"R. A. Lafferty - Melchisedek 02 - Tales of Midnight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

"But the crossroad sign, and the various arms of it, point: 'To nowhere',
'To easy house', 'To crossbar hotel', 'To the charnel house'. There is blood
running down the gaunt tree-piece of the crossroads sign. Some of it was
fresh blood, some of it was old and slow-flowing, some of it was placental
blood. We had supposed that we had come to the end, for a whthe, of the
rivers of blood. The crossroads sign-post indicates otherwise."
This Patrick Stranahan, a lawyer man who was just rich enough to
come hardly into the Kingdom of Heaven, was a very large man, bigger than
any of his four sons. He has been described in another place as "a big,
hairy man. He rumbled when he talked. He even rumbled when he didn't talk.
He had a large and busy stomach and there was always something going on in
there."
"As to the blood on the sign-post," Duffey proposed, "Henry
Salvatore says that the Devil was being released from his thousand-year
durance very soon, possibly this week."
"Henry guesses at the dates," Patrick continued, "and likely at the
year, though in all probability it was this year. Just a hundred years ago
there was a rumor that the Devil had been released. Maybe that was some
other devil, though the events in the past hundred years (1846-1946)
indicate that flagrant evil was released into the world at that time. And
now the noise was even more ominous. We have heard the big iron bolts
sliding back for some time now, but there are a lot of bolts to slide and a
lot of locks to unlock before the stout door swings open. That gaudy Stein
also has some authentic private information, I beheve, but he exaggerates.
It doesn't really matter whether the Devil was released last year or this
year or next year. The release was imminent, as we all know, and it was a
condition that none of us will be able to live with. Some of us will be
exalted and awakened by the assault of it, and some of us will be destroyed
by it. But none of us will be able to live with it. We don't know just how
much difference it will make. The Devil has carried on very effective
warfare all during his imprisonment. But now it will be worse, and of a more
immediate treachery."
"The Monster Giulio told me recently that a rigged council of
Teras-folks had drawn up a petition for the release of the Devil," Bagby
said, "so it wasn't just the humans of the narrow definition who have been
bespoken by false leaders to petition. Groups of half a dozen other sorts of
creatures also have joined in the foulness. Giulio was in St. Louis
recently."
"Giulio? He's been dead for ten years at least," Duffey said.
"I didn't say that the creature wasn't dead. I said that he had been
in St. Louis recently and had given me these reports," Bagby growled. Bagby
had never liked to have his accounts questioned. "My brother, I have my own
communications and meetings, and you have yours. Giulio told me something
else. He says that at the councils of the Teras, they have both the living
and the dead in attendance, and he believes this gives better balance. I
believe that the U.S. Congress should adopt a similar practice."
"You know that Finnegan was the son of the Monster Giulio, don't
you?" Duffey asked.
"No, of course I don't know it," Bagby said. "The Finnegan who got
into town today? He was here, and he left just before you got here, Duffey.