"Robert A. Heinlein - The Man who sold the Moon (collected sto" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

Life-Line


THE chairman rapped loudly for order. Gradually the catcalls and boos died
away as several self-appointed sergeants-at-arms persuaded a few hot-
headed individuals to sit down. The speaker on the rostrum by the chairman
seemed unaware of the disturbance. His bland, faintly insolent face was
impassive. The chairman turned to the speaker, and addressed him, in a
voice in which anger and annoyance were barely restrained.
"Doctor Pinero," - the "Doctor" was faintly stressed - "I must apologize
to you for the unseemly outburst during your remarks. I am surprised that my
colleagues should so far forget the dignity proper to men of science as to
interrupt a speaker, no matter," he paused and set his mouth, "no matter how
great the provocation." Pinero smiled in his face, a smile that was in some
way an open insult. The chairman visibly controlled his temper and
continued, "I am anxious that the program be concluded decently and in
order. I want you to finish your remarks. Nevertheless, I must ask you to
refrain from affronting our intelligence with ideas that any educated man
knows to be fallacious. Please confine yourself to your discovery - if you have
made one."
Pinero spread his fat white hands, palms down. "How can I possibly put
a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?"
The audience stirred and muttered. Someone shouted from the rear of
the hail, "Throw the charlatan out! We've had enough." The chairman
pounded his gavel.
"Gentlemen! Please!" Then to Pinero, "Must I remind you that you are
not a member of this body, and that we did not invite you?"
Pinero's eyebrows lifted. "So? I seem to remember an invitation on the
letterhead of the Academy?"
The chairman chewed his lower lip before replying. "True. I wrote that
invitation myself. But it was at the request of one of the trustees - a fine
public-spirited gentleman, but not a scientist, not a member of the Academy."
Pinero smiled his irritating smile. "So? I should have guessed. Old
Bidwell, not so, of Amalgamated Life Insurance? And he wanted his trained
seals to expose me as a fraud, yes? For if I can tell a man the day of his own
death, no one will buy his pretty policies. But how can you expose me, if you
will not listen to me first? Even supposing you had the wit to understand me?
Bah! He has sent jackals to tear down a lion." He deliberately turned his back
on them. The muttering of the crowd swelled and took on a vicious tone. The
chairman cried vainly for order. There arose a figure in the front row.
"Mister Chairman!"
The chairman grasped the opening and shouted, "Gentlemen! Doctor
Van RheinSmitt has the floor." The commotion died away.

1
 The doctor cleared his throat, smoothed the forelock of his beautiful
white hair, and thrust one hand into a side pocket of his smartly tailored
trousers. He assumed his women's club manner.
"Mister Chairman, fellow members of the Academy of Science, let us
have tolerance. Even a murderer has the right to say his say before the state