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

and held, it seemed to me, a queer, furtive anxiety.
"What you think of Olaf, sair?" he asked. I shrugged my shoulders. "You think he
killed his woman and his babee?" He went on. "You think he crazee and killed
all?"
"Nonsense, Da Costa," I answered. "You saw the boat was gone. Most probably his
crew mutinied and to torture him tied him up the way you saw. They did the same
thing with Hilton of the Coral Lady; you'll remember."
"No," he said. "No. The crew did not. Nobody there on board when Olaf was tied."

"What!" I cried, startled. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," he said slowly, "that Olaf tie himself!"
"Wait!" he went on at my incredulous gesture of dissent. "Wait, I show you." He
had been standing with hands behind his back and now I saw that he held in them
the cut thongs that had bound Huldricksson. They were blood-stained and each
ended in a broad leather tip skilfully spliced into the cord. "Look," he said,
pointing to these leather ends. I looked and saw in them deep indentations of
teeth. I snatched one of the thongs and opened the mouth of the unconscious man
on the bunk. Carefully I placed the leather within it and gently forced the jaws
shut on it. It was true. Those marks were where Olaf Huldricksson's jaws had
gripped.
"Wait!" Da Costa repeated, "I show you." He took other cords and rested his
hands on the supports of a chair back. Rapidly he twisted one of the thongs
around his left hand, drew a loose knot, shifted the cord up toward his elbow.
This left wrist and hand still free and with them he twisted the other cord
around the right wrist; drew a similar knot. His hands were now in the exact
position that Huldricksson's had been on the Brunhilda but with cords and knots
hanging loose. Then Da Costa reached down his head, took a leather end in his
teeth and with a jerk drew the thong that noosed his left hand tight; similarly
he drew tight the second.
He strained at his fetters. There before my eyes he had pinioned himself so that
without aid he could not release himself. And he was exactly as Huldricksson had
been!
"You will have to cut me loose, sair," he said. "I cannot move them. It is an
old trick on these seas. Sometimes it is necessary that a man stand at the wheel
many hours without help, and he does this so that if he sleep the wheel wake
him, yes, sair."
I looked from him to the man on the bed.
"But why, sair," said Da Costa slowly, "did Olaf have to tie his hands?"
I looked at him, uneasily.
"I don't know," I answered. "Do you?"
He fidgeted, avoided my eyes, and then rapidly, almost surreptitiously crossed
himself.
"No," he replied. "I know nothing. Some things I have heardЧbut they tell many
tales on these seas."
He started for the door. Before he reached it he turned. "But this I do know,"
he half whispered, "I am damned glad there is no full moon tonight." And passed
out, leaving me staring after him in amazement. What did the Portuguese know?
I bent over the sleeper. On his face was no trace of that unholy mingling of
opposites the Dweller stamped upon its victims.
And yetЧwhat was it the Norseman had said?