"Lord Dunsany - Bethmoora" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

burnttheir vineyards and began to flee away from Bethmoora,
goingfor the most part northwards, though some went to the
East. They ran down out of their fair white houses, and
streamedthrough the copper gate; the throbbing of the
tambangand the tittibuk suddenly ceased with the note of
thezootibar, and the clinking kalipac stopped a moment
after. The three strange travellers went back the way they
came the instant their message was given. It was the hour
whena light would have appeared in some high tower, and
windowafter window would have poured into the dusk its
lion-frighteninglight, and the copper gates would have been
fastened up. But no lights came out in windows there that
nightand have not ever since, and those copper gates were
leftwide and have never shut, and the sound arose of the
redfire crackling in the vineyards, and the pattering of
feet fleeing softly. There were no cries, no other sounds
at all, only the rapid and determined flight. They fled as
swiftlyand quietly as a herd of wild cattle flee when they
suddenly see a man. It was as though something had befallen
whichhad been feared for generations, which could only be
escapedby instant flight, which left no time for
indecision.
Then fear took the Europeans also, and they too fled.
And what the message was I have never heard.
Many believe that it was a message from Thuba Mleen, the
mysteriousemperor of those lands, who is never seen by man,
advising that Bethmoora should be left desolate. Others say
thatthe message was one of warning from the gods, whether
fromfriendly gods or from adverse ones they know not.
And others hold that the Plague was ravaging a line of
citiesover in Utnar Vehi, following the South-west wind
whichfor many weeks had been blowing across them towards
Bethmoora.
Some say that the terrible gnousar sickness was upon the
threetravellers, and that their very mules were dripping
withit, and suppose that they were driven to the city by
hunger, but suggest no better reason for so terrible a
crime.
But most believe that it was a message from the desert
himself, who owns all the Earth to the southwards, spoken
withhis peculiar cry to those three who knew his voice --
menwho had been out on the sand-wastes without tents by
night, who had been by day without water, men who had been
outthere where the desert mutters, and had grown to know
his needs and his malevolence. They say that the desert had
aneed for Bethmoora, that he wished to come into her lovely
streets, and to send into her temples and her houses his
storm-winds draped with sand. For he hates the sound and
thesight of men in his old evil heart, and he would have
Bethmoora silent and undisturbed, save for the weird lovehe