"Andre Norton - Operation timesearch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

bound as he was, could not have descended their stair, and
even now he hesitated over the scramble. The guard rapped
him across the ribs with the flat of his long dagger to start
him. But at the fourth step, Ray lost his shaky balance and
tumbled forward, to slide down in a cloud of dust and
gravel, ending with a knock against the trunk of a sapling, his
skinned face lower than his long legs.

Surely, he thought grimly, if this was a dream, that ought to
have awakened him. There was a dull ache at the base of his
skull. Helpless, unable to gain his feet, he lay awaiting the
pleasure of his captors.

They were leisurely in their own descent. One of them came
to prod Ray up with a well-aimed kick. When he could not
stand in answer to that encouragement, two of them heaved
him erect. With a vicious push, which almost sent him
sprawling once more, they started him on.

Blood oozed out from gravel cuts on his lips and chin,
drawing the attention of small stinging flies he could

do nothing to dislodge, since jerking his head about made
him dizzy. When they reached the elk, he was made fast to a
tree, while the hunters continued their butchery. After
hacking portions of meat free, they fed .z some to the dogs
and packed others in green hide. Then, one, taking some
entrails, dragged them along the :° ground, leaving a red
trail.

A short distance away, he came to a black hole in the slope
with a sand mound below it. Dropping the scraps of offals
there, he broke off a twig, thrust it into the n hole, and
turned it around and around. Then he leaped away as a
wave of large ants curled up and out.

The others had freed both Ray and the snarling hounds, and
taking up the meat, they started down- _ stream. Ray
glanced back at the kill. It was buried,,, under a heaving dark
blanket.

He estimated later that they must have traveled: almost an
hour before the gully widened into a regular valley. The
brush, which had torn his unprotected skin and left red
scratches on the hunters' bare arms, be-. came thickets of
trees and patches of waist-high grass.

Ray's discomfort increased with almost every step he was