"Mark Twain. Tom Sawyer Abroad (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

We settled down to within thirty foot of the land-that is, it was land
if sand is land; for this wasn't anything but pure sand. Tom and me clumb
down the ladder and took a run to stretch our legs, and it felt amazing
good-that is, the stretching did, but the sand scorched our feet like hot
embers. Next, we see somebody coming, and started to meet him; but we
heard Jim shout, and looked around and he was fairly dancing, and making
signs, and yelling. We couldn't make out what he said, but we was scared
anyway, and begun to heel it back to the balloon. When we got close
enough, we understood the words, and they made me sick:
"Run! Run fo' yo' life! Hit's a lion; I kin see him thoo de glass! Run,
boys; do please heel it de bes' you kin. He's bu'sted outen de menagerie,
en dey ain't nobody to stop him!"
It made Tom fly, but it took the stiffening all out of my legs. I could
only just gasp along the way you do in a dream when there's a ghost
gaining on you.
Tom got to the ladder and shinned up it a piece and waited for me; and
as soon as I got a foothold on it he shouted to Jim to soar away. But Jim
had clean lost his head, and said he had forgot how. So Tom shinned along
up and told me to follow; but the lion was arriving, fetching a most
ghastly roar with every lope, and my legs shook so I dasn't try to take
one of them out of the rounds for fear the other one would give way under
me.
But Tom was aboard by this time, and he started the balloon up a
little, and stopped it again as soon as the end of the ladder was ten or
twelve feet above ground. And there was the lion, a-ripping around under
me, and roaring and springing up in the air at the ladder, and only
missing it about a quarter of an inch, it seemed to me. It was delicious
to be out of his reach, perfectly delicious, and made me feel good and
thankful all up one side; but I was hanging there helpless and couldn't
climb, and that made me feel perfectly wretched and miserable all down the
other. It is most seldom that a person feels so mixed like that; and it is
not to be recommended, either.
Tom asked me what he'd better do, but I didn't know. He asked me if I
could hold on whilst he sailed away to a safe place and left the lion
behind. I said I could if he didn't go no higher than he was now; but if
he went higher I would lose my head and fall, sure. So he said, "Take a
good grip," and he started.
"Don't go so fast," I shouted. "It makes my head swim."
He had started like a lightning express. He slowed down, and we glided
over the sand slower, but still in a kind of sickening way; for it IS
uncomfortable to see things sliding and gliding under you like that, and
not a sound.
But pretty soon there was plenty of sound, for the lion was catching
up. His noise fetched others. You could see them coming on the lope from
every direction, and pretty soon there was a couple of dozen of them under
me, jumping up at the ladder and snarling and snapping at each other; and
so we went skimming along over the sand, and these fellers doing what they
could to help us to not forgit the occasion; and then some other beasts
come, without an invite, and they started a regular riot down there. We
see this plan was a mistake. We couldn't ever git away from them at this