Birds of Prey - Smith Wilbur (версия книг TXT) 📗
Aboli's face creased into a bouquet of tattoos and merry laughter lines but, though his shoulders shook, he held his peace.
Hal sensed his amusement, and rounded on him. "How far ahead is the bitter-almond hedge?"
"Another league."
"Will Sabah meet us there?"
"That is what I believe, if the green-jackets don't catch up with us first."
"Methinks we will have some respite. Schreuder made an error by rushing alone in pursuit of us. He should have mustered his troops and come after us in an orderly fashion. My guess is that most of the green-jackets will be chasing the other prisoners we turned free, They will concentrate on us only once Schreuder takes command."
"And he has no horse," Sukeena added. "I think we will get clear away, and once we reach the mountains-" She broke off and lifted her eyes from Hal's leg. Both she and Hal looked ahead to the high blue rampart that filled the sky ahead.
Van de Velde had been avidly following this conversation, and now he broke in. "The slave wench is right. You have succeeded in this underhand scheme Of yours, more's the pity. However, I am a reasonable man, Henry Courtney. Set my wife and me free now. Give the carriage over to us and let us return to the colony. In exchange I will give you my solemn undertaking to call off the chase. I will order Colonel Schreuder to send his men back to their barracks." He turned on Hal what he hoped was an open and guileless countenance. "I offer you my word as a gentleman on it."
Hal saw the cunning and malice in the Governor's eyes.
"Your excellency, I am uncertain of the validity of your claim to the title of gentleman, besides which I should hate to be deprived so soon of your charming company."
At that moment one of the front wheels of the carriage crashed into a hole in the tracks. "The aardvarks dig these burrows," Althuda explained, as Hal clambered down from the lopsided vehicle.
"Pray, what manner of man or beast is that?"
"The earth pig, a beast with a long snout and a thick tail that digs up the burrows of ants with its powerful claws and devours them with its long sticky tongue," Althuda told him.
Hal threw back his head and laughed. "Of course, I believe that. I also believe that your earth pig flies, dances the hornpipe and tells fortunes by cards."
"You have a few things yet to learn about the land that lies out there, my friend,"Althuda promised him.
Still chuckling, Hal turned from him. "Come on, lads!" he called to his seamen. "Let's get this ship off the reef and running before the wind again."
He made van de Velde and Katinka get out and the rest of them strained with the horses to pull the carriage free. From here onwards, though, the track became barely passable, and the bush on either hand grew taller and more dense as they went on. Within the next mile they were stuck in holes twice more.
"It is almost time to get rid of the carriage. We can get on faster on our own shanks, Hal told Aboli quietly. "How much further to the hedge?" -"I thought we should have reached it by now," Aboli replied, "but it cannot be far." They came to the boundary around the next kink in the narrow track. The famous bitter-almond hedge was a straggly and blighted excrescence, hardly shoulder high, but the road ended dramatically against it. There was also a rough hut, which served as a guard post to the border picket, and a notice in Dutch.
"WARNING!" the notice began, in vivid scarlet letters, and went on to forbid movement by any person beyond that point, with the penalty for infringement being imprisonment or the payment of a fine of a thousand guilders or both. The board had been erected in the name of the Governor of the Dutch East India Company.
Hal kicked open the door of the single room of the guard hut and found it deserted. The fire on the open hearth was cold and dead. A few articles of Company uniform hung on the wooden pegs in the wall, and a black kettle stood over the dead coals, with odd bowls, bottles and utensils lying on the rough wooden table or on shelves along the walls.
Big Daniel was about to put the slow-match to the thatch, but Hal stopped him. "No point in giving Schreuder a smoke beacon to follow," he said, "and there's naught of value here. Leave it be," and limped back to where the seamen were unloading the carriage.
Aboli was turning the horses out of the traces and Ned Tyler was helping him to improvise pack saddles for them, using the harness, leather work and canvas canopy from the carriage.
Katinka stood forlornly at her husband's side. "What is to become of me, Sir Henry?" she whispered as he came up. "Some of the men want to take you up into the mountains and feed you to the wild animals," he replied. Her hand flew to her lips and she paled. "Others want to cut your throat here and now for what you and your fat toad of a husband did to us."
"You would never allow such a thing to happen," van de Velde blustered. "I only did what was my duty."
"You're right," Hal agreed. "I think throat-cutting too good for you. I favour hanging and drawing, as you did to my father." He glared at him coldly, and van de Velde quailed. "However, I find myself sickened by you both. I want no further truck with either of you, and so I leave you and your lovely wife to the mercy of God, the devil and the amorous Colonel Schreuder." He turned and strode away to where Aboli and Ned were checking and tightening the loads on the horses.
Three of the greys had kegs of gunpowder slung on each side of their backs, two carried bundles of weapons and the sixth horse was loaded with Sukeena's bulky saddle-bags.
"All shipshape, Captain." Ned knuckled his forehead. "We can up anchor and get under way at your command." "There's nothing to keep us here. The Princess Sukeena will ride on the lead horse." He looked around for her. "Where is she?"
