"Resnick, Mike - Lucifer Jones 01 - Adventurers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

approaching.
"They look like they mean business," said Rourke. "Suppose we
ought to make a run for it?"
"To where?" I asked. "We don't even know where we are."
"The way I figure it," said Rourke, "Cairo's north and the
Cape's south. Take your choice."
But by then they had split up, and a moment later we were
surrounded. Pulling the Good Book from my pocket, I cleared my
throat, raised my hands above my head, and took a step forward.
_"Brethren!"_ I shouted, and they all jumped back a couple of
steps. "In the Book of Herod, Chapter 8, Verse 3, the Lord God
said unto Moses: Thou shall not eat thy neighbor!"
The leader of the heathens stopped dead in his tracks and
blinked his eyes very rapidly.
"You're getting to them," said Rourke out of the side of his
mouth. "Say something else. Maybe a little hellfire and
damnation."
"And the children of Israel were wicked," I intoned. "And you
know _why_ they were wicked? Because they ate two wayfarers who
had mistakenly wandered into their city. For does not Jesus say
that to err is human, but to forgive divine? And the children of
Israel, who were dressed a far sight better than you, you Godless
savages, were cast out into the desert to wander for forty years!
Do you want that to happen to you, you ignorant barbarians?"
"Oh, you got 'em on the run, Saint Luke!" said Rourke. "You
really got 'em going!"
Well, they got going, all right, but in the wrong direction,
and a few seconds later the leader was standing so close to me
that l could just about smell his breath.
"Make him smile," said Rourke. "I still want to get a look at
his teeth."
The savage responded with an enormous grin. "Like so?" he
asked in a deep gravelly voice. Then, frowning, he extended a
forefinger and poked me right in the short ribs. "You come!" He
jabbed Rourke with the butt of his spear. "You too!"
We acceded to his wishes, not caring to dwell upon the
alternatives for any considerable length of time. They didn't
treat us unkindly, but then no competent butcher likes to bruise
the meat, so I can't say that we were real quick to develop a
mutual trust with our black companions. We walked the better part
of a day, stopping every now and then for water and privy calls,
and when night came we built a big fire and huddled around it,
more from cold than from fear of man-eating beasts, of which there
weren't none, except maybe for our present company.
Finally the leader walked over to us and sat himself down,
cross-legged. He pointed to himself and said, "Kitunga."
"Rourke," said Burley, tapping himself on the chest. "And
this here's Saint Luke."
Kitunga solemnly extended his hand, kind of upside down, and
shook each of ours.