"A. E. Merritt - The Moon Pool" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merritt A. E)

"The light that filled and surrounded him had a nucleus, a coreЧsomething
shiftingly human shapedЧthat dissolved and changed, gathered itself, whirled
through and beyond him and back again. And as its shining nucleus passed through
him Stanton's whole body pulsed radiance. As the luminescence moved, there moved
above it, still and serene always, seven tiny globes of seven colors, like seven
little moons.
"Then swiftly Stanton was liftedЧlevitatedЧup the unscalable wall and to its
top. The glow faded from the moonlight, the tinkling music grew fainter. I tried
again to move. The tears were running down now from my rigid lids and they
brought relief to my tortured eyes.
"I have said my gaze was fixed. It was. But from the side, peripherally, it took
in a part of the far wall of the outer enclosure. Ages seemed to pass and a
radiance stole along it. Soon drifted into sight the figure that was Stanton.
Far away he wasЧon the gigantic wall. But still I could see the shining spirals
whirling jubilantly around and through him; felt rather than saw his tranced
face beneath the seven moons. A swirl of crystal notes, and he had passed. And
all the time, as though from some opened well of light, the courtyard gleamed
and sent out silver fires that dimmed the moonrays, yet seemed strangely to be a
part of them.
"At last the moon neared the horizon. There came a louder burst of sound; the
second, and last, cry of Stanton, like an echo of his first! Again the soft
sighing from the inner terrace. ThenЧutter silence!
"The light faded; the moon was setting and with a rush life and power to move
returned to me. I made a leap for the steps, rushed up them, through the gateway
and straight to the grey rock. It was closedЧas I knew it would be. But did I
dream it or did I hear, echoing through it as though from vast distances a
triumphant shouting?
"I ran back to Edith. At my touch she wakened; looked at me wanderingly; raised
herself on a hand.
"'Dave!' she said, 'I sleptЧafter all.' She saw the despair on my face and
leaped to her feet. 'Dave!' she cried. 'What is it? Where's Charles?'
"I lighted a fire before I spoke. Then I told her. And for the balance of that
night we sat before the flames, arms around each otherЧlike two frightened
children."
Abruptly Throckmartin held his hands out to me appealingly.
"Walter, old friend!" he cried. "Don't look at me as though I were mad. It's
truth, absolute truth. WaitЧЧ" I comforted him as well as I could. After a
little time he took up his story.
"Never," he said, "did man welcome the sun as we did that morning. A soon as it
had risen we went back to the courtyard. The walls whereon I had seen Stanton
were black and silent. The terraces were as they had been. The grey slab was in
its place. In the shallow hollow at its base wasЧnothing. NothingЧnothing was
there anywhere on the islet of StantonЧnot a trace.
"What were we to do? Precisely the same arguments that had kept us there the
night before held good nowЧand doubly good. We could not abandon these two;
could not go as long as there was the faintest hope of finding themЧand yet for
love of each other how could we remain? I loved my wife,Ч how much I never knew
until that day; and she loved me as deeply.
"'It takes only one each night,' she pleaded. 'Beloved, let it take me.'
"I wept, Walter. We both wept.