"Laurence Manning - Men on Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Manning Laurence)

MEN on MARS
Radioman Willie couldn't shoot straight, but he was on the beam!
By LAURENCE MANNING

PAST Kruts' shoulder he could see men plodding slowly nearer across the distant plain, where the
rocket ship lay stranded like a silver whale. He wished they would hurry. "But what do you want to learn
for?" Kruts was saying. "You can't shoot. You're just another radioman, that's all.
You're holding that rifle as if it was going to bite you. Oh hell, try again if you want to."
He tried again, loading, aiming, firing and gasping in the thin Martian air, until Kruts said, "Look,
Willie, why don't you give up, for God's sake? Go twirl those blasted radio dials of yours—that's
something you can do."
"I'm sorry to be so slow, Kruts."
"Skip it. Save your breath for climbing."
He pointed to the steep slope that dropped to the canyon floor, a thousand feet below. On the left
the canyon opened into a wide circular valley; on the right it ran for miles, straight and narrow through the
fiat Martian uplands. They had spent that morning walking along its rim to the far end—out on the other
side and back on this. Now they were going to descend, cross and climb the opposite slope to their
starting point, with an armed party from the ship waiting to meet them.
Fifty feet away, perched on a boulder, Lieutenant Joliffe was brooding over his notebook. Kruts was
studying the scene below. Willie fidgeted, stared at the distant figures, sighed impatiently, said, "Gee, I
wish they'd hurry up—I can hardly wait."
The first men on Mars! It felt great to Willie. But DeVoe and Dr. Wilson were the lucky ones. The
station was going to be over in the valley. They'd have five years to explore it all ! They'd have a little
farm—even chickens. The eggs had started to hatch already and Stockton in the ship's supply office
wanted to know if the skipper thought he had signed on as a farmer. There'd be a regular little
settlement.
Kruts grunted, his eyes still intent on the canyon. "It'll be nice company for Smith's ghost," he said at
last.
"Oh—I didn't hear what happened."
"He climbed down there yesterday afternoon like a damn fool. He never came back."
"Didn't they send a search party?"
"Yeh. We're it. There's nothing hasty about the skipper."
Willie stared down at the canyon. The only creatures visible were about the size of goats in scattered
groups, peacefully nibbling at the vegetation, green now in the Martian spring.
"But what could happen to him? What's down there to be afraid of?"
"If I knew I wouldn't be afraid of it." Kruts stiffened, stared and shouted, "See it, Lieutenant? Near
the far side, small and fast—gone now, sir."
Lieutenant Joliffe came out of his meditations with a start and grabbed his binoculars. Willie
whispered, "He wasn't on the ball that time, was he?"
"Don't worry about him. He can shoot," answered Knits from the side of his mouth. Then called out
abruptly: "At the mouth of the canyon—another one—going away from us, Lieutenant!"

WILLIE caught only a glimpse of distant movement that vanished into the masking greenery below.
He set himself to watch but it was many minutes before anything happened. Then the nearest group of
animals, browsing right below them, burst into sudden flight.
Something small and black flashed among the shrubbery in pursuit. In a few seconds it overtook one
and seemed to flatten out in a curious manner, almost to wrap itself around its prey. Both fell out of sight
behind the vegetation.
 The Lieutenant climbed off his rock and walked over to them. "Well, Kruts," he said, "you won't
have time for a second shot at that—whatever it is. I can't make it out at all. The herbivorae are about