"William Sleator - Interstellar Pig" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sleator William)

"In Boston," said Dad.

"First-rate suds," Ted said. "Can't get it around here."

"Come on, tell us about this tragedy," I said, really curious now.

"Well, Captain Latham's ship was out in the South Pacific somewhere, and they
picked up this shipwrecked sailor. Nothing left of his ship but the

INTERSTELLAR PIG 3
timber he was floating on. There wasn't much room on those traders, you know,
and the guy they rescued had to bunk down with somebody else. The captain's
brother got him. The next morning the stranger was dead. Kind of too bad,
after he got out of his shipwreck alive. Strangled. Ever see somebody who was
strangled? Red marks on the throat and the eyes popping out and the tongue all
black and swollen andтАФ"

"No. I never have," Mom said, putting a hand on her pink neck.

"Well, it was the captain's brother that killed him, everybody could see that.
Didn't even try to deny it. Must have been a little embarrassing for the
captain."

"They were drinking and had a fight, I suppose," Dad said, trying to prod Ted
along.

"No drinking, no fight. The brother just strangled him. Quietly."

"But there must have been some reason," I said, sitting down across from Ted.

"I told you, the brother never was too bright. They had a kind of trial, like
they did on those ships, and they asked him why. And he just raved a lot of
nonsense, nobody could get any sense out of him. All about the stranger being
the Devil, crazy stuff like that. Brother must have just had a bad dream, and
didn't know what he was doing, that's the only explanation they could come up
with. So Captain Latham, he was in a real dilemma, since he had to see that
justice was done. But he couldn't really stomach hanging his own brother. So
he sentenced him to be keelhauled."

"What's that?" I asked.

"They tie a rope to him. And they tie the other end of the rope to the back of
the ship. Then they

4 INTERSTELLAR PIG

toss the guy off the front of the ship. So you know what happens then?" Ted
sat up in his chair and leaned forward with enthusiasm.

"Go on," I said impatiently. "What?"