"Chad Oliver - Blood's a Rover" - читать интересную книгу автора (Oliver Chad)

least. They donтАЩt use blowguns or anythingтАФjust spears, and theyтАЩd prefer a hatchet. If thereтАЩs trouble,
you hightail it back to the hut at once and man the projector. ThatтАЩs all.тАЭ
тАЬIтАЩm not so sure I care to be an ancestor,тАЭ Andy Irvin muttered, picking up his hoe. тАЬNot yet,
anyhow.тАЭ He moved off along a water trench, checking on the plants.
Conan Lang picked up his own hoe and set to work. He could feel the natives watching him,
wondering, whispering to themselves. But he was careful not to look around him. He kept his head down
and dug at the plants with his hoe, clearing the water channels. The plants were growing with astonishing
rapidity, thanks to the dose of radiation. They should be mature in a week. And thenтАФ
The sun blazed down on his treated skin and the sweat rolled off his body in tiny rivulets. The field
was strangely silent around him; there was only the gurgle of the water and the soft sigh of the humid
breeze. His hoe chopped and slushed at the mud and his back was tired from bending over so long. It
was too still, unnaturally still.
Behind that brush, back in the treesтАФa thousand eyes.
He did not look around. Step by step, he moved down the trench, under the hellish sun, working with
his hoe.


The fire-burned days and the still, hushed nights alternated rapidly. On the morning of the third day,
Andy Irvin found what they had been waiting for.
In the far corner of the field, placed on a rude wood platform about four feet high, there were three
objects. There was a five-foot-square bark mat, neatly woven. There was a small animal that closely
resembled a terrestrial pig, face down, its throat neatly slashed. And there was a child. It was a female
baby, evidently not over a week old. It had been strangled to death.
тАЬItтАЩsтАж differentтАж when you see it for yourself,тАЭ Andy said quietly, visibly shaken.
тАЬYouтАЩll get used to it,тАЭ said Conan Lang, his voice purposely flat and matter-of-fact. тАЬGet the pig and
the matтАФand stop looking like a prohibitionist who just found a jug of joy water in the freezer. This is old
stuff to ancestors.тАЭ
тАЬOld stuff,тАЭ repeated Andy without conviction.
They carried the contents of the platform back to their hut and Conan Lang wrapped the body of the
child in a cloth.
тАЬWeтАЩll bury her tonight after dark,тАЭ he said. тАЬThe pig we eat. It wonтАЩt do any harm to sit on the mat
where they can see us while weтАЩre eating it, either.тАЭ
тАЬWell,тАЭ Andy muttered. тАЬGlad to see youтАЩre not going to eat the baby, too.тАЭ
тАЬYou never can tell,тАЭ smiled Conan Lang. тАЬWe anthropologists are all crazy, or hadnтАЩt you heard?тАЭ
тАЬIтАЩve heard,тАЭ agreed Andy Irvin, getting his nerves under control again. тАЬWhereтАЩs the hot sauce?тАЭ
Conan Lang stepped back outside and picked up his hoe. The blazing double sun had already
produced shimmering heat waves that danced like live things in the still air over the green field. The kid
was going to be all right. HeтАЩd known it all along, of courseтАФbut you could never be sure of a man until
you worked with him under field conditions. And a misfit, an unstable personality, was anything but a
joke on an alien planet where unknowable forces hung in the balance.
тАЬLetтАЩs see if IтАЩve got this thing figured straight,тАЭ Andy said, puffing away on one of ConanтАЩs pipes.
тАЬThe natives are afraid of us, and still they feel that they must make us an offering because we, as their
supposed ancestors, control their lives. So they pick a system of dumb barter rather than sending out the
usual contact man to ferret out kinship connections.тАЭ
тАЬYouтАЩre O.K. so far,тАЭ Conan Lang said. тАЬI guess youтАЩve studied about the dumb barter systems used
on Earth in the old days; it was used whenever trade took place between groups of markedly unequal
strength, such as the African pygmies and trading vessels from the west. ThereтАЩs a fear factor involved.тАЭ
тАЬYes, sir.тАЭ
тАЬForget the тАШsir.тАЩ I didnтАЩt mean to lecture. I think IтАЩll start calling you Junior.тАЭ
тАЬSorry. The bark mat is a unit in a reciprocal trade system and the pig is a sacred animalтАФI get that