"Gordon R. Dickson - Jean Dupres" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

Their eyes followed us; but it was not him, or me either, they were watching. It was the DeBaraumer.
And that, of course, was why I'd jumped like I had to get the weapon away from the boy.
We came out on to a plowed field and saw a planter's home and buildings about six hundred yards
off, looking small and humped and black under the bright white dazzle of the pinhole in the sky that was
Achernar, old Alpha Eridani. The contact lenses on my eyes had darkened up immediately, and I looked
at the boy, for he was too young to wear contacts safelyтАФbut he had already pulled a pair of goggles
down off his sun-cap to cover his eyes.
"I'm Corporal Tofe Levenson, of the Rangers," I said to him as we clumped over the furrows. 'What's
your name?"
"Jean Dupres," he said, pronouncing it something like "Zjon Du-pray."
We came finally up to the house, and the door opened while we were still a dozen paces off. A tall,
brown-haired woman with a smooth face looked out, shading her eyes against the sunlight in spite of the
darkening of her contacts.
"JeanтАж" she said, pronouncing it the way the boy had. I heard a man's voice inside the house saying
something I could not understand, and then we were at the doorway. She stood aside to let us through
and shut the door after us. I stepped into what seemed to be a kitchen. There was a planter at a table
spooning some sort of soup into his mouth out of a bowl. He was a round-headed, black-haired,
heavy-shouldered type, but I saw how the boy resembled him.
"CorporalтАФ?" he said, staring at me with the spoon halfway to the dish. He dropped it into the dish.
"They're gathered! They're raidingтАФ"
"Sit down," I said, for he was half on his feet. "There's no more than four Klahari young men for ten
kilometers in any direction from here." He sat down and looked unfriendly.
"Then what're you doing here? Scaring a manтАФ"
"This." I showed him the DeBaraumer. "Your boy had it."
"Jean?" His unfriendly look deepened. "He was standing guard."
"And you in here?"
"Look." He thought for a minute. "Corporal, you got no business in this. This is my family, my place."
"And your gun," I said. "How many guns like this have you got?"
"Two." He was out-and-out scowling now.
"Well, if I hadn't come along, you'd have only had one. There were two Klahari seniors out by your
boyтАФwith their eyes on it."
"That's what he's got to learnтАФto shoot them when they get close."
"Sure," I said. "Mr. Dupres, how many sons have you got?"
He stared at me. All this time, it suddenly struck me, the woman had been standing back, saying
nothing, her hands twisted up together in the apron she was wearing.
 "One!" she said now; and the way she said it went right through me.
"Yeah," I said, still looking at Dupres. "Well, now listen. I'm not just a soldier, I'm a peace officer, as
you know. There's laws here on Utword, even if you don't see the judges and courts very often. So, I'm
putting you on notice. There'll be no more letting children handle lethal weapons like this DeBaraumer;
and I'll expect you to avoid exposing your son to danger from the Klahari without you around to protect
him." I stared hard at him. "If I hear of any more like that I'll haul you up in Regional Court, and that'll
mean a week and a half away from your fields; even if the judge lets you offтАФwhich he won't."
I understood him all right. He was up out of the chair, apologizing in a second; and after that he
couldn't be nice enough.
When my squad came in he insisted we all stay to dinner and put himself out to be pleasant, not only
to us, but to his wife and boy. And that was that, except for one little thing that happened, near the end of
dinner.
We'd been comparing notes on the Klahari, of course, on how they're different from men; and the
boy had been silent all through it. But then, in a moment's hush in the talk, we heard him asking his
mother, almost timidlyтАж "Mama, will I be a man when I grow up?тАФor a Klahari?"