"Fritz Leiber - Ill Met in Lankhmar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leiber Fritz)

face and long-haired head. Brawny arms had emerged
from the long, loose sleeves that had been the pillar's
topmost section. While the big fist ending one of the 'arms
had dealt Slevyas a shrewd knockout punch on 'the chin.
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser faced each other across
the two thieves sprawled senseless. They were poised for
attack, yet for 'the moment neither moved.
Fafhrd said, "Our motives for being here seem identi-
cal."
"Seem? Surely must be!" 'the Mouser answered curtly,
fiercely eyeing this potential new foe, who was taller by a
head than the tall thief.
"You said?"
"I said, 'Seem? Surely must be!' "
"How civilized of you!" Fafhrd commented in pleased
tones.
"Civilized?" the Mauser demanded suspiciously, grip-
ping his dirk tighter.
"To care, in the eye of action, exactly what's said,"
Fafhrd explained. Without letting the Mouser out of his
vision, he glanced down. His gaze traveled from the pouch
of one fallen thief to that of 'the other. Then he looked up
at the Mouser with a broad, ingenuous smile.
"Fifty-fifty?" he suggested.
The Mouser hesitated, sheathed his dirk, 'and rapped
out, "A deal!" He knelt abruptly, his fingers on the draw-
strings of Fissif's pouch. "Loot you Slivikin," he directed.
It was natural to suppose that the fat thief 'had been
crying his companion's name at 'the end.
Without looking up from where he knelt, Fafhrd re-
marked, "That . . . ferret they had with them. Where did
it go?"
"Ferret?" the Mouser answered briefly. "It was a mar-
moset!"
' "Marmoset," Fafhrd mused. "That's a small 'tropical
monkey, isn't it? Well, might have been--I've never been
south--but I got the impression that"
The silent, two pronged rush which almost over-
whelmed them at that instant really surprised neither of
them. Each had unconsciously been expecting it.
The 'three bravoes racing down upon them in concerted
attack, all with swords poised to thrust, had assumed that
the two highjackers would be armed at most with knives
and as timid in weapons-combat as the general run of
thieves and counter-thieves. So it was they who were
thrown into confusion when with the lightning speed of
youth the Mouser and Fafhrd sprang up, whipped out
fearsomely long swords, 'and faced them back to back.
The Mouser made a very small parry in carte so that the
thrust of the bravo from the east went past his left side