"William Tenn - The Flat-Eyed Monster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tenn William)

we have as much of this creature as we need. If any more of it is due to materialize, it will arrive on the
residual beam."
The flefnobe on Manship's left rapidly spun the strange spheroid he was holding. A low hum, which
had filled the building and had been hardly noticeable before, now died away. As Srin peered intently at
the patches of light on the surface of the instrument, Manship suddenly guessed that they were meter
readings. Yes, that's exactly what they wereтАФmeter readings. Now, how did I know that? he
wondered.
Obvious. There was only one answer. If they couldn't hear him no matter how loudly he shouted, if
they gave no sign that they even knew he was shouting, and if, at the same time, they seemed to indulge
in the rather improbable feat of talking his native languageтАФthey were obviously telepaths. Without
anything that looked like ears or mouths.
He listened carefully as Srin asked his superior a question. It seemed to sound in his ears as words,
English words in a clear, resonant voice. But there was a difference. There was a quality missing, the kind
of realistic bite that fresh fruit has and artificial fruit flavoring doesn't. And behind Srin's words there were
low, murmuring bubbles of other words, unorganized sentence fragments which would occasionally
become "audible" enough to clarify a subject that was not included in the "conversation." That, Manship
realized, was how he had learned that the shifting patches of light on the spheroid were meter readings.
It was also evident that whenever they mentioned something for which no equiva-lent at all existed in
English, his mind supplied him with a nonsense syllable.
So far so good. He'd been plucked out of his warm bed in Callahan Hall by a tele-pathic suitcase
named something like Lirld which was equipped with quantities of eyes and tentacles. He'd been sucked
down to some planet in an entirely different system near the center of the galaxy, clad in nothing but
apple-green pajamas.
He was on a world of telepaths who couldn't hear him at all, but upon whom he could eavesdrop
with ease, his brain evidently being a sufficiently sensitive antenna. He was scheduled shortly to undergo a
"careful examination," a prospect he did not relish, the more so as he was evidently looked upon as a sort
of monstrous laboratory animal. Finally, he was not thought much of, chiefly because he couldn't pmbff
worth a damn.
All in all, Clyde Manship decided, it was about time that he made his presence felt. Let them know,
so to speak, that he was definitely not a lower form of life, but one of the boys. That he belonged to the
mind-over-matter club himself and came of a long line of IQ-fanciers on both sides of his family.
Only how?
Vague memories of adventure stories read as a boy drifted back to him. Explorers land on a strange
island. Natives, armed with assorted spears, clubs and small boul-ders, gallop out of the jungle to meet
them, their whoops an indisputable prelude to mayhem. Explorers, sweating a bit, as they do not know
the language of this particu-lar island, must act quickly. Naturally, they resort toтАФthey resort toтАФthe
universal sign language! Sign language. Universal!
Still in a sitting position, Clyde Manship raised arms straight up over his head. "Me friend," he
intoned. "Me come in peace." He didn't expect the dialogue to get across, but it seemed to him that
voicing such words might help him psychologically and thus add more sincerity to the gesture.
"тАФand you might as well turn off the recording apparatus, too," Professor Lirld was instructing his
assistant. "From here on out, we'll take everything down on a double memory-fix."
Srin manipulated his spheroid again. "Think I should modulate the dampness, sir? The creature's dry
skin seems to argue a desert climate."
"Not at all. I strongly suspect it to be one of those primitive forms which can sur-vive in a variety of
environments. The specimen seems to be getting along admira-bly. I tell you, Srin, we can be very well
satisfied with the results of the experiment up to this point."
"Me friend," Manship went on desperately, raising and lowering his arms. "Me intelligent entity. Me
have IQ of 140 on the Wechsler-Bellevue scale."
"You may be satisfied," Glomg was saying, as Lirld left the table with a light jump and floated, like