"C M Kornbluth - Friend To Man" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

Really, he thought, this was too bad! The posse was in front of him—



It was not the posse; it was a spindly, complicated creature that, after a minute of bleary staring, he
recognized as a native of the planet.



Smith thought and thought as he stared and could think of nothing to do about it. The problem was one
of the few that he had never considered and debated within himself. If it had been a cop he would have
acted; if it had been any human being he would have acted, but this-



He could think of nothing more logical to do than to lie down, pull the hood across his face, and go to
sleep.



He woke in an underground chamber big enough for half a dozen men. It was egg-shaped and cool,
illuminated by sunlight red-filtered through the top half. He touched the red-lit surface and found it to be
composed of glass marbles cemented together with a translucent plastic. The marbles he knew; the red
desert was full of them, wind-polished against each other for millennia, rarely perfectly round, as all of
these were. They had been most carefully collected. The bottom half of the egg-shaped cave was a
mosaic of flatter, opaque pebbles, cemented with the same plastic.
 Smith found himself thinking clear, dry, level thoughts. The posse was gone and he was sane and there
had been a native and this must be the native's burrow. He had been cached there as food, of course, so
he would kill the native and possibly drink its body fluids, for his canteen had been empty for a long time.
He drew a knife and wondered how to kill, his eyes on the dark circle which led from the burrow to the
surface.



Silently the dark circle was filled with the tangled appendages of the creature, and in the midst of the
appendages was, insanely, a Standard Transport Corporation five-liter can.



The STC monogram had been worn down, but was unmistakable. The can had heft to it.



Water? The creature seemed to hold it out. He reached into the tangle and the can was smoothly
released to him. The catch flipped up and he drank flat, distilled water in great gulps.