"Starman Jones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

"You don't think they'll try to find me and haul me back, do you?"

Sam stopped to put a piece of wood on the fire. "I am not sure about that."

"Huh? Why not? I'm no use to him. He doesn't like me. And Maw won't care, not really. She may whine a bit, but she won't turn her hand."

"Well, there's the farm."

"The farm? I don't care about that, not with Dad gone. Truthfully, it ain't much. You break your back trying to make a crop. If the Food Conservation Act hadn't forbidden owners to let farm land fall out of use, Dad would have quit farming long ago. It would take something like this government condemnation to make it possible to find anybody to take it off your hands."

"That's what I mean. This joker got your mother to sell it. Now my brand of law may not be much good, but it looks as if that money ought to come to you."

"What? Oh, I don't care about the money. I just want to get away from them."

"Don't talk that way about money; the powers-that-be will have you shut up for blasphemy. But it probably doesn't matter how you feel, as I think Citizen Montgomery is going to want to see you awful bad."

"Why?"

"Did your father leave a will?"

"No. Why? He didn't have anything to leave but the farm."

"I don't know the ins and outs of your state laws, but it's a sure thing that at least half of that farm belongs to you. Possibly your stepmother has only lifetime tenure in her half, with reversion to you when she dies. But it's a certainty that she can't grant a good deed without your signature. Along about time your county courthouse opens up tomorrow morning the buyers are going to find that out. Then they'll come high-tailing up, looking for her--and you. And ten minutes later this Montgomery hombre will start looking for you, if he hasn't already."

"Oh, me! If they find me, can they make me go back?"

"Don't let them find you. You've made a good start."

Max picked up his rucksack. "I guess I had better get moving. Thanks a lot, Sam. Maybe I can help you someday."

"Sit down."

"Look, I had better get as far away as I can."

"Kid, you're tired out and your judgment has slipped. How far can you walk tonight, the shape you're in? Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we'll go down to the highway, follow it about a mile to the freighters' restaurant south of here and catch the haulers as they come out from breakfast, feeling good. We'll promote a ride and you'll go farther in ten minutes than you could make all night."

Max had to admit that he was tired, exhausted really, and Sam certainly knew more about these wrinkles than he did. Sam added, "Got a blanket in your bindle?"

"No. Just a shirt . . . and some books."

"Books, eh? Read quite a bit myself, when I get a chance. May I see them?"

Somewhat reluctantly Max got them out. Sam held them close to the fire and examined them. "Well, I'll be a three-eyed Martian! Kid, do you know what you've got here?"

"Sure."

"But you ought not to have these. You're not a member of the Astrogators' Guild."

"No, but my uncle was. He was on the first trip to Beta Hydrae," he added proudly.