"Manly Wade Wellman - Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wellman Manly Wade)

"You haven't had any luncheon, my dear," she said.
"A correct deduction, but how did you know?"
"Because I know your habits. You never take care of yourself when you are deep in a problem.
Before I bring the tray in, will you tell me what you and Pro-fessor Challenger were discussing?"
"We spoke about poetry, among other things," re-plied Holmes,
She smiled. "You have written some poems to me. Beautiful poems."
"At least inspired by a splendid subject."
She went out and returned in a few minutes, bringing their lunch. Holmes was writing at the desk. He
laid down his pen, put away his notes in a drawer, and joined her at the table.
3


At Enmore Park later that afternoon, Holmes and Challenger sat down at the table in the study with
the crystal before them. Over their heads they drew a closely woven black cloth that excluded nearly all
outer light. At once the crystal glowed with its inner blue radiance, lighting up Holmes's intent profile and
Challenger's bristling beard. Challenger carefully maneuvered the crystal between his hands.
"There," he said softly. "Do you see the mists clearing?"
The strange landscape was coming into view. They could make out the distant tawny-red cliffs, the
great platformlike expanse below them. Then, as details grew sharper, they saw the row of lean,
towering masts with their points of radiance. A clear, pale sun shown in the deep blue of the cloudless
sky.
"That sun is but half the diameter of ours," said Challenger. "At its closest approach, Mars is
about thirty-five million miles beyond earth's orbit. If we take the sun's apparent diameter into
consideration, we may arrive at some scale of dimension in what we see here."
"I would judge the visible terrain to be many miles in extent, and this rectangle of roofs below the
masts to be fairly large," said Holmes
"We may go on that assumption," said Challenger. "Now, watch closely." He shifted the crystal with
painstaking care. "We are able to see in another direc-tion now, as though we moved a viewing glass."
It was true. They looked downward past the straight edge of the platform and gathered a sense of a
per-pendicular wall below it. The ground showed, lightly covered with green as with a lawn, and feathery
shrubs or bushes grew in clumps here and there. Among these clumps moved dark shapes. They seemed
like distant bulbs of darkness, furnished with spidery limbs.
"It is as though we are above the closely set roofs of a city," said Holmes. "I would hazard that our
point of view is the top of the mast at the end of this row we have seen. And down there on the ground
are what must be the residents. I wish we could see them closer at hand."
"Perhaps we can." Again Challenger shifted the crys-tal. "Now, observe the rooftop immediately
below. I can discern others."
At the foot of one of the nearer masts moved several of the creatures. Seen nearer at hand, they
displayed oval bodies, dark and softly shining, holding themselves erect on tussocklike arrangements of
slender tentacles.
"They strongly resemble octopoid mollusca," said Challenger. "But see, Holmes, some of them can
fly."
One of the shapes on the roof suddenly rose into the air. It soared, or skimmed, on
what appeared to be ribbed wings. Higher it rose, growing larger to their view.
"It does not move its wings," said Holmes.
"They seem to be simple structures."
The flying creature changed direction and swooped toward the top of the mast nearest the point from
which Holmes and Challenger seemed to watch. Its two sprays of tentacles twined around, the mast and
the body drew close to the shining object at the apex.
"It has brilliant eyes, there at its lower part," Chal-lenger half-whispered, his voice strangely touched