"Bierce, Ambrose - The Damned Thing" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bierce Ambrose)

The coroner nodded; no one else greeted him.
"We have waited for you," said the coroner. "It is necessary to have done with
this business to-night.,"
The young man smiled. "I am sorry to have kept you," he said. "I went away, not
to evade your summons, but to post to my newspaper an account of what I suppose
I am called back to relate."
The coroner smiled.
"The account that you posted to your newspaper," he said, "differs probably from
that which you will give here under oath."
"That," replied the other, rather hotly and with a visible flush, "is as you
choose. I used manifold paper and have a copy of what I sent. It was not written
as news, for it is incredible, but as fiction. It may go as a part of my
testimony under oath."
"But you say it is incredible."
"That is nothing to you, sir, if I also swear that it is true."
The coroner was apparently not greatly affected by the young man's manifest
resentment. He was silent for some moments, his eyes upon the floor. The men
about the sides of the cabin talked in whispers, but seldom withdrew their gaze
from the face of the corpse. Presently the coroner lifted his eyes and said: "We
will resume the inquest."
The men removed their hats. The witness was sworn.
"What is your name?" the coroner asked.
"William Harker."
"Age?"
"Twenty-seven."
"You knew the deceased, Hugh Morgan?"
"Yes."
"You were with him when he died?"
"Near him."
"How did that happenЧ your presence, I mean?"
"I was visiting him at this place to shoot and fish. A part of my purpose,
however, was to study him, and his odd, solitary way of life. He seemed a good
model for a character in fiction. I sometimes write stories."
"I sometimes read them."
"Thank you."
"Stories in generalЧ not yours."
Some of the jurors laughed. Against a sombre background humor shows high lights.
Soldiers in the intervals of battle laugh easily, and a jest in the death
chamber conquers by surprise.
"Relate the circumstances of this man's death," said the coroner. "You may use
any notes or memoranda that you please."
The witness understood. Pulling a manuscript from his breast pocket he held it
near the candle, and turning the leaves until he found the passage that he
wanted, began to read.
II
"...The sun had hardly risen when we left the house. We were looking for quail,
each with a shotgun, but we had only one dog. Morgan said that our best ground
was beyond a certain ridge that he pointed out, and we crossed it by a trail
through the chaparral. On the other side was comparatively level ground, thickly
covered with wild oats. As we emerged from the chaparral, Morgan was but a few