"Andre Norton - Warlock Trilogy - Storm over Warlock" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

“Stage dressing. No, we won’t linger here. But it’s evidence to support our play. Even a Throg isn’t dense
enough to believe that natives would make a cross-country trip without leaving evidence of their passing.”

Shann sat down with a sigh he made no effort to suppress. He had a vision of Thorvald traveling
southward, methodically erecting these huts here and there to confound Throgs who might not ever chance
upon them. But already the Survey officer was busy with a new problem.

“We need weapons—”
“We have our stunners, a force ax, and our knives,” Shann pointed out. He did not add, as he would have
liked, that they could have had a blaster.

“Native weapons,” Thorvald countered with his usual snap. He went back to the beach and crawled about
there, choosing and rejecting stones picked out of the gravel.

Shann scooped out a small pit just before their hut and set about the making of a pocket-sized fire. He was
hungry and looked longingly now and again to the supply bag Thorvald had brought with him. Dared he
rummage in that for rations? Surely the other would be carrying concentrates.

“Who taught you how to make a fire that way?” Thorvald was back from the pond, a selection of round
stones about the size of his fist resting between his chest and forearm.

“It’s regulation, isn’t it?” Shann countered defensively.

“It’s regulation,” Thorvald agreed. He set down his stones in a row and then tossed the supply bag over to
his companion. “Too late to hunt tonight. But we’ll have to go easy on those rations until we can get
more.”

“Where?” Did Thorvald know of some supply cache they could raid?

“From the Throgs,” the other answered matter of factly.

“But they don’t eat our kind of food . . . ”

“All the more reason for them to leave the camp supplies untouched.”

“The camp?”

For the first time Thorvald’s lips curved in a shadow smile which was neither joyous nor warming. “A
native raid on an invader’s camp. What could be more natural? And we’d better make it soon.”

“But how can we?” To Shann what the other proposed was sheer madness.

“There was once an ancient service corps on Terra,” Thorvald answered, “which had a motto something
like this: ‘The improbable we do at once; the impossible takes a little longer.’ What did you think we were
going to do? Sulk around out here in the bush and let the Throgs claim Warlock for one of their pirate
bases without opposition?”

Since that was the only future Shann had visualized, he was ready enough to admit the truth, only some
shade of tone in the officer’s voice kept him from saying so aloud.