"Henry Kuttner - The Time Axis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

II

THE STAIN AND THE STONE

THERE was a. message waiting for me at the airport. Robert J. Allister wanted to see me. I felt
impressed. Allister runs a chain of news and picture magazines second only to Life and Time.

I phoned for an appointment, and they told me to come right up. I walked through a waiting-room
full of people with prior appointments and they passed me right into the sanctum, with no
preliminaries. I began to wonder if I'd been underestimating my own importance all these years.
Allister himself rose behind his desk and offered me his hand. I waded forward, ankle-deep through
Persian carpets, and took it. He told me to sit down. His voice was tired and he looked thinner
and more haggard than his pictures.

"So you're Jerry Cortland," he said. "Been following your Rio stuff. Nice work. Care to drop it
for awhile?" I gaped. He gave me a tired grin.

"I'd like you to work for me on contract," he said. "Let me explain. You know Ira De Kalb?" "The
poor man's Einstein?"

"In a way, maybe. He's a dilettante. He's a genius, really, I suppose. A mind like a grasshopper.



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He'll work out a whole new concept of mathematics and never bother to apply it. HeтАФwell, you'll
understand better after you've met him. He's onto something very new, just now. Something very
important. I want some pieces written on it and De Kalb made a point of asking for you." "But
why?"

"He has his reasons. He'll explain to youтАФmaybe. I can't." He pushed the contract toward me. "How
about it?" "WellтАФ" I hesitated. My ex-wife had just slapped another summons on me, alimony again,
and I could certainly use some money. "I'll try it," I said. "But I'm irresponsible. Maybe I won't
stick to it."

"You'll stick," Allister said grimly, "once you've talked to De Kalb. That I can guarantee. Sign
here."

De Kalb's house blended into the hillside as if Frank Lloyd Wright had built it with his own
hands. I was out of breath by the time I got to the top of the gray stone terraces linked together
by gray stone steps. A maid let me in and showed me to a room where I could wait.

"Mr. De Kalb is expecting you," she said. "Hell be back in about ten minutes."

Half the room was glass, looking out upon miles and miles of Appalachians, tumbled brown and
green, with a

dazzling sky above. There was somebody already there, apparently waiting too. I saw the outlines