"H. Beam Piper - Federation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

make a start, and some day somebody will."

Sachiko took her hands from her eyes, being careful not to look toward
the unshaded lights, and smiled again. This time Martha was sure that it
was not the Japanese smile of politeness, but the universally human smile
of friendship.

"I hope so, Martha; really I do. It would be wonderful for you to be the
first to do it, and it would be wonderful for all of us to be able to read what
these people wrote. It would really bring this dead city to life again." The
smile faded slowly. "But it seems so hopeless." 'You haven't found any
more pictures?"

Sachiko shook her head. Not that it would have meant much if she had.
They had found hundreds of pictures with captions; they had never been
able to establish a positive relationship between any pictured object and
any printed word. Neither of them said anything more, and after a
moment Sachiko replaced the loup and bent her head forward over the
book.

Selim von Ohlmhorst looked up from his notebook, taking his pipe out
of his mouth.

"Everything finished, over there?" he asked, releasing a puff of smoke.

"Such as it was." She laid the notebooks and sketches on the table.
"Captain Gicquel's started airsealing the building from the fifth floor
down, with an entrance on the sixth; he'll start putting in oxygen
generators as soon as that's done. I have everything cleared up where he'll
be working."

Colonel Penrose looked up quickly, as though making a mental note to
attend to something later. Then he returned his attention to the pilot, who
was pointing something out on a map.

Von Ohlmhorst nodded. "There wasn't much to it, at that," he agreed.
"Do you know which building Tony has decided to enter next?"

The tall one with the conical thing like a candle extinguisher on top, I
think. I heard him drilling for the blasting shots over that way."

Well, I hope it rums out to be one that was occupied up to the end."

The last one hadn't. It had been stripped of its contents and fittings, a
piece of this and a bit of that, haphazardly, apparently over a long period
of time, until it had been almost gutted. For centuries, as it had died, this
city had been consuming itself by a process of autocannibalism. She said
something to that effect.

"Yes. We always find thatтАФexcept, of course, at places like Pompeii.