Читать книгу The Science Fiction Anthology онлайн

502 страница из 776

Extrone’s eyes lit with passion.

Lin’s face was red with heat and grimy with sweat. “There were two, I think.”

“Two?” Extrone grinned, petting the rifle. “You and I better go forward and look at the spoor.”

Lin said, “We ought to take protection, if you’re going, too.”

Extrone laughed. “This is enough.” He gestured with the rifle and stood up.

“I wish you had let me bring a gun along, sir,” Lin said.

“One is enough in my camp.”

The two of them went forward, alone, into the forest. Extrone moved agilely through the tangle, following Lin closely. When they came to the tracks, heavily pressed into drying mud around a small watering hole, Extrone nodded his head in satisfaction.

“This way,” Lin said, pointing, and once more the two of them started off.

They went a good distance through the forest, Extrone becoming more alert with each additional foot. Finally, Lin stopped him with a restraining hand. “They may be quite a way ahead. Hadn’t we ought to bring up the column?”

The farn beast, somewhere beyond a ragged clump of bushes, coughed. Extrone clenched the blast rifle convulsively.