"Jack Vance - The Houses of Iszm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

"He is a wealthy man?"

"Exceedingly wealthy."

"Would he be equally wealthy selling hovels such as these?"

"Conceivably."

The Szecr turned away. "In any case, we would not profit. These houses
are no less difficult to root, nurture, pack and ship than the Class AA
houses we choose to deal inтАж I advise you not to investigate another
strange house so closely. You might well suffer serious injury. The houses
are not so tolerant of intruders as their inhabitants."

Farr continued around the island, past orchards bearing fruit and low
coarse shrubs like Earth century plants, from the center of which sprouted
a cluster of ebony rods as much as an inch in diameter and ten feet tall:
smooth, glossy, geometrically straight. When Farr went to investigate the
Szecr interfered.

"These are not house trees," Farr protested. "In any event, I plan no
damage. I am a botanist and interested in strange plants."

"No matter," said the Szecr lieutenant. "Neither the plants nor the craft
which has developed them are your property, and hence should be of
complete disinterest to you."

"The Iszics seem to have small understanding of intellectual curiosity,"
observed Farr.

"To compensate, we have a large understanding of rapacity, larceny,
brain-picking and exploitation."

Farr had no answer and, grinning wryly, continued around the beach
and so back to the rich-colored fronds, pods and trunks of the town.

One phase of the surveillance puzzled Farr. He approached the
lieutenant and indicated an operative a few yards away. "Why does he
mimic me? I sit down, he sits down. I drink, he drinks. I scratch my nose,
he scratches his nose."
 "A special technique," explained the Szecr. "We divine the pattern of
your thinking."

"It won't work," said Farr.

The lieutenant bowed. "Farr Sainh may be quite correct."

Farr smiled indulgently. "Do you seriously think you can predict my
plans?"