"Jack Williamson - With Folded Hands" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Jack)

WITH FOLDED HANDS
by Jack Williamson

Underhill was walking home from the office, because his wife had the car, the afternoon he
met the new mechanicals. His feet were following his usual diago-nal path across a weedy va
blockтАФhis wife usually had the carтАФand his preoccupied mind was rejecting various imposs
ways to meet his notes at the Two Rivers bank, when a new wall stopped him.
The wall wasn't any common brick or stone, but some-thing sleek and bright and stra
Underhill stared up at a long new building. He felt vaguely annoyed and sur-prised at this glitte
obstructionтАФit certainly hadn't been here last week.
Then he saw the thing in the window.
The window itself wasn't any ordinary glass. The wide, dustless panel was comple
transparent, so that only the glowing letters fastened to it showed that it was there at all. The le
made a severe, modernistic sign:

Two Rivers Agency
HUMANOID INSTITUTE
The Perfect Mechanicals
"To Serve and Obey,
And Guard Men from Harm."

His dim annoyance sharpened, because Underhill was in the mechanicals business himself. Ti
were already hard enough, and mechanicals were a drug on the market. Androids, mechano
electronoids, automatoids, and or-dinary robots. Unfortunately, few of them did all the sales
promised, and the Two Rivers market was already sadly oversaturated.
Underhill sold androidsтАФwhen he could. His next con-signment was due tomorrow, and he d
quite know how to meet the bill.
Frowning, he paused to stare at the thing behind that invisible window. He had never see
humanoid. Like any mechanical not at work, it stood absolutely motionless. Smaller and slim
than a man. A shining black, its sleek silicone skin had a changing sheen of bronze and metallic b
Its graceful oval face wore a fixed look of alert and slightly surprised solicitude. Altogether, it
the most beautiful mechanical he had ever seen.
Too small, of course, for much practical utility. He murmured to himself a reassuring quota
from the Android Salesman: "Androids are bigтАФbecause the makers refuse to sacrifice po
essential functions, or dependability. Androids are your biggest buy!"
The transparent door slid open as he turned toward it, and he walked into the haughty opulenc
the new display room to convince himself that these streamlined items were just another flashy e
to catch the woman shopper.
He inspected the glittering layout shrewdly, and his breezy optimism faded. He had never hear
the Hu-manoid Institute, but the invading firm obviously had big money and big-time merchandi
know-how.
He looked around for a salesman, but it was another mechanical that came gliding silently to m
him. A twin of the one in the window, it moved with a quick, surpris-ing grace. Bronze and
lights flowed over its lustrous blackness, and a yellow name plate flashed from its naked breast:
 HUMANOID
Serial No. 81-H-B-27
The Perfect Mechanical
"To Serve and Obey,
And Guard Men from Harm."