"Clifford D.Simak. All the traps of Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора

said the minister, considerably befuddled at this direct approach.

"Because I have no soul?"

"Really," said the minister miserably, "you place me at a disadvantage.
You are asking me a question that for centuries has puzzled and bedeviled
the best minds in the church."

"But one," said Richard Daniel, "that each man in his secret heart must
answer for himself."

"I wish I could," cried the distraught minister. "I truly wish I could."

"If it is any help," said Richard Daniel, "I can tell you that sometimes
I suspect I have a soul."

And that, he could see, had been most upsetting for this kindly human.
It had been, Richard Daniel told himself, unkind of him to say it. For it
must have been confusing, since coming from himself it was not opinion only,
but expert evidence.

So he had gone away from the minister's study and come back to the empty
house to get on with his inventory work.

Now that the inventory was all finished and the papers stacked where
Dancourt, the estate administrator, could find them when be showed up in the
morning, Richard Daniel had done his final service for the Barringtons and
now must begin doing for himself.

He left the bedroom and closed the door behind him and went quietly down
the stairs and along the hallway to the little cubby, back of the kitchen,
that was his very own.

And that, he reminded himself with a rush of pride, was of a piece with
his double name and his six hundred years. There were not too many robots
who had a room, however small, that they might call their own.

He went into the cubby and turned on the light and closed the door
behind him.

And now, for the first time, he faced the grim reality of what he meant
to do.

The cloak and hat and trousers hung upon a hook and the galoshes were
placed precisely underneath them. His attachment kit lay in one corner of
the cubby and the money was cached underneath the floor board he had
loosened many years ago to provide a hiding place.

There was, he, told himself, no point in waiting. Every minute counted.
He had a long way to go and he must be at his destination before morning