"Murray Leinster - The Duplicators" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

Glamorgan, an' you said you were an astrogator and I made the deal on that representation. It's four years in jail, on Trent,
to sign on or act as a astrogator unless you're duly licensed."
"Morbid people, the lawmakers of Trent," said Link. "What else?"
"You don't draw wages," said the whiskery man, as truculently as before. "You're a junior partner in the business I'm
startin'. You agreed to leave all matters but astrogation to me, on penalty of forfeitin' all moneys due or accrued or to
accrue. It's a tight contract. I wrote it myself."
"I am lost in admiration," said Link politely. "ButтАФ"
"We're goin'," said Thistlethwaite sternly, "to a planet I know. Another fella and me, we landed there in a spaceboat
after the ship we was in got wrecked. We made a deal with the . . . uh . . . authorjties. We took off again in the space-boat.
It was loaded down with plenty valuable cargo! We was to go back, but my partnerтАФhe was the astrogator of the
spaceboatтАФhe took his share of the money and started cele-bratin'! Two weeks later he jumped out a window because he
thought pink gryphs was coming out of the wall after him. That left me sole owner of the business, but strapped for cash.
I'd been celebratin' too. So I bought the Glamorgan with what I had, an' bought a cargo for her."
"A very fine ship, the Glamorgan," said Link, politely. "But I'm a little dense this morning, or evening, or whatever it may
be. How do I fit into the picture of commercial enterprise aboard this splendid ship the Glamorgan?*
The whiskery man spat, venomously.
"The ship's junk," he snapped. "I couldn't get papers for her to go anywheres but to a junk yard on Bellaire to be scrapped. I
hadda astrogator and a fella to spell me in the engine room. They believed we was going to the junk yard, but we had some
trouble with the engines layin' down, and she leaked air. Plenty! So when we got to Trent those two run off. They're liable
to two years in jail for runnin' out on a contract concernin' personal services. Hell! They didn't think we'd make Trent!
They wanted to take to the spaceboat and abandon ship halfway there! And me with all my capital tied up in it!"
Link regarded his companion uncomfortably. Thistlethwaite snapped,
"So I was stuck on Trent with no astrogator an' port-dues pilin' up. Until you came along."
"Ah!" said Link. "I came along! Riding a white horse, no doubt, and kissing my hand to the ladies. Then what?"
"I asked you if you was a astrogater, and you told me yes."
"I hate to disappoint people," said Link regretfully. "I probably wanted to brighten up your day, or evening. I tried."
"Then," said Thistlethwaite portentiously, "I told you enough about what I'm goin' after so you said it was a splendid
venture, befittin' such men as you and me. You'd join me, you said. But you wanted to fight some more policemen before
liftin' off. I'd already drug you out of a fight where the spaceport cops was usin' fire-hoses on both sides. I told you fightin'
policemen carries six months in jail, on Trent. But you wouldn't listen. Even after I told you why we had' to take off
quick."
"And that reason wasтАФ"
"Spaceport dues," snapped the little man. "On the Glamorgan! Landin'-grid fees. On the Glamorgan! I run out of money!
Besides, there was grub and some parts for the engines that'd been givin' trouble. I bought 'em and charged 'em, like a
business man does, expectin' to come back some day and pay for 'em. But the spaceport people got suspicious. They were
goin' to seize the ship tomorrowтАФtodayтАФand sell her if they could for the port bills and grub bills and parts bills."
"I seel" said Link. "And I probably sympathized with you."
"You said," said the little man grimly, "that it was a conspiracy against brave an' valiant souls like us two, an' you'd only
fight two more policemenтАФsix months more on top of what you was already liable toтАФand then we'd defy such crass and
commercial individuals and take off into the wild blue yonder."
Link reflected. He shook his head in mild disapproval
"So what happened?"
"You fought four policemen," said his companion succinctly. "In two separate scraps, addin' a year in jail to what you'd
piled up before."
"It begins to look," said Link, "as if I may have made myself unpopular on Trent. Is there anything else I ought to know?"
"They started to use tear gas on you," the whiskery man told him, "so you set fire to a police truck. To let the flames
lift up the gas, you said. That would be some more years in jail. But I got you in the'GlamorganтАФ "
"And got the grid to lift us off?" When the little man shook his head, Link asked hopefully. "I got the grid to lift us off? . . .
We persuadedтАФ"
"Nope," said Thistlethwaite. "You just took off. On emergency rockets. Off the spaceport tarmac. With no clearance.