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

dreams.
"At Ponape we selected, not without difficulty, workmen to help usЧdiggers. I
had to make extraordinary inducements before I could get together my force.
Their beliefs are gloomy, these Ponapeans. They people their swamps, their
forests, their mountains, and shores, with malignant spiritsЧani they call them.
And they are afraidЧbitterly afraid of the isles of ruins and what they think
the ruins hide. I do not wonderЧnow!
"When they were told where they were to go, and how long we expected to stay,
they murmured. Those who, at last, were tempted made what I thought then merely
a superstitious proviso that they were to be allowed to go away on the three
nights of the full moon. Would to God we had heeded them and gone too!"
"We passed into Metalanim harbour. Off to our leftЧa mile away arose a massive
quadrangle. Its walls were all of forty feet high and hundreds of feet on each
side. As we drew by, our natives grew very silent; watched it furtively,
fearfully. I knew it for the ruins that are called Nan-Tauach, the 'place of
frowning walls.' And at the silence of my men I recalled what Christian had
written of this place; of how he had come upon its 'ancient platforms and
tetragonal enclosures of stonework; its wonder of tortuous alleyways and
labyrinth of shallow canals; grim masses of stonework peering out from behind
verdant screens; cyclopean barricades,' and of how, when he had turned 'into its
ghostly shadows, straight-way the merriment of guides was hushed and
conversation died down to whispers.'"
He was silent for a little time.
"Of course I wanted to pitch our camp there," he went on again quietly, "but I
soon gave up that idea. The natives were panic-strickenЧthreatened to turn back.
'No,' they said, 'too great ani there. We go to any other placeЧbut not there.'
"We finally picked for our base the islet called Uschen-Tau. It was close to the
isle of desire, but far enough away from it to satisfy our men. There was an
excellent camping-place and a spring of fresh water. We pitched our tents, and
in a couple of days the work was in full swing."
CHAPTER III
The Moon Rock
"I DO not intend to tell you now," Throckmartin continued, "the results of the
next two weeks, nor of what we found. LaterЧif I am allowed, I will lay all that
before you. It is sufficient to say that at the end of those two weeks I had
found confirmation for many of my theories.
"The place, for all its decay and desolation, had not infected us with any touch
of morbidityЧthat is not Edith, Stanton, or myself. But Thora was very unhappy.
She was a Swede, as you know, and in her blood ran the beliefs and superstitions
of the NorthlandЧsome of them so strangely akin to those of this far southern
land; beliefs of spirits of mountain and forest and water werewolves and beings
malign. From the first she showed a curious sensitivity to what, I suppose, may
be called the 'influences' of the place. She said it 'smelled' of ghosts and
warlocks.
"I laughed at her thenЧЧ
"Two weeks slipped by, and at their end the spokesman for our natives came to
us. The next night was the full of the moon, he said. He reminded me of my
promise. They would go back to their village in the morning; they would return
after the third night, when the moon had begun to wane. They left us sundry
charms for our 'protection,' and solemnly cautioned us to keep as far away as