"Norton, Andre - Galactic Derelict" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

that odd sensation.

Travis laid the gun down beside the flint point, regarding them both with wide and astonished eyes.
From them he had gained a common impression of age--a wade expanse of time separating him
from the makers of those two very dissimilar weapons. For the Folsom point that feeling "'si?
correct. But why did the gun give him that same answer? He had come

18


GALACTIC DERELICT

to rely on that queer unnamed sense of his--its apparent failure now was disconcerting.
"How old is the gun?" asked Ashe.
"It can't be--" Travis protested against the verdict of his sense. "I won't believe that it is as old--or
older--than the spearheadl"
"Brother"--Ross regarded him with an odd expression-- "you can call "em!" He reholstered the gun.
"So now we have a time guesser, chief."
"Such a gift is not too uncommon," Ashe commented ab-sently. "I've seen it in operation before."
"But a gun can't be that old!" Travis still objected. Ross's left eyebrow raised in a sardonic arc as he
gave a half-smile.
"That's all you know about it, brother," he observed. "New recruit?" That was addressed to Ashe. The
latter was frowning, but at Ross's inquiry he smiled with a warmth which for a second or two made
Travis uncomfortable. It so patently ad-vertised that those two were a long-established team, shutting
him outside.
"Don't rush things, boy." Ashe stood up and went over to the com unit. "Any news from the front?"
"Cackle-cackle, yacketty-yak," snorted the operator. "Soon as I tune out one band interference, we hit
another. Someday maybe they'll make these walkie-talkies so they'll really oper-ate without
overloading a guy's eardrums. No, nothing for us yet."
Travis wanted to ask questions, a lot of them. But he was also sure that most would receive evasive
answers. He tried to fit the gun into the rest of his jigsaw of surmises, hints, and guesses, and found it
wouldn't. But he forgot that when Ashe sat down once more and began to talk archaeologist's shop. At
first Travis only listened, then he realized he was being drawn more and more into answering, into
giving opinions and once or twice daring to contradict the other. Apache lore, cliff ruins, Folsom
man--Ashe's conversation

19

GALACTIC DERELICT

ranged widely. It was only after Travis had been led to talking freely with the pent-up eagerness of
one who has been denied expression for too long, that he understood the other man must have been
testing his knowledge in the field.
"Sounds rugged, the way they lived then," Ross observed at the conclusion of Travis' story of the
use of their present
camp site by Apache holdouts in the old days.
"That, from you, is good," Grant said, laughing, and then

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