"Leslie F. Stone - Men With Wings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stone Leslie F).Howard
Wormley .... we shall see. Well, tell me something more about this Number One city . . ." "Not so fast, not so fast . . . You're just recovering from a lot of what-not .. . do you think I'm going to talk you into a fever. No sir, you keep your mouth shut. I'm calling a nurse now, and after that we'll see what's what! And when you see the nurse . . . oh boy!" As he spoke Wormley was reaching up to the bead of his bed from which a bell cord hung. He pressed the button. "This isn't such a bad billet at that, Jimmy. They aren't a bad lot and are willing to treat us right if we do our part..." "And what is our part?" I demanded. "Simply to take upon ourselves a mate and help propagate the nation of Mentor!" "Oh . . . !" Lois FURTHER conversation stopped with the sound of footsteps coming along the corridor outside our door. Somehow I had never thought of the possibility of there being winged women. The papers had been full of winged men, but none had so like an angel! First I saw the gold of her close cropped hair, the blue of deep far-seeing eyes, a face such as Harris Fishel might seek in vain. Clothed in the tight fitting smock and snug trousers of Mentor she was a picture to behold and needed only the pair of beautiful rainbow-hued wings to make an angel of her. She carried her wings as angels should, the tips appearing just at the shoulder line, the end feathers, long and fine, dragging several inches on the ground behind her. (Such Mentorites as have gone a-kidnapping usually cut those long ends to prevent detection). Her hands were long and slender with the blue veins outlined under the sun-browned skin. It always puzzled me (I noted these last items at a later period) how the tall girl (she was five feet and nine inches tall without heels) managed to walk so easily and lightly on the tiny little feet she possessed which were so beautifully molded that they did not appear to have been constructed for use. Her shoes, incidentally, were but flat soft pieces of tanned bird skins of about two dozen thicknesses, held on the bare foot by straps that crossed and recrossed. She had come directly to the side of my bed and when she smiled brightly I thought I should cry out with the pain of it. (And me a case-hardened reporter). |
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