Sprague de Camp's New Anthology
- Автор: Де Камп Лайон Спрэг
- Год: 1953
- Язык: английский
- Год: Panther
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Sprague de Camp's New Anthology». Краткое содержание книги:
"Do you know what you're saying? To go to the other end of the universe with this—this—" She almost said "mud-turtle", but decided that such an epithet would only aggravate matters.
"I know," he said grimly. "I'd as lief marry him—myself. But—"
"If you were going to propose to me—"
"Rub it in!" he said furiously. "I love you. Sure. I do. But I've also got my duty to my country and my world. Corny, isn't it?"
"You mean you'd actually want me to—"
"Who said 'want'? I'd rather will myself to death like him first. But I know what I've got to do when I've got to do it. Go on, tell him you will."
"Byron Matthews, I'll never see you again. I'll never speak to you again, for urging such a thing."
"Okay, you probably won't have the chance. I know how you feel. But go ahead. You've got to."
"Here," said the voice of Inez, "what's all this? Is everything all right, Alice? I heard you call."
"Everything's not all right," said Alice, "but I don't know what you can do about it. Inez, this is Mr. Matthews of the State Department and a couple of gentlemen from the F.B.I. Miss Rogell. You know Mr. Stanko."
"F.B.I.?" said Inez, the light on the front porch of the little apartment-house gleaming upon her glasses. "What on earth is this? And what's wrong with Mr. Stanko? Has he a stomach-ache?"
Alice explained.
"Oh," said Inez. "Let me think. Mr. Stanko!"
"Yes?" said the Wolfian.
"As far as you're concerned, would you say Miss Wernecke and I were about equally attractive?"
"I should say you were. Perhaps you have a slight advantage, since you look a little more like a female Wolfian!"
"Then it doesn't matter which human female you take back with you, does it?"
"No, though naturally some would prove more congenial companions than others. That, however, is something that could only be determined by trial. What have you in mind?"
"Why not take me instead of Alice?"
Alice gasped. "Now you're crazy, Inez. I can't let you sacrifice yourself for me."
"I'm not. I'm just a typical old-maid schoolteacher, and I know it as well as you do. Whereas if I go with Stanko I'll be the first woman on Wolf 359-1 and have all sorts of interesting experiences. Maybe I'll revolutionise their educational system. Well, how about it, Stanky?"
"I accept your offer with pleasure," said Stanko.
"But Inez—" began Alice.
"But nothing. I'm doing this because I want to, and I'm a free agent. Drop around tomorrow and we'll make the arrangements, Stank."
"Thank you, I will." Stanko got up and began to hobble towards the taxi.
"Alice—" said Matthews, reaching.
"Go away!" she said, trying to keep down another spate of tears. "I still never want to see you again, after you tried to get me to—to—"
"But I still love you—"
"And I still hate you!"
Matthews's footsteps receded on the walk as he followed Stanko and the F.B.I, men.
"Seems to me," said Inez, "that when you get a chance at a good man like Byron you're a fool not to grab him. If I were in your place—"
"Oh, shut up!" said Alice. The tears were coming freely now.
"By the way, old Lascivious Lorbeer called. He's got a pair of tickets for a concert next Friday night—"
"Oh!" said Alice.
The vision of life without Byron Matthews suddenly filled her mind—bossing her roomful of brats, holding off Lorbeer, tolerating the insipid John and the feckless Edward, grabbing at invitations to parties like the Greers' in hopes of meeting something worth playing up to ...
"Byron!" she called.
He came back on the run. Inez tactfully went back inside. When the clinch and the reconciliation had been executed and the vows had been exchanged, he said:
"I haven't had a chance to tell you, but my transfer to the Foreign Service just came through this morning, with a promotion."
"How splendid! I don't care where they send you; I'll go with you to the ends of the world."
"Swell! That's the kind of wife a State man needs."
"Only I hope never to see Stanko or any other Wolfians again."
"I'm not so sure. We're setting up a new Extraterrestrial Division in the Foreign Service, and I'm scheduled to be First Secretary of our new embassy on Wolf 359-1 as soon as it's ... Hey!"
He made as if to catch Alice's arms.
"No, I'm not going to faint," said Alice. "It was just the shock. But I'll manage. After all, Byron darling, you do have one advantage over Stanko, don't you?''
The Saxon Pretender
Claude Godwin became involved with the naked princess as follows:
In driving north from Santa Barbara most people follow Route US 101, which cuts inland across the base of Point Conception. Some, however, take the secondary road that runs along the seashore around the Point via Jalama and Surf, leaving 101 at Gaviota and rejoining it at Arroyo Grande. It is a winding road, much of it blasted out of cliff sides where the Santa Ynez Mountains come right down to the Pacific. The road runs along a rugged and almost unpeopled stretch of coast, forming a great contrast with the shores southeastward, which ever since California became the most populous state about the year 1990 have been almost solidly built up from Santa Barbara to San Diego.
On an October afternoon Claude Godwin was driving his fellow-actor, Westbrook Wolff, along this scenic stretch and explaining why he intended retiring at the early age of thirty-one:
"... so I can make thirty grand a week; what good does it do me? Coming on top of the income from my securities, Uncle gets ninety-four dollars out of every additional century, leaving me a lousy six bucks which will buy one Sunday newspaper."
Wolff sighed. "Wish I knew how you did it. I've known a lot of actors, and never yet knew one who could save up enough to live on in ten years. By the time Uncle, and your agent, and your ex-wives have all had a crack at your stipend—"
"Not to mention the parties and the ponies and the contractor who puts in your swimming-pool and the tailor who makes you a suit a week out of imported Tibetan yak-wool and so on. I avoid the alimony problem by staying single, and I live in a small house without a swimming-pool and staying away from parties and ponies. That's why they call me MacGodwin," he concluded.
He was a dark young man, handsome in a histrionic way, and rather on the .small side. For hero roles the studio put lifts in his shoes.
"But then you're not a typical actor," said Wolff. "In Hollywood you stand out like a sunflower in a coalscuttle."
"I am an individualist, you are eccentric, he's nuts. I never did like this damned show-business anyway. What I always wanted was to be a scientist. You know, like that Doctor Rotheiss I played in Crimson Dawn"
"Why don't you?"
Godwin sighed in his turn. "You just don't walk into a casting-office in some scientific institute and get taken on as an electrogeologist. I did go see old Dr. Goff, you know, the president of Gal. Tech. I told him I knew I wouldn't stay young and handsome forever. Hell, I'm no great actor; I'm just a guy who can jump around in front of a camera with a wig and a sword and leer at the dames. Well, I told the old geezer about my secret craving. Says I: 'Dr. Goff, I think I could be a real honest-to-Goldwyn scientist if I had a chance, but how do I go about it? I can't see enrolling here as a frosh with the sob-sisters from all the papers and picture-mags breathing down my neck. So what?'
"He squints at me and sprinkles some cigar-ashes down his shirt-front, and says: 'Take this,' and hands me a book off his desk. 'Go through it and do all the problems and then come back. If you still wish to become a scientist we shall go on from there.' "