"H. Beam Piper - Time and Time Again" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

generation of lying and reluctant witnesses. Sooner or later, he would forget for an instant and betray
himself. Then he smiled, remembering the books he had discovered, in his late 'teens, on his father's
shelves and recalling the character of the openminded agnostic lawyer. If he could only avoid the
inevitable unmasking until he had a plausible explanatory theory.




Blake Hartley was leaving the bathroom as Allan Hartley opened his door and stepped into the hall. The
lawyer was bare-armed and in slippers; at forty-eight, there was only a faint powdering of gray in his
dark hair, and not a gray thread in his clipped mustache. The old Merry Widower, himself, Allan thought,
grinning as he remembered the white-haired but still vigorous man from whom he'd parted at the
outbreak of the War.

"'Morning, Dad," he greeted.

"'Morning, son. You're up early. Going to Sunday school?"

Now there was the advantage of a father who'd cut his first intellectual tooth on Tom Paine and Bob
Ingersoll; attendance at divine services was on a strictly voluntary basis.

"Why, I don't think so; I want to do some reading, this morning."
"That's always a good thing to do," Blake Hartley approved. "After breakfast, suppose you take a walk
down to the station and get me a Times." He dug in his trouser pocket and came out with a half dollar.
"Get anything you want for yourself, while you're at it."

Allan thanked his father and pocketed the coin.

"Mrs. Stauber'll still be at Mass," he suggested. "Say I get the paper now; breakfast won't be ready till
she gets here."

"Good idea." Blake Hartley nodded, pleased. "You'll have three-quarters of an hour, at least."




So far, he congratulated himself, everything had gone smoothly. Finishing his toilet, he went downstairs
and onto the street, turning left at Brandon to Campbell, and left again in the direction of the station.
Before he reached the underpass, a dozen half-forgotten memories had revived. Here was a house that
would, in a few years, be gutted by fire. Here were four dwellings standing where he had last seen a
five-story apartment building. A gasoline station and a weed-grown lot would shortly be replaced by a
supermarket. The environs of the station itself were a complete puzzle to him, until he oriented himself.

He bought a New York Times, glancing first of all at the date line. Sunday, August 5, 1945; he'd
estimated pretty closely. The battle of Okinawa had been won. The Potsdam Conference had just ended.
There were still pictures of the B-25 crash against the Empire State Building, a week ago Saturday. And
Japan was still being pounded by bombs from the air and shells from off-shore naval guns. Why,
tomorrow, Hiroshima was due for the Big Job! It amused him to reflect that he was probably the only
person in Williamsport who knew that.