"Eric Frank Russell - Allamagoosa" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

only seven ninety-nine emergency rations. Your allocation is eight hundred. Nothing in your logbook
accounts for the missing one. Where is it? What happened to it? How is it that one of the men's kit lacks
an officially issued pair of suspenders? Did you report his loss?"

"Why does he pick on us?" asked Burman, appalled. "He's never chivvied us before."

"That's why," informed McNaught, scowling at the wall. "It's our turn to be stretched across the barrel."
His gaze found the calendar. "We have three daysтАФand we'll need 'em! Tell Second Officer Pike to
come here at once."

Burman departed gloomily. In short time, Pike entered. His face reaffirmed the old adage that bad news
travels fast.

"Make out an indent," ordered McNaught, "for one hundred gallons of plastic paint, Navy gray,
approved quality. Make out another for thirty gallons of interior white enamel. Take them to spaceport
stores right away. Tell them to deliver by six this evening along with our correct issue of brushes and
sprayers. Grab up any cleaning material that's going for free."

"The men won't like this," remarked Pike, feebly.

"They're going to love it," McNaught asserted. "A bright and shiny ship, all spic and span, is good for
morale. It says so in that book. Get moving and put those indents in. When you come back, find the
stores and equipment sheets and bring them here. We've got to check stocks before Cassidy arrives.
Once he's here we'll have no chance to make up shortages or smuggle out any extra items we happened
to find in our hands."

"Very well, sir." Pike went out wearing the same expression as Burman's.

Lying back in his chair, McNaught muttered to himself. There was a feeling in his bones that something
was sure to cause a last-minute ruckus. A shortage of any item would be serious enough unless covered
by a previous report. A surplus would be bad, very bad. The former implied carelessness or misfortune.
The latter suggested barefaced theft of government property in circumstances condoned by the
commander.

For instance, there was that recent case of Williams of the heavy cruiser Swift. He'd heard of it over the
spacevine when out around Bootes. Williams had been found in unwitting command of eleven reels of
electric-fence wire when his official issue was ten. It had taken a court-martial to decide that the extra
reelтАФwhich had formidable barter-value on a certain planetтАФhad not been stolen from space-stores, or,
in sailor jargon, "teleportated aboard." But Williams had been reprimanded. And that did not help
promotion.

He was still rumbling discontentedly when Pike returned bearing a folder of foolscap sheets.

"Going to start right away, sir?"

"We'll have to." He heaved himself erect, mentally bid good-bye to time off and a taste of the bright
lights. "It'll take long enough to work right through from bow to tail. I'll leave the men's kit inspection to
the last."

Marching out of the cabin, he set forth toward the bow, Pike following with broody reluctance.