"Joseph Green - Forgotten Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Joseph)

"That first one is the Silver Arrow" Woody said. "They brought her in about a year ago."
A few minutes later Jim brought the Cat to a stop beside the twisted wreckage of the
great spaceship.
In silent awe, the boys gazed about the field. Wrecks lay everywhere. The ground was
covered with the bent and torn hulls of ships, steel girders, ripped tail fins, and burned out
rocketubes. The appalling sight stretched for miles, forming a dismal, sinister landscape.
Ken sighed. "Whoever named it the Graveyard of Space knew what he was talking
about."
"Now that you've seen it, let's get out of here," Woody said.
"Does anyone come here?" Jim asked suddenly.
"No. Only space outlaws or fellows like us, touched in the head." He tapped his
forehead to make his meaning clear.
"Well, there's someone out there!"
"Huh?"
"Look! Prowling around in the wreckage of the Silver Arrow!"
"Hey, you're right," Ken cried. "I wonder what he's doing."
Woody stared open-mouthed, too stunned to say a word.
A figure dressed in a spacesuit was poking around the wrecked control room of the
passenger ship. Suddenly turning to look around him, the mysterious prowler spotted the
Cat and its three startled passengers.
In an instant he had leaped to the top of the ship's hull. He turned for a second look at
the Cat, then dropped on the other side of the wrecked spaceship and was gone.
"Let's blast out of here!" Woody cried and grabbed the controls.


4 Message from Mars

Later, after dinner, Jim and Ken told their father about the visit to the Graveyard and the
mysterious prowler.
"Good thing you boys got out of there fast," Dr. Barry said. "No telling who that man
was."
"Are there really outlaws hiding in the wrecked ships?" Jim asked.
"The Space Guards have never caught any, so we don't know for sure. But there are
space outlaws on Mars and Venus, and it's possible there are space outlaws here, too."
"So that was an outlaw ...." Jim began.
"Now wait a minute," his father interrupted. "I didn't say that. It could have been a
harmless old spaceman. Many of the old-timers aren't happy retired to Earth."
"Do they come and live in the old wrecks?" asked Ken.
"It may be junk to us, Ken. But to old spacemen it's a world of glorious memories. Those
are the ships in which they sailed the mighty spaceways."
"Enough of this," Mrs. Barry broke in, laughing. "We live by Earth time, here. And the
chronometer says it's time for bed."
"Aw, Mom, we're not tired."
"To bed!"
The boys laughed. "Same old Mom!"
The bedroom was darkened by shades to keep out the harsh sunlight of the Lunar day.
The boys undressed in silence. As they were getting into their beds, Jim turned to his
brother.
"I can't get that man out of my mind," he said. "He wore a yellow spacesuit, just like
Dig's."