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

"But up from the Pool like little bells, like tiny bursting bubbles of glass,
swarmed the tinkling soundsЧtheir pitch higher, all their sweetness lost, angry.

"And out from the Inexplicable swept a shining spiral.
"It caught me above the heart; wrapped itself around me. There rushed through me
a mingled ecstasy and horror. Every atom of me quivered with delight and shrank
with despair. There was nothing loathsome in it. But it was as though the icy
soul of evil and the fiery soul of good had stepped together within me. The
pistol dropped from my hand.
"So I stood while the Pool gleamed and sparkled; the streams of light grew more
intense and the radiant Thing that held me gleamed and strengthened. Its shining
core had shapeЧbut a shape that my eyes and brain could not define. It was as
though a being of another sphere should assume what it might of human semblance,
but was not able to conceal that what human eyes saw was but a part of it. It
was neither man nor woman; it was unearthly and androgynous. Even as I found its
human semblance it changed. And still the mingled rapture and terror held me.
Only in a little corner of my brain dwelt something untouched; something that
held itself apart and watched. Was it the soul? I have never believedЧand yetЧЧ
"Over the head of the misty body there sprang suddenly out seven little lights.
Each was the colour of the beam beneath which it rested. I knew now that the
Dweller wasЧcomplete!
"I heard a scream. It was Edith's voice. It came to me that she had heard the
shots and followed me. I felt every faculty concentrate into a mighty effort. I
wrenched myself free from the gripping tentacle and it swept back. I turned to
catch Edith, and as I did so slippedЧfell.
"The radiant shape above the Pool leaped swiftlyЧand straight into it raced
Edith, arms outstretched to shield me from it! God!
"She threw herself squarely within its splendour," he whispered. "It wrapped its
shining self around her. The crystal tinklings burst forth jubilantly. The light
filled her, ran through and around her as it had with Stanton; and dropped down
upon her faceЧthe look!
"But her rush had taken her to the very verge of the Moon Pool. She tottered;
she fellЧwith the radiance still holding her, still swirling and winding around
and through herЧinto the Moon Pool! She sank, and with her wentЧthe Dweller!
"I dragged myself to the brink. Far down was a shining, many-coloured nebulous
cloud descending; out of it peered Edith's face, disappearing; her eyes stared
up at meЧand she vanished!
"'Edith!' I cried again. 'Edith, come back to me!'
"And then a darkness fell upon me. I remember running back through the
shimmering corridors and out into the courtyard. Reason had left me. When it
returned I was far out at sea in our boat wholly estranged from civilization. A
day later I was picked up by the schooner in which I came to Port Moresby.
"I have formed a plan; you must hear it, GoodwinЧЧ" He fell upon his berth. I
bent over him. Exhaustion and the relief of telling his story had been too much
for him. He slept like the dead.
All that night I watched over him. When dawn broke I went to my room to get a
little sleep myself. But my slumber was haunted.
The next day the storm was unabated. Throckmartin came to me at lunch. He had
regained much of his old alertness.
"Come to my cabin," he said. There, he stripped his shirt from him. "Something