"Murray Leinster - Keyhole (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

showed the interior of the nursery from four different angles. Butch remained still for a long
time. Then he slipped down to the floor. This time he ignored the dwelling-cave of the nursery.
He went interestedly to the human-culture part. He examined everything there with his
oversized soft eyes. He touched everything with his incredibly handlike tiny paws. But his touches
were tentative. Nothing was actually disturbed when he finished his examination.
He went swiftly back to the dunce-cap rock, swarmed up it, locked his arms and legs about
it again, blinked rapidly and seemed to go to sleep. He remained motionless with closed eyes until
Worden grew tired of watching him and moved away.
The whole alTair was preposterous and infuriating. The first men to land on the Moon knew
that it was a dead world. The astronomers had been saying so for a hundred years, and the first
and second expeditions to reach Luna from Earth found nothing to contradict the theory.
But a man from the third expedition saw something moving among the upflung rocks of the
Moon’s landscape and he shot it and the existence of Butch’s kind was discovered. It was


file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Murray%20Leinster%20-%20Keyhole.txt (1 of 8) [10/16/2004 4:43:52 PM]
 file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Murray%20Leinster%20-%20Keyhole.txt

inconceivable of course that there should be living creatures where there was neither air nor
water. But Butch’s folk did, live under exactly those conditions.
The dead body of the first living creature killed on the Moon was carried back to Earth
and biologists grew indignant. Even with a specimen to dissect and study they were inclined to
insist that there simply wasn’t any such creature. So the fourth and fifth and sixth lunar
expeditions hunted Butch’s relatives very earnestly for further specimens for the advancement of
science.
The sixth expedition lost two men whose spacesuits were punctured by what seemed to be
weapons while they were hunting. The seventh expedition was wiped out to the last man. Butch’s
relatives evidently didn’t like being shot as biological specimens.
It wasn’t until the tenth expedition of four ships established a base in Tycho Crater that
men had any assurance of being able to land on the Moon and get away again. Even then the staff of
the station felt as if it were under permanent siege.
Worden made his report to Earth. A baby lunar creature had been captured by a tractor
party and brought into Tycho Station. A nursery was ready and the infant was there now, alive. He
seemed to be uninjured. He seemed not to mind an environment of breathable air for which he had no
use. He was active and apparently curious and his intelligence was marked.
There was so far no clue to what he ate—if he ate at all—though he had a mouth like the
other collected specimens and the toothlike concretions which might serve as teeth. Worden would
of course continue to report in detail. At the moment he was allowing Butch to accustom himself to
his new surroundings.
He settled down in the recreation room to scowl at his companion scientists and try to
think, despite the program beamed on radar frequency from Earth. He definitely didn’t like his
job, but he knew that it had to be done. Butch had to be domesticated. He had to be persuaded that
he was a human being, so human beings could find out how to exterminate his kind.
It had been observed before, on Earth, that a kitten raised with a litter of puppies came
to consider itself a dog and that even pet ducks came to prefer human society to that of their own
species. Some talking birds of high intelligence appeared to be convinced that they were people
and acted that way. If Butch reacted similarly he would become a traitor to his kind for the
benefit of man. And it was necessary!
Men had to have the Moon, and that was all there was to it. Gravity on the Moon was one
eighth that of gravity on Earth. A rocket ship could make the Moon’ voyage and carry a cargo, but