"Brian Lumley - Titus Crow 1 - The Burrowers Beneath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

the surface, you seem reluctant to describe in detail the content or actual
forms of those outlines. Might I suggest that this is because you did not wish
to be further ridiculed, which you feared might well be the case should you
actually describe the etchings? And might I further tell you what you saw on
those unknown tunnel walls; that those oddly dimensioned designs depicted
living creatures of sorts - like elongated octopuses or squids but without
recognizable heads or eyes - tentacled worms in fact but of gigantic size?
Dare I lay my cards on the table yet more fully and mention the noises you say
you heard down there in the depths of the Earth; sounds which were not in any
way the normal stress noises of a pit, even given that the mine in question
had not been worked for five years and was in poor repair? You said chanting,
Mr Bentham, but quickly
retracted your statement when a certain reporter became unnecessarily
facetious. Nonetheless, I take you at your original word: you said chanting,
and I am sure you meant what you said! How do I know? Again, I am not at
liberty to disclose my sources; however, I would be obliged for your reaction
to the following:
Ce'haiie ep-ngh fl'hur G'harne fhtagn,
Ce'haiie fhtagn ngh Shudde-M'ell.
Hai G'harne orr'e ep fl'hur,
Shudde-M'ell ican-icanicas fl'hur orr'e G'harne.
Restricted as I am at this time regarding further illuminating my interest in
the case, or even explaining the origin of my knowledge of it, but still in
the hope of an early answer and perhaps a more detailed account of what you
encountered underground, I am, Sir,
Yrs sincerely, Titus Crow
Coalville Recorder Coalville, Leics. 28th May
Blowne House
Dear Mr Crow,
In answer to your 58/1%-, of the 25th:
The tremors that shook Coalville, Leics., on the afternoon of the 17th, were,
as you correctly deduced, of a linear nature. (And yes, they did occur south
heading north; have in fact continued, or so I believe, farther up-country.)
As you are no doubt aware, Coalville is central in an area of expanding mining
operations, and doubtless the collapse of old diggings was responsible, in
this area
at least, for the peculiar shocks. They lasted from 4:30 until 8:00 p.m., but
were not particularly severe - though, I am told, they had a very bad effect
on certain inmates of the local Thornelee Sanatorium.
There were, too, other slight surface subsidences, not nearly so bad, almost a
year ago. At about that time also, five miners were lost in the collapse of a
very narrow and unproductive seam which they were working. The twin brother of
one of these men was in a different part of the mine at the time, and much
sensational publicity was given his subsequent condition. I did not cover his
case, though it was done up pretty distastefully in a hack contemporary of the
Recorder under the heading: 'Siamese Mining Horror!' Apparently the living
twin went stark staring mad at the very instant his brother and the other four
men were killed!
You should be interested in a series of articles which I am at present
planning for the Recorder, 'A History of the Midlands Pits', to be published