"E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 7 - Masters Of The Vortex" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

At about this same time two minor cogs of TPI's vast machine sat blissfully, arms around each other, on a rustic seat
improvised from rocks, branches, and leaves. Below them, almost under their feet, was a den of highly venomous snakes,
but neither man or girl saw them. Before them, also unperceived, was a magnificent view of valley and stream and
mountain.
All they saw, however, was each otherтАФuntil their attention was wrenched to a man who was climbing toward them with
the aid of a thick club which he used as a staff.
'Oh ... Bob!' The girl stared briefly; then, with a half-articulate moan, shrank even closer against her lover's side.
Ryder, left arm tightening around the girl's waist, felt with his right hand for a club of his own and tensed his muscles, for
the climbing man was completely mad.
His breathing was ... horrible. Mouth tight-clamped, despite his terrific exertion, he was sniffingтАФ sniffing loathsomely,
lustfully, each whistling inhalation filling his lungs to bursting. He exhaled explosively, as though begrudging the second
of time required to empty himself of air. Wide-open eyes glaring fixedly ahead he blundered upward, paying no attention
whatever to his path. He tore through clumps of thorny growth; he stumbled and fell over logs and stones; he caromed
away from boulders; as careless of the needles which tore clothing and skin as of the rocks which bruised his flesh to the
bone. He struck a great tree and bounced; felt his frenzied way around the obstacle and back into his original line.
He struck the gate of the pen immediately beneath the two appalled watchers and stopped. He moved to the right and
paused, whimpering in anxious agony. Back to the gate and over to the left, where he stopped and howled. Whatever the
frightful compulsion was, whatever he sought, he could not deviate enough from his line to go around the pen. He looked,
then, and for the first time saw the gate and the fence and the ophidian inhabitants of the den. They did not matter. Nothing
mattered. He fumbled at the lock, then furiously attacked it and the gate and the fence with his clubтАФfruitlessly. He tried to
climb the fence, but failed. He tore off his shoes and socks and, by dint of jamming toes and ringers ruthlessly into the
meshes, he began to climb.
No more than he had minded the thorns and the rocks did he mind the eight strands of viciously-barbed wire surmounting
that fence; he did not wince as the inch-long steel fangs bit into arms and legs and body. He did, however, watch the
snakes. He took pains to drop into an area temporarily clear of them, and he pounded to death the half-dozen serpents bold
enough to bar his path.
Then, dropping to the ground, he writhed and scuttled about; sniffing ever harder; nose plowing the ground. He halted; dug
his bleeding fingers into the hard soil; thrust his nose into the hole; inhaled tremendously. His body writhed, trembled,
shuddered uncontrollably, then stiffened convulsively into a supremely ecstatic rigidity utterly horrible to see.
The terribly labored breathing ceased. The body collapsed bonelessly, even before the snakes crawled up and struck and
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struck and struck.
Jacqueline Comstock saw very little erf the outrageous performance. She screamed once, shut both eyes, and, twisting
about within the man's encircling arm, burrowed her face into his left shoulder.
Ryder, howeverтАФwhite-faced, set-jawed, sweatingтАФwatched the thing to its ghastly end. When it was over he licked his
lips and swallowed twice before he could speak.
'It's all over now dearтАФno danger now,' he managed finally to say. 'We'd better go. We ought to turn in an alarm ,.. make a
report or something."
'Oh, I can't, BobтАФI can't!' she sobbed. 'If I open my eyes, I just know I'll look, and if I look I'll ... I'll simply turn inside
out!'
'Hold everything, Jackie! Keep your eyes shut. I'll pilot you and tell you when we're out of sight.'
More than half carrying his companion, Ryder set off down the rocky trail. Out of sight of what had happened, the girl
opened her eyes and they continued their descent in a more usual, more decorous fashion until they met a man hurrying
upward.
'Oh, Dr. Fairchild! There was a ...' But the report which Ryder was about to make was unnecessary; the alarm had already
been given.
'I know,' the scientist puffed. 'Stop! Stay exactly where you are!' He jabbed a finger emphatically downward to anchor the
young couple in the spot the occupied. 'Don't talkтАФdon't say a word until I get back!'
Fairchild returned after a time, unhurried and completely at ease. He did not ask the shaken couple if they had seen what