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

"Quite so." Sellon nodded reluctantly. He knew he was prejudiced. In all
fairness he had no legitimate complaint. The man--hang him!--was asking nothing
more than had been agreed. But the pill was nonetheless difficult to swallow.
"Incidentally," said Mostyn, "just how did they find out?"
Sellon shrugged. "You know how boys are. You can't keep anything from them." He
smiled. "If you have a row with your wife the little blighters know it the next
morning. A school is no place for a man with a past. It wasn't only the trouble
he had telling left from right. Lots of humans are ambidextrous--though it isn't
quite the same thing, of course.
"When he was batting he'd sometimes take up a left-handed stance and sometimes
the normal one. The others couldn't help noticing. Then he had trouble with his
knife and fork.....An uncanny sight, that, seeing him using them in opposite
hands as easily as we do in the usual manner. We used to correct him every time
we saw him do it, and he'd change over as smooth as you please, and hardly miss
a mouthful!
"But it wasn't only that. It was the way he looked at times. I've only seen
these creatures on one or two occasions, but they had the same expression in
their eyes. You know what I mean--the way they have of sometimes appearing to
look right through you. It always gave me an uncanny feeling." Sellon shuddered
inwardly. Soulless devils, they were! What was it they called those
things?....Zombies! That was it.
"I know." Mostyn passed a hand wearily over his face. "That's the sort of thing
we're up against. Foolish prejudice. Superstition. Silly fairy-tales about
monsters and such-like. Oh, it's all been exploited to the full by our
opponents! They've done their worst, and I must admit they've made a pretty good
job of turning peoples minds against the androids for good. But we'll lick 'em."
A gleam came into his large black eyes, and his lips tightened. "We must!"
Takes it pretty seriously, Sellon thought. Wasn't as though it were a matter of
life and death for him. The world had got on all right before the androids came,
and would probably be able to struggle on without their assistance for a few
more millennia. Matter of personal pride, he supposed. After all, Mostyn was the
man chiefly responsible for the existence of these beings.
"How did the other boys take him?" asked Mostyn.
"Well, at first they were almost too scared to go near him. That's after they
knew, of course. They'd heard such weird tales about them--naturally they were
wary. But that didn't last very long. Then they began to treat him as something
of a curiosity. Like all new boys, of course, he had been subjected to the usual
ragging. Normally, that wouldn't have meant a great deal: he would have got it
over and been accepted as one of them.
Unfortunately, he didn't react in the customary manner. In fact, he strongly
objected to the whole business of initiation. Said the things he was expected to
do were undignified, and that the purpose behind it was--as far as he could
see--silly and unnecessary, and entirely unbefitting a human being!" Sellon
spread out his hands at the last words. A human being! The idea of it! He looked
expectantly at the other.
Mostyn did not smile.
SELLON snorted impatiently. The idea, apparently, didn't strike him as
outrageous at all!
"You see," said Sellon, "that's the one thing the androids haven't got."
"What's that?"