"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 01 - The Winds of Gath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

"No!" Piers was emphatic. "I refuse to accept your moral
judgment. In law they are nothing. They came here by their own
free will. They can leave the same way or stay until they rot. I am
not responsible." Irritably he again paced the floor. He hesitated
by the dispenser then moved away. He refused to meet Ely's eyes.
"I do what I can," he protested. "Each storm I arrange for a
passage and run a lottery. The winner gets the passage.
Sometimes, if the money is enough, more can win the prize."

"Money?" Ely raised his eyebrows. "Here?"

"They can earn a little from the visitors." Piers didn't want to
go into details. "Between storms I employ them at various tasks.
I pay them in chemical concentrates."

"Charity, brother?"

Piers didn't miss the irony. "I do what I can," he insisted
stubbornly. "I can do no more."

Brother Ely made no comment. He'd had long practice in
hiding emotion; almost as long in learning how to read it. The
resident would end a very rich man. But he was an unhappy one.
The ice in his glass rattled as he held it to the spout of the
dispenser. He had much about which to feel guilt.

"Damn it, Brother," he said plaintively. "I do my best."
***

Ely met Dyne as he left the resident's quarters. The monk
stiffened as he saw the cyber. Both felt the reaction of strange
cats to each other. The Universal Brotherhood had no trust for
the Cyclan. The cybers had no love for the monks.

They looked at each other, Dyne in his rich scarlet, Ely in his
drab homespun. One could feel no emotion, the other dealt with
little else.

"A fine day, brother," said Ely gently. The silence once broken
Dyne could not ignore the monk. It would be illogical to arouse
irritation. Cybers made no enemies and tried to make everyone
their friend.

"It is always day on Gath," he said in his soft modulation, the
trained voice which contained no irritant factors. "You have just
arrived?"

"On the last ship to reach this world before the storm." Ely
sensed the other's dislike as a dog would scent anger or fear.
"You are alone?"