"L. Sprague De Camp - The Hostage of Zir" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Camp L Sprague)

to themselves, would out-peacock the peacock. The handsome Venezuelan
couple named Guzman-Vidal also chose colourful garb. Valerie Mulroy, a tall,
angular, but good-looking woman, wanted a bare-breasted gown. It took the
combined efforts of Sivird and Castanhoso to dissuade her. Reith was relieved;
as he had reason to know, her assets were modest.

Next morning, Castanhoso greeted Reith: "Bom dia, Senhor Dom Fergus! Como
vai?"

"Bem, obrigado. E o Senhor?"

"Good! Now I take you to the ginasio, where you will be trained."

"How about my tourists?"

"We have some little local tours planned, to keep them happy while you enjoy
the ministrations of the Senhor Heggstad."

In the gym, Reith found a stocky, bald, blue-eyed, burly man flinging himself

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about on the parallel bars.

"Senhor Dom Fergus," said Castanhoso, "this is Ivar Heggstad, in charge of
physical survival. Ate logo!

"How do you do, Mr. Haystack?" said Reith.

Heggstad felt Reith's biceps. "Uff! Too skinny. How do you expect to survive in
a vorld where everything is depending on the physical?"

"Please! I didn't ask for this job, but now I've got to make the best of it."

"You are not a regular tourist guide?"

"No sir! I was assistant office manager at Magic Carpet, in Philadelphia. The
courier assigned to this tour got married. Naturally, his bride wouldn't stand for
his going off for a quarter-century, objective time. That's why people who make
these trips are nearly always without close family ties on earth: the difference
between objective and subjective time. His back-up man was in the hospital, and
all our other regular couriers were out on tour, or pregnant, or something. We
couldn't find a free-lance guide to take over; so, being single without close kin, I
was drafted."

"They couldn't have made you go. You could have quit your yob, unless
America has changed."