"Robert A. Heinlein - Starman Jones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

in free trajectory between the ridges. Almost before he could swing his eyes
the projectile entered the ring across the gap and disappeared into the
hillside--just as the sound hit him.
It was a thunderclap that bounced around the hills. Max gasped for air.
"Boy!" he said softly. "Boy, oh boy!" The incredible sight and the impact on
his ears always affected him the same way. He had heard that for the
passengers the train was silent, with the sound trailing them, but he did not
know; he had never ridden a train and it seemed unlikely, with Maw and the
farm to take care of, that he ever would.
He shifted to a sitting position and opened his book, holding it so that
he would be aware of the southwestern sky. Seven minutes after the passing of
the _Tomahawk_ he should be able to see, on a clear evening, the launching
orbit of the daily Moonship. Although much father away and much less dramatic
than the nearby jump of the ring train it was this that he had come to see.
Ring trains were all right, but spaceships were his love--even a dinky like
the moon shuttle.
But he had just found his place, a description of the intelligent but
phlegmatic crustaceans of Epsilon Ceti IV, when he was interrupted by a call
behind him. "Oh, Maxie! Maximilian! Max . . . mil . . . _yan!_"
He held still and said nothing.
"_Max!_ I can see you, Max--you come at once, hear me?"
He muttered to himself and got to his feet. He moved slowly down the
path, watching the sky over his shoulder until the barn cut off his view. Maw
was back and that was that--she'd make his life miserable if he didn't come in
and help. When she had left that morning he had had the impression that she
would be gone overnight--not that she had said so; she never did--but he had
learned to read the signs. Now he would have to listen to her complaints and
her petty gossip when he wanted to read, or just as bad, be disturbed by the
slobbering stereovision serials she favored. He had often been tempted to
sabotage the pesky SV set--by rights with an ax! He hardly ever got to see the
programs he liked.
When he got in sight of the house he stopped suddenly. He had supposed
that Maw had ridden the bus from the Corners and walked up the draw as usual.
But there was a sporty little unicycle standing near the stoop--and there was
someone with her.
He had thought at first it was a "foreigner"--but when he got closer he
recognized the man. Max would rather have seen a foreigner, any foreigner.
Biff Montgomery was a hillman but he didn't work a farm; Max couldn't remember
having seen him do any honest work. He had heard it said that Montgomery
sometimes hired out as a guard when one of the moonshine stills back in the
hills was operating and it might be so--Montgomery was a big, beefy man and
the part might fit him.
Max had known Montgomery as long as he could remember, seen him loafing
around Clyde's Corners. But he had ordinarily given him "wagon room" and had
had nothing to do with him--until lately: Maw had started being seen with him,
even gone to barn dances and huskings with him. Max had tried to tell her that
Dad wouldn't have liked it. But you couldn't argue with Maw--what she didn't
like she just didn't hear.
But this was the first time she had ever brought him to the house. Max
felt a slow burn of anger starting in him.