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

But of Throckmartin there was no trace!
CHAPTER VI
"The Shining Devil Took Them!"
MY COLLEAGUES of the Association, and you others who may read this my narrative,
for what I did and did not when full realization returned I must offer here,
briefly as I can, an explanation; a defenseЧif you will.
My first act was to spring to the open port. The coma had lasted hours, for the
moon was now low in the west! I ran to the door to sound the alarm. It resisted
under my frantic hands; would not open. Something fell tinkling to the floor. It
was the key and I remembered then that Throckmartin had turned it before we
began our vigil. With memory a hope died that I had not known was in me, the
hope that he had escaped from the cabin, found refuge elsewhere on the ship.
And as I stooped, fumbling with shaking fingers for the key, a thought came to
me that drove again the blood from my heart, held me rigid. I could sound no
alarm on the Southern Queen for Throckmartin!
Conviction of my appalling helplessness was complete. The ensemble of the vessel
from captain to cabin boy was, to put it conservatively, average. None, I knew,
save Throckmartin and myself had seen the first apparition of the Dweller. Had
they witnessed the second? I did not know, nor could I risk speaking, not
knowing. And not seeing, how could they believe? They would have thought me
insaneЧor worse; even, it might be, his murderer.
I snapped off the electrics; waited and listened; opened the door with infinite
caution and slipped, unseen, into my own stateroom. The hours until the dawn
were eternities of waking nightmare. Reason, resuming sway at last, steadied me.
Even had I spoken and been believed where in these wastes after all the hours
could we search for Throckmartin? Certainly the captain would not turn back to
Port Moresby. And even if he did, of what use for me to set forth for the
Nan-Matal without the equipment which Throckmartin himself had decided was
necessary if one hoped to cope with the mystery that lurked there?
There was but one thing to doЧfollow his instructions; get the paraphernalia in
Melbourne or Sydney if it were possible; if not sail to America as swiftly as
might be, secure it there and as swiftly return to Ponape. And this I determined
to do.
Calmness came back to me after I had made this decision. And when I went up on
deck I knew that I had been right. They had not seen the Dweller. They were
still discussing the darkening of the ship, talking of dynamos burned out, wires
short circuited, a half dozen explanations of the extinguishment. Not until noon
was Throckmartin's absence discovered. I told the captain that I had left him
early in the evening; that, indeed, I knew him but slightly, after all. It
occurred to none to doubt me, or to question me minutely. Why should it have?
His strangeness had been noted, commented upon; all who had met him had thought
him half mad. I did little to discourage the impression. And so it came
naturally that on the log it was entered that he had fallen or leaped from the
vessel some time during the night.
A report to this effect was made when we entered Melbourne. I slipped quietly
ashore and in the press of the war news Throckmartin's supposed fate won only a
few lines in the newspapers; my own presence on the ship and in the city passed
unnoticed.
I was fortunate in securing at Melbourne everything I needed except a set of
Becquerel ray condensersЧbut these were the very keystone of my equipment.