"Murray Leinster - The Gadget Had a Ghost" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

expectation of one. And the existence of—let us say—a ‘gadget’ at
8o Hosain is not in your memory. Right?”
“Quite right,” admitted Coghian.
“Now if you are to acquire the scar,” observed Ghalil, “you will
make—or have made, I must add—those fingerprints at some time
in the future, when you will know of danger to Mr. Mannard, and of
a gadget at 8o Hosain. This-i---”
“Ce n’est pas logique!” protested Duval bitterly.
“But it is logic,” said Ghalil calmly. “The only flaw is that it is
not common sense. Logically, then, one concludes that at some time
in the future, Mr. Goghlan will know these things and will wish to
inform himself, in what is now the present, of them. He will wish—
perhaps next week—to inform himself today that there is danger to
Mr. Mannard and that there is something of significance at 8o
Hosain, on the second floor in the back room. So he will do so. And
this memorandum on the fly-leaf of this very ancient book will be
the method by which he informs himself.”
Coghlan said, “But you don’t believe that!”
“I do not admit that I believe it,” said Ghalil with a smile. “But I
think it would be wise to visit 8o Hosain. I cannot think of anything
else to do!”
“Why not tell Mannard about all this?” asked Coghian dryly.
 “He would think me insane,” said the Turk, just as dryly. “And
with reason. In fact, I suspect it myself.”
“I’ll tell him,” said Coghlan, “for what it’s worth. I’m having
dinner with him and with his daughter tonight. It will make small
talk at least.” He looked at his watch. “I really should be leaving
now.”
Lieutenant Chalil rose politely. Duval took his head from his
hands and stood up also, looking more haggard now than at the
beginning of the talk. Something occurred to Coghlan.
“Tell me,” he said curiously, “M. Duval, when you first found
this book, what made you loosen a glued-down page?”
Duval spread out his hands. Ghalil turned back the cover again,
and put the fly-leaf flat. On what had been the visible side there was
a note, a gloss, of five or six lines. It was in an informal sort of
Greek lettering, and unintelligible to Coghian. But, judging by its
placement, it was a memo by some previous owner of the book,
rather than any contribution of the copyist.
“My translator and M. Duval agree,” observed Ghalil. “They say
it says, ‘This book has traveled to the frigid Beyond and returned,
bearing writing of the adepts who ask news of Appolonius.’ I do not
know what that means, nor did M. Duval, but he searched for other
writings. When he saw a page glued down, he loosened it—and you
know what has resulted.”
Goghlan said vexedly, “I wouldn’t know what an adept is, and I
can hardly guess what a frigid beyond is, or a warm one either. But I
do know an Appolonius. I think he’s a Greek, but he calls himself a
Neoplatonist as if that were a nationality, and says he hails from
somewhere in Arabia. He’s trying to get Mannard to finance some