"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 12 - Eloise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

He said, "Drink your wine."

"You don't want to talk?"

"No."

"Well, it's your business." She refilled her glass and drank half
at a gulp. "How about a different kind of a deal then? You and
meтАФyou know?"

"I told you you were wasting your time."

"I've a nice little place close to here. We could get some food
and I'd cook you a meal. You'd like that. I'm a good cook and it
wouldn't cost you all that much. We could sit and drink a little
and eat and talk, if that's all you want. How about it, mister? I'm
not that bad for a man who wants company."

She was trying too hard, wasting too much time, and it didn't
fit the pattern of her kind. There could be others like her in every
tavern, more in the hotels; a host of watching eyes. He felt the
prickle of warning which had so often saved him before, the
primitive caution reacting to the possibility of a trap.
 It was time to move.

Rising he dropped money on the table; enough to pay for her
time, to save her from a beating if she was exactly what she
appeared to be. A cluster of men stood at the bar and he circled
them at a safe distance. The door was low, forcing him to duck
as he stepped into the street.

Outside, they were waiting.
***

It was almost dark, the great ball of the sun a sullen glow on
the horizon; the street filled with smoky shadows patched with
blobs of luminescence from windows and lanterns set behind
tinted panes. In such light details were lost; but Dumarest could
see the hulking patch of darkness to his right, another to his left,
a third facing him from across the street. Loungers, perhaps,
casual wanderers or some of the familiar predators of the night;
the thieves and muggers always to be found in such places,
pimps offering the bodies of their women.

But such men would not work in harmony, would not all ease
forward at the same time, their pace accelerating as he moved
from the low doorway.

Three of them at least, and others could be within easy