"H. L. Gold - Fog" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gold H. L)

enough, for, unlike a child, he displayed no curiosity, but like an animal, took his surroundings as a matter
of course.
They did this once too often, however.

THE MORNING had dawned darkly, with the sun hidden by many heavy clouds drifting in from the
east. Rollins hoped it would clear, because his subject became fretful and restless when kept in the house
during the day.
Rollins had been called away directly after lunch. Before leaving, he made certain that the beast-man
was in his room, as peaceful as he could be indoors.
The subject was moving up and down restlessly, and to take no chances, Rollins locked the doors
and window. The patient roved about the room after Rollins left. He was hungry and he wanted the sun.
They had offered him a piece of meat, part of which he ate through sheer hunger; the rest he hurled aside.
It was perfectly fresh, but dry.
Upstairs Dr. Cobb napped after a good lunch.
To the patient, the door appeared no different from the rest of the wall. The color was not the same;
that was all. If he thought at all about entering and leaving a room, the doors apparently were not
connected in his mind with those processes.
The window, however, facing the street, seemed to his brute mind a natural exit, since through it he
could see the light. He walked toward it and attempted to climb through. The glass resisted. In a certain
degree of wonder, the same as a cat or dog will demonstrate on walking into a pane of glass, he poked
his hand at it. He pushed the pane out of the frame effortlessly, but escaped cutting his hand. Squeezing
through was a bit difficult for his bulky, muscled body, but he managed to force his great shoulders out
and followed them in a heap, landing in a tangle with a bush five feet below the window.
As he looked about, trying to determine which way to go, he saw the green of the park and smelled
the breath of trees. It attracted him. He shuffled clumsily toward it. Hunger still annoyed him. The traffic
was heavy. He was baffled and frightened by the roaring, honking noises the rushing cars made.
Shuddering fearfully, he stood huddled against the wall of a house until the torrent of cars stopped
suddenly. He darted madly across the street.
On the safe side he wandered along a great stretch of iron fence that puzzled him, for he could push
his arm through and yet not his body. Eventually he found a path leading into the park; he followed this
until he came out beyond the trees, to an open grassy place, where he stepped over the low railing and
stamped gratefully on the soft ground.
Hunger bothered him. His quick eyes caught the image of a squirrel, almost bidden in the grass, sitting
erect on its haunches, stripping the shell off a nut. He crouched, moving swiftly and silently toward it.
Unafraid, the tiny animal glanced up at him, and' went on, its small paws clasping the nut and its sharp
teeth flashing, cutting the tough shell.
When he was five feet away from the squirrel, he crouched slowly, not to alarm the animal, and
sprang, hurling his whole body at it. The squirrel was quicker than he was. It darted out from under the
arc of his spring, dropping its nut and scampering swiftly up a tree.
Recovering his balance immediately, he tore after it, clambering up the tree trunk clumsily, hampered
by his shoes. He ripped at the leather with his strong fingers, tearing it away with great effort; then pulled
his socks off. Now he was able to climb more rapidly.
The squirrel scampered ahead of him, darting out on a thin limb at the top of the tree, and shrilling
complaints at him. He jumped at it, his trouser cuff catching in a sharp bough. He fell heavily to the
ground, bringing down the thin limb and the squirrel with him.
Ripping the trousers off, he limped after the animal, which was badly hurt and made a weak attempt
to get away from him. He caught it without much trouble. His powerful hands and teeth made short work
of the tiny squirrel.
He ate quickly, hungrily, tossing the clean-stripped bones away.
It was cold and moist. He got up, limping, tried to find a warm, dry spot to sleep. He had eaten, and