"Robert F. Young - The First Sweet Sleep of Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

why they avoided sex. Especially the men. As far as Millicent had been able to ascertain they actually
shunned the nubile women, fishing alone by day, and staying close to the susus of their own families by
night. It was as though sex did not exist.
And yet, obviously enough, it did exist.
The sound of the waves against the cliffs was soporific. Millicent stifled a small yawn. With an effort,
she concentrated on the village again.
The apparent absence of sex was only a minor problem, but it was directly related to the major
problem of the age groups. The fact that none of the natives was under twenty Terran years of age was
puzzling enough. But it was only a mild incongruity compared to the additional fact that none of the men
was over twenty years of age, and that the women ranged from twenty to forty to sixty years of age, with
no intermediate age groups.
That certainly indicated a twenty year sexual cycle. Or a one year sexual cycle, computing it in
Fomalhaut 4 time. Which was the way it should be computed, Millicent reminded herself sleepily. But no
matter how you computed it, two irreconcilable questions remainedтАФwhat had caused the cycle in the
first place, and what happened to the men when they passed the cyclic age of one, or twenty?
She yawned again. The 'hilltop was so tranquil, the pounding of the waves so remote, so unreal; soft,
and growing ever softer ...
She must have dozed off for, suddenly, Dr. Hanky was standing there, tall and willowy against a sky
that had faded from deep blue to wan gray. She sat up abruptly, rubbing her eyes.
"Why," she said, "I must have dropped off!"
"We looked all over for you back at camp. Gloria got a. bad attack of stomach cramps and when
Vestor radioed main base the M.D. said to bring her in in the launch. He thought it might be appendicitis."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Millicent said. "I should have been there."
"Vestor wanted you to go along. He didn't want to leave the two of us here alone, and yet he couldn't
take me along because that would have left you completely alone. But he's coming right back."
Millicent stood up. There was a strange stillness in the air. "I'm afraid I don't quite follow your line of
reasoning, Dr. Hanley."
The mirthless laughter was in his eyes again, mocking her. "It's very simple, Dr. Clarke," he said.
"Vestor was merely concerned over your reputation. There is a quality about foursomes that renders
them inviolate to the workings of malicious minds. When, however, the foursome is reduced to a
twosome, the quality disappears.
"Our esteemed co-workers are probably bored to death with the lugubrious nordic culture they are
dissecting and will be delighted to hear that a male and a female anthropologist have been left all alone on
a tropical island with nothing but the light of stars to chaperon them. It will give them something to talk
about besides traits and ancestral backgrounds, and climatic cycles as they affect mass pattern
deviations."

Millicent felt the abrupt hotness of her face. "I assure you, Dr. Hanley," she said between tight lips,
"that there'll be no substantiation for whatever contemptible little lies they invent concerning us!"
"I'm sure there won't be." The laughter was gone from his eyes. "We'd better be getting back to
camp, don't you think? I'm sure you must have some new data to enter into your journal."
"I certainly have!"
She followed him down the hill. The stillness seemed to increase with each passing moment. There
was something wrong about it, a subtle wrongness that Millicent couldn't put her finger on till they
reached the hill where the camp stood. And then, abruptly, she realized what it was.
The pounding of the waves against the cliffs had ceased.
Suddenly she felt the first warm breath of moving air and knew that the wind had changed.
It was coming from the northтАж
They ate in silence, facing each other across the narrow table in the mess tent. The only sounds were
the sporadic whirring of the generator below the crest of the hill, and the rushing sound of the wind.