"Edmond Hamilton - Birthplace Of Creation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

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 The controls of that door were plainly in was where he had no right to be. He began
sight but he did not touch them. Instead he to listen for the voices and the steps of
hauled a portable scanner off the sledge those who might come in and find him.
and used it to examine the intimate They were far away and Garrand knew
molecular structure of the metal and all its that he was safe.
control connections. By this means he But he was not a criminal by habit and
found the particular bolt- head that was a now that the challenge to his skill was past
switch and turned it, immobilizing a he began to feel increasingly guilty and
certain device set to catch an unknowing unclean. Personal belongings accused him,
intruder as soon as he opened the valve. an open book, a pair of boots, beds and
Within minutes after that Garrand had chests and clothing. If it had been merely a
the door open and was standing at the head laboratory he would not have minded so
of a steep flight of steps, going down. His muchтАФbut it was also a dwelling place
heart was still thudding away and he felt and he felt like a common thief.
weak in the kneesтАФbut he was filled with

T
exultation and a great pride. Few other HAT feeling was forgotten when he
men, he thought, perhaps none, could have entered the vault. There were many
penetrated safely to the very threshold of things in that vast lunar cavern, but
this most impregnable of all places in the Garrand had no more than a passing glance
Solar System. for any of them except the massive file-
He did not relax his caution. A large racks where the recorded data which
mass of equipment went with him down related to voyages were spooled and kept.
the dark stairway, including the scanner. Under the clear light that had come on
The valve closed automatically behind him of itself with the opening of the door
and below in a small chamber he waited Garrand searched the racks, puzzling out
until pressure had build up and another the intricate filing system. He had taken off
door automatically opened. He found his helmet. His hands shook visibly and his
nothing more of menace except a system of breathing was loud and irregular but these
alarm bells, which he put out of were only secondary manifestations.
commissionтАФnot because there was His mind, faced with a difficult problem
anyone to hear them but because he knew to solve, slipped by long habit into
there would be recorders and he wanted no calculating- machine efficiency and it was
signs, audible or visible, of his visit. not long before he found what he wanted.
He took the spool in his two hands, as

T HE recorders themselves were tenderly as though it were made of the
relatively easy to detect. With an delicate stuff of dreams and apt to shatter
instrument brought for the purpose he at a breath. He carried it to the large table
blanked off their relay systems and went that stood by the racks and fed the end of
on across the great circular central the tape into a reader. His face had grown
chamber with the glassite dome through pale and quite rigid except that his mouth
which the sunlight poured. He peered with twitched a little at the corners. He set up
a scientistтАЩs fascinated wonder at the his last piece of equipment beside the
laboratory apparatus of various sorts in that reader, a photosonic recorder used to make
and the smaller chambers which opened copies of a master spool, synchronized
off it until he came to what of all things he them and then closed the switches.
was looking forтАФthe heavy locked door of The two spools unwound, one giving,