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

that blood fell, slow drop by drop, at his feet! We sprang toward him, reaching
out hands to his fetters to loose them. Even as we touched them, Huldricksson
aimed a vicious kick at me and then another at Da Costa which sent the
Portuguese tumbling into the scuppers.
"Let be!" croaked Huldricksson; his voice was thick and lifeless as though
forced from a dead throat; his lips were cracked and dry and his parched tongue
was black. "Let be! Go! Let be!"
The Portuguese had picked himself up, whimpering with rage and knife in hand,
but as Huldricksson's voice reached him he stopped. Amazement crept into his
eyes and as he thrust the blade back into his belt they softened with pity.
"Something veree wrong wit' Olaf," he murmured to me. "I think he crazee!" And
then Olaf Huldricksson began to curse us. He did not speakЧhe howled from that
hideously dry mouth his imprecations. And all the time his red eyes roamed the
seas and his hands, clenched and rigid on the wheel, dropped blood.
"I go below," said Da Costa nervously. "His wife, his daughterЧЧ" he darted down
the companionway and was gone.
Huldricksson, silent once more, had slumped down over the wheel.
Da Costa's head appeared at the top of the companion steps.
"There is nobody, nobody," he pausedЧthenЧ"nobodyЧnowhere!" His hands flew out
in a gesture of hopeless incomprehension. "I do not understan'."
Then Olaf Huldricksson opened his dry lips and as he spoke a chill ran through
me, checking my heart.
"The sparkling devil took them!" croaked Olaf Huldricksson, "the sparkling devil
took them! Took my Helma and my little Freda! The sparkling devil came down from
the moon and took them!"
He swayed; tears dripped down his cheeks. Da Costa moved toward him again and
again Huldricksson watched him, alertly, wickedly, from his bloodshot eyes.
I took a hypodermic from my case and filled it with morphine. I drew Da Costa to
me.
"Get to the side of him," I whispered, "talk to him." He moved over toward the
wheel.
"Where is your Helma and Freda, Olaf?" he said.
Huldricksson turned his head toward him. "The shining devil took them," he
croaked. "The moon devil that sparkЧЧ"
A yell broke from him. I had thrust the needle into his arm just above one
swollen wrist and had quickly shot the drug through. He struggled to release
himself and then began to rock drunkenly. The morphine, taking him in his
weakness, worked quickly. Soon over his face a peace dropped. The pupils of the
staring eyes contracted. Once, twice, he swayed and then, his bleeding, prisoned
hands held high and still gripping the wheel, he crumpled to the deck.
With utmost difficulty we loosed the thongs, but at last it was done. We rigged
a little swing and the Tonga boys slung the great inert body over the side into
the dory. Soon we had Huldricksson in my bunk. Da Costa sent half his crew over
to the sloop in charge of the Cantonese. They took in all sail, stripping
Huldricksson's boat to the masts and then with the Brunhilda nosing quietly
along after us at the end of a long hawser, one of the Tonga boys at her wheel,
we resumed the way so enigmatically interrupted.
I cleansed and bandaged the Norseman's lacerated wrists and sponged the
blackened, parched mouth with warm water and a mild antiseptic.
Suddenly I was aware of Da Costa's presence and turned. His unease was manifest