"Lem - Automathew's Friend" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lem Stanislaw)

Part 6. A Lifelong Grudge
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As it developed later, the captain of the vessel that had carried
Automatthew, just before it sank, succeeded in sending a
radiotelegram calling for help, thanks to which that region of the
sea was scoured by numerous ships, and it was one of these that
found the island. As the rowboat with the sailors neared the shore
in shallow water, Automatthew's first impulse was to jump into it
himself, but after a moment's thought he ran back for Alfred,
fearing the latter might raise a cry, which the others might hear,
and that could lead to embarrassing questions, possibly even
accusations made by his electrofriend. To avoid this, he grabbed up
Alfred and, not knowing how or where to hide it, hurriedly inserted
it back into his ear. There followed effusive scenes of greeting and
thanks, during which Automatthew conducted himself very noisily,
afraid that one of the sailors might overhear the tiny voice of
Alfred. For all this time his electrofriend was saying, over and
over:
"Well, but this was really unexpected! One chance in four hundred
thousand... What amazing luck! I would hope now that our relations
improve, yes, we shall get on splendidly together, especially as I
refused you nothing in your moments of greatest trial, besides which
I can be discreet and know how to let bygones be bygones!"
When, after a long voyage, the ship came to port, Automatthew
surprised everyone by expressing a desire, incomprehensible to them,
to visit a nearby ironworks, which boasted a great steam hammer. It
was said that in the course of this visit he behaved somewhat
strangely, for, having gone up to the steel anvil in the main shop,
he began shaking his head violently, as if he intended to knock the
very brains out through his ear and into his raised hand, and he
even hopped on one leg; those present, however, made as if they
didn't notice, judging that a person so recently rescued from
terrible straits might well be given to eccentricities, the product
of an unbalanced mind. And indeed, afterwards Automatthew changed
his former way of life, seemingly falling into one mania after
another. Once he gathered explosives of some sort, and even tried
setting them off in his own room, the neighbors however put a stop
to that, they went straight to the authorities; and once, for no
apparent reason, he took to collecting hammers and carborundum
files, telling his acquaintances that he planned to build a new type
of mind-reading machine. Later on he became a recluse and acquired
the habit of conversing with himself, and sometimes you could hear
him running about the house in loud soliloquy, even shouting words
very much like curses.
Finally, after many years, developing a new obsession, he began to
buy cement, sacks and sacks of it. From this he fashioned an
enormous sphere and, when the thing had hardened, carted it off to
an unknown destination. It has been said that he hired himself out
as a caretaker at an abandoned mine, that one dark night he dropped