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

When Mrs. Santalucia emerged this time, she said to Connaught:
"I no swim no more. That is final."
"Oh, but Maria-" It got him nowhere. Finally he said, "Will you swim in the races that she don't enter?"
"Is there any?"
"I think so. Hey, Horwitz, Miss Delfoiros ain't entered in the breast stroke, is she?"
Horwitz looked. "No, she isn't," he said.
"That's something. Say, Herb, how come you didn't put your fishwoman in the breast stroke?"
Vining answered for Laird. "Look at your rules, Louie. 'The feet shall be drawn up simultaneously, the knees bent and open,' et cetera. The rules for back stroke and free style don't say anything
about how the legs shall be used, but those for breast stroke do. So no legs, no breast stroke. We aren't giving you a chance to make any legitimate protests."
"Legitimate protests!" Connaught turned away, sputtering. 'While the dives were being run off, Vining, watching, became aware of an ethereal melody. First he thought it was in his head. Then he was sure it was coming from one of the spectators. He finally located the source; it was lantha Delfoiros, sitting in her wheelchair and singing softly. By leaning nearer he could make out the words:

"Die schoenste Jung frau sitzet
Dort ober wunderbar;
Ihr goidnes Geschmeide blitzet;
Sie kaemmt ihr goldenes Haar."

Vining went over quietly. "lantha," he said. "Pull your bathing suit down, and don't sing."
She complied, looking up at him with a giggle. "But that is a nice song! I learn it from a wrecked German sailor. It is about one of my people." -
"I know, but it'll distract the judges. They have to watch the dives closely, and the place is too noisy as it is."
"Such a nice man you are, Mark, but so serious!" She giggled again.
Vining wondered at the subtle change in the mermaid's manner. Then a horrible thought struck him.
"Herb!" he whispered. "Didn't she say something last night about getting drunk on fresh water?"
Laird looked up. "Yes. She- My God, the water in the pool's fresh! I never thought of that. Is she showing signs?"
"I think she is."
"Listen, Mark, what'll we do?"
"I don't know. She's entered in two more events, isn't she? Back stroke and 300-yard free style?"
"'Yes."
"Well, why not withdraw her from the back stroke, and give her a chance to sober up before the final event?"
"Can't. Even with all her firsts, we aren't going to win by any big margin. Louie has the edge on us in the dives, and Mrs. Santalucia'll
win the breast stroke. In the events lantha's in, if she takes first and Louie's girls take second and third, that means five points for us but four for him, so we have an advantage of only one point. And her world's record time don't give us any more points."
"Guess we'll have to keep her in and take a chance," said Vining glumly.
Iantha's demeanor was sober enough in lining up for the back stroke. Again she lost a fraction of a second in getting started by not having feet to push off with. But once she got started, the contest was even more one-sided than the free-style races had been. The human part of her body was practically out of water, skimming the surface like the front half of a speedboat. She made paddling molions with her arms, but that was merely for technical reasons; the power was all furnished by the flukes. She did not iump out on to the starting platform this time; for a flash Vining's heart almost stopped as the emerald-green bathing cap seemed about to crash into the tiles at the end of the pool. But lantha had judged the distance to a fraction of an inch, and braked to a stop with her flukes just before striking.
The breast stroke was won easily by Mrs. Santalucia, although her slow, plodding stroke was less spectacular than the butterfly of her competitors. The shrill cheers of the little Santalucias could be heard over the general hubbub. When the winner climbed out, she glowered at Iantha and said to Connaught:
"Louie, if you ever put me in a meet wit' mermaids again, I no swim for you again, never. Now I go home." With which she marched off to the shower room.
Ritchey was just about to announce the final event, the 300-yard free style, when Connaught plucked his sleeve. "Jack," he said, "wait a second. One of my swimmers is gonna be delayed a coupla minutes." He went out a door.
Laird said to Vining: "Wonder what Louie's grinning about. He's got something nasty, I bet. He was phoning earlier, you remember."
"We'll soon see- What's that?" A hoarse bark wafted in from somewhere and rebounded from the walls.
Connaught reappeared carrying two buckets. Behind him was a little round man in three sweaters. Behind the little round man gallumped a glossy California sea lion. At the sight of the gently rippling, jade-green pool, the animal barked joyously and skidded into the water, swam swiftly about, and popped out on the landing plat
form, barking. The bark had a peculiarly nerve-racking effect in the echoing pool room.
Ogden Wambach seized two handfuls of his sleek gray hair and tugged. "Connaught!" he shouted. "What is that?"
"Oh, that's just one of my swimmers, Mr. Wambach."
"Hey, listen!" rumbled Laird. "We're going to protest this time. Miss Delfoiros is at least a woman, even if she's a kind of peculiar one. But you can't call that a woman."
Connaught grinned like Satan looking over a new shipment of sinners. "Didn't you just say to go ahead and enter a sea lion if I wanted to?"
"I don't remember saying-"
"Yes, Herbert," said Wambach, looking haggard. "You did say iL There didn't used to be any trouble in deciding whether a swimmer was a woman or not. But now that you've brought in Miss Delfoiros, there doesn't seem to be any place we can draw a line."
"But look here, Ogden, there is such a thing as going too far-"
"That's just what I said about you!" shrilled Connaught. Wambach took a deep breath. "Let's not shout, please. Herbert, technically you may have an argument. But after we allowed Miss Delfoiros to enter, I think it would be only sporting to let Louie have his seal. Especially after you told him to get one if he could."
Vining spoke up. "Oh, we're always glad to do the sporting thing. But I'm afraid the sea lion wasn't entered at the beginning of the meet as is required by the rules. We don't want to catch hell from the Committee-"
"Oh, yes, she was," said Connaught. "See!" He pointed to one of Horwitz's sheets. "Her name's Alice Black, and there it is."
"But," protested Vining, "I thought that was Alice Black." He pointed to a slim dark girl in a bathing suit who was sitting on a window ledge.