"Donald Westlake - SH4 - The World's A Stage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westlake Donald E)

“Of Mice and Men for an extended run,” suggested Ensign Benson.

Across the way, out in the middle of an empty field, a group of men in togas strolled out from behind an
invisible curtain of air and began declaiming at one another. They all stood with one foot in front of the
other.

“That’s the part that bugs me the most,” Ensign Benson said. “How do they appear and disappear like
that?”

“Scrim,” said Hester.

Ensign Benson gave her an unfriendly look. “What?”

“I know what a scrim is,” Billy said. “We had one in the theater in college. It’s a big mesh screen. You
paint a backdrop on it and hang it across the front of the stage. If you shine a light in front, you see the
painting but you can’t see the stage. If you shine the light in the back, the painting disappears and you see
the stage,.”

“Close but no psuegar,” said Hester. “That’s the original, old-fashioned kind of scrim, but then a way
was found to alter air molecules so light would bend around them. Now a scrim is a curtain of bent
molecules. You put it around a set and it shows you what’s beyond it. They used to use one in the field
questions for the S.E. degree, but of course its old-fashioned now.”

“None of which solves,” Councilman Luthguster reminded them, “the problem of how to get in touch with
whoever runs this blasted colony. I’ll do no more play acting!”

Standing, the captain said, “Well, Hestia’s going down; there’s no more to do today. We’ll get an early
start tomorrow.



“Wasn’t it right here?” the captain asked.

“I thought,” said Pam vaguely, “it was more over that way, by those little trees.”

“There weren’t trees here before,” Ensign Benson said. “Those are cardboard, part of a set.”

“I am uninterested in sets, “the councilman said. “Totally uninterested. What I want is my room on the
ship.”

“Well, yes,” said Luthguster.

The little group stood on the plain, looking around. The captain said, “It was just--- It was right around
--- I know it was over here somewhere.”

A man dressed in the front half of a horse costume came striding purposefully by, carrying the horse’s
head under his arm. Billy said, “Excuse me. Have you seen our spaceship?”
“What?” The horseman looked around, then said, “Oh, right. They struck that set.” And he walked on.