"Smith, Wilbur - Eagle in the Sky" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Wilbur)

EAGLE IN THE SKY

Wilbur Smith



Three things are too wonderful for me, four I do not understand, The way
of an eagle in the sky, The way of a serpent on a rock, The way of a
ship on the high seas,

And the way of a man with a maiden.

Proverbs, 30, -8-2o

There was snow on the mountains of the Hottentots, Holland and the wind
came off it, whimpering like a lost animal. The instructor stood in the
doorway of his tiny office and hunched down into his flight jacket,
thrusting his fists deeply into the fleece-lined pockets. He watched the
black chauffeur-driven Cadillac coming down between the cavernous
iron-clad hangars, and he frowned sourly. For the trappings of wealth.

Barney Venter had a deeply aching gut-envy.

The Cadillac swung in and parked in a visitors slot against the hangar
wall, and a boy sprang from the rear door with boyish enthusiasm, spoke
briefly with the coloured chauffeur, then hurried towards Barney.

He moved with a lightness that was strange for an adolescent. There was
no stumbling over feet too big for his body, and he carried himself
tall. Barney's envy curdled as he watched the young princeling
approach.

He hated these pampered darlings, and it was his particular fate that he
must spend so much of his working day in their company. Only the very
rich could afford to instruct their children in the mysteries of flight.

He was reduced to this by the gradual running down of his body, the
natural attrition of time. Two years previously, at the age of
forty-five, he had failed the strict medical on which his position of
senior airline captain depended, and now he was going down the other
side of the hill, probably to end as a typical fly-burn, steering tired
and beaten-up heaps on unscheduled and shady routes for unlicensed and
unprincipled charter companies.

The knowledge made him growl at the child who stood before him. Master
Morgan, I presume?

Yes, Sir, but you may call me David. The boy offered his hand and
instinctively Barney took it, immediately wishing he had not. The hand
was slim and dry, but with a hard grip of bone and sinew.