The Shadow over Innsmouth / Морок над Инсмутом. Говард Филлипс Лавкрафт

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СКАЧАТЬ would have to let him finish the bottle. The insane yarn I was hearing interested me profoundly, for I fancied there was contained within it a sort of crude allegory based upon the strangenesses of Innsmouth and elaborated by an imagination at once creative and full of scraps of exotic legend. Not for a moment did I believe that the tale had any really substantial foundation; but none the less the account held a hint of genuine terror, if only because it brought in references to strange jewels clearly akin to the malign tiara I had seen at Newburyport. Perhaps the ornaments had, after all, come from some strange island; and possibly the wild stories were lies of the bygone Obed himself rather than of this antique toper.

      I handed Zadok the bottle, and he drained it to the last drop. It was curious how he could stand so much whiskey, for not even a trace of thickness had come into his high, wheezy voice. He licked the nose of the bottle and slipped it into his pocket, then beginning to nod and whisper softly to himself. I bent close to catch any articulate words he might utter, and thought I saw a sardonic smile behind the stained, bushy whiskers. Yes – he was really forming words, and I could grasp a fair proportion of them.

      “Poor Matt – Matt he allus was agin’ it – tried to line up the folks on his side, an’ had long talks with the preachers – no use – they run the Congregational parson aout o’ taown, an’ the Methodist feller quit – never did see Resolved Babcock, the Baptist parson, agin – Wrath o’ Jehovy – I was a mighty little critter, but I heerd what I heerd an’ seen what I seen – Dagon an’ Ashtoreth – Belial an’ Beëlzebub – Golden Caff an’ the idols o’ Canaan an’ the Philistines – Babylonish abominations – Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin-”

      He stopped again, and from the look in his watery blue eyes I feared he was close to a stupor after all. But when I gently shook his shoulder he turned on me with astonishing alertness and snapped out some more obscure phrases.

      “Dun’t believe me, hey? Heh, heh, heh – then jest tell me, young feller, why Cap’n Obed an’ twenty odd other folks used to row aout to Devil Reef in the dead o’ night an’ chant things so laoud ye cud hear ’em all over taown when the wind was right? Tell me that, hey? An’ tell me why Obed was allus droppin’ heavy things daown into the deep water t’other side o’ the reef whar the bottom shoots daown like a cliff lower’n ye kin saound? Tell me what he done with that funny-shaped lead thingumajig as Walakea give him? Hey, boy? An’ what did they all haowl on May-Eve, an’ agin the next Hallowe’en? An’ why’d the new church parsons – fellers as used to be sailors – wear them queer robes an’ cover theirselves with them gold-like things Obed brung? Hey?”

      The watery blue eyes were almost savage and maniacal now, and the dirty white beard bristled electrically. Old Zadok probably saw me shrink back, for he had begun to cackle evilly.

      “Heh, heh, heh, heh! Beginnin’ to see, hey? Mebbe ye’d like to a ben me in them days, when I seed things at night aout to sea from the cupalo top o’ my haouse. Oh, I kin tell ye, little pitchers hev big ears, an’ I wa’n’t missin’ nothin’ o’ what was gossiped abaout Cap’n Obed an’ the folks aout to the reef! Heh, heh, heh! Haow abaout the night I took my pa’s ship’s glass up to the cupalo an’ seed the reef a-bristlin’ thick with shapes that dove off quick soon’s the moon riz? Obed an’ the folks was in a dory, but them shapes dove off the far side into the deep water an’ never come up… Haow’d ye like to be a little shaver alone up in a cupalo a-watchin’ shapes as wa’n’t human shapes?… Hey?… Heh, heh, heh, heh…”

      The old man was getting hysterical, and I began to shiver with a nameless alarm. He laid a gnarled claw on my shoulder, and it seemed to me that its shaking was not altogether that of mirth.

      “S’pose one night ye seed somethin’ heavy heaved offen Obed’s dory beyond the reef, an’ then larned nex’ day a young feller was missin’ from home? Hey? Did anybody ever see hide or hair o’ Hiram Gilman agin? Did they? An’ Nick Pierce, an’ Luelly Waite, an’ Adoniram Saouthwick, an’ Henry Garrison? Hey? Heh, heh, heh, heh… Shapes talkin’ sign language with their hands… them as had reel hands…

      “Wal, Sir, that was the time Obed begun to git on his feet agin. Folks see his three darters a-wearin’ gold-like things as nobody’d never see on ’em afore, an’ smoke started comin’ aout o’ the refin’ry chimbly. Other folks were prosp’rin’, too – fish begun to swarm into the harbour fit to kill, an’ heaven knows what sized cargoes we begun to ship aout to Newb’ryport, Arkham, an’ Boston. ’Twas then Obed got the ol’ branch railrud put through. Some Kingsport fishermen heerd abaout the ketch an’ come up in sloops, but they was all lost. Nobody never see ’em agin. An’ jest then our folks organised the Esoteric Order o’ Dagon, an’ bought Masonic Hall offen Calvary Commandery for it… heh, heh, heh! Matt Eliot was a Mason an’ agin’ the sellin’, but he dropped aout o’ sight jest then.

      “Remember, I ain’t sayin’ Obed was set on hevin’ things jest like they was on that Kanaky isle. I dun’t think he aimed at fust to do no mixin’, nor raise no younguns to take to the water an’ turn into fishes with eternal life. He wanted them gold things, an’ was willin’ to pay heavy, an’ I guess the others was satisfied fer a while…

      “Come in ’forty-six the taown done some lookin’ an’ thinkin’ fer itself. Too many folks missin’-too much wild preachin’ at meetin’ of a Sunday – too much talk abaout that reef. I guess I done a bit by tellin’ Selectman Mowry what I see from the cupalo. They was a party one night as follered Obed’s craowd aout to the reef, an’ I heerd shots betwixt the dories. Nex’ day Obed an’ thutty-two others was in gaol, with everbody a-wonderin’ jest what was afoot an’ jest what charge agin’ ’em cud be got to holt. God, ef anybody’d look’d ahead… a couple o’ weeks later, when nothin’ had ben throwed into the sea fer that long…”

      Zadok was shewing signs of fright and exhaustion, and I let him keep silence for a while, though glancing apprehensively at my watch. The tide had turned and was coming in now, and the sound of the waves seemed to arouse him. I was glad of that tide, for at high water the fishy smell might not be so bad. Again I strained to catch his whispers.

      “That awful night… I seed ’em… I was up in the cupalo… hordes of ’em… swarms of ’em… all over the reef an’ swimmin’ up the harbour into the Manuxet… God, what happened in the streets of Innsmouth that night… they rattled our door, but pa wouldn’t open… then he clumb aout the kitchen winder with his musket to find Selectman Mowry an’ see what he cud do… Maounds o’ the dead an’ the dyin’… shots an’ screams… shaoutin’ in Ol’ Squar an’ Taown Squar an’ New Church Green… gaol throwed open… proclamation… treason… called it the plague when folks come in an’ faound haff our people missin’… nobody left but them as ud jine in with Obed an’ them things or else keep quiet… never heerd o’ my pa no more…”

      The old man was panting, and perspiring profusely. His grip on my shoulder tightened.

      “Everything cleaned up in the mornin’-but they was traces.… Obed he kinder takes charge an’ says things is goin’ to be changed… others’ll worship with us at meetin’-time, an’ sarten haouses hez got to entertain guests… they wanted to mix like they done with the Kanakys, an’ he fer one didn’t feel baound to stop ’em. Far gone, was Obed… jest like a crazy man on the subjeck. He says they brung us fish an’ treasure, an’ shud hev what they hankered arter…

      “Nothin’ was to be diff’runt on the aoutside, only we was to keep shy o’ strangers ef we knowed what was good fer us. We all hed to take the Oath o’ Dagon, an’ later on they was secon’ an’ third Oaths that some on us took. Them as ud help special, ud git special rewards – gold an’ sech- No use balkin’, fer they was millions of ’em daown thar. They’d ruther not start risin’ an’ wipin’ aout humankind, but ef they СКАЧАТЬ