"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 36 - Return to Kaldak" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

world alone was solved. He'd always been a loner, too much so for a safe, sane, twentieth-century
existence. But a man can fight only so many singlehanded battles before he starts wanting someone to
guard his back and share his campfire.

More than his own peace of mind was also involved here. Why send two people into Dimension X if
they didn't arrive together? Blade was going to spend several days looking for Cheeky before he started
exploring this Dimension. He'd have spent even more time looking for a human companion.

It was frustrating, to put it mildly. Trying to solve several problems at once, they'd wound up solving
none of them! They weren't quite back to where they'd started, but they were close enough to make
Blade angry.

He let his anger out with a few heartfelt curses. The outburst frightened a rabbitlike creature out of the
grass. It hopped away in such obvious panic that Blade had to laugh.

He'd just stopped laughing when he heard a highpitched droning from the direction of the river. He
hurried down the bank to where he could hide in the grass and still look out at the river.

A hovercraft was cruising slowly along the main channel. It looked remarkably like a Home Dimension
machine, with propellers mounted on top to drive it and a flexible skirt containing the air cushion under it.
It looked battered, and there was some sort of lettering on the side. Like the yellow-green reeds, the
lettering looked vaguely familiar to Blade. He strained his eyes, wishing he'd been willing to risk bringing
on this trip a pair of binoculars. Some were all plastic, but all were obviously products of a high
technology, and might have aroused suspicion in some Dimensions.

The hovercraft vanished behind a grove of trees before Blade could see more. When it reappeared, it
was too far away for him to have any hope of making out the lettering.

Blade gritted his teeth. His first day in this Dimension was beginning to look like one of those days when
everything goes wrong. It was particularly unpleasant to think about what might have happened to
Cheeky.

At least he had one small consolation. The hovercraft showed that he was in a technologically advanced
Dimension. It was a little less likely that Cheeky would be shot on sight as an evil spirit, or slaughtered,
plucked, and popped into a cooking pot for some tribesman's dinner.

Another consolation for Blade was being able to reach into his rucksack and pull out some food. He
decided to eat it cold, rather than risk a fire. Where there was one hovercraft there might be others, and
their crews might be armed and trigger-happy.

When he'd eaten, he curled up in his poncho, dry and almost warm. No hunting for a pile of dead leaves
to put between his bare hide and the night winds this time!

If Cheeky had just been snuggled up under the poncho with him, Blade would have fallen asleep quite
happily.

Chapter 3

Blade woke before dawn, feeling better than usual after his first night in a new Dimension. At least he felt
better until he thought of Cheeky. Then he had to tell himself all over again that he wouldn't find Cheeky