Read Online Highway of Eternity by Clifford D. Simak - Free Book Online Page B

came back—blinking lights on the panel and faint sunlight from a small observation screen.
    Boone struggled to his knees, tried to rise to his feet. He bumped his head rather painfully on the ceiling.
    â€œThese vehicles are cramped,” said Enid, speaking easily, unexcited. “You crawl on your hands and knees.”
    â€œWhere are we?”
    â€œI’m not sure where. I had no chance to pick a location or a time. I simply told it ‘go!’”
    â€œThat was taking a chance, wasn’t it?”
    â€œSure it was. But would you rather I had stayed and let that monster wreck the traveler?”
    â€œNo, of course not. I implied no criticism.”
    â€œI am getting a reading,” said Enid, bending low over the panel. “A time reading, that is. I still don’t know where we are.”
    â€œAnd the reading?”
    â€œMeasured from where we started, more than 50,000 years into the past—54,100 to be exact.”
    â€œ50,000 B.C.?”
    â€œThat’s right,” she said. “Open country. A plain. Hills in the distance. Funny looking hills.”
    He crawled forward, crowded in beside her, and looked through the forward vision plate.
    Scant grass flowed toward bald, squat hills. In the distance were dots that looked like a grazing game herd.
    â€œAmerica, I think,” he said. “The western plains. Somewhere in the southwestern United States, more than likely. I can’t tell you how I know. I just have a feel for it. Desert in my time, but 50,000 years before that, it would have been good grassland.”
    â€œPeople?”
    â€œNot likely. The best bet is that men first came to the continent 40,000 years before my time. Not sooner. The scientists could be wrong, of course. In any case, Ice Age America. There would be glaciers to the north.”
    â€œSafe enough, then. No bloodthirsty tribesmen. No ravening carnivores.”
    â€œThere are carnivores, but there’s good feeding for them. They shouldn’t bother us. Any idea where the others are?”
    She shrugged. “It was each man for himself.”
    â€œTimothy? He said he wouldn’t go.”
    â€œI think he went with the others. Your friend, Corcoran, held back, arguing, seeing what was happening to you. David picked him up and heaved him into the other small traveler. They all took off, not waiting for us.”
    â€œYou waited for me.”
    â€œI couldn’t leave you to that monster.”
    â€œYou think it’s the one that destroyed the base at Athens?”
    â€œProbably. There is no way of knowing. You know this place we are in?”
    â€œIf it’s the southwestern United States, I’ve been there. Spent a couple of vacations there. It looks like it to me, unless some other places have that kind of butte. I’ve never seen any that resembled them in any other part of the world.”
    â€œThe food and whatever else Horace threw in the traveler should be somewhere in the back. He put some supplies in each of the travelers, but he was in a hurry and he probably paid less attention to what he included than he should have. I think he threw the rifle that David brought Timothy from New York in this one.”
    â€œYou want to go out now?”
    â€œI think we should. It’s terribly cramped in here. Get out and stretch our legs, have a look, take a little time to decide what we should do.”
    â€œHave you any idea what we should do?”
    â€œNone. But in this sort of place it should take a while to track us down, if it can be done at all.”
    Crawling the length of the traveler, Boone found the rifle, a rucksack, a roll of blankets, and a few other packages bundled up in haphazard fashion. He got them all together while Enid opened the port.
    Crouching in the doorway, Boone examined the rifle. One cartridge was in the breech and it had a clip of five. There was, he hoped, more ammunition in the bundles.
    â€œYou stay here for