"Campbell, John W Jr - Who Goes There" - читать интересную книгу автора (Campbell John W Jr)

"Would I do?" Garry asked.
"That will make two," Copper nodded. "I'll get to work on it right away."
"What about Connant in the meantime?" Kinner demanded. "I'm going out that door and head off for the Ross Sea before I cook for him."


Connant burst out in a flood of curses. "Human! May be human, you damned saw-bones! What in hell do you think I am?"
"A monster," Copper snapped sharply. "Now shut up and listen." Connant's face drained of color and he sat down heavily as the indictment was put in words.
19

20
"Until we know -you know as well as we do that we have reason to question the fact, and only you know how that question is to be answered -we may reasonably be
expected to lock you up. If you are -unhuman -you're a lot more dangerous than poor Blair there, and I'm going to see that he's locked up thoroughly. I expect
that his next stage will be a violent desire to kill you, all the dogs, and probably all of us. When he wakes, he will be convinced we're all unhuman, and
nothing on the planet will ever change his conviction. It would be kinder to let him die, but we can't do that, of course. He's going in one shack, you can stay in
Cosmos House with your cosmic ray apparatus. Which is about what you'd do anyway. I've got to fix up a couple of dogs."


Connant nodded bitterly. "I'm human. Hurry that test. Your eyes -Lord, I wish you could see your eyes staring -"
Commander Garry watched anxiously as Clark, the dog-handler, held the big brown Alaskan husky, while Copper began the injection treatment. The dog was not anxious
to cooperate; the needle was painful, an already he'd experienced considerable needle work that morning. Five stitches held closed a slash that ran from his
shoulder across the ribs half way down his body. One long fang was broken off short; the missing part was to be found half-buried in the shoulder bone of the
monstrous thing on the table in the Ad Building.


"How long will that take?" Garry asked, pressing his arm gently. It was sore from the prick of the needle Dr. Copper had used to withdraw blood.


Copper shrugged. "I don't know, to be frank. I know the general method, I've used it on rabbits. But I haven't experimented with dogs. They're big, clumsy animals
to work with; naturally rabbits are preferable, and serve ordinarily. In civilized places you can buy a stock of human-immune rabbits from suppliers, and not many
investigators take the trouble to prepare their own."


"Why do they want them back there?" Clark asked.
"Criminology is one large field. A says he didn't murder B, but that the blood on his shirt came from killing a chicken. They make a test, then it's up to A to
explain how it is the blood reacts on human-immune rabbits, but not on chicken-immunes."


"What are we going to do with Blair in the meantime?" Garry asked wearily. "It's all right to let him sleep where he is for a while, but when he wakes up -"
"Barclay and Benning are fitting some bolts on the door of Cosmos House," Copper replied grimly. "Connant's acting like a gentleman. I think perhaps the way the
other men look at him makes him rather want privacy. Lord knows, heretofore we've all of us individually prayed for a little privacy."


Clark laughed bitterly. "Not anymore, thank you. The more the merrier."
"Blair," Copper went on, "will also have to have privacy -and locks. He's going to have a pretty definite plan in mind when he wakes up. Ever hear the old story
of how to stop hoof-and-mouth disease in cattle?


"If there isn't any hoof-and-mouth disease, there won't be any hoof-and-mouth disease," Copper explained. "You get rid of it by killing every animal that
exhibits it, and every animal that's been near the diseased animal. Blair's a biologist, and knows that story. He's afraid of this thing we loosed. The answer
is probably pretty clear in his mind now. Kill everybody and everything in this camp before a skua gull or a wandering albatross coming in with the spring chances