"Murray Leinster - Keyhole (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

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Keyhole


ThereтАЩs a story about a psychologist who was studying the intelligence of a chimpanzee. He
led the chimp into a room full of toys, went out, closed the door and put his eye to the keyhole
to see what the chimp was doing. He found himself gazing into a glittering interested brown eye
only inches from his own. The chimp was looking through the keyhole to see what the psychologist
was doing.

When they brought Butch into the station in Tycho Crater he seemed to shrivel as the
gravity coils in the air lock went on. He was impossible to begin with. He was all big eyes and
skinny arms and legs, and he was very young and he didnтАЩt need air to breathe. Worden saw him as a
limp bundle of bristly fur and terrified eyes as his captors handed him over.
тАЬAre you crazy?тАЭ demanded Worden angrily. тАЬBringing him in like this? Would you take a
human baby into eight gravities? Get out of the way!тАЭ
He rushed for the nursery that had been made ready for somebody like Butch. There was a
rebuilt dwelling cave on one side. The other side was a human school room. And under the nursery
the gravity coils had been turned off so that in that room things had only the weight that was
proper to them on the Moon.
The rest of the station had coils to bring everything up to normal weight for Earth.
Otherwise the staff of the station would be seasick most of the time. Butch was in the Earth-
gravity part of the station when he was delivered, and he couldnтАЩt lift a furry spindly paw.
In the nursery, though, it was different. Worden put him on the floor. Worden was the
uncomfortable one thereтАФhis weight only twenty pounds instead of a normal hundred and sixty. He
swayed and reeled as a man does on the Moon without gravity coils to steady him.
But that was the normal thing to Butch. He uncurled himself and suddenly flashed across
the nursery to the reconstructed dwelling-cave. It was a pretty good job, that cave. There were
the five-foot chipped rocks shaped like dunce caps, found in all residences of ButchтАЩs race. There
was the rocking stone on its base of other flattened rocks. But the spear stones were fastened
down with wire in case Butch got ideas.
Butch streaked it to these familiar objects. He swarmed up one of the dunce-cap stones and
locked his arms and legs about its top, clinging close. Then he was still. Worden regarded him.
Butch was motionless for minutes, seeming to take in as much as possible of his surroundings
without moving even his eyes.
Suddenly his head moved. He took in more of his environment. Then he stirred a third time
and seemed to look at Worden with an extraordinary intensityтАФ whether of fear or pleading Worden
could not tell.
тАЬHmm,тАЭ said Worden, тАЬso thatтАЩs what those stones are for! Perches or beds or roosts, eh?
IтАЩm your nurse, fella. WeтАЩre playing a dirty trick on you but we canтАЩt help it.тАЭ
He knew Butch couldnтАЩt understand, but he talked to him as a man does talk to a dog or a
baby. It isnтАЩt sensible, but itтАЩs necessary.
тАЬWeтАЩre going to raise you up to be a traitor to your kinfolk,тАЭ he said with some grimness.
тАЬI donтАЩt like it, but it has to be done. So IтАЩm going to be very kind to you as part of the
conspiracy. Real kindness would suggest that I kill you insteadтАФbut I canтАЩt do that.тАЭ
Butch stared at him, unblinking and motionless. He looked something like an Earth monkey
but not too much so. He was completely impossible but he looked pathetic.
Worden said bitterly, тАЬYouтАЩre in your nursery, Butch. Make yourself at home!тАЭ
He went out and closed the door behind him. Outside he glanced at the video screens that