"HalfWorldsMeet-HughRaymond" - читать интересную книгу автора (Raymond Hugh)

WHEN HALF WORLDS MEET
by Hugh Raymond

(Author of "Power," "Rebirth of Tomorrow," etc.)



The third planet of the solar system was half Earth and half Mars. And the
villain of the piece was the speed of light. One of the strangest stories ever
written!


J0-AD DUG his heels into his hump-backed steed's ribs and grunted. "The moon
used to be up there," he said morosely, pointing skyward.
"What did it look like?"
He stared at the heavens and, for an instant, his dull eyes glittered.
"Mo-Ad, there was nothing to compare with it in the sky for sheer beauty. A
giant globe of the most delicate yellow with black markings over the surface
that took on the semblance of a face. It was utilized mainly for romance. Lovers
wooed each other in its glow, in cities and countries alike..."
Mo-Ad rested himself in his saddle.
"What were cities and countries?" he asked.
Jo-Ad sighed.
"The cities were great beehives of industry--that was something that meant
producing articles in quantities," he added hastily as he saw the instant
question form upon his son's lips, "wherein they worked and played, lived and
died, loved and begat their children. Beehives of industry, where they made by
the millions, in almost less time than it takes to tell, the instruments we
produce today by hand. Giant social centers where everyone was happy, where
everyone was warm and safe. Countries--well, they were sections of land each
inhabited by different races of people. Races, my son, were sections of
humanity. Some were different from others. Some had black skin, some yellow,
some pale like ours. Some had long noses, some short. A lot of them were tall
and a lot were runty. They were not like us." He raised his head and, shading
his eyes, peered ahead.
"We are approaching the Cliff. You must know of that as well. And when you see
it you will understand why our skins are pale and why the skins of the People of
the Top are black...."
Mo-Ad broke in, eager to show his father a glimmer of the analytical
intelligence that alone of the People of the Bottom was Jo-Ad's.
"But father, you said that no one could ever reach the country of the People of
the Top. The Cliff is too high. How then do you know that their skins are
black?"
Jo-Ad pulled his burnoose closer about him to protect his thin skin from the
evening chill.

"Their bodies have been found-- torn and mangled at the bottom. Some careless
individuals fell the awful height of the Cliff. According to the ancient
reckoning, it is a hundred and fifty miles high. Their skins were as black as
coal. You see, Mo-Ad, when the Top grew over the Bottom, the atmosphere poured