"Friedrich Mader - Distant Worlds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mader Friedrich)

"But now comes something better than African hunger-fare, old friend; and I know that you prefer the better to the
worse."
"Only a fool wouldn't! But now, Professor, what are you planning?"

"I really have nothing planned; but some one else: do you still remember Lord Flitmore?"

Munchhausen laughed uproariously. "Only a professor secluded from the world would think of such a question!
'Remember' is a good one. If you have gone through such adventures with a man like Flitmore, fought out such battles
and enjoyed such glorious hours together as we two have, is it easy to forget him? Excuse me. Professor, but your
question is ... well, what should I call it?"

"Stupid!" supplemented Schulze, laughing in turn. "You are right, old growler. Now then! Here's a letter I received from
Flitmore. He writes that he has made a hardly believable discovery."

"Hardly believable? I tell you, I believe everything he says, I believe him capable of the most wonderful things after
the proofs of his inventive spirit he gave us in Africa."

"Right! But listen: he writes that his discovery wipes out the dividing spaces of the universe and makes possible, .trips


to the moon, to the planets, and perhaps even into the world of fixed stars. And now he is inviting me to accompany
him on his first trip. What do you think of that? Can it be that he is a little cracked after all?"

"Oh, you men of science who cannot greet a new, startling discovery without doubting it! If the professors were the
ones to decide these things, all the gifted inventors would land in the madhouse! I tell you I believe Flitmore can do
anything. He is a genius. Send him a telegram and ask him if he will take me along. Ha, there's a trip for you! There has
never been anything like it outside of the imagination of writers. I must go along!"

"That's just the point: Lord Flitmore asks me to accompany him because he knows that in recent years I have applied
myself entirely to astronomy, and he has followed my writings in this field with interest and approval, as he writes. But
then he asks about you and your address. He is full of admiration for the automobile you invented, the one we used to
explore Australia."

"Yes, yes, the Nora!" said the Captain with a smile of satisfaction. "It wasn't such a bad idea. But to the moon —nope!
It could never make it!"

"Well, with your technical knowledge and your inventive skill in this field, Flitmore doesn't think he can find a better
engineer and captain for his World-Ship than you, and he would be overjoyed if he could get you for the venture."

"That's a bargain!" cried Munchhausen enthusiastically. "When do we leave?"

"Hold on there!" laughed Schulze. "Not so hasty, old friend! You are a rash youngster. Think it over," he continued,
growing serious, "the risk is more than daring: it is a matter of life and death. Flitmore does not fail to emphasize it
plainly: no man can know what dangers and what

undreamed-of disasters threaten the earthly dweller who leaves his native planet and rises above the atmosphere into
the void of cosmic space."

"And wasn't it also a matter of life and death in Africa and Australia and wherever else we did exploring? Did we have