"R. A. Lafferty - Melchisedek 02 - Tales of Midnight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

And there was something else about this trip. Mary Catherine
Carruthers was on the same train. She had come to the train with Casey, but
they had gone to different coaches, apparently by agreement. Both Casey and
Mary Catherine were plainly startled at seeing Duffey taking the same train,
though Mary Catherine continued always in her total fondness for Duffey.
Casey and Mary Catherine were engaged to be married at this time, as they
had been engaged several times before. But they did not ride in the same
coach.
It was a daytime journey with an early leaving. Duffey and Casey as
if by silent agreement, stayed away from controversial subjects. They talked
intelligently of the mathematics of probability.
"I am bothered by an impossible aggregation of coincidences," Duffey
said. "There are things that are bound to come together in a fantastic
congruence, or they will make liars out of all alsrt of implicit pledges.
And yet the improbability of their coming together is so extreme that there
was not room enough on earth to write the number of that improbability."
"Can you put the aggregation into mathematical form, Duffey?" Casey
asked him. "You have the irritating habit of trying to express things in
words that should be expressed only in mathematical formulae. There are some
problems of contingent philosophy that cannot be phrased except in
mathematical form."
"Oh, I beheve that every problem can be expressed in straightforward
verbal form, Casey," Duffey said. "But this one would sound so silly in the
expressing."
"Many mathematical expressions are absolutely silly," Casey said.
"But I'll try not to guffaw at your straightforward verbalisms, though
sometimes it's hellish hard to refrain."
"Well, I made a few people, Casey," Duffey said. "That was the
beginning of it. I made them with no forethought at all. But it seems to be
a requirement that these people should come together. It was working almost
like a chemical affinity to coagulate. But it's very unlikely that a dozen
people I made, out of all the people in the world, should come together by
chance. I figure that things are being stretched unlawfully, but I don't
quite know what my responsibility is in the situation."
"You -- made -- a -- few -- people? Was that what you said, Duffey?"

"That's right, Casey. Wasn't that acceptable to you?"
"Oh, I suppose so. Are these the first people that you ever made?"
"Yes. These, in my present life, are the only people that I have
made, so far as I remember. There are twelve of them if I count them right.
Twelve of them, and another who wasn't counted in the count, and several
more of mixed statue."
"You're sure that you really did it, Duffey? You're not just
dreaming it?"
"I'm sure that I had a lot to do with their forming. Something, but
not everything. Yes, I made them, literally and really."
"Oh, how have they turned out, Duffey?"
"The results aren't all in. In twelve, there should be one Judas. I
don't know which. Oh, you're one of the people I made, Casey."
"Oh? That might explain a few scraps of problems. Just how did you