"Robert A. Heinlein - Space Family Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

‘Don’t try to kid your grandmother. When you have been on -‘
The entire family joined her in chorus: ‘”- on the Moon as long as I have!”’
Hazel sniffed. ‘Sometimes I wonder why I married!’ Her son said, ‘Don’t try to
answer that question,’ then continued to his sons, ‘Well, what were you doing
there?’ Castor consulted Pollux by eye, then answered, ‘Well, Dad, it’s like
this -‘
His father nodded. ‘Your best flights of imagination always start that way.
Attend carefully, everybody.’
‘Well, you know that money you are holding for us?’
‘What about it?’ ‘Three per cent isn’t very much.’ Mr Stone shook his head
vigorously. ‘I will not invest your royalties in some wildcat stock. Financial
genius may have skipped my generation but when I turn that money over to
you, it will be intact’
‘That’s just it. It worries you. You could turn it over to us now and quit
worrying about it.’
‘No. You are too young.’
‘We weren’t too young to earn it’


8
His mother snickered. ‘They got you, Roger. Come here and I’ll see if I can
staunch the blood’
Dr Stone said serenely, ‘Don’t heckle Roger when he is coping with the twins,
Mother. Meade, turn a little to the left.’
Mr Stone answered, ‘You’ve got a point there, Cas. But you may still be too
young to hang on to it. What is this leading up to?’
Castor signalled with his eyes; Pollux took over. ‘Dad, we’ve got a really swell
chance to take that money and put it to work. Not a wildcat stock, not a stock
at all. We’ll have every penny right where we can see it, right where we could
cash in on it at any time. And in the meantime we’ll be making lots more
money.’
‘Hmmm...how?’
‘We buy a ship and put it to work.’
His father opened his mouth; Castor cut in swiftly, ‘We can pick up a Detroiter
VII cheap and overhaul it ourselves; we won’t be out a cent for wages.’
Pollux filled in without a break. ‘You’ve said yourself, Dad, that we are both
born mechaics; we’ve got the hands for it.’
Castor went on. ‘We’d treat it like a baby because it would be our own.’
Pollux: ‘We’ve both got both certificates, control and power. We wouldn’t
need any crew.’
Castor: ‘No overhead - that’s the beauty of it.’
Pollux: ‘so we carry trade goods out to the Asteroids and we bring back a
load of high-grade. We can’t lose.’
Castor: ‘Four hundred percent, maybe five hundred.’
Pollux: ‘More like six hundred.’
Castor: ‘And no worries for you.’
Pollux: ‘And we’d be out of your hair.’
Castor: ‘Not late for dinner.’
Pollux had his mouth open when his father again yelled, ‘QUIET!’ He went