Страница 78 из 81
He kicked the Og as he rose with a triumphant cry, holding thegoblet to hischest. The bare foot--he had long since shed his flippers--caught theOg underthe cheek of his right buttock. At the same time, the house lurchedagain, andthe Og, screaming, went flying forward. The goblet fell from his gripand rolled out through a doorway which was collapsing.
Cold wet mud lifted Forry and carried him as if he were on arubber raft through the doorway just before it closed in on itself. He shot outthroughanother room as if he were a cake of soap slipping out of the wethands of a bather. The goblet appeared before him riding upside down on a waveof mud. Forry reached out and grabbed it and held it to his chest eventhrough histerror and his screaming.
Then he was turned upside down. Mud covered him and filled hisnostrils and mouth. He choked and fought against the wet heavy stuff killing him.
Something struck the side of his head; and he fell into a darkness and silence blacker and quieter than the mud
CHAPTER 43
Partly stu
The parting of the flood greatly diminished its force and itslevel. Childe scraped his knees and hands on the lintel as he went through thefront door and was deposited at the foot of the steps at the bottom of the porch. Staggeringbecause of the water that was falling on his back, he crawled awayand then gotto his feet. He took two steps and screamed as he fell outwards anddown. The mud of a very steep bank took him, and he slid face down for somedistance before plunging up to his shoulders into the sticky stuff. He foughthis way outand then lay on his back, staring upwards.
Light was streaming out through the open door and several otherwindows. He was lying on top of the cave-in. And if he did not get out of the waysoon, hewould be crushed by the entire weight of the mansion. It was groaningand swaying, and the slides of mud around him heralded a greater slide.
Though he would have liked to stay there and rest, he turned overand slipped and slid to his feet and sludged away from the buildinglooming abovehim as fast as he could go. Once he tripped over a solid object, which he would have thought a small boulder if it had not moaned. He got down on hisknees and felt the roundness, which was the head of a woman buried up to herneck.
"Who is it?" he said. "It's me," the woman said. "Who?" "Diana Rumbow. Who're you?" And then, "Help me!" Mud abruptly covered his legs to the ankles. He looked up but
could not see much except that the house seemed to be tilting a little more. Suddenly, the lights went out, and a great grinding noise came from the house.
He went on as swiftly as he could. It would take him a long timeto dig herout, and the house was surely coming down, on them at any minute. Besides, he owed an Og nothing except death.
When he had gotten to one side, far enough out of danger from thehouse, though not from the slippage of the hill beneath him, he turned. Justas he did, the great structure screamed and toppled down the steep slope. Thoughit was so dark, he could still see that it had turned over on its side, soswiftly had theearth beneath it fallen in.
He wanted to make for the ruins as fast as he could, but he wastoo emptiedand shaken. He sat down in the mud and wished that he could cry. After a while, he got up and sludged through the mud, sinking to his knees withevery step. Hewent even more slowly than the effort accounted for, because he wasnever sure that he would not keep on sinking.
The first body he found was Forry Ackerman's. It was lying on topof the mud, though sinking very slowly. He was on his back, his face coveredwith mud but his spectacles still on. A glow of headlights coming up the roadbelow showed him palely to Childe.
"Forry?" he said. The mud-covered lips parted to show mud-covered teeth. "Yeees?" "You're alive!" Childe said. And then, "How in bell did you get
here? What's
been going on?" "Help me up," Forry said. Childe hauled him up, but Forry got down on his knees and started
gropingaround. The headlights of the car came up over the top of the roadbelow them, and Childe could see much better. But he could see nothing that Forrymight begroping for.
"I had it! I had it!" Forry groaned. "What?" "The Grail! The Grail!" "You had it? How? Forry, tell me, what's going on?" Forry, feeling into the mud and uttering curses which were
completely out of character for him, told him.
Childe pulled him to his feet. "Listen, you'll never find it inthis mess. We better go into the house, if we can get into that mess, and lookfor our friends. If they are our friends."
Forry raised his head sharply. "What do you mean, if they are ourfriends?"
"How much do you and I really know about the Tocs?" Childe said. "They'vebeen nice to us, but then they have a reason to be so. Even the Ogsbecame better after they had a reason to get my cooperation. So..."
"I have to find that Grail," Forry said. "I want to go to theplanet of theTocs. It'll be the only chance I'll ever have!"
"All right, Forry," Childe said. "We'll get it somehow. I'd liketo have it, too, so I could settle this thing once and for all! But we'd bettersee who we can save. After all, Toc or Og, human or not, they feel pain, andthey're goingto need help."
The car had approached as closely as its driver dared. Fourpeople got outand walked through the mud to them. It took a few minutes ofquestioning by bothparties before it was established that the newcomers were Tocs. Theyhad been summoned from the other side of the world and had just managed to gethere.
"I wouldn't worry about finding it, Captain," the leader, Tish, said. "You can concentrate on it, and it will glow. The glow will come up eventhrough tonsof mud."
CHAPTER 44
The Tocs and the Ogs bad hired a hall.
Over two-thirds of the big dance floor of the American Legionpost had beenmarked off in squares. The remaining third was given over to thehundred or so surviving members of both groups. And to Childe, the Captain, theGrail and its pedestal. And to Forry Ackerman, who sat on one side to observe. Hewould participate in the ceremony but only as one caught in the sidewash ofradiation. When the time came for the voyaging, he would move into the directinfluence of the power and, if all went well, travel with the others to the stars.
Childe sat in a chair before the Grail. Beyond him the Tocs andOgs stood inranks of twelve abreast. They were naked. Everybody in the hall wasnaked.
They were here because Childe had ordered it. He had told themthat if both groups did not declare, and keep, a truce, he would destroy the Grailand would refuse to act as their Captain. If they agreed to keep the peace andto participate together, he would transport both groups to their homeplanets.
They did not take long in reaching an agreement.
Childe was still dubious about his ability to move them acrossintergalacticspaces and pinpoint the exact world for each. But he hoped that itwould work. It meant ridding the Earth of a number of monsters and potentialmonsters. He wished that he could also do this with others than the Tocs and the Ogs.