"Murray Leinster - Time Tunnel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

milian. Emperor of Mexico, fifty years in what was -then the
future!"
He stopped. He felt queer. He had experienced a momentary
giddiness. It was almost unnoticeable, but it seemed as if the
street changed subtly and the branches of the trees were no
longer exactly as they had been. There was a doorway in a
house on the opposite side of the street which abruptly
looked wrong.
Pepe looked at him curiously.
"What's that?" he asked. "An Emperor Maximilian of
Mexico? What are you talking about?"
Harrison turned pale. He remembered saying the words,
"Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico." When he'd said them,
they'd seemed perfectly reasonable. They were meaningful.
But now they weren't. They were associated with somebody
named Napoleon the Third, to be sure. And of course there'd
been a Napoleon the Third, just as there'd been a Napoleon the
Fourth, and so on. But somehow it had seemed wrong. And
there had never been a Maximilian of Mexico.
"I suspect," he said in a sudden mixture of aversion and
relief, "that I've cracked up. I've been talking nonsense."
But Pope's expression had changed, also. He looked puzzled.
"I am not sure, but now it comes to me. I have a memory,
a vague one. It seems to me that there was some story, per-
haps a novel, about a Maximilian. His wife was named . . ."
"Carlotta," said Harrison.
"Pero si!" agreed Pepe, relievedly. "Certainly! We read
the same novel at some time or another! There have only
been four Emperors of Mexico and none Of them was
named..."
He stopped short. His mouth dropped open. There was
again a faint feeling of giddiness in the air. Again one could
not be sure that he felt it. The branches of the trees again
seemed changed, as if they'd grown differently from the way
they'd looked before. A door across the street looked right
again, where before it hadn't.
"Now, why the devil," demanded Pepe, "why did I say
that? Of course there was an Emperor Maximilian! He was a
fool! He spent his time compiling an official book of the
etiquette to be observed in his court, while he and all his
followers were being besieged by Juarez, who presently
had him shot!** And Carlotta went mad and lived in
Belgium until 19271 Why did I say there was no Emperor
**The writing of a book of etiquette was, histori-
cally, the principal interest of Maximilian while he was
being besieged in Queretaro, before his capture and
execution. M.L.
Maximilian? Why did I suspect that we had both merely
read the same novel? AndDios miolwhere did I get the
idea that there had been four Mexican emperors? Am I in-