"William Tenn - Eastward Ho!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tenn William)

requesting him to order his warriors back to the south-ern bank of the Delaware River, or to return the
hostage given him by the Govern-ment of the United States as an earnest of good will and peaceful
intentions. We're not Seminole: why show it to us?"
As Jerry Franklin smoothed out the wrinkles in the paper with painful care and replaced the
document in his pouch, the Confederate ambassador, Sylvester Thom-as, spoke up. "I think I might
explain," he suggested, glancing inquiringly from face to face. "If you gentlemen don't mind...? It is
obvious that the United States Govern-ment has heard that an Indian tribe finally crossed the Delaware at
this point, and assumed it was the Seminole. The last movement of the Seminole, you will recall, was to
Philadelphia, forcing the evacuation of the capital once more and its transfer to New York City. It was a
natural mistake; the communications of the American States, whether Confederate or United"тАФa small,
coughing, diplomatic laugh hereтАФ"have not been as good as might have been expected in recent years. It
is quite evi-dent that neither this young man, nor the government he represents so ably and so well, had
any idea that the Sioux had decided to steal a march on his majesty, Osceola VII, and cross the
Delaware at Lambertville."
"That's right," Jerry broke in eagerly. "That's exactly right. And now, as the accred-ited emissary of
the President of the United States, it is my duty formally to request that the Sioux nation honor the treaty
of eleven years ago as well as the treaty of fifteenтАФI think it was fifteenтАФyears ago, and retire once
more behind the banks of the Susquehanna River. I must remind you that when we retired from
Pittsburgh, Altoona, and Johnstown, you swore that the Sioux would take no more land from us and
would protect us in the little we had left. I am certain that the Sioux want to be known as a nation that
keeps its promises."
Three Hydrogen Bombs glanced questioningly at the faces of Bright Book Jacket and Hangs A
Tale. Then he leaned forward and placed his elbows on his crossed legs. "You speak well, young man,"
he commented. "You are a credit to your chief...Now, then. Of course the Sioux want to be known as a
nation that honors its treaties and keeps its promises. And so forth and so forth. But we have an
expanding population. You don't have an expanding population. We need more land. You don't use most
of the land you have. Should we sit by and see the land go to wasteтАФworse yet, should we see it
acquired by the Seminole, who already rule a domain stretching from Philadelphia to Key West? Be
reasonable. You can retire toтАФto other places. You have most of New En-gland left and a large part of
New York State. Surely you can afford to give up New Jersey."
In spite of himself, in spite of his ambassadorial position, Jerry Franklin began yelling. All of a
sudden it was too much. It was one thing to shrug your shoulders unhappily back home in the blunted
ruins of New York, but here on the spot where the process was actually taking placeтАФno, it was too
much.
"What else can we afford to give up? Where else can we retire to? There's nothing left of the United
States of America but a handful of square miles, and still we're supposed to move back! In the time of
my forefathers, we were a great nation, we stretched from ocean to ocean, so say the legends of my
people, and now we are huddled in a miserable corner of our land, starving, filthy, sick, dying, and
ashamed. In the North, we are oppressed by the Ojibway and the Cree, we are pushed southward
relentlessly by the Montaignais; in the South, the Seminole climb up our land yard by yard; and in the
West, the Sioux take a piece more of New Jersey, and the Chey-enne come up and nibble yet another
slice out of Elmira and Buffalo. When will it stopтАФwhere are we to go?"
The old man shifted uncomfortably at the agony in his voice. "It is hard; mind you, I don't deny that
it is hard. But facts are facts, and weaker peoples always go to the wall...Now, as to the rest of your
mission. If we don't retire as you request, you're supposed to ask for the return of your hostage. Sounds
reasonable to me. You ought to get something out of it. However, I can't for the life of me remember a
hostage. Do we have a hostage from you people?"
His head hanging, his body exhausted, Jerry muttered in misery, "Yes. All the In-dian nations on our
borders have hostages. As earnests of our good will and peaceful intentions."
Bright Book Jacket snapped his fingers. "That girl. Sarah CameronтАФCantonтАФwhat's-her-name."