"Guy N. Smith - Accursed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Guy N)

 Her voice was fading away, the light failing and the darkness coming back again; leaving Mason lying
there in the black solitude of the cave, knowing that it was neither dream nor hallucination. It had all
happened, there was no doubt about that.




Suma was gone when the clergyman emerged from the cave next morning, tyre-tracks leading off into
the desert and when the drifting sands obliterated them it would be as though Suma had never been. Just
another legend that might or might not be true.



Mason felt tired as though he had not slept the previous night, a niggling ache behind his eyes which in all
probability would increase as the day progressed. Again he saw that scene in the chamber, the woman of
unparalleled beauty pleading with him to take her away, to release her from some ancient curse. But how
could he when she didn't exist anymore? The cave had no recesses, there were no coffins concealed in
the shadows.



His troubled thoughts were disturbed by the appearance of the natives; there should have been five but
doubtless the others had left, having conceded to their superstitions and cowardice. An old man and a
boy, they might have been father and son but the clergyman did not consider it worth bothering to find
out. Already the sun was up and the coolness of the underground would have been appealing to him had
it not been for the memory of that vision.



'Others leave.' The wizened old man pointed back to the desert. 'They follow Suma. He afraid, too.'



'Well I'm not afraid because there's nothing to be afraid of.' The Reverend Mason prayed that his
lingering fears did not show in his expression. 'Now the sooner we break into the tomb, the better. With
luck we can all be away from here before dark.'



The outer entrance door was a greater obstacle than they had anticipated and it took them three hours'
work with crowbars and chisels before they finally broke through into a dry, musty passageway.



Mason stood there in the interior, had the feeling that he was in a timeless void, a chamber that bridged
the gap between civilizations. He held on to the wall, experienced a sensation of vertigo. In the dusty
gloom he saw the outline of the inner door, through which lay....