"By the Falls by Harry Harrison" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

"Those windows," he said. "You put them in yourself?
May I look out?"
"Took a year apiece, each one. Stand 'on that bench.
It will bring you to the right level. They're armored glass,
specially made, 'solid as the wall around 'them now that
I have them anchored well. Don't be afraid. Go right up
to it. The window's safe. Look how 'the glass is anchored."
Carter was not looking at the glass but at The Falls
outside. He had not realized how close the building was
to 'the falling water. It was perched on the very edge of
the diff and nothing was to be seen from this vantage
point except the wall of blackened wet granite to his right
and the foaming maelstrom of the bay far below. And
before him, above him, filling space, The Falls. All the
thickness of wall and glass could not cut out their sound
completely and when he touched the heavy pane with his
fingertips he could feel The vibration of the waiter's impact.
The window did not lessen the effect The Falls had
upon him but it enabled him to stand and watch 'and
think, as he had been unable to do on the outside. It
was very much like 'a peephole into a holocaust of water
a window into a cold hell. He could watch without being
destroyed--but the fear of what was on the other side did
not lessen. Something black flickered in the falling water
and was gone.
"There--did you see that," he called out. "Something
came down The Falls. What could it possibly 'be?"
Bodum nodded wisely. "Over forty years I have been
here and I can show you what comes down The Falls."
He thrust a splint into the fire and lit a lamp from it.
Then, picking up the lamp, he waved Carter after ham.
They crossed tube room and he held the light to a large
glass 'bell jar.
"Must be twenty years ago it washed up 'on the .shore.
Every bone in its body 'broke too. Stuffed and mounted
it myself."
Carter pressed close, looking at the staring shoe-button
eyes and the gaping jaws 'and pointed teeth. The .limbs
were 'stiff and unnatural, the body under 'the fur 'bulging
in the wrong places. Bodum was by no means a skillful
taxidermist. Yet, perhaps 'by accident, he had captured a
look of terror in the animal's expression and stance.
"It's a dog," Carter said. "Very much Ike other dogs."
Bodum was offended, his voice as cold as shout can
be. "Like them, perhaps, but not of them. 'Every 'bone
broken I told you. How else could a dog have appeared
here in this bay?"
"I'm sorry, I did not mean to suggest for an instant
Down The Falls, of course. I just meant it is so much
like the dogs we have that perhaps there is a whole new