"Stanley G. Weinbaum - Margaret Of Urbs 01 - The Black Flame" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weinbaum Stanley G)

him, so he set out into the countryside to sleep. The remains of an ancient town bordered the village, with
its spectral walls crumbling against the west. There were ghosts there, of course, so he walked farther,
found a wooded spot, and lay down, putting his bow and the steel arrows into his bag against the rusting
effect of night-dew. Then he tied the bag about his bare feet and legs, sprawled com-fortably, and slept
with his hand on the pistol grip. Of course there were no animals to fear in these woods save wolves, and
they never attacked humans during the warm parts of the year, but there were men, and they bound
themselves by no such seasonal laws.

He awoke dewy wet. The sun shot golden lances through the trees, and he was ravenously
hungry. He ate the last of his mother's brown bread from his bag, now crumbled by his feet, and then
strode out to the road. There was a wagon creaking there, plodding northward; the bearded, kindly man
in it was glad enough to have him ride for company. "Mountainy?" he asked. "Yes."

"Bound where?" "The world," said Hull.

"Well," observed the other, "it's a big place, and all I've seen of it much like this. All except Selui.
That's a city. Yes, that's a city. Been there?"

"No."

"It's got," said the farmer impressively, "twenty thou-sand people in it. Maybe more. And they got
ruins there the biggest you ever saw. Bridges. Buildings. FourтАФfive times as high as the Norse church,
and at that they're fallen down. The Devil knows how high they used to be in the old days."

"Who lived in 'em?" asked Hull.

"Don't know. Who'd want to live so high up it'd take a full morning to climb there? Unless it was
magic. I don't hold much with magic, but they do say the Old People knew how to fly."

Hull tried to imagine this. For a while there was si-lence save for the slow clump of the horses'
hooves. "I don't believe it," he said at last.

"Nor I. But did you hear what they're saying in Norse?"

"I didn't hear anything."

"They say," said the farmer, "that Joaquin Smith is going to march again."

"Joaquin Smith!"

"Yeah. Even the mountainies know about him, eh?"

"Who doesn't?" returned Hull. "Then there'll be fight-ing in the south, I guess. I have a notion to go
south."

"Why?"

"I like fighting," said Hull simply.

"Fair answer," said the farmer, "but from what folks say, there's not much fighting when the Master