"BRYANT, Edward - Prairie Sun (v1.0)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bryant Edward)

"God almighty," said Droos.
"And so your mother and you have brought the wagon this far since?" said John.
The boy nodded. "Some of the men of the company helped us. But they had their own wagons, and their families. And many of them were weak with cholera."
"Unbelievable," Droos said. He unconsciously fondled a silver teapot.
"Now we have seen the elephant," said Micah.
Droos cocked an eyebrow. "Elephants? You actually found one here?"
Micah looked equally quizzical. "It means only that we found far more on our path than we expected. We would return to Ross County, Ohio, but it is now just as far to go back as it is to go on. Perhaps we can catch up with the company when Annie is better. Before he rode on, the captain told us we would have to move soon, or we should all be caught by the winter in the Sierra Nevada."
The two men stared at him, transfixed.
"People truly used to live and die this way," Droos said bemusedly.
"Micah," said John slowly. "Can you keep a secret?"
"If it is an honorable secret."
"What if I told you that we both were from the future?"
The boy shook his head. "I do not understand."
Droos opened his mouth as though to protest. John held up a restraining hand. "Droos and I are travelers, and we've come a great distance to be here. But we didn't make the sort of journey you might imagine. Not from England, not around the Horn; but instead, through time. What year is it, Micah?"
"The year of our Lord, 1850."
"Our world exists more than two centuries beyond that."
Micah shook his head silently. Food meant something. Sickness meant something. But the future? His mind already reeled with too many burdens.
John turned toward Droos, who was slowly stowing a silver tea service in a fabric pack. "Can you explain it more adequately?"
Droos stared down at the objects he held. "These are truly exquisite," he said. "Standish Barry, Baltimore, probably about 1820."
"Droos."
The dark-haired man looked up and said, "This is against all the rules, you know. Why must you be a compulsive fool?"
"I was the only one in the department you could trust." John bent down to look at Micah levelly. "Do you know about the Romans?"
Micah nodded. "Father read us stories."
"Have you ever thought about what it would be like if you could really go back and visit the Romans?"
"Yes," said Micah.
"Well, we can do that, Micah. We live in your future. We can come back and visit your time, or the time of the Romans, or any other time of our choosing. We come from a year when smallpox has long since been banished
from the Earth and most other diseases eliminated equally."
Micah knew he did not understand all that was being said to him. But a few words punched through the confusion. "You can heal smallpox?"
"Our ancestors did," said John. "Your grandchildren will."
"Can you cure Annie?"
Time again seemed suspended on the prairie. Everything was still. Micah stared at the men. They stared back at him.
"Well, I suppose . . ." said John.
"No," said Droos.
"Droos has an emergency medical kit; it might alleviate the symptoms."
"No." This time Droos's answer was more vehement.
John wheeled angrily on his companion. "Just once," he said.
"Absolutely not," said Droos. "If I have to pull rank, I'll do so."
"One child," said John. "One life."
Droos dropped a dozen silver spoons and let them lie on the dusty trailside. "Let me remind you of a few things," he said. "I'm not being arbitrary about denying your humanitarian impulse. The first thing is that this is not exactly a sanctioned mission, you know. The second thing is that we'll be strung up doubly by our balls if the department finds out we've been salvaging collectibles from the past for resale in the present. Third, there's the primary travel directive-"
"Come on," said John. "Saving one little girl's life is highly unlikely to alter the future in any significant-"
Droos interrupted him, raising his voice even higher. "We don't know that. It's one thing to scavenge these antiques because nature would have destroyed them anyway. It's quite another to meddle with lives. Besides, we don't know that his sister is going to die of smallpox. She might recover. I believe children were more resilient-"
"I say we do it," said John.
"If I have to, I'll put your neck on the block without endangering mine," said Droos, his voice quiet and deadly. "I am capable of that, you know."
"I know that." John spread his arms helplessly. "Please?"
"No. There are rules-and these rules we will follow implicitly. We live in that kind of world." Droos knelt and began picking up the spoons, blowing the dust off and polishing them against his leg, before placing the utensils inside a bag of soft cloth. "Accept that."
In the ensuing silence, Micah said, "Can you cure Annie?"
John did not meet his eye this time. The towheaded man hesitated for a long time. Finally he said, "No, we can't. I'm sorry, Micah."
Micah considered that. Then he said, "But you could?"
Neither man said anything.
"But you won't?"