"09 - Synthetic Men of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

much to choose from between them and me. They were all hideous monsters. What
difference could it make that I was a little more hideous? Of course there was
nothing for me to do; and, much disappointed, I stepped back from the line.
Five of the seven remaining were little better than halfwits, and they were
eliminated. The other two might have been high grade morons at the best, but
they were accepted. The Third Jed spoke to an officer. "Where is the hormad I
sent for?" he demanded. "Tor-dur-bar."
"I am Tor-dur-bar," I said.
"Come here," said the Third Jed, and again I stepped to the foot of the dais.
"One of my guardsmen says you are the strongest person in Morbus," continued the
Third Jed. "Are you?"
"I don't know," I replied. "I am very strong."
"He says that you can toss a man to the ceiling and catch him again. Let me see
you do it."
I picked up one of the rejected hormads and threw him as high as I could. I
learned then that I didn't know my own strength. The room was quite lofty, but
the creature hit the ceiling with a dull thud and fell back into my arms
unconscious. The seven jeds and the others in the room looked at me with
astonishment.
"He may not be beautiful," said the Third Jed, "but I shall take him for my
guard."
The jed who had waved me aside objected. "Guardsmen must be intelligent," he
said. "This creature looks as though it had no brains at all."
"We shall see," said another jed, and then they commenced to fire questions at
me. Of course they were simple questions that the most ignorant of red men could
have answered easily, for the questioners had only the brains and experience of
hormads after all.
"He is very intelligent," said the Third Jed. "He answers all our questions
easily. I insist upon having him."
"We shall draw lots for him," said the First Jed.
"We shall do nothing of the kind," stormed the Third Jed. "He belongs to me. It
was I who sent for him. None of the rest of you had ever heard of him."
"We shall take a vote on it," said the Fourth Jed.
The Fifth Jed, who had rejected me, said nothing. He just sat there scowling. I
had made a fool of him by proving myself so desirable that many jeds wished me.
"Come," said the Seventh Jed, "let's take a vote to see whether we award him to
the Third Jed or draw lots for him."
"Don't waste time," said the Third Jed, "for I am going to take him anyway." He
was a big man, larger than any of his fellows.
"You are always making trouble," growled the First Jed.
"It is the rest of you that are making trouble," retorted the Third Jed, "by
trying to deprive me of what is rightfully mine."
"The Third Jed is right," said the Second Jed. "None of the rest of us have any
claim on this hormad. We were willing to see him rejected until the Third Jed
proved that he would make a desirable guardsman."
They wrangled on for a long time, but finally gave in to the Third Jed. Now I
had a new master. He put me in charge of one of his own officers and I was taken
away to be initiated into the duties of a guardsman in the palace of the seven
jeds of Morbus.
The officer conducted me to a large guardroom where there were many other hormad