"Eric Frank Russel - The Ultimate Invader" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

from the angle of personal ownership. The thought that a trooper might have
proprietary rights in his weapon had never occurred to him. And now that he had
captured the thought he did not know what to do with it. He stared at his own gun as
if it had just miraculously appeared in his hand, changed it to
another hand by way of ensuring its realness and solidity. "Be carefuI," advised
the biped. He nodded toward Yadiz "That's the way he started."
. Turning to Yadiz, the alien said in calm, matter-of-face tones, "Take me to
Markhamwit."
Yadiz couldn't be sure whether he actually dropped the gun again or whether it
leaped clean out of his hands. Anyway, it did not go off.
CHAPTER II
THEY met the high brass one-third of the way to the city. There was an assorted
truckload ranging from two to five-comet rank. Bowling along the road on flexible
tracks, the vehicle stopped almost level with them and two dozen faces peered at the
alien. A paunchy individual struggled out from his seat beside the driver and
confronted the ill-assorted pair. He had a red metal sun and four silver comets
shining on his harness.
To Yadiz he snapped, "Who told you to desert the guard-ring and come this
way?"
"Me," informed the alien, airily.
The officer jerked as if stuck with a pin, shrewdly eyed him up and down and
said, "I did not expect that you could speak our language."
"I'm fully capable of speech," assured the biped. "I can read, too. In fact, without
wishing to appear boastful, I'd like to mention that I can also write."
"That may be," agreed the officer, willing to concede a couple of petty aptitudes
to the manifestly outlandish. He had another careful look. "Can't say that I'm familiar
with your kind of life."
"Which doesn't surprise me," said the alien. "Lots of folk never get the chance to
become familiar with us."
The other's color heightened. With a show of annoyance, he informed, "I don't
know who you are or what you are, but you're under arrest."
"Sire," put in the aghast Yadiz, "he wishes toтАФ"
"Did any one tell you to speak?" demanded the officer, burning him down with his
eyes.
"No, sire. It was just thatтАФ"
"Shut up!"
Yadiz swallowed hard, took on the apprehensive expression of one unreasonably
denied the right to point out that the bar-rel is full of powder and someone has lit the
fuse.
 "Why am I under arrest?" inquired the alien, not in the least disturbed.
"Because I say so," the officer retorted.
"Really? Do you treat all arrivals that way?"
"At present, yes. You may know it or you may not, but right now this system is at
war with the system of Nilea. We're taking no chances. "
"Neither are we," remarked the biped, enigmatically. "What do you mean by that?"
"
The same as you meant. We're playing safe. "
"Ah!" The other licked satisfied lips. "So you are what I suspected from the first,
namely, an ally the Nileans have dug up from some very minor system that we've
overlooked."