"A. E. Van Vogt - The Rat & the Snake & Other Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

will be happy to hear that the State is prepared to undertake protection
of the material that you have rescued from the pits of the gods and from
other ancient sources.
The safest place for all this material is at your residence in Linn.
Accordingly, I am authorizing funds to transport to the city any such
equipment that you have at your country estate. A guards unit will arrive
at the estate within the week with adequate transport, and another guards
unit is this day taking up guard duty at your town residence.
The captain of the guard, while of course responsible to me, will
naturally grant you every facility for carrying on your work.
 It is with pleasure, my dear Clane, that I extend to you this costly
but earned protection.
At some time not too far in the future I should like to have the
privilege of a personally conducted tour so that I may see for myself what
treasures you have in your collection, with a view to finding further uses
for them for the general welfare.
With cordial best wishes
Tews, Lord Adviser

At least, thought Tews, after he had dispatched the message and given
the necessary orders to the military forces, that will for the present get
the material all in one place. Later, a further more stringent control is
always possible - not that it will ever be necessary, of course.
The wise leader simply planned for any contingency. Even the actions
of his most dearly beloved relatives must be examined objectively.
He learned presently that Clane had offered no resistance and that
the material had been transported to Linn without incident.
He was still at the mountain palace of the Linns when a third letter
arrived from Clane. Though briefly stated, it was a major social document.
The preamble read:

To our uncle, the Lord Adviser:
It being the considered opinion of Lords Jertin and Clane Linn that a
dangerous preponderance of slaves exists in Linn and that indeed the
condition of slavery is wholly undesirable in a healthy State, it is
herewith proposed that Lord Adviser Tews during his government lay down as
a guiding rule for future generations the following principles:
1. All law-abiding human beings are entitled to the free control of
their own persons.
2. Where free control does not now obtain, it shall be delivered to
the individual on a rising scale, the first two steps of which shall
become effective immediately.
3. The first step shall be that no slave shall in future be
physically punished except by the order of a court.
4. The second step shall be that the slave's work day shall not in
future exceed ten hours.

The other steps outlined a method of gradually freeing the slaves
until after twenty years only incorrigibles would be 'not free,' and all
of these would be controlled by the State itself under laws whereby each