"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 05 - The Jester at Scar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

high, and fast! When he went for your eyes his hand was a blur.
If you hadn't been even faster he would have torn out your eyes."

That was true enough. Dumarest opened the phial and
cautiously tasted the contents. A euphoric, he guessed, probably
wedded to slow-time so that the effect of the drug would be
enhanced by the actual speeding up of the metabolism. If so,
Brephor's speed was understandable; time, to him, had slowed so
that he could do more in a second than could a normal man.

Dumarest sealed the phial and threw it on the table. "Why?"
he demanded. "Why should they have come here as they did?
They weren't looking for shelter: they had enough money to buy
that at the station. And they know you had someone staying at
your home."

"Coincidence," she said. "They were looking for sport and
changed their minds when they saw my face."

"They were looking for something," he agreed. "The cat-man
attacked as soon as he saw my ring." He looked at it, a warm
patch against his finger, and idly ran his thumb over the stone.
"They had five rings," he mused, "all with red stones. Did five
men die to supply them?"

"They were raiders." she insisted stubbornly, "men who hoped
to rob and kill in the cover of the night."
 "Yes," said Dumarest. "You are probably correct." He looked
at the pile of clothing and the small heap of the dead men's
possessions. "Take it." he said, "all of it."

Her eyes fell to where the two bodies lay sprawled on the floor.
"And those?"

"Leave them to me."

The huts were built on the slope of a valley, the only feasible
place on a planet where the rain fell with the relentless force it
did on Scar. All through the thirty-day winter the skies emptied
their burden of water, the rain washing away the soil, garbage
and refuse, carrying it down to the valley which was now a small
sea of ooze.

Dumarest picked up the cat-man; his muscles bulged beneath
his tunic as he supported the weight. Cautiously, he walked
through the cluster of shacks to where the ground fell abruptly
away from beneath his feet. He heaved, waited, and turned when
he heard the splash of the body. The bearded man followed,
sinking into the morass, food for the parasitical fungi, the
bacteria and the anaerobic spores.