"E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 3 - Galactic Patrol" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

class ever
tried before. If anybody hashes the formation тАУ our last show and with the whole
Corps
looking on . . . . ."
"Don't worry about the drop, Kim," advised Maitland. "All three platoons
will take
that like clockwork. What's got me all of a dither is what is really going to
happen in
Room A."
"Uh-huh!" exclaimed LaForge and Holmberg as one, and
"You can play that across the board for the whole Class," Kinnison agreed.
"Well, we'll soon know тАУ it's time to get going," and the four officers stepped
out into the
assembly hall, the Class springing to attention at their approach.
Kinnison, now all brisk Captain, stared along the mathematically exact
lines and
snapped.
"Report!"
"Class Five present in full, sir!" The sergeant-major touched a stud at his
belt and
all vast Wentworth Hall fairly trembled under the impact of an all-pervading,
lilting,
throbbing melody as the world's finest military band crashed into "Our Patrol."
"Squads left-March !" Although no possible human voice could have been
heard
in that gale of soul-stirring sound and although Kinnison's lips scarcely moved,
his
command was carried to the very bones of those for whom it was intended тАУ and to
no
one else-by the tight-beam ultra-communicators strapped upon their chests.
"Close
formation - forward - March !"
In perfect alignment and cadence the little column marched down the hall.
In
their path yawned the shaft тАУ a vertical pit some twenty feet square extending
from
main floor to roof of the Hall, more than a thousand sheer feet of unobstructed
air,
cleared now of all traffic by flaring red lights. Five left heels clicked
sharply,
simultaneously upon the lip of the stupendous abyss. Five right legs swept out
into
emptiness. Five right hands snapped to belts and five bodies, rigidly erect,
arrowed
downward at such an appalling velocity that to unpractised vision they simply
vanished.
Six-tenths of a second later, precisely upon a beat of the stirring march,
those
ten heels struck the main floor of Wentworth Hall, but not with a click.
Dropping with a