Birds of Prey - Smith Wilbur (версия книг TXT) 📗
When he asked Aboli about them, the big black man shrugged disdainfuly. "They are the San. Not really men, but little yellow apes. If you are ever unfortunate enough to meet one of them, a fate from which your three gods should protect you, you will find out more about their poison arrows than their paint pots."
Today the paintings could hold his interest for only a moment, for the bed of grass that he had laid on the floor against the wall was empty. This was no surprise, for he was early to the tryst. Still, he wondered if she would come or if her summons had been capricious. Then, behind him, he heard the snap of a -breaking twig from further down the slope.
He glanced around quickly for a place to hide. Down one side of the entrance trailed a curtain of vines, their dark green foliage staffed with startlingly yellow blossoms) their light, sweet perfume wafting through the cave. Hal slipped behind it and shrank back against the rock wall.
A moment later Katinka sprang lightly onto the terrace outside the entrance and peered expectantly into the interior. When she realized it was empty, her frame stiffened with "anger. She said one word in Dutch that, from her regular use of it, he had come to know well. It was obscene, and he felt his skin crawl with excitement at the delights presaged by that word.
Silently he slipped out from his hiding place and crept up behind her. He whipped one hand over her eyes and, with the other arm around her waist, lifted her off her feet and ran with her towards the bed of grass.
Much later Hal lay back on the grass mattress, his naked chest still heaving and running with sweat. She nibbled lightly at one of his nipples as though it were a raisin. Then she played with the golden medallion that hung from his neck.
"This is pretty," she murmured. "I like the red ruby eyes of the lion. What is it?" He did not understand this complex question in her language, and shrugged. She repeated it slowly and clearly.
"It is something given me by my father. It has great value to me," he replied evasively.
"I want it," she said. "Will you give it to me?" He smiled lazily. "I could never do that."
"Do you love me?" she pouted. "Are you mad for me?" "Yes, I love you madly," he admitted, as with the back of his forearm he wiped the sweat out of his eyes.
"Then give me the medallion."
He shook his head wordlessly and then, to avoid the looming argument, he asked, "Do you love me as I love you?"
She gave a merry laugh. "Don't be a silly goat! Of course I do not love you. Lord Cyclops is the only one I love." She had nicknamed his sex after the one-eyed giant of the legend, and to affirm it she reached down to his groin. "But even him I do not love when he is so soft and small." Her fingers were busy for a moment, and then she laughed again, this time throatily. "There now, I love him better already. Ah, yes! Better still. The bigger he grows, the more I love him. I am going kiss him now to show him how much I love him."
She slid the tip of her tongue down over his belly, but as she pushed her face into the dark bush of his pubic hair, a sound arrested her. It came rolling in across the lagoon below, and broke in a hundred booming echoes from the hills.
"Thunder!" Katinka cried, and sat up. "I hate thunder. Ever since I was a little girl."
"Not thunder!" Hal said, and pushed her away so roughly that she cried out again.
"Oh! You son of a pig, you have hurt me." But Hal took no heed of her complaint, and sprang to his feet. Naked, he rushed to the entrance of the cave and stared out. The entrance was situated high enough to enable him to see over the tops of the forest trees surrounding the lagoon. The bare masts of the Resolution towered into the blue noon sky. The air was filled with seabirds the thunderous sound had startled them from the surface of the water and the sunlight sparkled on their wings so that circling high overhead they seemed to be creatures of ice and crystal.
A softly rolling bank of mist obscured half the lagoon. It blanketed the rocky cliffs of the heads in silvery-blue billows that were suddenly shot through with strange flickering lights. But this was not mist.
The thunder broke again, reaching Hal long after the flare of lights, the distant sound taking time to reach his ears. The swirling clouds thickened, spilling densely and heavily as oil across the lagoon waters. Above this cloud bank, the tall masts and sails of two great ships floated as though suspended above the waters. He stared at them, stupefied, as they sailed in serenely between the heads. Another broadside broke from the leading ship. He saw at once that she was a frigate, her black hull trimmed with white, her gun ports gaping and the fire and smoke boiling out of her. High above the smoke banks the tricolour of the Dutch Republic rippled in the light noon breeze. In line behind her the Gull of Moray followed daintily, the colours of St. George and St. Andrew and the great red cross of the Temple bedecking her masts and rigging, her culver ins bellowing out their warlike chorus.
"Merciful God! Hal cried. "Why do not the batteries at the entrance return their fire?"
Then with his naked eye he saw strange soldiers in green uniform overrunning the gun emplacements at the foot of the cliffs, their swords and the steel heads of their pikes flashing in the sunlight as they slaughtered the gunners, and flung their bodies over the parapets into the sea below.
"They have surprised our men in the forts. The Buzzard has led the Dutch to us, and shown them where our guns are placed." His voice trembled with outrage. "He will pay with his blood for this day, I swear it."
Katinka sprang up from the grass mattress and ran to the entrance beside him. "Look! It is a Dutch ship, come to rescue me from the den of your foul pirate father. I give thanks to God! Soon I will be away from this forsaken place and safe at Good Hope." She danced with excitement. "When they hang you and your father from the gibbet on the parade outside the fort, I shall be there to blow you one last kiss and to wave you farewell." She laughed mockingly.
