"A. E. Merritt - The Moon Pool2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merritt A. E)

Stanton ever since a tardy despatch from Melbourne, Australia,
reported the disappearance of the first from a ship sailing to that
port, and the subsequent reports of the disappearance of his wife
and associate from the camp of their expedition in the Caroline
Islands.

Second:
Because the Executive Council have concluded that Dr.
Goodwin's experiences in his wholly heroic effort to save the three,
and the lessons and warnings within those experiences, are too
important to humanity as a whole to be hidden away in scientific
papers understandable only to the technically educated; or to be
presented through the newspaper press in the abridged and
fragmentary form which the space limitations of that vehicle make
necessary.
For these reasons the Executive Council commissioned Mr. A.
Merritt to transcribe into form to be readily understood by the
layman the stenographic notes of Dr. Goodwin's own report to the
Council, supplemented by further oral reminiscences and
comments by Dr. Goodwin; this transcription, edited and censored
by the Executive Council of the Association, forms the contents of
this book.
Himself a member of the Council, Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, Ph.D.,
F.R.G.S. etc., is without cavil the foremost of American botanists,
an observer of international reputation and the author of several
epochal treatises upon his chosen branch of science. His story,
amazing in the best sense of that word as it may be, is fully
supported by proofs brought forward by him and accepted by the
organization of which I have the honor to be president. What matter
has been elided from this popular presentation--because of the
excessively menacing potentialities it contains, which unrestricted
Over the island brooded a spirit sullen, alien, implacable, filled with
the threat of latent, malefic forces waiting to be unleashed. It
seemed an emanation out of the untamed, sinister heart of Papua
herself--sinister even when she smiles. And now and then, on the
wind, came a breath from virgin jungles, laden with unfamiliar
odours, mysterious and menacing.
It is on such mornings that Papua whispers to you of her
immemorial ancientness and of her power. And, as every white man
must, I fought against her spell. While I struggled I saw a tall figure
striding down the pier; a Kapa-Kapa boy followed swinging a new
valise. There was something familiar about the tall man. As he
reached the gangplank he looked up straight into my eyes, stared
for a moment, then waved his hand.
And now I knew him. It was Dr. David Throckmartin--"Throck"
he was to me always, one of my oldest friends and, as well, a mind
of the first water whose power and achievements were for me a
constant inspiration as they were, I know, for scores other.
Coincidentally with my recognition came a shock of surprise,
definitely--unpleasant. It was Throckmartin--but about him was