"Dickson, Gordon - Dragon And The George Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

"Now," said Jim. "Lay your forearm down on top of it as if it was a table. That's right. Now concentrate on being back in Grottwold's lab. Your forearm is getting lighter. It's rising, rising-"

"Why hypnotize me?"

"Angie, please concentrate. Your forearm is get- ting lighter. It's rising. It's lighter, it's rising, rising.

It's getting lighter. It's rising-"

"No," said Angie, decisively, taking her arm off the boulder. "It's not! And I'm not about to be hyp- 33 notized until I know what's going on. What happens if you hypnotize me?"

"You become able to concentrate completely on being back in Grottwold's lab and so you reappear there."

"And what happens to you?"

"Oh, my body's there, so any time I don't want to be someplace else, like here, I return to it automati- cally."

"But that's supposing you're just a disembodied spirit. Are you sure you can go back that easily if you're in another body, like this dragon one?"

"Well..." Jim hesitated. "Of course I am."

"Of course you're not!" said Angie. She looked up- set. "This is all my fault."

"Your fault? This? Of course not. It's Grott- wold's-"

"No," said Angie, "it's mine."

"It isnt, I tell you! Maybe it isn't even Grottwold's fault. His equipment could have just had some kind of a breakdown that sent you out, body and all, and made me end up in this Gorbash-body instead of completely apporting."

"His equipment didn't break down," Angie insisted. "He just went ahead the way he always does and experimented without knowing what he was doing. That's why it's all my fault. I knew he was like that, but I didn't tell you because we needed the extra income; and you know how you are."

"How I am? No," said Jim, grimly. "How am I?"

"You'd have fussed at me; and worried about something happening-and you'd have been right. Grottwold's just like a baby with a shiny toy, playing with that equipment of his, in spite of the degrees he has. Anyway, it's settled."

"Good," Said Jim, relieved. "Now, just put your arm back on the top of that rock and relax-"

"I didn't mean that!" said Angie. "I mean there's no way I'm going to go back without you."

"But I can go back just by not wanting to be some- place else!"

"Try it."

Jim tried it. He closed his eyes and told himself that he no longer wanted to be anyplace else but back in his own body. He opened his eyes again, and Angie was standing watching him with the walls of the cave all around them.

"You see?" said Angie.

"How can I want to be someplace else while you're still here?" Jim demanded. "You've got to go back safely to our own world, before I can want to be back there, too."

"And leave you here alone, not knowing whether you'll ever make it or not, and Grottwold without the slightest idea of how he sent me here in the first place, so he'd never be able to send me back again? Oh, no!"