"Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land - Original Ve" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

case for the basket before morning."
"No one asked you."
"My mistake."
"Go out and have a cigarette with the guards. I want to think."
Meechum shrugged and left. Thaddeus opened a bottom drawer, took out a
bottle and poured himself a dose intended to help his thinking. Meechum joined
the guards in the corridor; they straightened up, then saw who it was and
relaxed. The taller marine said, "Howdy, pal. What was the excitement just now?"
"Nothing much. The patient just had quintuplets and we were arguing about
what to name them. Which one of you monkeys has got a butt? And a light?"
The other marine dug a pack of cigarettes out of a pocket. "How're you
fixed for Suction?" he asked bleakly.
"Just middlin'. Thanks." Meechum stuck the cigarette in his face and
talked around it. "Honest to God, gentlemen, I don't know anything about this
patient. I wish I did."
"What's the idea of these orders about 'Absolutely No Women'? Is he some
kind of a sex maniac?"
"Not that I know of. All that I know is that they brought him in from the
Champion and said that he was to have absolute quiet."
"'The Champion!' "the first marine said. "Of course! That accounts for
it."
"Accounts for what?"
"It stands to reason. He ain't had any, he ain't seen any, he ain't
touched any-for months. And he's sick, see? If he was to lay hands on any,
they're afraid he'd kill hisself." He blinked and blew out a deep breath. "I'll
bet I would, under similar circumstances. No wonder they don't want no bims
around him."

Smith had been aware of the visit by the doctors but he had grokked at
once that their intentions were benign; it was not necessary for the major part
of him to be jerked back from where he was.
At the hour in the morning when human nurses slap patient's faces with
cold, wet cloths under the pretense of washing them, Smith returned from his
journey. He speeded up his heart, increased his respiration, and again took note
of his surroundings, viewing them with serenity. He looked the room over, noting
without discrimination and with praise all its details, both important and
unimportant. He was, in fact, seeing it for the first time, as he had been
incapable of enfolding it when he had been brought there the day before. This
commonplace room was not commonplace to him; there was nothing remotely like it
on all Mars, nor did it resemble the wedge-shaPed~ metal-walled compartments of
the Champion. But, having relived the events linking his nest to this place, he
was now prepared to accept it, commend it, and in some degree to cherish it.
He became aware that there was another living creature in the room with
him. A granddaddy longlegs was making a futile journey down from the ceiling,
spinning as it went. Smith watched it with delight and wondered if it were a
nestling form of man.
Doctor Archer Frame, the interne who had relieved Thaddeus, walked in at
that moment. "Good morning," he said. "How do you feel?"
Smith turned the question over in his mind. The first phrase he recognized
as a formal sound, requiring no answer but which could be repeated-or might not