"Gene Wolfe - Endangered Species" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

for Lissy," Tim said.

There was no reply, but a question hung in the air. He
answered it almost without intending to. "I'm Timothy Ryan
Neal, and I've come for Lissy. Give her back to me."

A light, it seemed, dissolved the blackness. Cross-legged
on the dais, a slender man in tweeds sucked at a long clay
pipe. "It's Irish, are ye?" he asked.

"American," Tim said.

"With such a name? I don't believe ye. Where's yer feath-
ers?"

"I want her back," Tim said again.

"An' if ye don't get her?"

"Then I'll tear this ship apart. You'll have to kill me or take
me too."

"Spoken like a true son of the ould sod," said the man in
tweeds. He scratched a kitchen match on the sole of his boot
and lit his pipe. "Sit down, will ye? I don't fancy lookin' up
like that. It hurts me neck. Sit down, and 'tis possible we can
strike an agreement."

"This is crazy," Tim said. "The whole thing is crazy."
"It is that," the man in tweeds replied. "An' there's much,
much more comin'. Ye'd best brace for it, Tim me lad. Now
sit down."

There was a stout wooden chair behind Tim where the
door had been. He sat. "Are you about to tell me you're a
leprechaun? I warn you, I won't believe it."

"Me? One o' them scamperin', thievin', cobblin', little mi-
sers? I'd shoot meself. Me name's Daniel O'Donoghue, King
o' Connaught. Do ye believe that, now?"

"No," Tim said.

"What would ye believe then?"

"That this is-some way, somehow-what people call a
saucer. That you and your crew are from a planet of another
sun."

Daniel laughed. " 'Tis a close encounter you're havin', is