"Clark Ashton Smith - Master of the Asteroid" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Clark Ashton)

and Edmond Beverly. These three, through banding together in a curious
fashion, became intolerably antisocial toward all the others. It would seem
that they must have gone close to the borderline of insanity, and were
subject to actual delusions. At any rate, they conceived the idea that
Mars, with its fifteen Earthmen, was entirely too crowded. Voicing this
idea in a most offensive and belligerent manner, they also began to hint
their intention of faring even further afield in space.

Their hints were not taken seriously by the others, since a crew of
three was insufficient for the proper manning of even the lightest rocket
vessel used at that time. Colt, Gershom and Beverly had no difficulty at
all in stealing the Selenite, the smaller of the two ships then reposing at
the Syrtis Major base. Their fellow-colonists were aroused one night by the
cannon-like roar of the discharging tubes, and emerged from their huts of
sheet-iron in time to see the vessel departing in a fiery streak toward
Jupiter.

No attempt was made to follow it; but the incident helped to sober the
remaining twelve and to calm their unnatural animosities. It was believed,
from certain remarks that the malcontents had let drop, that their
particular objective was Ganymede or Europa, both of which were thought to
possess an atmosphere suitable for human respiration.

It seemed very doubtful, however, that they could pass the perilous
belt of the asteroids. Apart from the difficulty of steering a course amid
these innumerable far-strewn bodies, the Selenite was not fueled or
provisioned for a voyage of such length. Gershom, Colt and Beverly, in
their mad haste to quit the company of the others, had forgotten to
calculate the actual necessities of their proposed voyage, and had wholly
overlooked its dangers.

After that departing flash on the Martian skies, the Selenite was not
seen again; and its fate remained a mystery for thirty years. Then, on
tiny, remote Phocea, its dented wreck was found by the Holdane expedition
to the asteroids.

Phocea, at the time of the expedition's visit, was in aphelion. Like
others of the planetoids, it was discovered to possess a rare atmosphere,
too thin for human breathing. Both hemispheres were covered with thin snow;
and lying amid this snow, the Selenite was sighted by the explorers as they
circled about the little world.

Much interest prevailed, for the shape of the partially bare mound was
plainly recognizable and not to be confused with the surrounding rocks.
Holdane ordered a landing, and several men in space suits proceeded to
examine the wreck. They soon identified it as the long-missing Selenite.

Peering in through one of the thick, unbreakable neocrystal ports,
they met the eyeless gaze of a human skeleton, which had fallen forward
against the slanting, overhanging wall. It seemed to grin a sardonic