"Vonda N. McIntyre - The Adventure of the Field Theorems" - читать интересную книгу автора (McIntyre Vonda N)

instrument, but playing no melody I ever heard. And eerie.... It put the chills up my back. Made the baby
cry. I went outdoors-- "
"You were not frightened?"
"I was. Who would not be frightened? The Folk have fled London, but they still live in the countryside,
in our hearts."
"You are a scholar and a folklorist," Holmes said without expression.
"I know the stories my family tells. Old stories. The Folk-- "
"The faerie folk!" Sir Arthur said. "I've photographed them, they do exist."
"The Folk," Robert said, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Sir Arthur. "The ones who lived in this
land before us."
"The lights, man!" Holmes said impatiently.
"At first I saw only a glow against the fog. Then-- a ring of lights, not like candles, flickering, but
steady like the gaslights of the city. All different colors. Very beautiful."
"Foxfire," Holmes said.
"No, sir. Foxfire, you see it in the marsh. Not the field. It's a soft light, not a bright one. These lights,
they were bright. The circle spun, and I thought-- "
He hesitated.
"Go on, man!"
"You'll think I'm mad."
"If I do, I shall keep it to myself."
Robert hesitated. "I thought I saw... a huge solid object, floating in the sky like a boat in the water."
"A flying steamship?" I said.
"An aeroplane," said Sir Arthur. "Though I would have thought we'd hear of a pilot in the area."
"More like a coracle," Robert said. "Round, and solid."
"Did you hear its motor?" Holmes asked. "A droning, perhaps, or a sound like the autocar?"
"Only the music," said Robert.
"I've never known an apparition to make a sound like a motorcar," Sir Arthur said.
"What happened then?" said Holmes. "Where did it go, what did it do?"
"It rose, and I saw above it the stars, and Mars bright and red in the midst of them." Robert hesitated,
considered, continued. "Then the lights brightened even more, and it vanished in a burst of flame. I felt the
fire, smelled the brimstone-- At first I thought I was blinded!"
"And then?" Holmes said.
"My sight returned, and the fog closed around me."
"What have you left out?" Holmes asked sternly. "What happened afterward?"
Robert hesitated, reluctance and distress in every line of his expression.
"The truth, man," Holmes said.
"Not afterward. Before. Before the coracle disappeared. I thought I saw... a flash of light, another
flash."
"From the coracle?"
"From the sky. Like a signal! White light, white, not red, from... from Mars!" He drew in a deep
breath. "Then the coracle replied, and vanished."
I managed to repress my exclamation of surprise and wonder. Holmes arched one eyebrow
thoughtfully. Sir Arthur stroked his mustache.
"Thank you for your help, Robert," Sir Arthur said, as if Robert had said nothing out of the ordinary.
"And your good observation."
"Sir Arthur," Robert said, "may I have your permission to salvage what I can from the field? The grain
can't be threshed, but I could at least cut the stalks for hay."
"By no means!" Sir Arthur roared in alarm.
Robert stepped back, surprised and frightened.
"No, no," Sir Arthur said, calming himself with visible effort.