"E. E. Doc Smith - Lensman 8 - The Dragon Lensman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

head. The walls were crowded by a massive body with its multiple arms, two
conventional but two bat-winged, with clawed thumb and hooked fingers. The
face
seemed to be entirely sharp white teeth. Several bright eyes tilted down
toward him on
the ends of waving stalks, each glittering eye fixed on him. One of the pair
of regular
limbs reached out to him, muscles rippling along scaly forearm, claws
retracted at the
end of a sinewy palm and long slender fingers. The Curator shrank back, even
as he
reached out his own fingers for a timid welcoming handshake.

That the saurian wore a GP uniform, so scanty it was more like a harness, was
reassuring, though the conspicuous gray leather of a Second Stage Lensman was
immensely intimidating. This snake-thing was the most remarkable Lensman among
a
most remarkable group in the Civilized Universe. And yet, for all its potent
might, it was
most honored by the good entities of the billions of planets and most feared
by the bad,
not for its titantic strength, but for its intellect. Here was Worsel, within
touch, the
greatest pragmatic thinker in the Galactic Patrol-such greatness left the old
scientist's
mind numb. His whole body, in fact, was numb.

Then he knew that the numbness was the spell of the extraordinary power of the
dragon's telepathic mind. Worsel, who did not speak, was in his mind, greeting
him,
reassuring him, making him feel at ease. The dragon which had come to Pok was
not a
plebeian Occidental one, symbolizing evil, but a patrician Oriental one,
intrinsically
benevolent.

The human being, for the first time in his life, felt that he himself might be
a member of an
inferior race-and to his surprise he was pleased to consider such an
unthinkable idea.
Thus Worsel, the Dragon Lensman, came to Pok.

Chapter 1
Section 60

Two figures stood facing each other. Both were sleek and powerful, both stood
twenty
feet tall, both were mighty engines of destruction. One was alive, a dragon,
and one was
not, a machine.