"Laumer, Keith - Retief of the COTUC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laumer Keith)

not necessarily refer to medium tank."

The chatter around the long table cut off
abruptly as Ambassador Clawhammer, a small,
pink-faced man with an impressive paunch,
entered the room, glowered at his staff as
they rose, waved them to their seats as he
waited for silence.

"Well, gentlemen"Чhe looked around the
tableЧ"what progress have you to report anent
the preparation of the populace for the bal-
loting?"

RETIEF OF THE CDT 21

A profound silence ensued.

"What about you, Chester?" Clawhammer
addressed the Counselor. "I seem to recall
instructing you to initiate classes in parlia-
mentary procedure among these riffraffЧthat
is to say, among the free citizens of Oberon."

"I tried, Mr. Ambassador. I tried," Chester
said sadly. "They didn't seem to quite grasp
the idea. They chose up sides and staged a
pitched battle for possession of the chair."

"AhЧI can report a teensy bit of progress in
my campaign to put across the idea of one
man, one vote," a slender-necked Political Of-
ficer spoke up. "They got the basic idea, all
right ..." He paused. "The only trouble was,
they immediately deduced the corollary: One
less man, one less vote." He sighed. "Luckily,
they were evenly matched, so no actual votes
were lost."

"You might point out the corollary to the
corollary," Retief suggested. "The lighter the
vote, the smaller the Post Office."

"What about your assigned task of voter
registration, eh, Magnan?" the Chief of Mis-
sion barked. "Are you reporting failure too?"

"Why, no, indeed, sir, not exactly failure; at
least not utter failure; it's too soon to announce
thatЧ"