"Mike Resnick - Lucifer Jones 3 - Encounters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

resourceful Christian gentlemen who has certain unresolved differences with ten separate European
governments over the finer points of the law.

1. The Home-Made Man

Europe is a lot different from Africa and Asia.

For one thing, it's got a lot more Europeans living there. For another, it's got better roads and it's a little
more built-up. For a third, having been told by a batch of governments that totally misunderstood my
motives that my presence was no longer desired on those first two land masses, I was in some danger of
running out of continents while still in the prime of my young manhood.

Therefore, I made up my mind that this time I was going to keep out of trouble and obey all the nuances
of the law while seeking to establish my tabernacle and pursue my vocation (which was preaching, no
matter what Interpol and some of them other biased institutions said). So when the train that took me out
of Asia and all the way through Russia finally came to a stop in Bucharest, I was determined thatthis time
I wasn't going to spend my first night on a new continent in the local jail.

Of course, I hadn't really counted on the fact that my Silent Partner was out to test me the way He'd
tested Job in times past, and that I'd lose my bankroll in the first twenty minutes of a friendly little game of
chance with a pack of Gypsies just outside the railroad station. I was sorely tempted to even the odds by
insinuating my own dice into the contest, but they were a swarthy-looking lot who spoke in tongues and
carried an awful lot of knives and didn't look like they'd appreciate an effort to bring the laws of statistical
probabilities under my more direct control, and so I took my losses like a man and wandered off, looking
for some place to hole up for the night.

Well, you'd be surprised how many Romanian hotels wouldn't take an I.O.U. from a man of the cloth,
and eventually I wandered out toward the edge of the city, and just after it got dark I found a quiet little
park, and figured I'd catch a quick forty or fifty winks there before hitting all the major banking and
brokerage houses with a request for donations to my tabernacle.

Well, I was just lying there, snoring kind of gentle-like and minding my own business, when all of a
sudden I opened my eyes and looked up and realized that either the stars were moving awful fast across
the sky or someone was dragging me along the ground by my feet, and I looked ahead and sure enough
this little hunchbacked guy was pulling me across the grass toward a wooden wagon that was attached to
an old swaybacked horse.

тАЬHey!тАЭ I said. тАЬWhat in tarnation is going on here?тАЭ

He dropped my feet like they were on fire and turned to look at me.

тАЬYou're alive!тАЭ he said.

тАЬOf course I'm alive!тАЭ I said. тАЬWhy kind of country are you running here, anyway? Can't a man take a
little nap in a public park without getting hauled off to jail?тАЭ

тАЬThis isn't a park,тАЭ he said. тАЬIt's a cemetery.тАЭ

тАЬI'm the Right Reverend Honorable Doctor Lucifer Jones, and if I've busted any laws by camping out
here, I'm sure we can work something out.тАЭ