"Burroughs, Edgar Rice - People That Time Forgot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

and giant fangs; yet I knew that these were quite sufficient to
overcome us had we nothing better to offer in defense, and so I
drew my pistol and fired at the leader. He dropped like a
stone, and the others turned and fled. Once again the girl
smiled her slow smile and stepping closer, caressed the barrel
of my automatic. As she did so, her fingers came in contact
with mine, and a sudden thrill ran through me, which I
attributed to the fact that it had been so long since I had
seen a woman of any sort or kind.

She said something to me in her low, liquid tones; but I could
not understand her, and then she pointed toward the north and
started away. I followed her, for my way was north too; but
had it been south I still should have followed, so hungry was I
for human companionship in this world of beasts and reptiles
and half-men.

We walked along, the girl talking a great deal and seeming
mystified that I could not understand her. Her silvery laugh
rang merrily when I in turn essayed to speak to her, as though
my language was the quaintest thing she ever had heard.
Often after fruitless attempts to make me understand she would
hold her palm toward me, saying, "Galu!" and then touch my
breast or arm and cry, "Alu, alu!" I knew what she meant,
for I had learned from Bowen's narrative the negative gesture
and the two words which she repeated. She meant that I was no
Galu, as I claimed, but an Alu, or speechless one. Yet every
time she said this she laughed again, and so infectious were
her tones that I could only join her. It was only natural,
too, that she should be mystified by my inability to comprehend
her or to make her comprehend me, for from the club-men, the
lowest human type in Caspak to have speech, to the golden race
of Galus, the tongues of the various tribes are identical--except
for amplifications in the rising scale of evolution. She, who
is a Galu, can understand one of the Bo-lu and make herself
understood to him, or to a hatchet-man, a spear-man or an archer.
The Ho-lus, or apes, the Alus and myself were the only creatures
of human semblance with which she could hold no converse; yet it
was evident that her intelligence told her that I was neither
Ho-lu nor Alu, neither anthropoid ape nor speechless man.

Yet she did not despair, but set out to teach me her language;
and had it not been that I worried so greatly over the fate of
Bowen and my companions of the Toreador, I could have wished
the period of instruction prolonged.

I never have been what one might call a ladies' man, though I
like their company immensely, and during my college days and
since have made various friends among the sex. I think that I
rather appeal to a certain type of girl for the reason that I