"Robert A. Heinlein - Job, A Comedy of Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

I guess I was one of the ‚impressionable young’ - I still miss them.
I remember particularly one by Mr Wells: Men Like Gods. These people were
driving along in an automobile when an explosion happens and they find
themselves in another world, much like their own but better. They meet the
people who live there and there is explanation about parallel universes and
the fourth dimension and such.
That was the first installment. The Protect-Our-Youth state law was passed
right after that, so I never saw the later installments.
One of my English professors who was bluntly opposed to censorship once
said that Mr Wells had invented every one of the basic fantastic themes, and
he cited this story as the origin of the multiple-universes concept. I was
intending to ask this prof if he knew where I could find a copy, but I put it off
to the end of the term when I would be legally ‚of mature years’ - and waited
too long; the academic senate committee on faith and morals voted against
tenure for that professor, and he left abruptly without finishing the term.
Did something happen to me like that which Mr Wells described in Men Like
Gods? Did Mr Wells have the holy gift of prophecy? For example, would men
someday actually fly to the moon? Preposterous!

But was it more preposterous than what had happened to me?
As may be, here. I was in Konge Knut (even though she was not my, Konge
Knut) and the sailing board at the gangway showed her getting underway at
6 p.m. It was already late afternoon and high time for me to decide.
What to do? I seemed to have mislaid my own ship, the Motor Vessel Konge
Knut. But the crew (some of the crew) of the Steamship Konge Knut seemed
ready to accept me as ‚Mr Graham’, passenger.
Stay aboard and try to brazen it out? What if Graham comes aboard (any
minute now!) and demands to know what I am doing in his room?

Or go ashore (as I should) and go to the authorities with my
problem?
Alex, the French colonial authorities will love you. No baggage, only the
clothes on your back, no money, not a sou - no passport! Oh, they will love
you so much they’ll give you room and board for the rest of your life ... in an
oubliette with a grill over the top.
There’s money in that wallet.
So? Ever heard of the Eighth Commandment? That’s his money.
But it stands to reason that he walked through the fire at the same time you
did but on this side, this world or whatever - or his wallet would not have
been waiting for you. Now he has your wallet. That’s logical.
Listen, my retarded friend, do you think logic has anything to do with the
predicament we are in?
Well
Speak up!

No, not really. Then how about this? Sit tight in this room. If Graham shows
up before, the ship sails, you get kicked off the ship, that’s sure. But you
would be no worse off than you will be if you leave now. If he does not show
up, then you take his place at least as far as Papeete. That’s a big city; your
chances of coping with the situation are far better there. Consuls and such.