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

sane?"
Harrison was still very pale.
"Let's find out." He rapped on the table. The waiter came.
Harrison paid and tipped him. Then he said: "Do you know if
there was ever an Emperor of Mexico?"
The waiter beamed.
"Mais ouU He was the Archduke Maximilian of Hapsburg,
placed on the throne of Mexico by Napoleon the Third. He
was shot by the Republicans at Queretaro. It is part of
history, m'sieur, which I read as an amusement."
Harrison gravely doubled the tip. He said, "Merci," and
he and Pepe rose from the table. As they went down the street
together, Pepe said ruefully:
"Now, I wonder how many waiters in Mexico could have
told us that! And it is our history! But why did I make
such a fool of myself? Why did I? Do I seem to act strangely?
Should I see a doctor? A psycho-analyst?"
Harrison said with some grimness:
"Remember Professor Carroll? I'd like to see him! He said
something that started me off on this business. Remember?
He said that the cosmos as known is merely the statistical
probability that has the value of unity? I'd like to see him
analyze the statistical probability of de Bassompierre!"
"Ah, yes! De Bassompiere! I . . ." Then Pepe stopped. After
an instant he

today. There is a shop, a very curious one. The name is
Carroll, Dubois et Cie. The window says that they are
importers and exporters d'ans 1804. They display incredible
objects, apparently from the Napoleonic period, but abso-
lutely new and in perfect condition. They even offer reprints
of the Moniteur of 1804. But they say, 'exporters and im-
porters'!"
Then he said indignantly:
"But why did I make so insane a statement about four
emperors of Mexico? For seconds I believed tranquilly that
that was the history of my country!"
Harrison shrugged. He remained absorbed in his own prob-
lem. Presently he said with a sort of mirthless amusement,
"Would you like to hear something really insane, Pepe?
Make one impossible assumption, and the matter of de
Bassompierre and his correspondence becomes quite impos-
sible. There is only one fact to make the assumption unthink-
able."
"What is the assumption?"
"If it were possible to travel in time," said Harrison, "and
one had evidence that a man in the early 1800s knew about
Mendel's laws, and that alternating current could be useful
when at the time even D.C. was of no use to anybody
and facts about astronomy the telescopes weren't good
enough to find out, and how hieroglyphics could be deci-

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