"Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future's Worlds of Tomorrow 17 - Futuria" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

Synthetic Men Seek Honor
Should the city be named for Otho or for Grag? The
two synthetic creatures were both anxious for the honor,
and all the quarrelsomeness in their natures came to the
fore.
The mayor, too discreet to show his preference either
way, proclaimed a special election to settle this great
question, and for several weeks both Grag and Otho threw
themselves into electioneering with all the vigor and skill
of veteran politicians.
It was a bewildering and not uncommon experience for
a voter to find himself approached by the two rivals at
once, each securing a firm grasp on some part of his
clothes, and extolling his own virtues.
It is doubtful whether either Grag or Otho won many
voters in this fashion, for their usual victim was too
paralyzed with fright to understand what either of them
said. The real decision was apparently the result of a
whispering campaign -- or rather, of two whispering
campaigns, one of which failed to achieve its effect.
Voters Become Divided
Otho's tactics were to split Grag's supporters into two
rival groups -- one in favor of Gragville, the other in favor
of Robotstown. In this way he hoped that even if he didn't
obtain a majority of the votes, at least he would be able to
win.
However, Grag's supporters saw through this maneuver,
and made it clear that they were heartily opposed to
Robotstown. The name didn't necessarily apply to Grag,
and then too it might have been misleading.
At the same time, following Grag's directions, they
repeated to any listeners they found that Otho had been
made a fool of by one Bror Ingmann, Terror of Space -- as
narrated in "Days of Creation." This lie had already been
exposed, but it still found ignorant believers, and Gragville
squeaked through to a narrow victory.
Grag magnanimously permitted a suburb of his city to
be called Otho Heights -- to be greatly chagrined some
time later when he learned that the suburb had outgrown
the town proper and was considered far superior as a
residence.
Mystery Shrouds Mountain
No description of Futuria would be complete without
some reference to the Haunted Peak, an unexpected
evidence of superstition to find on a planet which had been
constructed synthetically and should have been entirely
without mystery. But even before the planet was officially
opened to immigration, strange reports were circulated
about mysterious noises and events occurring in the
neighborhood of a peak not far from the South Polar