《Deluge II》作者： - Robert F. Young【EPUB】

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DELUGE II By ROBERT F. YOUNG Illustrator ADKINS The ancient stresses were ready to tear the earth apart and only Anton Burkewas ready. He planned to choose his passenger-list with care. But when thetime came his space-ship Ark was empty—save for the strang-est friends a mancould have on a journey to the stars. The brazen throat of war had ceased to roar All now was turned to jollity and game —PARADISE LOST IN COMMON with Stendhal he sought after mistresses in common with Stendhal he won butfew in common with Stendhal he was ugly to look at in common with Stendhal he was gifted withforesight. But he was destined to give his world no Julien Sorel no exquisite Madame de Renal. Hisworld would have received them with even less grace than Stend-hals had. What he had to give was of amuch more material nature—and yet ironically it brought him ridicule rather than fame. His name wasAnton Burke. He looked down now on the veldt over which his noiseless shooting-platform was bearing him. Itwas a vast veldt and he owned every inch of it. Zebra roamed it gnu okapi and gi-raffe. Lion andlioness lolled in its sun-warmed grasses hippo-potamus and water buffalo wal-lowed in its muddystreams rhinoceros and elephant grazed on its rolling plains. Incongru-ously there were tiger kangarooand ocelot. An acreage of riotous jungle harbored chim-panzee gibbon and baboon gorillaCercopithecidae—and orangoutang. The Veldt as the gleaming sign above its ornate entrance onDiversion Street in Old York proclaimed was an all-purpose hunting-ground. Anton Burke rich to beginwith had populated it at great ex-pense with the species of fauna that had almost been killed off duringthe pre-exodus era and as a result had become even richer. Far to his right smoke rose in a tenuous blue-white column. There were numerous hunting-partiesabroad and one of them could have grounded their plat-form in order to cook a midday meal. Orperhaps one of the maintenance androids was burn-ing