"H. Beam Piper - Flight from Tomorrow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

newly acquired jacket he found a package containing food. It was rough and unappetizing fareтАФslices of
cold cooked meat between slices of some cereal substance. He ate these before filling in the grave, and
put the paper wrappings in with the dead man. Then, his work finished, he threw the mattock into the
brush and set out again, grimacing disgustedly and scratching himself. The clothing he had appropriated
was verminous.

Crossing another mountain, he descended into a second valley, and, for a time, lost his way among a
tangle of narrow ravines. It was dark by the time he mounted a hill and found himself looking down
another valley, in which a few scattered lights gave evidence of human habitations. Not wishing to arouse
suspicion by approaching these in the night-time, he found a place among some young evergreens where
he could sleep.

The next morning, having breakfasted on a concentrate capsule, he found a hiding-place for his blaster in
a hollow tree. It was in a sufficiently prominent position so that he could easily find it again, and at the
same time unlikely to be discovered by some native. Then he went down into the inhabited valley.

He was surprised at the ease with which he established contact with the natives. The first dwelling which
he approached, a cluster of farm-buildings at the upper end of the valley, gave him shelter. There was a
man, clad in the same sort of rough garments Hradzka had taken from the body of the herb-gatherer, and
a woman in a faded and shapeless dress. The man was thin and work-bent; the woman short and heavy.
Both were past middle age.

He made inarticulate sounds to attract their attention, then gestured to his mouth and ears to indicate his
assumed affliction. He rubbed his stomach to portray hunger. Looking about, he saw an ax sticking in a
chopping-block, and a pile of wood near it, probably the fuel used by these people. He took the ax, split
up some of the wood, then repeated the hunger-signs. The man and the woman both nodded, laughing;
he was shown a pile of tree-limbs, and the man picked up a short billet of wood and used it like a
measuring-rule, to indicate that all the wood was to be cut to that length.

Hradzka fell to work, and by mid-morning, he had all the wood cut. He had seen a circular stone,
mounted on a trestle with a metal axle through it, and judged it to be some sort of a grinding-wheel, since
it was fitted with a foot-pedal and a rusty metal can was set above it to spill water onto the
grinding-edge. After chopping the wood, he carefully sharpened the ax, handing it to the man for
inspection. This seemed to please the man; he clapped Hradzka on the shoulder, making commendatory
sounds.




It required considerable time and ingenuity to make himself a more or less permanent member of the
household. Hradzka had made a survey of the farmyard, noting the sorts of work that would normally be
performed on the farm, and he pantomimed this work in its simpler operations. He pointed to the east,
where the sun would rise, and to the zenith, and to the west. He made signs indicative of eating, and of
sleeping, and of rising, and of working. At length, he succeeded in conveying his meaning.

There was considerable argument between the man and the woman, but his proposal was accepted, as
he expected that it would. It was easy to see that the work of the farm was hard for this aging couple;
now, for a place to sleep and a little food, they were able to acquire a strong and intelligent slave.

In the days that followed, he made himself useful to the farm people; he fed the chickens and the