"Jean and Jeff Sutton - Alien From The Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sutton Jean and Jeff)

less than a third the size of his own, a face heavy at the jowls, which were
shadowed by a growth of dark hair. A coarse face lacking sensitivity -- a face
that went with the mind.
Despite the danger of detection, Barlo began to sift the knowledge he
believed might prove most fruitful. The man had a curiously disorganized mind
that reeked of a joyful violence. Barlo was both fascinated and repelled, for
the violence had no direction. He had seen violence in many minds, but usually
it had been directed toward a specific being or thing. This violence was
centered only in the urge to kill; the victim would be quite incidental to the
lust. The same applied to the dog, but the dog's motives were quite beyond its
control. That, to Barlo, made the difference.
The dog suddenly yelped, darting toward a thicket at the edge of the
ravine. Instantly one of the long-eared creatures Barlo had spotted earlier
scurried from cover and twisted away through the underbrush. Yelping, the dog
raced after it.
"Hey, Harry," the man shouted, one hand cupped to his lips. "Dude's
scared up a rabbit!"
"Coming!" The answering shout from a distance was followed by another
crashing through the underbrush. Barlo jerked to rapt attention, mentally
assessing his situation now that there were two hunters. He decided to remain
still. Waiting, he tested his new vocabulary at a whisper. The sounds came
awkwardly, with uncertain pronunciation. He was certain it was a language he
could quite easily master.
"Watch the opposite side of the ravine," the first hunter called. "It's
going to pop up somewhere."
It's going to pop up somewhere. Barlo repeated the words mentally, then
allowed them to issue from his lips. A new language always was interesting.
Dog, rabbit, pop up: "D-d-ddd, b-b-b-b, p-p-p-p." The d's and b's and p's
required quite different lip movements. He thought it a strangely unmusical
language.
As the second hunter drew nearer, Barlo probed his mind. It too was
fibbed with a formless violence. Could such creatures as these have built the
immense cities he'd seen? Could they have hurled the metal satellites into the
sky? If so, the race possessed a wide range of intelligence, for neither of
the two men even remotely possessed such a capability. That indicated that the
technical knowledge must be quite unevenly distributed.
Although he sensed he should retreat, he felt reluctant to leave until
he'd gleaned every scrap of knowledge from the two minds. The linguistics
really were quite simple -- a few thousand words, mainly general rather than
specific, served as the basis for communication. Bodily gestures and facial
expressions appeared to serve as supplements. All in all, the two beings were
quite primitive. He had to find other knowledge sources. To Barlo's dismay the
dog suddenly bounded toward him from a thicket, its ears erect. Staccato yelps
filled the air.
"Dude's flushed one," the hunter named Harry shouted. He dashed in
Barlo's direction. Barlo tried to slip through the thick brush but found his
way blocked. Twisting, he darted through a narrow opening that bed toward the
ravine. Wham! A ripping noise came from the brush around him as the roar of
the weapon reverberated through the hills.
 "Hey, Tom, I saw a monkey!" Harry shouted disbelievingly.