"E. E. Doc Smith - Skylark 2 - Skylark Three" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

in great detail and in one-syllable words exactly what we're up against. Now I
tell you again that
they've GOT SOMETHING. If you had the brains of a louse you would know that
anything I
can't do with a space-ship can't be done by a mob of ordinary gangsters. I'm
telling you,
Brookings, that you can't do it. My way is absolutely the only way that will
work."
"But five years, Doctor!"
"I may be back in six months. But on a trip of this kind anything can
happen, so I am
planning on being gone five years. Even that may not be enoughтАФI am carrying
supplies for ten
years, and that box of mine in the vault is not to be opened until ten years
from today."
"But surely we shall be able to remove the obstructions ourselves in a
few weeks. We
always have."
"Oh, quit kidding yourself, Brookings! This is no time for idiocy! You
stand just as much
chance of killing Sea-ton. . . ."
"Please, Doctor, please don't talk like that!"
"Still squeamish, eh? Your pussyfooting always did give me an acute pain.
I'm for direct
action, word and deed, first, last, and all the time. I repeat, you have
exactly as much chance of
killing Richard Seaton as a blind kitten has."
"How do you arrive at that conclusion, Doctor? You seem very fond of
belittling our
abilities. Personally, I think that we shall be able to attain our objectives
within a few
weeksтАФcertainly long before you can possibly return from such an extended trip
as you have in
mind. And since you are so fond of frankness, I will say that I think Seaton
has you buffaloed, as
you call it. Nine-tenths of these wonderful Osnomian things I am assured by
competent
authorities are scientifically impossible, and I think that the other one-
tenth exists only in your
own imagination. Seaton was lucky in that the airplane bomb was defective and
exploded
prematurely; and your space-ship got hot because of your injudicious speed
through the
atmosphere. We shall have everything settled by the time you get back."
"If you have I'll make you a present of the controlling interest in Steel
and buy myself a
chair in some home for feeble-minded old women. Your ignorance and
unwillingness to believe
any new idea do not change the facts in any particular. Even before they went
to Osnome, Seaton