"Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future 13 - The Face of the Deep" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

I were out here, Cap'n Future? It was when we were
after the Wrecker."
Curt nodded grimly. "I'm not likely to forget
what happened to me on Neptune that time, up in
the Black Isles."
"Can you tell us about it, Captain Future?"
eagerly asked Rih Quili, the young Mercurian
lieutenant, with hero-worship in his voice.
"Some other time," evaded Curt, unwilling to
9
THE FACE OF THE DEEP
recall near-tragic memories.
"We've all finished dinner now."
"I ha-haven't finished my p-p-prunes," hastily
stuttered George McClinton, the chief engineer.
There was a burst of laughter. McClinton, a
lanky, spectacled, stammering young Earthman,
was the butt of constant jokes because of his
inordinate fondness for prunes. He always kept his
pocket full of dried ones, which he munched
ceaselessly as he supervised the cyc-room.
"If we wait till you have enough prunes, we'll be
here forever," Ezra said dryly, getting up. "I'm goin'
to turn in."
When Curt and Joan and Otho went to the
bridge-dack, they found Grag leaning against a
section of glassite window and looking
disconsolately back toward Earth. The big robot
turned to them.
"I wonder how Eek is getting along, back
home," Grag said anxiously. "I wish I had brought
him with me."
EK was a queer little interplanetary animal
that was Grag's mascot. Otho had a
somewhat similar pet, which he called Oog. Both
pets had been left in the Futuremen's Moon-
laboratory when they had flown to Earth on the
errand that had unexpectedly resulted in this long
voyage.
E
"Eek will be all right, Grag," reassured Curt.
"The automatic feeding-arrangement in the Moon-
laboratory will keep him fat and happy."
"I know, but he'll nearly die of loneliness
because I'm not there," Grag affirmed. "He's such a
sentimental little fellow."
"Sentimental? That miserable little moon-pup?"
cried Otho jeeringly. "Why, all that little pest
knows is to eat and sleep. He has about as much
sentiment in him as a Venusian fish."