"Dunsany, Lord - Hashish Man, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

not want. It takes one literally out of oneself. It is
like wings. You swoop over distant countries and into other
worlds. Once I found out the secret of the universe. I
have forgotten what it was, but I know that the Creator does
not take Creation seriously, for I remember that He sat in
Space with all His work in front of Him and laughed. I have
seen incredible things in fearful worlds. As it is your
imagination that takes you there, so it is only by your
imagination that you can get back. Once out in aether I met
a battered, prowling spirit, that had belonged to a man whom
drugs had killed a hundred years ago; and he led me to
regions that I had never imagined; and we parted in anger
beyond the Pleiades, and I could not imagine my way back.
And I met a huge grey shape that was the Spirit of some
great people, perhaps of a whole star, and I besought It to
show me my way home, and It halted beside me like a sudden
wind and pointed, and, speaking quite softly, asked me if I
discerned a certain tiny light, and I saw a far star
faintly, and then It said to me, `That is the Solar System,'
and strode tremendously on. And somehow I imagined my way
back, and only just in time, for my body was already
stiffening in a chair in my room; and the fire had gone out
and everything was cold, and I had to move each finger one
by one, and there were pins and needles in them, and
dreadful pains in the nails, which began to thaw; and at
last I could move one arm, and reached a bell, and for a
long time no one came, because every one was in bed. But at
last a man appeared, and they got a doctor; and HE said that
it was hashish poisoning, but it would have been all right
if I hadn't met that battered, prowling spirit.
"I could tell you astounding things that I have seen, but
you want to know who sent that message to Bethmoora. Well,
it was Thuba Mleen. And this is how I know. I often went
to the city after that day you wrote of (I used to take
hashish of an evening in my flat), and I always found it
uninhabited. Sand had poured into it from the desert, and
the streets were yellow and smooth, and through open,
swinging doors the sand had drifted.
"One evening I had put the guard in front of the fire,
and settled into a chair and eaten my hashish, and the first
thing that I saw when I came to Bethmoora was the sailor
with the black scar, strolling down the street, and making
footprints in the yellow sand. And now I knew that I should
see what secret power it was that kept Bethmoora
uninhabited.
"I saw that there was anger in the Desert, for there were
storm clouds heaving along the skyline, and I heard a
muttering amongst the sand.
"The sailor strolled on down the street, looking into the
empty houses as he went; sometimes he shouted and sometimes