"Jack Vance - Tschai 3 - The DirDir" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

the faces were oddly human, with deep eye-sockets, the scalp crests descending to suggest nasal
ridges. They half-hopped, half-loped, like leopards walking erect; it was not hard to see in them
the wild creatures which had hunted the hot plains of Sibol.

Three persons approached the Dirdir: the false Lokhar, the Dugbo girl, a man in nondescript
gray garments. The Dirdir spoke with the three for several minutes, then brought forth
instruments, which they pointed in different directions. Anacho hissed: "They locate their tell-
tales. And the old Lokhar in the alehouse still dawdles over his pot!"

"No matter," said Reith. "As well in the ale-house as anywhere else."

The Dirdir approached the ale-house, moving with their curious half-loping stride. Behind came
the three spies.

The old Lokhar chose this moment to lurch from the alehouse. The Dirdir inspected him in
puzzlement, and approached by great leaps. The Lokhar drew back in alarm. "What have we here?
Dirdir? Don't interfere with me!"

The Dirdir spoke in sibilant lisping voices which suggested the absence of a larynx. "Do you
know a man called Adam Reith?"

"Indeed not! Stand aside!"

Zarfo thrust himself forward. "Adam Reith, you say? What of him?"

"Where is he?"

"Why do you ask?"

The false Lokhar stepped forward, muttered to the Dirdir. The Dirdir said. "You know Adam Reith
well?"

"Not well. If you have money for him, leave it with me; he would have wanted it so."

"Where is he?"

Zarfo looked out across the sky. "You saw the sky-raft which departed as you arrived?"

"Yes."

"It might be that he and his friends were aboard."

"Who claims this to be true?"

"Not I," said Zarfo. "I offer only the suggestion."

"Nor I," said the old Lokhar who had carried the telltale.

"What is the direction?"