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

in an endeavor to devise a means of escape from the pit. Now he turned to
Kiletlok.
"Do you know aught concerning these Arzans, Kiletlok?" he asked. "Do the shelks
own them privately or are they servants of all? Do they remain always in one pit
or are they sometimes transferred? Would they trust them to a mog or would they
only trust them to a shelk? Tell me these things."
Kiletlok looked uncertain. Not knowing Tumithak's plan, he was unable to answer
clearly. Tumithak saw his uncertainty.
"Look, mog." he said. "If you were to emerge from this pit, leading a pack of
Arzans, would it look suspicious?"
Light dawned on Kiletlok. A grin spread over his features.
"I think it could be done, Master," he stated. "I think it might work if no
suspicious shelk passed our way. For the Arzans are owned by the government and
are often transferred from one pit to another. And sometimes from one city to
another. Perhaps, therefore, we might even get aboard a shelk flying machine and
capture it."
"Good!" ejaculated Tumithak. "Thus will we escape, then, as a group of Arzans
being taken from this pit. Kiletlok will lead us, and see that you wield your
whip realistically, mog."
Mutassa spoke up.
"That is well for the rest of us, mizta," he exclaimed. " But what of yourself?
With that red hair and white skin, no shelk will believe for a moment that you
are either Arzan or mog."
"Why then," said Tumithak, "my hair and skin must be changed."
He looked about the room. Surely, somewhere, he could find something that would
darken his skin. Mutassa looked too, and presently the others took up the
search. After a while, Otaro came forward with some grease from one of the
machines, but upon trying it out, they were disappointed, for though it spread
well, it changed Tumithak into nothing more than a rather dirty pitman. Then
Otaro had a thought and, borrowing Tumithak's fire-hose, he stripped the clothes
from the dead mogs, and in a moment had reduced them to sooty ashes. Mixing the
soot with the grease, he soon transferred the Loorian into a fairly presentable
Krayling.
"And now," said Tumithak, "who will volunteer to undertake this hazardous escape
with us?"
He had forgotten the hopelessness of the Arzans' position. Every man volunteered
at once and he was forced to reverse his position and ask for volunteers to
stay. In the end, they asked him to appoint the ones who must remain, which he
did, picking those who seemed to be the least affected by the rays. "For," he
said, "I leave you here with hope. Before the days of your servitude can be
ended by death, I promise to come back to this city and free you. By the High
One whom we all worship, I swear to conquer this city or die, with my people, in
the attempt."
And then he and his little party, armed with the secret that was to place men
again on an equal footing with their savage enemies, started up the stairs.
*Uranium?

Tumithak, Chapter 3CHAPTER THREE of TUMITHAK OF THE TOWERS OF FIRE
Flight from Kaymak