"A. E. Merritt - The Ship of Ishtar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merritt A. E)

that turned the cabin into a rosy jewel.
In the center of the ship, taking up a third of its length, was a pit;
down from the bow to its railed edge sloped a deck of ivory. The deck that
sloped similarly from the stern was jet black. Another cabin rested there,
larger than that at the bow, but squat and ebon. Both deckscontinued in wide
platforms on each side of the pit. Atthe middle of the ship the ivory and
black decks met withan odd suggestion of contending forces. They did not fade
into each other. They ended there abruptly, edge to edge; hostile.
Out of the pit arose a rail mast: tapering and green asthe core of an
immense emerald. From its cross-sticks awide sail stretched, shimmering like
silk spun from fireopals: from mast and yards fell stays of twisted dull gold.
Out from each side of the ship swept a single bank ofseven great oars,
their scarlet blades dipped deep withinthe pearl crested lapis of the waves,
And the jewelled craft was manned! Why, Kenton won-dered, had he not noticed
the tiny figures before? It was as though they had just arisen from the deck .
. .a woman had slipped out of the rosy cabin's door, an armwas still
outstretched in its closing . . . and there wereother women shapes upon the
ivory deck, three of them,crouching . . . their heads were bent low; two
clasped harpsand the third held a double flute. . . Little figures, not more
than two inches high. . . Toys! Odd that he could not distinguish their
faces, nor thedetails of their dress. The boys were indistinct, blurred,
asthough a veil covered them. Kenton told himself that the blurring was the
fault of his eyes; he closed them. for a moment.
Opening them he looked down upon the black cabinand stared with
deepening perplexity. The black deck had been empty when first the ship had
appeared-that he could have sworn.
Now four manikins were clustered there-close to the edge of the pit! And
the baffling haze around the toys was denser. Ofcourse it must be his
eyes-what else? He would liedown for a while and rest them. He turned,
reluctantly; he walked slowly to the door; he paused there, uncer-tainly, to
look back at the shining mystery- All the room beyond the ship was hidden by
the haze! Kenton heard a shrilling as of armies of storm; aroaring as of
myriads or tempests; a shrieking chaos asthough down upon him swept cataracts
of mighty winds.
The room split into thousands of fragments; dissolved.Clear through the
clamor came the sound of a bell-one-two-thr- He knew that bell. It was his
clock ringing out thehour of six. The third note was cut in twain.
The solid floor on which. he stood melted away. He felt himself
suspended in space, a space filled with mists ofsilver.
The mists melted.
Kenton caught a glimpse of a vast blue wave-crestedocean-another of the
deck of a ship flashing by a dozenfeet below him.
He felt a sudden numbing shock, a blow upon his righttemple. Splintered
lightnings veined a blackness that wipedout sight of sea and ship.


2. The First Adventure

KENTON lay listening to a soft whispering, persistentand continuous. It
was like the breaking crests of sleepywaves. The sound was all about him; a