"de Camp, L Sprague - Nothing in the Rules UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Camp L Sprague)

Connaught looked up appealingly to the balcony. Mr. Santalucia and the little Santalucias, guessing what was happening, burst into a chorus of: "Go on, mamma! You show them, mammal"
"Aw right. I swim one, maybe two races. If I see I no got a chance, I no swim no more."
"That's better, Maria. It wouldn't really count if she beat you anyway." Connaught headed for the door, saying something about "telephone" on the way.
Despite the delays in starting the meet, nobody left the pooi room through boredom. In fact, the empty seats in the balcony were full by this time and people were standing up behind them. Word had gotten around the Hotel Creston that something was up.
By the time Louis Connaught returned, Laird and Vining were pulling the altered bathing suit on over lantha's head. It did not reach quite so far as they expected, having been designed for a slightly slimmer swimmer. Not that lantha was fat. But her human part, if not exactly plump, was at least comfortably upholstered, so that no bones showed. lantha squirmed around in the suit a good deal and threw a laughing remark in Greek to Wambach, whose ex
pression showed that he hoped it did not mean what he suspected it did.
Laird said, "Now listen, Iantha, remember not to move till the gun goes off. And remember that you swim directly over the black line on the bottom, not between two lines."
"Are they going to shoot a gun? Oh, I am afraid of shooting!"
"It's nothing to be afraid of; just blank cartridges. They don't hurt anybody. And it won't be so loud inside that cap."
"Herb," said Vining, "won't she lose time getting off, not being able to make a flat dive like the others?"
"She will. But it won't matter. She can swim a mile in four minutes, without really trying."
Ritchey, the starter, announced the fifty-yard free style. He called:
"All right, everybody, line up."
Iantha slithered off her chair and crawled over to the starting platform. The other girls were all standing with feet together, bodies bent forward at the hips and arms pointing backward. lantha got into a curious position of her own, with her tail bent under her and her weight resting on her hand and flukes.
"Hey! Protest!" shouted Connaught. "The rules say that all races, except back strokes, are started with dives. What kind of a dive do you call that?"
"Oh, dear," said 'Wambach. "What-"
"That," said Vining urbanely, "is a mermaid dive. You couldn't expect her to stand upright on her tail."
"But that's just it!" cried Connaught. "First you enter a nonregulation swimmer. Then you put a nonregulation suit on her. Then you start her off with a nonregulation dive. Ain't there anything you guys do like other people?"
"But," said Vining, looking through the rule book, "it doesn't say
-here it is. 'The start in all races shall be made with a dive.' But there's nothing in the rules about what kind of dive shall be used. And the dictionary defines a dive simply as 'a plunge into water.' So if you jump in feet first holding your nose, that's a dive for the purpose of the discussion. And in my years of watching swimming meets, I've seen some funnier starting dives than Miss Delfoiros'.7
"I suppose he's right," said Wambach.
"Okay, okay," snarled Connaught. "But the next time I have a meet with you and Herb, I bring a lawyer along too, see?"
Ritchey's gun went off. Vining noticed that lantha flinched a little
at the report and was perhaps slowed down a trifle in getting off by it. The other girls' bodies shot out horizontally to smack the water loudly, but lantha slipped in with the smooth, unhurried motion of a diving seal. Lacking the advantage of feet to push off with, she was several yards behind the other swimmers before she really got started. Mrs. Santalucia had taken her usual lead, foaming along with the slow strokes of her webbed hands.
laritha did not bother to come to the surface except at the turn, where she had been specifically ordered to come up so that the judge of the turns would not raise arguments as to whether she had touched the end, and at the finish. She hardly used her arms at all, except for an occasional flip of her trailing hands to steer her. The swift up-and-down flutter of the powerful tail flukes sent her through the water like a torpedo, her wake appearing on the surface six or eight feet behind her. As she shot through the as yet unruffled waters at the far end of the pool on the first leg, Vining, who had gone around to the side to watch, noticed that she had the power of closing her nostrils tightly underwater, like a seal or a hippopotamus.
Mrs. Santalucia finished the race in the very creditable time of 29.8 seconds. But lantha Delfoiros arrived, not merely first, but in the time of 8.o seconds. At the finish she did not reach up to touch the starting platform and then hoist herself out by her arms the way human swimmers do. She simply angled up sharply, left the water like a leaping trout, and came down with a moist smack on the concrete, almost bowling over a timekeeper. By the time the other contestants had completed the turn she was sitting on the platform with her tail curled under her. As the girls foamed laboriously down the final leg, she smiled dazzlingly at Vining, who had had to run to be in at the finish.
"That," she said, "was much fun, Mark. I am so glad you and 'Erbert put me in these races."
Mrs. Santalucia climbed out and walked over to Horwitz's table. That young man was staring in disbelief at the figures he had just written.
"Yes," he said, "that's what it says. Miss lantha Delfoiros, 8.o; Mrs. Maria Santalucia, 29.8. Please don't drip on my score sheets, lady. Say, Wambach, isn't this a world's record or something?"
"My word!" said Wambach. "It's less than half the existing shortcourse record. Less than a third, maybe; I'd have to check it. Dear me! I'll have to take it up with the Committee. I don't know
whether they'd allow it; I don't think they will, even though there isn't any specific rule against mermaids."
Vining spoke up. "I think we've complied with all the requirements to have records recognized, Mr. Wambach. Miss Delfoiros was entered in advance like all the others."
"Yes, yes, Mr. Vining, but don't you see, a record's a serious matter? No ordinary human being could ever come near a time like that."
"Unless he used an outboard motor," said Connaught. "If you allow contestants to use tail fins like Miss Delfoiros, you oughta let 'em use propellers. I don't see why these guys should be the only ones to be let bust rules all over the place, and then think up lawyer arguments why it's okay. I'm gonna get me a lawyer, too."
"That's all right, Ogden," said Laird. "You take it up with the Committee, but we don't really care much about the records anyway, so long as we can lick Louie here." He smiled indulgently at Connaught, who sputtered with fury.
"I no swim," announced Mrs. Santalucia. "This is all crazy business. I no got a chance."
"Now, Maria," said Connaught, taking her aside, "just once more, won't you please? My reputation-" The rest of his words were drowned in the general reverberation of the pool room. But at the end of them the redoubtable female appeared to have given in to his entreaties.
The hundred-yard free style started in much the same manner as the fifty-yard. lantha did not flinch at the gun this time and got off to a good start. She skimmed along just below the surface, raising a wake like a tuna clipper. These waves confused the swimmer in the adjacent lane, who happened to be Miss Breitenfeld of the Creston Club. As a result, on her first return leg, Iantha met Miss Breitenfeld swimming athwart her-lantha's-lane, and rammed the unfortunate girl amidships. Miss Breitenfeld went down without even a gurgle, spewing bubbles.
Conn aught shrieked: "Foul! Foul!" although in the general uproar it sounded like "Wow! Wow!" Several swimmers who were not racing dove in to the rescue, and the race came to a stop in general confusion and pandemonium. When Miss Breitenfeld was hauled out, it was found that she had merely had the wind knocked out of her and had swallowed considerable water.
Mark Vining, looking around for lantha, found her holding on to
the edge of the pool and shaking her head. Presently she crawled out, crying:
"Is she 'urt? Is she 'urt? Oh, I am so sorree! I did not think there would be anybody in my lane, so I did not look ahead."
"See?" yelled Connaught. "See, Wambach? See what happens? They ain't satisfied to walk away with the races with their fishwoman. No, they gotta try to cripple my swimmers by butting their slats in. Herb," he went on nastily, "why dontcha get a pet swordfish? Then when you rammed one of my poor girls she'd be out of competition for good!"
"Oh," said lantha, "I did not mean-it was an accident!"
"Accident my foot!"
"But it was. Mr. Referee, I do not want to bump people. My 'cad 'urts, and my neck also. You think I try to break my neck on purpose?" Iantha's altered suit had crawled up under her armpits, but nobody noticed particularly.
"Sure it was an accident," bellowed Laird. "Anybody could see that. And listen, if anybody was fouled it was Miss Delfoiros."
"Certainly," chimed in Vining. "She was in her own lane, and the other girl wasn't."
"Oh dear me," said Wambach. "I suppose they're right again. This'll have to be re-swum anyway. Does Miss Breitenfeld want to compete?"
Miss Breitenfeld did not, but the others lined up again. This time the race went off without untoward incident. lantha again made a spectacular leaping finish, just as the other three swimmers were halfway down the second of their four legs.