"029 (B012) - The Quest of Qui (1935-07) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

Johnny turned him over, and as one would drain out a drowning man, cleared the victim's bronchial passages so more words could come.



"Newspapers full of stuff about that Viking ship," the man said. "Lot of guessing - nowhere near truth - never connect it with Qui."



Johnny again tried to clear his throat, but it was no go, for the internal wounds must have opened. With bandages and and opiate, Johnny went to work.



It was cold. He had some trouble keeping snow from blowing into the wounds while he bandaged them. The wind in the rocks sounded like violins playing far away.



Out of the fiddling of the wind in the rocks, the moan of the airplane motor came so gradually that it was quite loud before Johnny noticed it'





IT WAS a low-wing monoplane, fitted with pontoons for landing on water, and the pontoons in turn equipped with ski like runners. The ship had two engines, fitted with shutter cowls, and their exhausts must be carried through some cabinheating attachment, judging by their hissing quality. An all metal ship, Johnny concluded.



The plane was coming down the wind, and Johnny, staring toward it, was bothered by snow which the wind swept into his eyes. He stepped backward to get in the lee of a boulder only somewhat smaller than a suburban garage, where there was some shelter. It chanced thus that he saw two grooves in the snow, deep grooves, and more than a dozen feet apart. There was one point where they had not filled with snow, although they must have been made hours ago. Johnny looked at them closely.



"I'll be superamalgamated," he murmured.



The grooves had been made by the landing gear of the plane above, or one amazingly like it. The particular marks of the ski runners attached under the pontoons could be picked out.



The other plane moaned overhead. Its color was the aluminum alloy of its natural metal, and it looked new. Men in the cabin - they numbered several - were all looking down,



The men all wore masks.



The instant he saw the masks, Johnny sprinted for his own plane. He had suddenly become in the greatest of hurries. He was in a jam. He did not need the twang of a bullet off a near-by rock - a sound he now heard - to tell him there was trouble.