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

anonymously to the museum at Sunderland or Radcar. I suppose the museum people
will know what they are ...
The next morning the reporters came around from the Daily Mail. They'd heard I
had a bit of a story to tell and pumped me for all I was worth. I had the idea
they were laughing at me, though, so I didn't tell them a deal. They must have
gone to see old Betteridge when finally they left me - and, well, you know the
rest.
And that's it, Mr Crow. If there's something else you'd like to know just drop
me another line. Myself, I'd be interested to learn how you come to know so
much about it all, and why you want to know more . . .
Yrs sincerely, R. Bentham
PS
Maybe you heard how they were planning to send two more inspectors down to do
the job I'd 'messed up'? Well, they couldn't. Just a few days ago the whole
lot fell in! The road between Harden and Blackhill sank ten feet in places,
and a couple of brick barns were brought down
at Castle-Ilden. There's had to be work done on the walls of the Red Cow Inn
in Harden, too, and there have been slight tremors all over the area ever
since. Like I said, the mine was rotten with those tunnels down there. I'm
only surprised (and thankful!) it held up so long. Oh, and one other thing. I
think that the smell I mentioned must, after all, have been produced by a gas
of some sort. Certainly my head's been fuzzy ever since. Weak as a kitten,
I've been, and damned if I don't keep hearing that awful, droning, chanting
sound! All my imagination, of course, for you can take it from me that old
Betteridge wasn't even partly right in what he said about me ...
R.B.
Blowne House 30th May
To: Raymond Bentham, Esq.
Dear Mr Bentham,
I thank you for your prompt reply to my queries of the 25th, and would be
obliged if you would give similar keen attention to this further letter. I
must of necessity make my note brief (I have many important things to do), but
I beg you to have the utmost faith in my directions, strange as they may seem
to you, and to carry them out without delay!
You have seen, Mr Bentham, how accurately I described the pictures on the
walls of that great unnatural cave in the earth, and how I was able to
duplicate on paper the weird chant you heard underground. My dearest wish now
is that you remember these previous deductions of mine, and believe me when I
tell you that you have placed yourself in extreme and hideous danger in
removing the cave-pearls from the Harden tunnel-complex!
In fact, it is my sincere belief that you are constantly increasing the peril
every moment you keep those things! I ask you to send them to me; I might know
what to do with them. I repeat, Mr Bentham, do not delay but send me the
cave-pearls at once; or, should you decide against it, then for God's sake at
least remove them from your house and person! A good suggestion would be for
you to drop them back into the shaft at the mine, if that is at all possible;
but whichever method you choose in getting rid of them, do it with dispatch!
They may rightly be regarded as being infinitely more dangerous than ten times
their own weight in nitroglycerin!
Yrs v. truly, Titus Crow