"Cedric Walker - The Guinea Pig" - читать интересную книгу автора (Walker Cedric)

The Guinea-Pig
by Cedric Walker

Everything made to measure, that was the idea of the biologist. Even re-creation
of the human body was not beyond them now.....



SELLON looked at his visitor and wished heartily that he were anywhere else in
the world. He thought: This is how the boys must feel when they're hauled up
before me for putting jam in someone's football boots.
He smiled inwardly. It wasn't that he felt he was in the wrong. On the contrary,
he knew that he was right. His self-analysis had told him the obvious fact that
unless he were absolutely convinced that he was acting for the best, he would
never have presumed to question the actions of such a man as this.
Even now, against his will, he couldn't help feeling over-awed. He braced
himself and said: "That is my considered opinion." How trite that sounded! "From
the very beginning I was opposed to this--experiment, and the results so far
appear to have borne me out."
Mostyn eyed him calculatingly. Despite himself, Sellon found himself shifting
uneasily under that cold impersonal scrutiny. Hang the man! He looked at him as
if he were one of his specimens under the microscope!
Feelingless devils, these biologists! They had to be forever probing and cutting
and prying into the innermost secrets of things. Never content to leave well
enough alone! It was unnatural, this perpetual, bloody tampering.... Nothing was
sacrosanct any more! Not even recreation of the human body itself was beyond
them now. They would never rest until they had completely obsoleted nature, and
the whole world crept from their ghastly operating-tables!
Everything made to measure. Behold, the latest triumph of science--the human
body! Lord knew, it wasn't that he was unprogressive! Sellon knew nobody could
accuse him of that!
"We realize you've done your best," said Mostyn wearily. Was it imagination, or
was there a note of impatience in his voice? "Maybe it hasn't been much of a
success up to now. But we must go on, Sellon. We must win! We've created these
creatures.....for better or worse they're here to stay. There's no going back
now. When they dropped the bomb at Hiroshima that was that. Wasn't any use
burbling: 'They shouldn't have invented such a horrible thing. Let's outlaw the
atom-bomb and then we can all go home and get on with the garden.' The bomb had
come. Bend it to fit a man's hand, and you've got the finest tool imaginable.
Well, after a bit of a schemozzle we bent it. Now we've got another problem on
our hands, and we'll get round this, too. But we need help, and it's people like
you who can give us that help."
"I've done what I could. It's been given a fair trial, and I feel that there is
little object in going on. After all, I've got the other boys to think of. God
knows what harm this business may have done to them! You know, I suppose, that
they've found out?"
The biologist gestured impatiently. "They had to find out sooner or later. So
maybe it's for the best."
"Nevertheless--"
"May I remind you that the agreed time-limit has not yet expired."