"Baker,_Kage_-_The_Wreck_of_the_Gladstone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Baker Kage)

His face was haunted. "The ship was going down. Turning as it went down. I was trying to hurry with the painting and _he_ came in. VanderCook."
"Poor dear, you have had a conditioning nightmare," I said. "We all have them when we can't complete a mission. As soon as we recover the painting they'll cease to trouble you."
"I had to kill him." Kalugin's mouth trembled. "He thought I was stealing his things. He took hold of my arm, but I didn't have time! I only hit him with the back of my hand, but he died. All of them died."
"Yet that _was_ their mortal fate." I attempted to console him. "Death swiftly at your hand or some protracted agony of drowning, which would the poor man have preferred? It's not as though anything you did could have saved any of them. You saved the Delacroix, at least. Think of that! Consider, my dear, what you have preserved for the ages."
Kalugin drew a harsh breath. "Do you ever wonder whether we don't destroy as many things as we preserve by our meddling? I saved the painting, but perhaps if the ship had had a competent captain we wouldn't have foundered in the first place. "
"Nonsense," said Victor forcefully. "For God's sake, man, what are you mourning? One self-indulgent millionaire and a handful of sailors like Hayes. And isn't _he_ a prize? Which would you rather consign to the bottom, a work of art or a dirty little creature like Hayes? What possible difference can his nasty life make to the world?"
As if on cue, the shout came out of the twilight:
"Ahoy the _Chronos_! Ahoy! Ya think ya can buy me? Ya can't! I say I know what yer up to! And nobody cheats Mackie Hayes, ya hear me? Here I be and here I stay!"
Victor's moustaches swept up like scythe blades.
"I do believe," he said, "that it's time to fix that man's little red wagon." And he rose and strode from the saloon.
I settled back on the cushions with Kalugin and we watched the last pink light fade.
"Remember the DaVinci notebook," I told him.
"True." He passed a hand across his eyes wearily.
"And the cargo of the _Geldermalsen."_
"True." With the other hand he drew out the pins and loosed my long hair.
"And Laperouse's logbook and specimens. All of them lost to the world forever, but for you, dearest."
"True." He closed his eyes. I leaned down to him. Dreamily he gathered up a tress and draped it across his face, making his night blacker still. "Yet sometimes I could wish..."
* * * *
The stars shone briefly and then the advancing cloud cover put them out like candles. The sea was quite rough, now; we were obliged to weigh anchor and stand off from the _Elsie _some distance, lest we collide with her. Dinner was informal, cold meats and pickles and cheeses; no-one had much appetite owing to the nature of the commotion in the bosom of the deep. How fortunate had we Immortals been, if our creators had thought to make us proof against _mal-de-mer_! I have often mused on this, during a long life of journeys on Company affairs.
At half-past-nine Victor strolled into the saloon looking pleased with himself, and settled down to read the latest issue of the _London Illustrated News_. Kalugin and I played at Piquet, with no great attention to the cards as the rolling of the ship grew more pronounced.
Before Victor had had a chance to lay down the paper and amuse us with the latest antics of the British royal family, however, the door opened and the same Technician who had been reporting to Victor all day put in his head.
"Mme. Masaki has come aboard again, sir."
Victor tossed his paper aside and hurried on deck. We followed and arrived just in time to see the expectant smile dashed from his face by Mme. Masaki's cry of "D -- n you, Victor!"
"I beg your pardon." Victor drew himself up in as stiff an attitude of affront as he could manage on the pitching deck. She was advancing on him in her diving costume, her face pale in the light of the lantern, her eyes blazing with anger.
"Lower the whaleboat!" She swept her wet hair back from her face. "You've got to send someone to rescue the woman. That boat is sinking!"
"You were ordered to punch a few holes in it, not scuttle the infernal thing!" Victor narrowed his eyes.
"I started one plank and a whole seam opened up! It's coming to pieces in the water! D -- n you, will you lower that boat?"
But Kalugin was giving orders for it already. Mme. Masaki braced herself on the rail, drawing deep breaths. "And another thing," she told us. "The woman's alone over there. I was unable to perceive more than one mortal on board."
"Only one?" Victor frowned. "Where could Hayes have got to?"
We were answered by a thump. It was not even a sound, no more than a faint sensation against the soles of our feet, imperceptible I believe to mortal senses; but there, it came again, sharper against our hull and more distinct. Both Victor and Mme. Masaki responded with oaths of the most profane nature. She plunged once more over the side and disappeared in the black water. As she vanished we heard terrified screams from the sole occupant of the cabin of the _Elsie_.
Kalugin and his crew rowed like heroes, but it was a near thing. The doomed craft was turning in the night sea, listing with a stricken motion. I clung to the rail watching, sick at heart lest the rescuers arrive too late.
Judge with what relief I saw Mrs. Hayes lifted from the deck of the doomed _Elsie_ and settled securely in the bottom of the whaleboat. Even as it put about and made back toward us through the waves, Mme. Masaki pulled herself up on the rail with one arm. She had her other arm fast about Hayes, whom she had choked into unconsciousness. "Help me!" she cried.
Victor and I ran to assist her. Hayes lay ghastly pale in the lantern-light, a ridiculous wizened figure in his long undergarments. Victor knelt and I heard a smart click as he applied handcuffs to the oblivious sailor.
" I daresay that settles _your_ hash," said Victor, sneering.
"Our hull is unbroached," said Mme. Masaki. ""Though somewhat scored. He was doing his best to sink us with a hammer and chisel. Had he been able to see what he was doing we'd have been in genuine danger. He's remarkably strong, for a mortal."
"What shall we do with him?" I glanced out at the whaleboat, rapidly pulling close. "It would be well to remove him before the girl can see him like this, surely."
"As you wish." Victor seized the connecting chain of the manacles and dragged Hayes' inert form in the direction of the forward hatches. "I shall revive the blackguard and _then..._"
Even as he got Hayes safely out of sight below, the wind rose to a howl and the waves, previously wild, grew positively violent, dashing the whaleboat against the _Chronos_. I heard Mrs. Hayes screaming in the darkness, and Kalugin reassuring her; Mme. Masaki and I bent down to help her aboard. As we did so, I looked out across the night and beheld the _Elsie_ swing back over, giving one great drunken lurch before she righted herself, only to slide below the water. One last second her cabin light was visible, eerily sinking down toward eternal darkness; then it had vanished and I knew the rushing water had found it.
I was prevented from dwelling on this horror by the necessity of getting my arms around Mrs. Hayes, just as a cold wave broke over us. She screamed again, and with a final struggle we got her feet on deck and there we three huddled, dripping, as the crew got the whaleboat up.
"We must take her inside," I shouted to Mme. Masaki, who responded with a brusque nod. We started along the rail to the door of the saloon; then Mrs. Hayes stopped abruptly and her thin fingers tightened on my arm. Her poor little face was like an animal's in its terror. She looked down, we followed her gaze, and saw a rush of water and blood. It steamed briefly on the deck before another wave mingled it with sea foam and swept it away.
She began crying, a shrill monotonous piping _Oh, Oh, Oh,_ and we knew there was nothing for it but to take her by the arms and drag her, lest the child drop to the deck like a fish and tumble overboard.
And somehow we did bring her safely inside, half-carrying her to a bunk in one of the cabins, and saw her robed in a dry dressing-gown before we took that opportunity for ourselves; her thin cries grew fainter but did not cease the while.
"Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Hayes, you must compose yourself." I sat down beside her. "For the child's sake, my dear."
"You don't know," she sobbed. "My Mackie's drowned. He was going over to -- Oh, it's God's judgement, that's what it is! Oh, I'm so ashamed! And now he's lost -- "
"Pray do not distress yourself, Mrs. Hayes, your husband is safe. We apprehended him. We have him safe below." I gave her a handkerchief.
"Oh!" Her cries stopped as she took that in. Then the weak line of her mouth trembled. "I tried to tell him what you said, but he got real mad. He said if you was so ready to pay him to let it alone, there must be lots of treasure in the wreck. And when he brought up all that money I said Well let's go home Mackie and not be greedy, but _he_ said Elsie you're a dumb -- he said I was a dumb -- Oh, dear! And now we lost the money!" Her wails broke out afresh.
"Mrs. Hayes, you mustn't allow yourself to dwell on such things now. Think of your child! When did the pains begin?"
"Only just now." She gasped for breath. "Leastways -- I been having a backache but I thought it was all the hauling I been doing." Her face contorted in the extremity of her discomfort. I gave her my arm to clutch tight, and as I did so made use of my scanning perception to take a reading on herself and her infant. Mortals are quite unable to discern such surreptitious examinations; had she not been already too distracted to notice my preoccupation, she might have supposed I was uttering a silent prayer.
I leaned back and stared at her. I saw again the cabin light of the _Elsie,_ slipping away, slipping away down into the dark. I looked up at Mme. Masaki and transmitted my findings. Her lips drew back from her teeth.
We can't save them in such cases, you see. We mayn't interfere. Even if we could, this poor creature had seen things the Company had never intended a mortal to see. She was a complication. I did not even want to think about Victor down in the hold with the unconscious Hayes. There is a Company drug called Nepenthine, very useful in these unfortunate cases but not always entirely beneficial to those to whom it is administered...