"Henry Kuttner - Don't Look Now" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

DonтАЩt Look Now

Henry Kuttner




DON'T LOOK NOW

by Henry Kuttner (1914-1958)

The man in the brown suit was looking at himself in the mirror behind the bar. The reflection seemed to interest him
even more deeply than the drink between his hands. He was paying only perfunctory attention to Lyman's attempts at
conversation. This had been going on for perhaps fifteen minutes before he finally lifted his glass and took a deep
swallow.

"Don't look now," Lyman said.

The brown man slid his eyes sidewise toward Lyman, tilted his glass higher, and took another swig. Ice cubes sjipped
down toward his mouth. He put the glass back on the red-brown wood and signaled for a refill. Finally he took a deep
breath and looked at Lyman.

"Don't look at what?" he asked.

"There was one sitting right beside you," Lyman said, blinking rather glazed eyes. "He just went out. You mean you
couldn't see him?"

The brown man finished paying for his fresh drink before he answered. "See who?" he asked, with a fine mixture of
boredom, distaste and reluctant interest. "Who went out?"

"What have I been telling you for the last ten minutes? Weren't you listening?"

"Certainly I was listening. That isтАФcertainly. You were talking aboutтАФbathtubs. Radios. OrsonтАФ"

"Not Orson. H. G. Herbert George. With Orson it was just a gag. H. G. knewтАФor suspected. I wonder if it was simply
intuition with him? He couldn't have had any proofтАФbut he did

stop writing science fiction rather suddenly, didn't he? I'll bet he knew once, though."

"Knew what?"

"About the Martians. All this won't do us a bit of good if you don't listen. It may not anyway. The trick is to jump the
gunтАФ with proof. Convincing evidence. Nobody's ever been allowed to produce the evidence before. You are a
reporter, aren't you?"

Holding his glass, the man in the brown suit nodded reluctantly.

"Then you ought to be taking it all down on a piece of folded paper. I want everybody to know. The whole world. It's
important. Terribly important. It explains everything. My life won't be safe unless I can pass along the information and
make people believe it."