"Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore - Earth' s last Citadel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

The Scotsman got laboriously to his feet, looking after the vanished plane.

"Well," he said, "if that was the team, they'll be back."

"And we'd better not be here." Drake scrambled up, nursing his arm.

The Scotsman shrugged and jerked his thumb forward. Drake grinned. His blue eyes, almost black
under the

shadow of the full lids, held expressionless impassivity. Even when he smiled, as he did now, the
eyes did not change.

"Come on," he said.

The sand was cold; night made it pale as snow in the faint moonlight. Guns were still clamoring as
the two men moved toward the ridge. Beyond it lay the Mediterranean and, perhaps, safety.

Beyond it lay—something else.

In the cup that sloped down softly to the darkened sea was—a crater. A shimmering glow lay half-
buried in the up-splashed earth. Ovoid-shaped, that glow. Its mass was like a monstrous radiant
coal in the dimness.

For a long moment the two men stood silent. Then, "Meteor?" Drake asked.

There was incredulity in the scientist's voice. "It can't be a meteor. They're never that regular.
The atmosphere heated it to incandescence, but see—the surface isn't even pitted. If this weren't
war I'd almost think it was"—he brought out the words after a perceptible pause—"some kind of
manmade ship from—"

Drake was conscious of a strange excitement. "You mean, more likely it's some Axis super-tank?"

Sir Colin didn't answer. Caution forgotten, he had started hastily down the slope. There was a
faint droning in the air now. Drake could not be sure if it was a returning plane, or if it came
from the great globe itself. He followed the Scotsman, but more warily.



file:///F|/rah/Henry%20Kuttner/Kuttner%20and%20Moore%20-%20Earth's%20Last%20Citadel%20UC.txt (2 of 61) [2/4/03 10:19:39 PM]
 file:///F|/rah/Henry%20Kuttner/Kuttner%20and%20Moore%20-%20Earth's%20Last%20Citadel%20UC.txt

It was very quiet here in the valley. Even the shore birds must have been frightened away. The sea-
battle had moved eastward; only a breeze stirred through the sparse

bushes with a murmur of leaves. A glow rippled and darkened and ran HRe flame over the red-hot
metal above them when the wind played upon those smooth, high surfaces. The air still had an oddly
scorched smell.

The night silence in the valley had been so deep that when Drake heard the first faint crackling
in the scrubby desert brush he found that he had whirled, gun ready, without realizing it.