"Alvin Maker 06 - The Crystal City 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Card Orson Scott)

Abe thought about that for a moment. "Well, then, I reckon it's in for a penny, in for a pound."
"The American version of that is 'in for a dime, in for a dollar,' " said Arthur Stuart helpfully.
"But my mama's version was the one I said," retorted Abe. "And since I got exactly as many pennies and pounds as I got dimes and dollars, I reckon I can please myself which ones to cuss with."
"You mean that was cussin'?" said Arthur Stuart.
"Inside me there was cussin' so bad it'd make a sailor poke sticks in his own ears to keep from hearin' it," said Abe. "Pennies and pounds was just the part I let out."
All this while, of course, Alvin had been using his doodlebug to go in search of the thieves. First thing was to find Coz, partly because the woman might still be with him, and partly to make sure he hadn't been harmed. Alvin found his heartfire just as he was getting clubbed in the head in a back alley. It wasn't no hard thing to make it so the club didn't do him much harm. Put him down on the ground convincingly enough, so they wouldn't feel no need to give him another lick with it, but Coz'd wake up without so much as a headache.
Meanwhile, though, the woman and the man was strolling off as easy as you please. So Alvin searched them with his doodlebug and found the money fast enough. It was no great difficulty to make the man's pocket and the woman's bag unweave themselves a little, and it wasn't much harder to make the gold coins all slippery. Nor was it so hard to keep them from making a single sound when they hit the wharf. The tricky thing was to keep the coins from slipping through the cracks between the planks and falling into the slack water under the dock.
Arthur Stuart, of course, had enough experience and training now that he was able to follow pretty much what Alvin was doing. That was why he was stringing out the conversation long enough to give Alvin time to get the job done.
In a way, thought Alvin, we're just like that pair of thieves. Arthur Stuart's the stall, keeping Abe busy so he doesn't have a clue what's going on, and I'm the cutpurse and pickpocket. Only difference is, we're sort of unstealing what was already stolen.
"Let's go eat, then," said Arthur Stuart, "instead of talking about eatin'."
"Where shall we go to find food that we can stand to eat?" said Alvin.
"This way, I think," said Arthur Stuart, heading directly toward the alleyway where the coins had all been spilled.
"Oh, that doesn't look too promising," said Abe.
"Trust me," said Arthur Stuart. "I got a nose for good food."
"He does," said Alvin. "And I got the tongue and lips and teeth for it."
"I'll happily provide the belly," offered Abe.
They had him lead the way down the alley. And blamed if he didn't just walk right past the money.
"Abe," said Alvin. "Didn't you see them gold coins a-lyin' there?"
"They ain't mine," said Abe.
"Finders keepers, losers weepers," said Arthur Stuart.
"I may be a loser," said Abe, "but I ain't weepin'."
"But you're a finder now," said Arthur Stuart, "and I don't see you doin' no keepin'."
Abe looked at them a bit askance. "I reckon we ought to pick up these coins and search out their proper owner. No doubt somebody's going to be right sorry for a hole in his pocket."
"Reckon so," said Alvin, bending over to pick up a few coins. Arthur Stuart was doing the same, and pretty soon they had them all. It was quite a bit of money, when you had it all together.
"Gotta carry it somewhere," said Alvin. "Why don't you put it into those empty wallets you got?"
Alvin fully expected that Abe would realize, when he started loading it in, that it was exactly the amount that had been stolen.
But he didn't. Because the money didn't fit. There was too blamed much of it.
Arthur Stuart started laughing and kept laughing till he had tears running down his cheeks.
"So now who's the weeper?" said Abe.
"He's laughing at me," said Alvin.
"Why?"
"Because I clean forgot that you and Coz probably wasn't the first folks they robbed today."
Abe looked down at the full wallets and the coins that Alvin and Arthur Stuart were still holding and it finally dawned on him. "You robbed the robbers."
Alvin shook his head. "You was supposed to think they just dropped your money and ran or something," he said. "But I can't pretend that when you go finding more money than they took."
Abe shook his head. "Well, I'm beginning to get the idea that you got you some kind of knack, Mr. Smith."
"I just know how to work with metals some," said Alvin.
"Including metal that's in somebody else's pocket or purse some six rods off."
"Let's go find Coz," said Alvin. "Since I reckon he's due to wake up soon."
"He's sleeping?" asked Abe.
"He had some encouragement," said Alvin. "But he'll be fine."
Abe gave him a look but said nothing.
"What about all this extra money?" asked Arthur Stuart.
"I'm not taking it," said Abe. "I'll keep what's rightfully mine and Coz's, but the rest you can just leave there on the planks. Let the thieves come back and find it."
"But it wasn't theirs, neither," said Arthur Stuart.
"That's between them and their maker on Judgment Day," said Abe. "I ain't gettin' involved. I don't want to have any money I can't account for."
"To the Lord?" asked Alvin.
"Or to the magistrate," said Abe. "I gave a receipt for this amount, and it can be proved that it's mine. Just drop the rest of that. Or keep it, if you don't mind being thieves yourselves."
Alvin couldn't believe that the man Whose money he had just saved was calling him a thief. But after he thought about it for a moment, he realized that he couldn't very well pretend that he simply happened to find the money. Nor that it belonged to him by any stretch of the imagination.
"I expect if you rob a robber," said Alvin, "it doesn't make you any less of a robber."
"I expect not," said Abe.