"Philip Wylie - Gladiator" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wylie Philip)

On a certain Sunday he sat beside his wife in church, singing snatches of the hymns in a doleful and untrue
voice and meditating, during the long sermon, on the structure of chromosomes.

Mr. Danner's thoughts turned to Professor Mudge, whose barren pate showed above the congregation a few
rows ahead of him. There, he said to himself, sat a stubborn and unenlightened man. And so, when the weekly


Chapter I 2
 Gladiator

tyranny of church was ended, he asked Mudge to dinner. That he accomplished by an argument with his wife,
audible the length of the aisle.

They walked to the Danner residence. Mrs. Danner changed her clothes hurriedly, basted the roast, made milk
sauce for the string beans, and set three places. They went into the diningтИТroom. Danner carved, the
homeтИТmade mint jelly was passed, the bread, the butter, the gravy; and Mrs. Danner dropped out of the
conversation, after guying her husband on his lack of skill at his task of carving.

Mudge opened with the usual comment. тАЬWell, Abednego, how are the bloodтИТstream radicals progressing?тАЭ

His host chuckled. тАЬExcellently, thanks. Some day I'll be ready to jolt you hidebound biologists into your
senses.тАЭ

Mudge's left eyebrow lifted. тАЬSo? Still the same thing, I take it? Still believe that chemistry controls human
destiny?тАЭ

тАЬAlmost ready to demonstrate it,тАЭ Danner replied.

тАЬAlong what lines?тАЭ

тАЬMuscular strength and the nervous discharge of energy.тАЭ

Mudge slapped his thigh. тАЬHo ho! Nervous discharge of energy. You assume the human body to be a voltaic
pile, eh? That's good. I'll have to tell Cropper. He'll enjoy it.тАЭ

Danner, in some embarrassment, gulped a huge mouthful of meat. тАЬWhy not?тАЭ he said. тАЬLook at the
insectsтАФthe ants. Strength a hundred times our own. An ant can carry a large spiderтАФyet an ant is tissue and
fiber, like a man. If a man could be given the same sinewsтАФhe could walk off with his own house.тАЭ

тАЬHa ha! There's a good one. And you would make a splendid pianoтИТmover, Abednego.

тАЬPianos! Pooh! Consider the grasshoppers. Make a man as strong as a grasshopperтАФand he'll be able to leap
over a church. I tell you, there is something that determines the quality of every muscle and nerve. Find
itтАФtransplant itтАФand you have the solution.тАЭ

His wife interrupted at that point. тАЬI think this nonsense has gone far enough. It is wicked to tamper with
God's creatures. It is wicked to discuss such mattersтАФespecially on the Sabbath. Abednego, I wish you would
give up your work in the laboratory.тАЭ