Lord Of Thunder by Andre Norton

Author:Andre Norton [Norton, Andre]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-04T07:33:24.337000+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Hosteen brought up against an unseen wall with force enough to bruise flesh, to drive breath out of his body in a gasping grunt. He was on his knees, trying to regain both breath and balance when Logan crashed into him, and they both went to the rock surface under them. There was absolute darkness now. The Norbies must have resealed the cave.

The Terran knew of old that particular type of airlessness, that dead feeling-It was found in the passages of the Sealed Caves, long closed to man, perhaps always intended to be closed to his species. This was certainly a relic of the Sealed Cave civilization.

Breathing shallowly, he lay still and tried to think.

“One of the old caves,” Logan broke silence first. “It smells like one anyway-“

“Yes.”

“Any chance of getting loose?”

Hosteen, moving his arms, was rewarded by a slight give of his bonds.

“Might be.” He continued his efforts.

“Ha!” That was an exclamation of triumph from Logan. “That does it! Here-where are you?”

A hand, moving through the thick blanket of no light, clutched at Hosteen’s shoulder and moved swiftly down to the coils of rope about him.

“They weren’t very clever with their knots.” Logan’s fingers were now busy behind Hosteen’s back.

“I don’t think”-the Terran sat up, massaged his right wrist with the fingers of his left hand-“we were meant to stay tied or they would have left the nets on us. Now-let’s just see-“

He had no idea how big the cave was or how far they were from the outer door. Nor was he too sure in which direction that door lay. The odd quality of this dark and the lifeless feel of the air did weird things to alter a man’s sense of direction-even, Hosteen, suspected, influenced his clarity of thought. He stood for a long second or two, trying to orientate himself before he moved in a shuffle, half crouched, to sweep the floor with one hand, while the other was out before him as insurance against coming up short against another wall.

“Stay right where you are,” he ordered Logan.

“What’s the game?”

“They threw our belts in after us, broke our weapons, but I’ve an atom torch on that belt. And they didn’t damage that, at least not while I was watching-“

Sweep-sweep-finger tips scraping on stone, nails gritting-then the smoothness of hide worked into leather! The Terran squatted, drew his find to him, knew by touch it was Logan’s, and looped the belt around his shoulder for safe keeping.

“Got yours,” he reported. “Mine can’t be too far away.”

Once more sweep-sweep. His fingers were growing tender. Then they rapped against an object, and there was a metallic sound. He was holding a ruined stunner. Only a few inches beyond that-his belt!

Hosteen slipped it hurriedly through his hands, locating radar compass, a pouch of sustenance tablets, the small emergency medical kit, to find in the last loop next to the empty knife sheath the pencil-slim eight-inch tube he was looking for. He pushed its wide fan button and blinked at a blinding answer of light.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.