"Donald Westlake - SH4 - The World's A Stage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westlake Donald E)

off, gazing upward past his friends filthy forehead.

тАЬWell?тАЭ asked the other. тАЬGo on, go on.тАЭ

тАЬOh, my gosh,тАЭ said Didi. His voice, his manner, even his facial appearance, all changed.

тАЬWhat is it?тАЭ asked his friend, turning to look.

The two tramps stared upward at the slowly descending spaceship, a great silver corncob lowering
through the empty air. тАЬItтАЩs Godot,тАЭ Didi whispered in awe. He finally got here.



Inside the spaceship, 27 birds watched Pam Stokes, astrogator, beautiful and brainy but blind to passion,
play with her ancestral slide rule. The birds were all stuffed and wired to their perches around the
HopefulтАЩs command deck, and from the expression in their fifty four glass eyes, they didnтАЩt like it a bit.
Or perhaps what they didnтАЩt like was the sight of captain Gregory Standforth disemboweling yet another
bird on the control panel. Indigo ichor oozed through the dials and switches into the panels innards,
where it would make a mysterious bad smell for the next several weeks.

A tall, skinny, vague-eyed, loose wired sort of fellow, Captain Standforth was the seventh consecutive
generation of Standforths to spend his life in the service of the Galactic Patrol and the first to be terrible at
it. Much was expected of a Standforth, but in this case it was expected in vain. The Captain had had no
choice other than to follow the family footsteps into the patrol, and the patrol had to take him, but neither
had profited. All the captain wanted was to pursue his one passion, taxidermy-the stuffing of birds from
everywhere in the universe-while all the patrol wanted was to never see or hear from him again.

Thump. тАЬOuch!тАЭ, said the captain. As vermilion blood mixed with the indigo ichor, he put his cut
varicolored finger into his mouth, said, тАЬoog,тАЭ took it out again and made a bad-taste grimace. тАЬNnтАЭ.
Turning to Pam, he said, тАЬWhat was that thump? Made me cut myself.тАЭ

тАЬSubsidance,тАЭ she said, rapidly whizzing the slide ruleтАЩs parts back and forth. тАЬBy my calculations,
ground level must have eroded seven millimeters in the last half-chiliad. Therefore, the ships computer
switched off engines before we actually---тАЭ

тАЬHalf-chiliad?тАЭ asked the captain.

тАЬWhatтАЩs a half-chiliad?тАЭ

тАЬFive hundred years. So thatтАЩs why we thumped when we landed.тАЭ

тАЬLanded? You mean weтАЩve arrived somewhere?тАЭ

тАЬYes, sir.тАЭ

Captain Standforth looked around at his birds. They looked back. тАЬI wonder where we are,тАЭ he said. тАЬI
wonder what kind of birds they have here.тАЭ