"E.Voiskunsky, I.Lukodyanov. The Crew Of The Mekong (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

said, "You know my friend Zina, don't you? Let's introduce her to him."
"Better riot," said Yura. "He's very choosy."
Val frowned. "Humph!" she said with a pout.
Yura struck up a song and Nikolai joined in. Sometimes they thought up
their own words to popular songs, and sometimes they set poems to well-known
tunes.
Meanwhile, the ship had drawn abreast of the sailboat. "Look at the
crowd on deck," Nikolai remarked. "Some sort of a brawl, judging by the way
they're milling about."
At that instant a slim figure in red plunged over the side of the ship.
"Veer!" Nikolai shouted.
Yura leaned on the tiller. The blocks creaked and the mainsail
described a wide arc as it swung over to the other side. The boat, listing
heavily to starboard, sped towards the ship.
"Take it, Val! Brace yourself with your feet!" Nikolai gave the girl
the stay-sail sheet and dived into the water.


CHAPTER THREE


IN WHICH OPRATIN TELLS PRIVALOV SOMETHING AND LEARNS SOMETHING IN

PASSING

Towards the end of the day Privalov's old friend Pavel Koltukhov, the
Institute's chief engineer, dropped in to see him.
"Looks like smooth sailing at last, Boris," he said, sitting down and
stretching out his legs. "Work will be resumed at the site tomorrow."
"Thank goodness!" Privalov flung himself back in his chair. "Those
self-styled efficiency experts! To claim that it's cheaper to transport oil
by tanker than by pipeline! But they forgot that tankers return empty. They
close their eyes to the cost of taking on ballast water and then discharging
it. To say nothing of the number of stormy days on the Caspian."
Koltukhov nodded his bald head in agreement. Then he stuck a cigarette
between his lips and gave Privalov a sharp glance from beneath beetling
eyebrows.
"You don't have to persuade me a pipeline is better," he said. He
walked over to a big map of the Caspian hanging on the wall.
"Forty kilometres of pipeline," he said. "Three more parallel pipelines
will make it a total of 160 kilometres. A pipeline across the whole of the
Caspian will add another 300 kilometres. We'll be paving the floor of the
Caspian with steel."
"We'll be paving it with millions of roubles too," Privalov added,
joining Koltukhov in front of the map. "Here we are in the twentieth century
and the only way we know of transporting liquids is through pipes, just like
in the first century."
Koltukhov chewed his lip. "Have you read Arshavin's latest article?" he
asked.
"About towing oil across the sea in containers made of thin polythene