"H. L. Gold - Man With English" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gold H. L)

"Ice cold!" he yelped. "And who put salt in it?"
"Salt?" She fumbled around on the tray. "It's so dark
here"
"I'll attend to it," Dr. Rankin said hurriedly. "Thank you."
She walked cautiously to the door and went out.
"Try this," said the doctor, after filling another cup.
"Well, that's better!" Stone exclaimed. "Damned practical
joker. They shouldn't be allowed to work in hospitals."
"And now, if you don't mind," said the doctor, "I'd like
to try several tests."
Stone was still angry at the trick played on him, but he
cooperated willingly.
Dr. Rankin finally sagged back in the chair. The sweat
ran down his face and into his collar, and his expression
was so dazed that Stone was alarmed.
"What's wrong. Doctor? Am I going togoing to"
"No, no. It's not that. No danger. At least, I don't believe
there is. But I can't even be sure of that any more."
"You can't be sure if I'll live or die?"
"Look." Dr. Rankin grimly pulled the chair closer. "It's
broad daylight and yet you can't see until I darken the
room. The coffee was hot and sweet, but it was cold and
salty to you, so I added an ice cube and a spoonful of salt
and it tasted fine, you said. This is one of the hottest days
on record and you're freezing. You told me the sandpaper
felt smooth and satiny, then yelled that somebody had put
pins in the cotton swabs, when there weren't any, of course.
I've tried you with different colors around the room and
you saw violet when you should have seen yellow, green
for red, orange for blue, and so on. Now do you under-
stand?"
"No," said Stone frightenedly. "What's wrong?"
"All I can do is guess. I had to remove that sliver of bone
from your brain. It apparently shorted your sensory nerves."
"And what happened?"
"Every one of your senses has been reversed. You feel
cold for heat, heat for cold, smooth for rough, rough for
smooth, sour for sweet, sweet for sour, and so forth. And
you see colors backward."
Stone sat up. "Murderer! Thief! You've ruined mel"
The doctor sprang for a hypodermic and sedative. Just
in time, he changed his mind and took a bottle of stimulant
instead. It worked fine, though injecting it into his scream-
ing, thrashing patient took more strength than he'd known
he owned. Stone fell asleep immediately.
There were nine blankets on Stone and he had a bag of
cement for a pillow when he had his lawyer, Manny Lubin,
in to hear the charges he wanted brought against Dr. Ran-
kin. The doctor was there to defend himself. Mrs. Stone
was present in spite of her husband's objections"She al-