"Aldiss, Brian - There is a Tide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Aldiss Brian W)

control?" he demanded. "If this thing here runs away with us,
the combined waters of Victoria and Tanganyika will flood
down into the Congo."
Even as he spoke, the bank to the south of the escaping
waters crumbled; several yards were swept away, their places
instantly taken by the current.
We flew back to Mokulgu. Jubal visioned the mayor and
got permission to broadcast to the city. I did not hear him
speak; reaction had set in, and I had to go and sit quietly at
home with Sloe fussing daintily round me. Although you
"know" from a child that Earth is a planet, it is only when
you drift towards it from space, seeing it hang round and finite
ahead, that you can realize the fact. And so, although I had
always "known" man was puny, it was the sight of that vast
collapsing slab of mountain which had driven the fact into my
marrow.
To guess the sort of sentiments Jubal broadcast to the city
was easy. He would talk of "rallying round in this our time
of crisis". He would speak of the need for "all hands uniting
against our ancient enemy, Nature". He would come over big
on the tanks; he would be big, his fists clenched, his eyes
ablaze. He was in touch with the people. And they would do
what he said, for Jubal carried conviction. Perhaps I envied
my half-brother.
Labour and supplies began to pour north to mend the
damaged bank. Jubal, meanwhile, thought up a typically
flamboyant scheme. Tilly, one of the lake steamers, was
pressed into service and loaded full of rock and clay by steam
shovel. With Jubal standing on the bridge, it was mance-
vered into the centre of the danger area and scuttled. Half in
and half out of the rushing water, it now former a base from
which a new dam could be built to stem the flood. Watched
by a cheering crowd, Jubal and crew skimmed to safety in a
motor boat.
"We shall conquer if we have to dam the water with our
bodies," he cried. A thousand cheering throats told him how
much they liked this idea.
The pitch of crisis which had then been engendered was
maintained all through the next two days. For most of that
time it rained, and men fought to erect their barrier on
clinging mud. Jubal's popularityand consequently his in-
fluenceunderwent a rapid diminution. The reason for this
was two-fold. He quarrelled with J-Casta, whose suggestion to
throw open the new dam to relieve pressure elsewhere was
refused, and he ran into stiff opposition from Mokulgu
Town Council.
This august body, composed of the avariciously successful
and the successfully avaricious, was annoyed about Tilly. Tilly
belonged to the local government, and Jubal had, in effect,
stolen it. The men from the factories who had downed tools