"Charles R Tanner - Tumithak Of The Towers Of Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tanner Charles R)

his friend? What, above all, was Mutassa doing with them? And what--he stole a
look at the stairs again--what were they about to do, as they stole silently
down toward the shelks? Was it possible that they meant to attack them?
Yes, it must be that, for the foremost man, the mizta, had raised his
fire-hose--
At just that moment one of the mogs raised his eyes. He saw the three, and,
giving a startled yelp, flung himself at them. The fire-hose in the hand of the
mizta spat flame and fury, and the mog, smoking and screeching, flung himself,
dying, in front of the man.
The white one stumbled, almost fell, and to save himself, dropped his fire-hose
nozzle and flung himself back. He was on his feet instantly, but before he could
recover his hose, he saw that the shelks, aroused by the mog's cry, had leaped
up and were raising their own hoses to burn the white one down.
And then Otaro saw a sight that in his wildest dreams he had never conceived.
The mizta screamed, a disconcerting scream that seemed almost a madman's yelp of
panic. Leaping from his place, some six steps from the bottom of the flight, he
flung himself directly upon the shelks, legs kicking and arms flailing, a very
embodiment of a whirlwind. The mog and Mutassa, who seemed a little uncertain
what to do, waited but the slightest part of a second and then followed the
white man's example. By this time the shelks' second mog had joined the fray,
and Mutassa and the strange mog devoted their attention to him.
For the mizta was handling the two shelks alone, and a very good job he was
making of it. With a god-like consistency, he had paid no attention to the
shelks themselves when he landed among them. It was their fire-hoses that were
dangerous and it was their fire-hoses to which he directed his attention. He
grasped the nozzle of one even as he kicked viciously at the box on the back of
the other. His foot missed the box, but landed on the jaw of the shelk who wore
it, and as he wrenched the nozzle from the hose in the first shelk's hand, he
flung himself at the other and crashed a foot into its face.
The second shelk, almost blinded by the vicious kick, staggered back and raised
his fire-hose again. The white mizta abandoned his attack on the first shelk,
whose weapon was now useless, and leaped at the other. In a moment, his weapon,
too, was useless and the two shelks, unable to conceive a man who could be
victorious in a battle with shelks, rushed in to the attack unarmed.
And then, unarmed as he was, the shelks learned what ensuing generations of
their kind were to face from aroused and enfuriated mankind. With feet and hands
and even teeth, the white man tore at them, ignoring claws and snapping fangs,
gouging and tearing at their limbs until he literally tore them apart. One
attempted at last to flee, but the strange mizta seized him by a dragging limb
and pulled him back even as, with the other hand, he choked that shelk's
companion into black insensibility.
THE whole room was in an uproar. The majority of the men, the old-looking ones
and the more hopeless, were huddled at the far end of the room, whimpering and
wailing piteously. But some ten, the stronger ones, had pushed forward, and,
although afraid to lend a hand, were watching the battle with fanatic eagerness.
And when the strange mog and Mutassa, Otaro's brother, rose from slaying the mog
assistant, they broke into involuntary cheers.
Otaro's brother raised a hand.
"A mizta, my comrades! A mizta come to rescue you! See how he has slain your
savage masters? A mizta truly, come to rescue you from the shelks."