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

was the most revolting -- the terrible condition of the
sailor or the happy unblinking face of horrible Thuba Mleen.
"I wanted to go away, but the time was not yet come, and
I had to stay where I was.
"Suddenly the Emperor's face began to twitch violently
and his under lip quivered faster, and he whimpered with
anger, and cried with a shrill voice, in Yannish, to the
captain of his torturers that there was a spirit in the
room. I feared not, for living men cannot lay hands on a
spirit, but all the torturers were appalled at his anger,
and stopped their work, for their hands trembled in fear.
Then two men of the spear-guard slipped from the room, and
each of them brought back presently a golden bowl, with
knobs on it, full of hashish; and the bowls were large
enough for heads to have floated in had they been filled
with blood. And the two men fell to rapidly, each eating
with two great spoons -- there was enough in each spoonful
to have given dreams to a hundred men. And there came upon
them soon the hashish state, and their spirits hovered,
preparing to go free, while I feared horribly, but ever and
anon they fell back again to their bodies, recalled by some
noise in the room. Still the men ate, but lazily now, and
without ferocity. At last the great spoons dropped out of
their hands, and their spirits rose and left them. I could
not flee. And the spirits were more horrible than the men,
because they were young men, and not yet wholly moulded to
fit their fearful souls. Still the sailor groaned softly,
evoking little titters from the Emperor Thuba Mleen. Then
the two spirits rushed at me, and swept me thence as gusts
of wind sweep butterflies, and away we went from that small,
pale, heinous man. There was no escaping from these
spirits' fierce insistence. The energy in my minute lump of
the drug was overwhelmed by the huge spoonsful that these
men had eaten with both hands. I was whirled over Arvle
Woondery, and brought to the lands of Snith, and swept on
still until I came to Kragua, and beyond this to those bleak
lands that are nearly unknown to fancy. And we came at last
to those ivory hills that are named the Mountains of
Madness, and I tried to struggle against the spirits of that
frightful Emperor's men, for I heard on the other side of
the ivory hills the pittering of those beasts that prey on
the mad, as they prowled up and down. It was no fault of
mine that my little lump of hashish could not fight with
their horrible spoonsful..."
Some one was tugging at the hall-door bell. Presently a
servant came and told our host that a policeman in the hall
wished to speak to him at once. He apologised to us, and
went outside, and we heard a man in heavy boots, who spoke
in a low voice to him. My friend got up and walked over to
the window, and opened it, and looked outside. "I should