"Stanley G. Weinbaum - The Adaptive Ultimate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weinbaum Stanley G)

"She's skinny, and dressed in black. She ain't no beauty, neither. Brownish hair, dark eyes, I don't know
whether dark-blue or brown."

"Your witness!" snapped the prosecutor.

A young and nervous individualтАФappointed by the court, the paper saidтАФrose. "You say," he squeaked,
"that the assailant had brown hair and dark eyes?"

"Yeah."

"Will the defendant please rise?"

Her back was toward Scott and Bach as Kyra Zelas arose, but Scott stiffened. Something strangely
different about her appearance; surely her worn black suit no longer hung so loosely about her. What he
could see of her figure seemedтАФwell, magnificent.

"Take off your hat, Miss Zelas," squeaked the attorney.

Scott gasped. Radiant as aluminum glowed the mass of hair she revealed!

"I submit, your honor, that this defendant does not possess dark hair, nor, if you will observe, dark eyes.
It is, I suppose, conceivable that she could somehow have bleached her hair while in custody, and I
therefore"тАФhe brandished a pair of scissorsтАФ"submit a lock to be tested by any chemist the court
appoints. The pigmentation is entirely natural. And as for her eyesтАФdoes my esteemed opponent suggest
that they, too, are bleached?"

He swung on the gaping witness. "Is this lady the one you claim to have seen committing the crime?"

The man goggled. "UhтАФI can'tтАФsay."

"Is she?"

"N-no!"

The speaker smiled. "That's all. Will you take the stand, Miss Zelas?"

The girl moved lithe as a panther. Slowly she turned, facing the court. Scott's brain whirled, and his
fingers dug into Bach's arm. Silver-eyed, aluminum-haired, alabaster pale, the girl on the stand was
beyond doubt the most beautiful woman he had ever seen!

The attorney was speaking again. "Tell the court in your own words what happened, Miss Zelas."

Quite casually the girl crossed her trim ankles and began to speak. Her voice was low, resonant, and
thrilling; Scott had to fight to keep his attention on the sense of her words rather than the sound.

"I had just left Grand Mercy Hospital," she said, "where I had been ill for some months. I had crossed the
park when suddenly a woman in black rushed at me, thrust an empty wallet into my hands, and vanished.
A moment later I was surrounded by a screaming crowd, andтАФwell, that's all."