"Aleksandr Abramov, Sergei Abramov. Horsemen from Nowhere ("ВСАДНИКИ НИОТКУДА", англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

shock passes into sleep and sleep will set up a protective inhibition." At
this point Tolya almost went out again, and it was decided to start the
evacuation with Tolya and leave me in the cabin for the time being. They
took skis, sleighs, the tent, a portable stove and briquettes for heating, a
lantern and part of the food supply. Though the machine was in a stable
position and there was no more danger of it falling farther, they did not
want to stay any longer hanging over the precipice. Zernov recalled the cave
in the ice wall a short distance from the site of the accident. So they
decided to transfer all the equipment there and Tolya too and then set up
the tent and stove and return for me. In half an hour they had reached the
cave. Zernov and Tolya, who had meanwhile regained some strength, remained
to set up the tent, while Vano returned with empty sleigh to fetch me. It
was then that the event took place which made them think that he had
momentarily lost his mind. Hardly an hour had passed when he came running
back with mad eyes, in a state of strange feverish excitement. The machine
he said was not in the crevice but on an icefield, and what is more, there
was another one just like it alongside, with the same dent in the front
glass. And in each one of the two cabins he found me lying on the floor
unconscious. At this point he cried out in terror, figuring that he must
have gone mad, and ran back. there he drank down a whole glass of spirits
and refused point blank to go after me, saying that he was used to dealing
with human beings and not snow maidens. Then Zernov and Tolya set out for
me.
In response, I told them my version of the story, which was still more
remarkable than Vano's ravings. They listened avidly, credulously, the way
children listen to a fairy story, not a single sceptical snicker, only
Dyachuk hurried me on now and then with "and then what". Their eyes shone so
that I felt they both ought to repeat Vano's experiment with the glass of
vodka. But when I finished they both were silent for a long time, hoping, I
imagine, for an explanation from me.
But I was silent too.
"Don't be angry, Yuri," Dyachuk finally mumbled. "Scott's diary, or
something like that. Well, what I mean is self-hypnosis. Snow
hallucinations. White dreams."
"And how about Vano?" Zernov asked.
"Well, of course, as a doctor I-"
"You're a hell of a doctor," put in Zernov, "so let's forget it. There
are too many unknowns to try and solve the equation straight off. Let's
begin from the beginning. Who pulled out the machine? From a
three-metre-deep well, and wedged into a vice that no factory could have
made. Yes, and weighing thirty-five tons. Even a whole tractor train would
probably not be strong enough. And what did they use to pull it out? Cables?
Nonsense. Steel cables would definitely leave traces on the body of the
machine. But there aren't any, as you can see."
He got up without saying a word and went into the navigator's room.
"But that's sheer nonsense, madness, Boris Arkadievich!" Tolya yelled
after him.
Zernov turned round.
"What do you mean?"
"Why all these adventures of Anokhin, the new Munchausen, all these