"Robert A. Heinlein - Rocket Ship Galileo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

chemistry layout. The other two boys were sprawled on it, listening. Behind
them, bookshelves had been built into the wall. Jules Verne crowded against
MarkтАЩs Handbook of Mechanical Engineering. Cargraves noted other old
friends: H.G. WellsтАЩ Seven Famous Novels, The Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics, and SmythтАЩs Atomic Energy for Military Purposes. Jammed in with
them, side by side with LeyтАЩs Rockets and EddingtonтАЩs Nature of the Physical
World, were dozens of puip magazines of the sort with robot men or space
ships on their covers.
He pulled down a dog-eared copy of HaggardтАЩs When the Earth Trembled
and settled his long body between the boys. He was beginning to feel at
home. These boys he knew; he had only to gaze back through the corridors
of his mind to recognize himself.
Ross said, тАЮIf youтАЩll excuse me, I want to run up to the house.тАЬ Cargraves
grunted, тАЮSure thing,тАЬ with his nose still in the book. Ross came back to
announce, тАЮMy mother would like all of you to stay for lunch.тАЬ
Morrie grinned, Art looked troubled. тАЮMy mother thinks I eat too many meals
over here as it is,тАЬ he protested feebly, his eyes on his uncle. Cargraves took
him by the arm. тАЮIтАЩll go your bail on this one, Art,тАЬ he assured him; then to
Ross, тАЮPlease tell your mother that we are very happy to accept.тАЬ
At lunch the adults talked, the boys listened. The scientist, his turban
bandage looking stranger than ever, hit it off well with his elders. Any one
would hit it off well with Mrs. Jenkins, who could have been friendly and
gracious at a cannibal feast, but the boys were not used to seeing Mr.
Jenkins in a chatty mood.
The boys were surprised to find out how much Mr. Jenkins knew about
atomics. They had the usual low opinion of the mental processes of adults;
Mr. Jenkins they respected but had subconsciously considered him the
anachronism which most of his generation in fact was, a generation as a
whole incapable of realizing that the world had changed completely a few
years before, at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. Yet Mr. Jenkins
seemed to know who Doctor Cargraves was and seemed to know that he
had been retained until recently by North American Atomics. The boys
listened carefully to find out what Doctor Cargraves planned to do next, but
Mr. Jenkins did not ask and Cargraves did not volunteer the information.
After lunch the three and their guest went back to the clubhouse. Cargraves
spent most of the afternoon spread over the bunk, telling stories of the early
days at Oak Ridge when the prospect of drowning in the inescapable,
adhesive mud was more dismaying than the ever-present danger of
radioactive poisoning, and the story, old but ever new and eternally exciting,
of the black, rainy morning in the New Mexico desert when a great purple-
and-golden mushroom had climbed to the stratosphere, proclaiming that man
had at last unloosed the power of the suns.
Then he shut up, claiming that he wanted to re-read the old H. Rider Haggard
novel he had found. Ross and Morrie got busy at the bench; Art took a
magazine. His eyes kept returning to his fabulous uncle. He noticed that the
man did not seem to be turning the pages very often.
Quite a while later Doctor Cargraves put down his book. тАЮWhat do you
fellows know about atomics ?тАЬ
The boys exchanged glances before Morrie ventured to answer. тАЮNot much I
guess. High-school physics canтАЩt touch it, really, and you canтАЩt mess with it in