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

"He gets dragged underneath the ship, for the whole length of the ship.
Dragged across all the sharp jagged barnacles there. The brother was sliced up
real bad. Most of the time a man drowns, since he's under the water for a
while. But sometimes they don't drown. There's always that chance. That's why
the captain preferred keelhauling his brother to hanging him." Ted paused to
finish his beer.

"And he didn't drown, is that it?" I said. "The captain and his brother were
lucky in the end?"

"That depends. He was alive, all right, when they pulled him out. But he was
under there so long without breathing that he got permanent brain damage. Lack
of oxygen to the brain cells or something. He was a raving lunatic from then
on. Never said another sensible word in his life, locked up in the front
bedroom here. Didn't do nothing but mew like a sick cat and claw the walls.
You can still see the scratch marks all around the windows."

"Whose car is that coming up the road?" Mom asked. She was usually a little
suspicious of strangers and tended to avoid them until she was sure of their
reputation.

Ted turned slowly to glance through the window behind his chair. "Oh, that
must be them, the ones who rented the cottage next door. They were supposed to
show up an hour or so ago." He chuckled and shook his head. "This here's the
place they wanted, but they were too late. Already rented it to you folks.
Man, were they ever disap-

INTERSTEUAft PIG 5

pointed. Never heard anybody get so upset about a summer rental. They even
tried to bribe me, but I have my ethics. And they wouldn't take it for August,
it had to be now. Tried to tell them the cinder-block cottage had a better
view, and finally they took it."

"I hope you made sure they had proper references," Mom said. "That cottage is
so close."

"Sure, sure," Ted said lightly. "But man, I thought I was gonna hear grown men
weep when I wouldn't let them have this place. Just didn't make sense the
wayтАФ"

"Well, thanks for the shower, Ted," Dad said, standing up and extending his
hand.

"Guess I better be heading next door," Ted said, rising and making a brief
salute. "Thanks for the beer."

I followed him out of the kitchen. I had noticed the scratch marks around the
windows of my room, and I was more curious than ever now. "But is that the