
s back on guard at the screen door. He was about the biggest cat Nick had e
ver seen, but not fat. Instead, in spite of the plates of cat food he could
and did lick clean each day, he was rather gaunt. His conformation was tha
t of his Siamese father, though his color was the black of the half-breed.
"How's hunting, Rufus?" Nick asked as he returned to the counter.
An ear twitched, but the cat's head did not turn even a fraction. His intere
st in what lay outside was so intent that Nick moved up behind him to look o
ut, too. There must be a bird, even a snake-something in the road. But he co
uld see nothing.
Which did not mean that nothing was there. Cats saw above and below the hu
man range of sight. There could be something there all right, something in
visible-
Nick wondered just how much truth there was in some of the books he had rea
d-those that speculated about different kinds of existence. Such as the one
that had suggested we share this world with other kinds of life as invisib
le to us as we might be to them. Not altogether a comfortable thought. You
had enough trouble with what you could see.