"George A. Stewart - Earth Abides" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stewart George A)

to be everywhere; then with dramatic suddenness their pestilence falls upon
them. Some zoologists have even suggested a biological law: that the number
of individuals in a species never remains constant, but always rises and
falls-the higher the animal and the slower its breeding-rate, the longer
its period of fluctuation.*

*During most of the nineteenth century the African buffalo was a common
creature on the veldt. It was a powerful beast with few natural enemies,
and if its census could have been taken by decades, it would have proved to
be increasing steadily. Then toward the century's end it reached its
climax, and was suddenly struck by a plague of rinderpest. Afterwards the
buffalo was almost a curiosity, extinct in many parts of its range. In the
last fifty years it has again slowly built up its numbers. *

*As for man, there is little reason to think that he can in the long run
escape the fate of other creatures, and if there is a biological law of
flux and reflux, his situation is now a highly perilous one. During ten
thousand years his numbers have been on the upgrade in spite of wars,
pestilences, and famines. This increase in population has become more and
more rapid. Biologically, man has for too long a time been rolling an
uninterrupted run of sevens. *

When he awoke in the middle of the morning, he felt a sudden sense of
pleasure. He had feared he would be sicker than ever, but he felt much
better. He was not choking any more, and also his hand felt cooler. The
swelling had gone down. On the preceding day he had felt so bad, from
whatever other trouble had struck him, that he had had no time to think
about the hand. Now both the hand and the illness seemed better, as if the
one had stopped the other and they had both receded. By noon he was feeling
clear-headed and not even particularly weak.

He ate some lunch, and decided that he could make it down to Johnson's. He
did not bother to pack up everything. He took his precious notebooks and
his camera. At the last moment also, as if by some kind of compulsion, he
picked up the hammer, carried it to the car, and threw it in on the floor
by his feet. He drove off slowly, using his right hand as little as


file:///F|/rah/George%20A.%20Stewart/Stewart,%20George%20R%20-%20Earth%20Abides.txt (5 of 214) [1/17/03 5:02:49 AM]
 file:///F|/rah/George%20A.%20Stewart/Stewart,%20George%20R%20-%20Earth%20Abides.txt

possible.

At Johnson's everything was quiet. He let the car roll to a stop at the
gasoline-pump. Nobody came out to fill his tank, but that was not
peculiar,, because the Johnson pump, like so many in the mountains, was
tended on a haphazard basis. He blew the horn, and waited again. After
another minute he got out, and went up the rickety steps which led to the
room serving as an informal store where campers could pick up cigarettes
and canned goods. He went in, but there was nobody there.