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

down on us, leaving a thin layer on the Top and burdening our Bottom with
billions upon billions of tons of air. That is why we are pale skinned. The sun
must penetrate additional hundreds of miles of atmosphere. The Top people
compensated for the loss of air by developing larger lung-capacities."
"And how do you know all these things?" asked Mo-Ad with the skepticism of the
very young.
His father looked at him long.
"I have read the Books," he said in an awful voice. "And I know why the Top grew
upon the Bottom and why we are pale-skinned and where the Moon went and why we
have no industry or cities or countries. And many things more which you shall
know."
Mo-Ad jogged along in silence for awhile. The undulating desert flowed by. Far
ahead loomed the Cliff.
"I have heard it said," he breathed softly at length, "that once this land was
buried beneath a bottomless ocean."
"You heard right." Jo-Ad sat up very straight and gazed sadly about the empty
wilderness lit by the rays of the setting sun. "The ocean grew when the Top grew
and pressed down what it grew over and the Bottom was flooded. The cities were
drowned and almost all of the people. The machines rusted and fell apart and
their secrets were lost. Presently, the People of the Top, who had all these
things, bored through their planet and began draining away the ocean that buried
the Bottom. It flowed into the empty chasms under the Top. In a little while it
was all gone. The remnants of the people from whom we are descended came down
from the mountains to the dry lands and grew and multiplied--but slowly. In the
course of time some water returned--and thus our people lived." He paused and
looked at the looming Cliff with hatred. "But enough... we are approaching the
Cliff."
HIGH SOARED the Cliff, one hundred and fifty miles into the dense air. From
where their camels coursed, up and down and over the sand-hills, they could see
its curving bulk stretching away to the uttermost limits of the horizon. An
insurmountable barrier, it reared its grim, absolutely sheer wall to invisible
heights. The top was lost in shifting clouds that poured over the barrier and
floated down to condense in watery vapor which buried half its height in
impenetrable mists.
"It goes around the world," gasped Jo-Ad, as he was jogged roughly by this
camel, "and no one can climb it. It is too high. It is too smooth."
"But the flying birds. Could they not have scaled the Cliff ?" asked Mo-Ad
naively.
"I have told you, my son, that all those secrets were lost when the Bottom was
drowned."
Mo-Ad stopped his camel and slid to the ground. He set his feet firmly in the
sandy soil. He looked inquiringly at his father who also dismounted and stood,
lost in thought, one hand on the tether of his mount, the other cupping a weary
chin.
"Father, where is the Moon?"
Jo-Ad lifted his head and pointed.

"Beyond the Top. During the course of ages, the uneven pull of the Top slowed
the satellite in its orbit to a point where it hung stationary in the sky above
the Top." He bent down and with the end of his camelwhip drew a diagram in the