Студопедия  
Главная страница | Контакты | Случайная страница

АвтомобилиАстрономияБиологияГеографияДом и садДругие языкиДругоеИнформатика
ИсторияКультураЛитератураЛогикаМатематикаМедицинаМеталлургияМеханика
ОбразованиеОхрана трудаПедагогикаПолитикаПравоПсихологияРелигияРиторика
СоциологияСпортСтроительствоТехнологияТуризмФизикаФилософияФинансы
ХимияЧерчениеЭкологияЭкономикаЭлектроника

Yet no one made a sound; and as the minutes passed, in the green shade, his feeling of triumph faded.

Читайте также:
  1. B) Spend a few minutes individually thinking of further arguments you will use to back up your own opinion on the usefulness and types of punishment.
  2. CHAPTER 29 The Little Chief Of The South Slays Coon-Sadler; The Green Eyed Boy Lays Hold On The South.
  3. CHAPTER 73 Jeffery-Lewis Becomes Prince Of Hanthamton; Yale-Perez Attacks Xiangyang-Greenhaven.
  4. Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.
  5. Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.
  6. From “Green Years” by A.J. Cronin
  7. Green economists and economists
  8. Green River
  9. Green, Vermillion (1964)
  10. Greenpeace

At last he heard a voice—Jack's voice, but hushed.

“Are you certain?”

The savage addressed said nothing. Perhaps he made a gesture.

Roger spoke.

“If you're fooling us—”

Immediately after this, there came a gasp, and a squeal of pain. Ralph crouched instinctively. One of the twins was there, outside the thicket, with Jack and Roger.

“You're sure he meant in there?”

The twin moaned faintly and then squealed again.

“He meant he'd hide in there?”

“Yes—yes—oh—!”

Silvery laughter scattered among the trees.

So they knew.

Ralph picked up his stick and prepared for battle. But what could they do? It would take them a week to break a path through the thicket; and anyone who wormed his way in would be helpless. He felt the point of his spear with his thumb and grinned without amusement Whoever tried that would be stuck, squealing like a pig.

They were going away, back to the tower rock. He could hear feet moving and then someone sniggered. There came again that high, bird-like cry that swept along the line, So some were still watching for him; but some—?

There was a long, breathless silence. Ralph found that he had bark in his mouth from the gnawed spear. He stood and peered upwards to the Castle Rock.

As he did so, he heard Jack's voice from the top.

“Heave! Heave! Heave!”

The red rock that he could see at the top of the cliff vanished like a curtain, and he could see figures and blue sky. A moment later the earth jolted, there was a rushing sound in the air, and the top of the thicket was cuffed as with a gigantic hand. The rock bounded on, thumping and smashing toward the beach, while a shower of broken twigs and leaves fell on him. Beyond the thicket, the tribe was cheering.

Silence again.

Ralph put his fingers in his mouth and bit them. There was only one other rock up there that they might conceivably move; but that was half as big as a cottage, big as a car, a tank. He visualized its probable progress with agonizing clearness—that one would start slowly, drop from ledge to ledge, trundle across the neck like an outsize steam roller.

“Heave! Heave! Heave!”

Ralph put down his spear, then picked it up again. He pushed his hair back irritably, took two hasty steps across the little space and then came back. He stood looking at the broken ends of branches.

Still silence.

He caught sight of the rise and fall of his diaphragm and was surprised to see how quickly he was breathing. Just left of center his heart-beats were visible. He put the spear down again.

“Heave! Heave! Heave!”

A shrill, prolonged cheer.

Something boomed up on the red rock, then the earth jumped and began to shake steadily, while the noise as steadily increased. Ralph was shot into the air, thrown down, dashed against branches. At his right hand, and only a few feet away, the whole thicket bent and the roots screamed as they came out of the earth together. He saw something red that turned over slowly as a mill wheel. Then the red thing was past and the elephantine progress diminished toward the sea.

Ralph knelt on the plowed-up soil, and waited for the earth to come back. Presently the white, broken stumps, the split sticks and the tangle of the thicket refocused. There was a kind of heavy feeling in his body where he had watched his own pulse.




Дата добавления: 2015-09-11; просмотров: 25 | Поможем написать вашу работу | Нарушение авторских прав

Ralph heaved over among the leaves. He had reason to be thankful that his dream was broken, for the bus had been nearer and more distinct | Samneric came close and peered at Ralph. | Ralph looked at the filthy objects before him and sighed. | Here was the crushed grass where they had all lain when he had gone to prospect. There was the neck of land, the ledge skirting the rock, up there were the red pinnacles. | Truculently they squared up to each other but kept just out of fighting distance. | His temper broke. He screamed at Jack. | Suddenly Jack bounded out from the tribe and began screaming wildly. | He paused, sun-flecked, holding up a bough, prepared to duck under it A spasm of terror set him shaking and he cried aloud. | He knelt among the shadows and felt his isolation bitterly. They were savages it was true; but they were human, and the ambushing fears of the deep night were coming on. | He heard a cry and a flurry from the rock. The twins had grabbed each other and were gibbering. |


lektsii.net - Лекции.Нет - 2014-2024 год. (0.007 сек.) Все материалы представленные на сайте исключительно с целью ознакомления читателями и не преследуют коммерческих целей или нарушение авторских прав