"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 01 - The Winds of Gath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

back for bait. Skinny, fleshless things of little nutritional value,
costing more strength to get than they gave. But whatever had
broken the surface had been big. "Carl!" he ordered. "Get set!"

A tall, thin, caricature of a man nodded, dropped his oar, took
up his place in the prow. He hefted a harpoon attached to a coil
of rope. He looked over his shoulder at the skipper.

"All set, Abe."

"Watch it!" Abe squinted against the sun. The leaden surface
of the sea broke, roiled, something hard and gray flashing in the
ruby light. "There, Carl! There!"

The harpoon darted forward, the barbs biting deep.
Immediately Carl dived for his oar. Dumarest knocked him
aside.

"The rope, man! Watch the rope!"

"Get out of my way!" Carl clawed for his oar as the rope ran
out. The boat jerked, began to move. Desperately the skipper
yelled orders.
 "Back! Back for your lives!"

The water threshed as the crude oars lashed the swell. It was
like trying to halt the movement of a glacier. The rope thrummed
as the prow began to tilt forward. Water streamed over the
gunwale.

"The rope!" Dumarest reached out, snatched a knife from the
belt of the harpooner, and dragged the edge across the fiber. It
parted, the short end lashing back, the prow rising. Beneath
them something moved and broke the surface beyond the stern.

"You fool!" Carl snatched back the knife. "You've lost us the
rope."

"Better that than our lives." Dumarest looked at the skipper.
"Is this how you go fishing?"

"Do you know of a better way?" He was on safe ground. He
had fished this sea before, Dumarest hadn't. "Without nets how
else do you think we can catch the big ones? We stick them, tire
them, drag them to shore. Without a rope how can we do that?"

His anger was justified. The fish had been big, perhaps three
days eating for them all and with some left over. He opened his
mouth to vent more of his rage then closed it as a man yelled.