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

Burman switched off a UHF receiver, removed his earplugs, and raised a questioning eyebrow.
"In the galley we're short an offog," explained McNaught. "Where is it?"

"Why ask me? The galley is Blanchard's bailiwick."

"Not entirely. A lot of your cables run through it. You've two terminal boxes in there, also an automatic
switch and an intercom booster. Where's the offog?"

"Never heard of it," said Burman, baffled.

McNaught shouted, "Don't tell me that! I'm already fed up hearing Blanchard saying it. Four years back
we had an offog. It says so here. This is our copy of what we checked and signed for. It says we signed
for an offog. Therefore we must have one. It's got to be found before Cassidy gets here."

"Sorry, sir," sympathized Burman. "I can't help you."
"You can think again," advised McNaught. "Up in the bow there's a direction and distance indicator.
What do you call it?"

"A didin," said Burman, mystified.

"And," McNaught went on, pointing at the pulse transmitter, "what do you call that?"

"The opper-popper."

"Baby names, see? Didin and opper-popper. Now rack your brains and remember what you called an
offog four years ago."

"Nothing," asserted Burman, "has ever been called an offog to my knowledge."

"Then," demanded McNaught, "why did we sign for one?"

"I didn't sign for anything. You did all the signing."

"While you and others did the checking. Four years ago, presumably in the galley, I said, 'Offog, one,'
and either you or Blanchard pointed to it and said, 'Check.' I took somebody's word for it. I have to take
other specialists' words for it. I am an expert navigator, familiar with all the latest navigational gadgets but
not with other stuff. So I'm compelled to rely on people who know what an offog isтАФor ought to."

Burman had a bright thought. "All kinds of oddments were dumped in the main lock, the corridors, and
the galley when we were fitted-out. We had to sort through a deal of stuff and stash it where it properly
belonged, remember? This offog-thing might be anyplace today. It isn't necessarily my responsibility or
Blanchard's."

"I'll see what the other officers say," agreed McNaught, conceding the point. "Gregory, Worth,
Sanderson, or one of the others may be coddling the item. Wherever it is, it's got to be found. Or
accounted for in full if it's been expended."

He went out. Burman pulled a face, inserted his earplugs, resumed fiddling with his apparatus. An hour
later McNaught came back wearing a scowl.