"Gordon R. Dickson - The Dreamsman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

"Claim? No doubt about it, my boy. Ash tray?" He lifts his hand. An ash tray on an end table across the
room comes sailing on the air like a miniature ceramic UFO to light gently upon his upturned palm. Mr.
Wilier sets it down and closes his eyes.

"You have seven dollars in your wallet, Hank. One five-dollar bill and two singles. At this moment you
are in-terrupting your main line of thought to wonder worriedly what happened to the third one-dollar bill,
as you had eight dollars in the wallet earlier this morning. Rest easy. You were stopped by the newspaper
delivery boy shortly after ten this morning while you were mowing the lawn and paid him eighty cents.
The two dimes change are in your right-hand pants pocket."

He opens his eyes. "Well?"

"All right," says Hank with a heavy sigh. "You sold me. We can't do anything like that, Edie and I. We
can just read each other's minds—and other people's if they're thinking straight at us." He stares a little at
Mr. Wilier. "You're pretty good."

"Tut," says Mr. Wilier. "Experience, nothing else. I will be a hundred and eighty-four next July 12th. One
learns things."

"A hundred and eighty-four!" gasps Edie.

"And some months, ma'am," says Mr. Wilier, giving her a little half-bow from his chair. "Sensible living,
no ex-travagances and peace of mind—the three keys to lon-gevity. But to return to the subject, what
caused you young people to send out a call?"

"Well, we—" began Edie.

"What we thought," says Hank, "is that if there were any more like us, we ought to get together and
decide what to do about it. Edie and I talked it all over. Until we met each other we never thought there
could be anybody else like ourselves in the world. But if there were two of us, then it stood to reason
there must be more. And then Edie pointed out that maybe if a bunch of us could get together we could
do a lot for people. It was sort of a duty, to see what we could do for the rest of the world."

"Very commendable," says Mr. Wilier.

"I mean, we could read the minds of kids that fall in a well and get trapped—and send emergency
messages maybe. All sorts of things. There must be a lot more we haven't thought of."

"No doubt there are," says Mr. Wilier.

"Then you're with us?" says Hank. "Together, I'll bet we can darn near start a new era in the world."

"Well, yes," replies Mr. Wilier. "And no. A hundred and eighty-four years have taught me caution.
Moreover, there is more to the story than you young people think." He clacks his teeth. "Did you think
you were the first?"

"The first?" echoes Hank.

"The first to discover you possess unusual abilities. I see by the expression on year faces you have taken
just that for granted. I must, I'm afraid, correct that notion. You are not the first any more than I was.