"Gores, Joe - Kirinyaga" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gores Joe)

make it downcan't . . . arm broken."
Kendrick had seen men do remarkable things hampered by a
broken arm. But he had also seen men like Hamlin before
stunned by the sudden terrible mortality that Kirinyaga could
thrust upon you. Men who, faced with that realization, shriveled
up inside. It was in search of that insight that others climbed.
He left Hamlin there and returned to Perkins. He braced, took
a turn around his left hand, and began hauling. He was aware of
Hamlin, watching him like a ferret; the actor's naked ego had
begun peering once again from the rocks into which it had scut-
tled. The lift was the hardest thing Kendrick had ever done.
When it was finished, he walked downwind from the crumpled
youth and threw up.
"Lie down next to him, Hamlin. I've dragged him back under
the face of the buttress where there's some shelter from the
wind."
"Where are you going? You can't leave me here! You can't"
"Grow up," said Kendrick.
The descent to Two-Tarn Hut wasn't too bad; the whining press
of wind cut visibility with swirling snow, but gave him a fixed di-
rection on which to depend. He gathered up his bedroll and blan-
kets and started back up. He didn't like to contemplate the next
hours. He was wearing down already; and besides the wind which
in exposed places threatened to flick him off, his fatigue itself was
dangerous. It made him treat tricky bits of rock-work with a
numb, casual contempt.
The light was muddy as he dragged himself up the final yards
to the narrow ridge. Anger stirred him.
"Dammit, Hamlin, I told you to lie down next to him."
"Icouldn't move."
"Move now or I'll kick your arm!"
Hamlin moved, crabwise, his back against the rock, his right
arm hanging limply at his side. They got two of the blankets
around Perkins and rolled him into the sleeping bag. A pulse of
sorts, still breathing, but no outcry when they handled him. Just
as well, Kendrick thought. At the very best he was going to lose
his leg.
Hamlin snatched at the two remaining blankets.
"I'll need more than this, Kendrick! I'll freeze."
"You'll be all right. Keep moving around, work your fingers and
toes. And make sure Perkins stays covered."
Kendrick entered a curious limbo of exhaustion where he
moved solely by his superb mountaineer's sense. He had a
flashlight, but here on the peaks it merely reflected back from
swirling snow. During the rock-work he kept his mind awake
with speculations of times and distances. Twenty-five miles to his
VW down at the 9000-foot ,level, say. Easier going downhill, of
course, but in the dark, in the snow and, below that, rain ...
He fell the first time going down the steep scree north of Ship-
ton's Peak, twisting instinctively and landing on a shoulder