Leopard Hunts in Darkness - Smith Wilbur (бесплатные полные книги .txt) 📗

Craig balanced himself, so that he had his outside hand free. He groped for the lantern on its strip of canvas around his neck, and held it out into the open shaft. Then he twisted his head, and wriggled even further outwards until he was holding with only the point of one shoulder, and his head was protruding around the sharp corner of the chimney into the open shaft.

He switched on the lantern. Instantly there was i hubbub of alarmed bats their terrified shrills and the flutter of their wings and three feet above Craig's head, impossibly out of reach, there was a window in the rock wall, from which the sounds reverberated as though from the brass throat of a trumpet. He reached for it, but his fingers were twelve inches short of the sill.

As he yearned upwards, so the yellow glow of the lantern faded away. For some seconds the filaments still burned redly in their tiny glass ampoule and then they too died, and the darkness rushed back to engulf Craig, and he retreated into the chimney.

In frustration he hurled the useless lantern from him, and it clattered against the rock as it fell, each rattle becoming fainter until seconds later there was a distant splash as it hit the water far below.

"Craig!" E "Okay, I dropped the light." He heard the bitterness and despondency in his own voice, but in darkness he tried once more to reach the window above him. His fingernails scratched futilely on the stone, and he gave up and began slipping back down the chimney. In the V-shaped niche where the crack and chimney met, he wedged himself again.

"What is happening, Craig?"

"It doesn't go," he called down. "There is no way out.

We are finished, unless--'he broke off.

"What is it? Unless what?"

"Unless one of the girls will come up and help me." There was silence in the darkness below him.

"I'll come,"Tungata broke the silence.

"No good. You are too heavy. I couldn't hold you." Silence again, and then Sally' Anne said, "Tell me what to do."

"Tie on to the end of the rope. Use a bowline knot."

"Okay."

"All right, come out across the pole. I'll be holding you." Peering down he could see her silhouetted against the glow of the fire, as she worked her way across.

He took up the slack in the rope carefully, ready to jam it if she fell.

"I'm across."

"Can you find the crack?"

"Yes.

"I'm going to pull you up. You must help me by pushing with your toes in the crck." Okay.

"Go!" He felt her full weight come on the rope, and it bit into his shoulder.

"Push up!" he ordered, and as he felt the load lighten, he grabbed the slack.

"Push!" She came up another four inches.

"Push!" It seemed to go on and on, and then she screamed and the rope burned out in a hard, heavy run across his shoulder. He was almost jerked out of his niche.

He fought it, jamming hard, feeling the skin smear off his palms on the harsh nylon until he stopped it. Sally Anne was still screaming, and the rope pendulumed back and forth as she swung sideways along the wall.

"Shut up!" he roared at her. "Get a hold of yourself." She stopped screaming, and gradually her swings became shorter.

"I lost my footing." Her voice was almost a sob.

"Can you find the crack again?"

"Yes."

"All right, tell me when you are ready."

"Ready!"

"Push up!" He thought it would never end, and then he felt her hand touch his leg.

"You made it," he whispered. "You marvelous bloody female." He made a space for her in the chimney below him and he helped her into it. He showed her how to wedge herself securely, and then he held her shoulder, squeezing hard.

I can't go any further." Her first words after she recovered.

"That was the worst, the rest is easy." He wouldn't tell her about the window not yet.

"Listen to the bats," he cheered her instead. "The surface must be close, very close. Think of that first glimpse of sunlight, that first breath of sweet dry air."

"I'm ready to go on," she said at last, and he led her up the chimney.

As soon as it was wide enough to cross over, he made her climb ahead of him so that he could place her feet with his hands, and help her to push upwards when the chimney became too wide for her to be able to exert her full strength.

"Craig. Craig! It's closed. It has pinched in. It's a dead end." Her panic was just below the surface and he could feel she was shaking as she choked down her sobs.

"Stop it," he snapped. "Just one more effort. just one, I promise you." He waited for her to quieten, then he went on, "There is a window in the wall just above your head, just around the corner of the chimney. Only a foot or two-" I won't be able to reach it."

"Yes! Yes, you will. I'm going to make a bridge for you with my body. You will stand on my stomach, you'll reach it easily. Do you hear me? Sally-Anne, answer me."