"Tama Princes of Mercury" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weis Margaret)

of his too-modest friends. But it seems not. He visits them
occasionally, and it is no secret that our reporters have
tried many times to trail him to their lair. But he is fleet
and cleveras clever in avoiding our pursuit as he is in
tracking down criminals."
Rowena laughed. "That newscaster is frank enough, any-
way."
"Where is Tama?" Guy asked suddenly.
"Out flying," said Toh. "She left just a little while ago."
Guy frowned. "She shouldn't be out. I've told hernot
while there's still light."
"Pretty cold," I said.
"She has a knitted suit," said Rowena, and smiled. "I told
her, too, that she shouldn't go, but she went. You know Tama.
But she can't go far. She can hardly fly with those clothes
weighing her down, and the Earth's gravity"
Guy went to the window, stood gazing out. Presently he
called us.
"Look here!"
The sunset light was almost gone, but one could still see
a snow-white cloud sailing high overhead.
Guy pointed. "Look"
We went outside. A tiny dot was far up there, dropping
out of the cloud. We knew it was not Tama. It came
down like a plummet, resolved itself presently into a midget
monoplane descending almost with a nose dive.
. ' "Jimmy's dragon," I said. "He must have been at fifty
or sixty thousand feetdropping through those clouds-
making sure nobody is trailing him here."
Jimmy landed on the snow nearby. Climbing from his little
pit, he was a shapeless bundle in his electrically warmed fly-
ing suit. In our living room he revealed himselfa short,
stocky, redheaded little daredevil, with an unfailing grin.
"Hello, folks! A damned B.P.A. plane was after me when
I left the city. Hope they had a good trip. I say, how about
a cup of coffee?"
"Oh, 1m sorry," Rowena apologized. "Of course you'll want
something. I'll tell Eliza."
Eliza was our one servent, a middle-aged woman. She
and Rowena returned presently with a hot breakfast for Jim-
my.
"What brought you, Jimmy?" I demanded.
"Oh, )ust to see you. Don't I have to see my buried
friends every so often?"-His grin faded. "I've got news, a
message for you from Grenfell: We're definitely goingthe
Cube is starting for Mercurythe tentative date is March
thirtieth. . . . I say, Rowena, you do serve the most marvelous
coffee."
He took it as lightly as that I In two weeks we were leaving
for Mercury. My heart pounded at the thought of it. We