"Manly Wade Wellman - Can These Bones Live" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wellman Manly Wade)

smiled 'round at us. The service was over.
Three men shoveled in the earth. It took just minutes to fill the grave up.
Hallcott offered some crumpled money bills to Preacher Melick, who waved them
away.
"You took it on yourselves to make the stranger a coffin and bring him here to rest,"
he said. "The least duty I can do is speak comfortable words without expectation of
pay. John, to judge from the gear you brought, you're a-looking for lodging for the
night. Will you be my guest?"
"Thanks, maybe later," I said. "I reckon I'll wait here a spell."
"If you come later on, it's half a mile up the trail the far side of the church."
He walked away with his book. The coffin-makers headed the other direction. The
sun was a-dropping red to the edge of the western heights.
One of the shovels had been fetched to lean under a fair-sized walnut tree. I put
down my stuff next to the roots and sat with my back against the trunk. On the silver
strings of my guitar I made a few chords to whisper. The air got gloomy.
"It's kindly creepy a night," said a voice at my elbow. That quick I was up on my
feet. Embro Hallcott stood there, his crinkly face a-smiling.
"For a man your height, you move quick as a cat, John," he said. "I done heard you
tell Preacher Melick you'd stay 'round, so I decided myself to stay too, for
whatever's up."
"What do you reckon's up?" I inquired him.
"If you don't know how to answer that, neither do I."
I sat down under the tree again, and Hallcott hunkered down beside me. He dragged
out a twist of home-cured tobacco and bit off a chunk the size of half a dollar.
"I was right interested by Preacher Melick's text from Ezekiel," I said. "All that about
could these bones live."
"Ezekiel," Hallcott repeated me, a-folding his ridgy hands on the knees of his
overalls. "I done read in that, some time back. Strange doings in EzekielтАФthe wheels
in the wheels. Some folks reckon that means what they call UFOs."
"They were unknown and they flew, so they were UFOs all right," I nodded him.
"And all those prophecies about nation after nation, and the brass man a-walking
round to measure Jerusalem. And I've heard it explained that the four faces of the
living creatures meant the Four Gospels. But the strangest of all the things is the
Valley of Dry Bones, where the bones join together and come to life."
A moon rose up and shone down on the burial ground. Hallcott moved to pull
together some pieces of wood and light them with a match. I went to the stream and
dipped water in my canteen cup and set it on a rock where it could heat. "I don't
reckon you brought aught for supper," I said.
"I've done without no supper before this."
"I've got something left from my noon lunch." I pawed through my soogin and came
up with two sandwiches wrapped in foil. "Home-cured ham on white bread."
Hallcott took one and thanked me kindly. As the water grew hot, I trickled in instant
coffee and stirred it with a twig. We ate and passed the cup back and forth.
"I appreciate this, John," said Hallcott as he swallowed down his last bite. "How
long you aim to stop here?"
"That depends."
"I reckon you'll agree with me, them bones we buried were right curious. Great big
ones, and long arms, like on an ape."
"Or maybe on Sasquatch," I said. "Or Bigfoot."
"You believe in them tales."