"Adams, Douglas - Life, the Universe, and Everything" - читать интересную книгу автора (Adams Douglas)

Arthur's brain somersaulted. His jaw did press-ups.
"I went mad for a while," said Ford, "did me no end of good."
"You see," said Ford, "- ..."
"Where have you been?" interrupted Arthur, now that his head had finished
working out.
"Around," said Ford, "around and about." He grinned in what he accurately
judged to be an infuriating manner. "I just took my mind off the hook for a
bit. I reckoned that if the world wanted me badly enough it would call back.
It did."
He took out of his now terribly battered and dilapidated satchel his Sub+
Etha Sens-O-Matic.
"At least," he said, "I think it did. This has been playing up a bit." He
shook it. "If it was a false alarm I shall go mad," he said, "again."
Arthur shook his head and sat down. He looked up.
"I thought you must be dead ..." he said simply.
"So did I for a while," said Ford, "and then I decided I was a lemon for a
couple of weeks. A kept myself amused all that time jumping in and out of a
gin and tonic."
Arthur cleared his throat, and then did it again.
"Where," he said, "did you ...?"
"Find a gin and tonic?" said Ford brightly. "I found a small lake that
thought it was a gin and tonic, and jumped in and out of that. At least, I
think it thought it was a gin and tonic."
"I may," he added with a grin which would have sent sane men scampering
into trees, "have been imagining it."
He waited for a reaction from Arthur, but Arthur knew better than that.
"Carry on," he said levelly.
"The point is, you see," said Ford, "that there is no point in driving
yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in
and save your sanity for later."
"And this is you sane again, is it?" said Arthur. "I ask merely for
information."
"I went to Africa," said Ford.
"Yes?"
"Yes."
"What was that like?"
"And this is your cave is it?" said Ford.
"Er, yes," said Arthur. He felt very strange. After nearly four years of
total isolation he was so pleased and relieved to see Ford that he could
almost cry. Ford was, on the other hand, an almost immediately annoying
person.
"Very nice," said Ford, in reference to Arthur's cave. "You must hate it."
Arthur didn't bother to reply.
"Africa was very interesting," said Ford, "I behaved very oddly there."
He gazed thoughtfully into the distance.
"I took up being cruel to animals," he said airily. "But only," he added,
"as a hobby."
"Oh yes," said Arthur, warily.
"Yes," Ford assured him. "I won't disturb you with the details because
they would -"