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

"'We will meet it together,' she said. And it was thus at last that we arranged
it."
"That took great courage indeed, Throckmartin," I interrupted. He looked at me
eagerly.
"You do believe then?" he exclaimed.
"I believe," I said. He pressed my hand with a grip that nearly crushed it.
"Now," he told me. "I do not fear. If IЧfail, you will follow with help?"
I promised.
"We talked it over carefully," he went on, "bringing to bear all our power of
analysis and habit of calm, scientific thought. We considered minutely the time
element in the phenomena. Although the deep chanting began at the very moment of
moonrise, fully five minutes had passed between its full lifting and the strange
sighing sound from the inner terrace. I went back in memory over the happenings
of the night before. At least ten minutes had intervened between the first
heralding sigh and the intensification of the moonlight in the courtyard. And
this glow grew for at least ten minutes more before the first burst of the
crystal notes. Indeed, more than half an hour must have elapsed, I calculated,
between the moment the moon showed above the horizon and the first delicate
onslaught of the tinklings.
"'Edith!' I cried. 'I think I have it! The grey rock opens five minutes after
upon the moonrise. But whoever or whatever it is that comes through it must wait
until the moon has risen higher, or else it must come from a distance. The thing
to do is not to wait for it, but to surprise it before it passes out the door.
We will go into the inner court early. You will take your rifle and pistol and
hide yourself where you can command the openingЧif the slab does open. The
instant it opens I will enter. It's our best chance, Edith. I think it's our
only one.'
"My wife demurred strongly. She wanted to go with me. But I convinced her that
it was better for her to stand guard without, prepared to help me if I were
forced again into the open by what lay behind the rock.
"At the half-hour before moonrise we went into the inner court. I took my place
at the side of the grey rock. Edith crouched behind a broken pillar twenty feet
away; slipped her rifle-barrel over it so that it would cover the opening.
"The minutes crept by. The darkness lessened and through the breaches of the
terrace I watched the far sky softly lighten. With the first pale flush the
silence of the place intensified. It deepened; became unbearablyЧexpectant. The
moon rose, showed the quarter, the half, then swam up into full sight like a
great bubble.
"Its rays fell upon the wall before me and suddenly upon the convexities I have
described seven little circles of light sprang out. They gleamed, glimmered,
grew brighterЧshone. The gigantic slab before me glowed with them, silver
wavelets of phosphorescence pulsed over its surface and thenЧit turned as though
on a pivot, sighing softly as it moved!
"With a word to Edith I flung myself through the opening. A tunnel stretched
before me. It glowed with the same faint silvery radiance. Down it I raced. The
passage turned abruptly, passed parallel to the walls of the outer courtyard and
then once more led downward.
"The passage ended. Before me was a high vaulted arch. It seemed to open into
space; a space filled with lambent, coruscating, many-coloured mist whose
brightness grew even as I watched. I passed through the arch and stopped in