Star Ship on Saddle Mountain Read Online Free PDF Page B

the tumbling mental pictures that came to him made
him not care or worry much, and he was even
feeling a little sleepy now. It was a groggy sort
of feeling. Charlie didn't mind it much, as he raised his hand to
his mouth.
Charlie gave a low whistle toward the corral.
Navajo stamped about briefly, getting his head back through the
stagger fence bars. Then he came trotting out to Charlie, with a
pleased, low whinny.
"It's okay, Nav," Charlie said, patting the old
horse. "It's okay, boy, we'll be all right."
Navajo tramped about nervously beside Charlie,
tossing his head high as another thought impulse came from the
three hooded figures nearby. Charlie realized now that Navajo, too,
could also feel their telepathic words. He was also aware, as he
took the head harness from the hook by the door, that the three
strangers were trying to calm his feelings with their impulses, to
ease his mind. Their every thought sent to him seemed to be toned
down, sort of in a low key, like Miss Peters used to call it in
Music Appreciation class. Their impulses were coming to him mildly
and steadily. He felt very little of that first shock of pain now,
and for that he was very grateful. He adjusted Navajo's head
harness then turned to the strangers again.
Come with us now, their thoughts told him. Just
follow us.
"You—you're aliens," Charlie said aloud, as he
started after the three. "You're not from this part of the—the
country? Not from any part of the country."
They did not reply. Charlie felt a tenseness as the
swift and high speed thoughts were exchanged between the three. And
he also realized that in that high frequency buzzing
beyond his comprehension, they were able to talk
without his catching on to anything they were saying. But then they
glanced back at him and Navajo again, and Charlie was once more
aware that they were using the slower, and more calming technique
on him and Navajo.
Charlie knew that, whoever they were, there was no
mistaking where they were from. And he eliminated Parker, Arizona,
and everywhere else he had ever heard of, on this world. They
really were strangers, Charlie told himself. They were aliens, from
somewhere very far away. They were from a place much farther away
than he dared ask them about.
In spite of his predicament and whatever danger
might be just ahead, Charlie couldn't help wondering just how he
was able to understand the strange mental language, the telepathy
they used. He knew very little about it, only what he had read in
books at the library. He certainly had never read up on it because
he thought he would ever have to use it. But here he was now, using
that same telepathy, to talk to these three strangers who had not
spoken a single word since he had first met them.
But whoever or whatever they were, he had been able
to understand and receive their thought impulses, and also, to send
back his own to them, though he had also spoken the words along
with his thoughts. All their talk had been solely through the means
of mind impulses.
"Where—where're you taking me?" Charlie asked, as
they left the Dam road and started upriver in the opposite
direction from the Engineer's camp. "Where are we going?"
They did not answer. Charlie felt sure they had
heard and understood him. He tried another question.
"Is it all right if I ride my horse? Can I?"
One of the three turned his hooded head, his face
still unseen by Charlie, and glanced back at him a moment.
You may ride the horse, came the impulse. But do
not try to run from us. It would be useless. You cannot
escape.
Charlie realized in a flash they knew all about his
carefully guarded plan. "I—I'll stay with you," he stammered.
Patting Navajo as he turned to mount him, Charlie
noticed that the three hooded figures hadn't even stopped. They
were up ahead, just walking silently along as though he were right
behind them. The fleeting thought barely touched his mind again—to
make a run for it now. Perhaps they couldn't run fast enough to
catch up with