"Fritz Leiber - The Number of the Beast" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leiber Fritz)

тАЬBut I did follow your advice, and it got me out of oneтАЩ of the worst jams IтАЩve ever been inтАФwith a pat
on the back from Earth-side to boot! So now let me ask you, Sean, in the name of all thatтАЩs holy, how
did you know so surely which one of the four it was?тАЭ

тАЬI didnтАЩt know, Jim. ItтАЩs more accurate to say I guessed.тАЭ

тАЬYou old four-flusher! Do you mean to say you just

played a lucky hunch?**

тАЬNot quite, Jim, It was a guess, all right, but an edu-cated guess. It all lay in the numbers, of course, the
num-bers of gold martians, the numbers of our four beasts. Tlick-TchaтАЩs 666 did strongly indicate that he
was in the employ of the League of the Beasts, for I understand they are great ones on symbolic actions
and like to ring in the number 666 whenever they can. But that gets us Just nowhereтАФthe League, though
highly critical of most Earthmen, has never shown itself desirous of fomenting interstellar war.

тАЬHrohrakakтАЩs 1000 would indicate that he was receiving money from some organization of Earthmen, or
from some alien source that happens also to use the decimal system. Anyone operating around Sol would
be apt to use the decimal system. HrohrakakтАЩs 1000 points in no one direction.

тАЬNow as to HlilavтАЩs 1024тАФthat number is the tenth power of two. As far as I know, no natural species
of being uses the binary system. However, it is the rule with. robots. The indications are that Hlilav is
working for the Interstellar Brotherhood of Free Business Machines or some like organization, and, as
we both know, the robots are not ones to pound the war drums or touch off the war fuses, for they are
always the chief sufferers.

тАЬThat leaves FaтАЩs 1728. Jim, the first thing you told me about the Arcturians was that they were
hexadactylic bipeds. Six fingers on one hand means 12 on twoтАФand almost a mortal certainty that the
beings so equipped by nature will be using the duodecimal system, in many тАШ ways the most convenient of
all. In the duodecimal sys-tem, *one thousandтАЩ is not 10 times 10 times 10, but 12 times 12 times
12тАФwhich comes out as 1728 exactly in our decimal system.

тАЬAs you said, *one thousandтАЩ of the going unit is the price of a beingтАЩs life. Someone paid *one
thousandтАЩ gold martians by an Arcturian would have 1728 in his pocket according to our count.

*The size of PaтАЩs purse seemed to me an odds-on indi-cation that he was in the pay of the Arcturians
war party. Incidentally, he must have felt very smart getting that extra 728тАФa more principled
beast-criminal would have scorned to profit from a mere difference in numerical systems.тАЭ

The Young Captain took some time before he answered. He smiled incredulously more than once, and
once he shook his head.

Finally he said, тАЬAnd you asked me to go ahead, Scan, and make my accusation, with no more
indication than that?тАЭ
 тАЬIt worked for you, didnтАЩt it?тАЭ the Old Lieutenant; countered briskly. тАЬAnd as soon as Fa started to
confess, you must have known I was right beyond any possibility of doubt. Telepaths are always
truth-tellers.тАЭ The Young Captain shot him a very strange look. тАЬIt couldnтАЩt be, SeanтАФ?тАЭ he said softly.
тАЬIt couldnтАЩt be that youтАЩre a telepath yourself? That thatтАЩs the alien thought system youтАЩve been studying