"William Morrison - Bad Medicine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

"It'll drive them away," exclaimed O'Hara happily. "All we have to do is wait."
The wind freshened, and within a minute it rose to hurricane intensity.
 And after that the rain hit them.
Most of the prongs had drifted far enough away to be no longer dangerous, and the rest were
disintegrating in the rain. The raindrops were enormous, at least three inches in diameter, and they came
down with many times the force of any hailstones Trenholm and O'Hara had ever seen on earth.
They fell without breaking up into smaller drops because they were not pure water, but a viscous
aqueous solution. The force of the wind had whirled them up from a lake where they had been resting
quietly, and was now hurling them at Trenholm and O'Hara.
The two men cast themselves on the ground in the lee of a tetraphyte, one of the huge pyramidal
plants, and waited for the storm to pass. The drops of rain hit them and splattered, and the droplets
rolled down their faces go that they could taste them. They were bitter and nauseous, and their taste was
almost worse than the battering they were receiving from the rain.
In ten minutes, the wind ceased suddenly, and with it the rain. The two men rose to their feet
painfully, and squeezed as much of the liquid as they could out of their clothes. Ahead of them, the
megapod sprang into the air a second time, and once more they could hear Waloo whistling to the animal
enticingly.

THEY started forward again. Soon they could see the megapod clearly. At first glance it looked like
nothing more than four huge mustard-colored legs, grotesquely held together at the top by an insignificant
body. On each leg was a pair of wings, kept folded when the animal sprang upward, extended as soon
as the highest point in the leap had been reached, thus permitting a gradual descent. The wings were
useful also during a high wind, for then the animal could soar, and travel long distances without effort. The
legs were jointed, and the forelegs were twice as long as the others, so that on the ground the megapod
had difficulty keeping its balance. But it occasionally made use of a stiff tail that acted as an additional
support. The head was round and tiny, and hardly seemed fitted for a beast of sufficient size to carry a
Saturnian.
Waloo was holding something green out to it. As Trenholm and O'Hara came closer, they recognized
the material as the roots of a rare variety of tetraphyte that was growing all about them. At the same time
that Waloo was trying to lure the megapod nearer to him, he whistled coaxingly.
The megapod stared at Waloo, its tiny eyes showing its indecision. Finally it leaped forward, and
nibbled the green roots. Waloo did not move, and the megapod, encouraged, began to eat steadily.
"It's wild, isn't it?" O'Hara asked, low-voiced.
"Wild, but not ownerless," Trenholm said. "This field we're in belongs to a group of Saturnians."
"Then if Waloo is caught—"
"It's jail for him."
O'Hara frowned.
"What about us?"
"The Saturnians will probably make enough noise for someone to send for the patrol," Trenholm
replied. "You know what the patrol, will do to us. Jail, and reconditioning of our evil way."
"Don't you think we ought to get out of here?" O'Hara exclaimed. "We need Waloo for a couple of
evenings yet." Trenholm stiffened suddenly. "Something's happening to the beast!"
The megapod had fallen asleep on its feet. With its tail jammed against the ground to keep itself from
falling, and its eyes closed, it resembled a piece of sculpture. The green roots had contained a drug called
somnal, and it had acted with great speed.
Waloo had drawn several pieces of thin, metal twine from his pocket, and was carefully tying the
megapod's wings, to prevent them from unfolding.
"Where did the Saturnians ever get the brains to handle these animals?" O'Hara wondered.
"They didn't," answered Trenholm. "This method of capture was devised by a Martian and taught to
them. Watch."