"Jack Williamson - After World's End" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Jack)

AFTER WORLD'S END

Chapter Page

FOREWORD ......... 105

I THE ROCKET ASTRONAUT . . . . . 109

II THE CONQUEST OF THE STARS . . . 116

III THE ROBOT CORPORATION..... 121

IV THE FALCON OF EARTH...... 126

V WORLD CONDEMNED...... 133

VI COSMIC STORM........ 140

VII CIRCUS OF SPACE . ...... 148

VIII ROBOT SIMULACRUM....... 156

IX THE ROBOT AND THE EMPEROR . . . 164 X TECHNOMATONS TRIUMPHANT . . .169

XI THE GIRL OF EARTH ...... 177

XII THE FASTNESS OF MALGARTH .... 182

XIII THE MIRROR OF DARKNESS .... 190

XIV THE SHADOW OF THE STONE .... 195
WE FOUND THE STRANGER, when we unlocked the bungalow after a week on the lakes, seated at my big desk in the
study. His face was an enigma of youth and age. Lean beneath his long white hair, it was gray and drawn and
hollowed as if with an infinite heartbreakтАФand yet it smiled. His emaciated hand, thrust out across the pile of loose
yellow sheets he had written, gripped an incredible thing.

Queerly lifelike, he was yet more queerly still.

"Why, hello!" I said.

And then, when he remained stiffly staring at that scintillating glory in his rigid hand, we knew that he was dead.

His injuries, when we came to discover them, were dreadful as they were inexplicable. All his gaunt, shrunken
bodyтАФtorso, neck, and limbsтАФshowed dark purple ridges. It looked as the body of Laocoon must have looked, when
the serpents were done. But we found no snakes in the bungalow.

"The man was tortured," asserted the examining doctor. "By ropes, from the looks of it, drawn mercilessly tighter.
Flesh pulped beneath the skin. Grave internal injuries. A miracle he lived as long as he did!"

For four or five days had passed, the doctors agreed, since the stranger received his injuries. He had been dead, by the