"Herbert George Wells. When the Sleeper Wakes" - читать интересную книгу автора

He saw the red-haired man who had been first to discover him. A voice
seemed to be asking what he had said, and was abruptly stilled.

The man in violet answered in a soft voice, speaking English with a
slightly foreign accent, or so at least it seemed to the Sleeper's ears,
"You are quite safe.

You were brought hither from where you fell asleep. It is quite safe. You
have been here some timesleeping. In a trance."

He said something further that Graham could not hear, and a little phial
was handed across to him. Graham felt a cooling spray, a fragrant mist
played over his forehead for a moment, and his sense of refreshment
increased. He closed his eyes in satisfaction.

" Better?" asked the man in violet, as Graham's eyes reopened. He was a
pleasant-faced man of thirty, perhaps, with a pointed flaxen beard, and a
clasp of gold at the neck of his violet robe.

"Yes," said Graham.

"You have been asleep some time. In a cataleptic trance. You have heard?
Catalepsy? It may seem strange to you at first, but I can assure you
everything is well."

Graham did not answer, but these words served their reassuring purpose. His
eyes went from face to face of the three people about him. They were
regarding him strangely. He knew he ought to be somewhere in Cornwall, but
he could not square these things with that impression.

A matter that had been in his mind during his last waking moments at
Boscastle recurred, a thing resolved upon and somehow neglected. He cleared
his throat.

"Have you wired my cousin?" he asked. "E. Warming, 27, Chancery Lane? "

They were all assiduous to hear. But he had to repeat it. "What an odd
__blurr__ in his accent!" whispered the red-haired man. "Wire, sir?" said
the young man with the flaxen beard, evidently puzzled.

"He means send an electric telegram," volunteered the third, a
pleasant-faced youth of nineteen or twenty. The flaxen-bearded man gave a
cry of comprehension. "How stupid of me! You may be sure everything shall
be done, sir," he said to Graham. "I am afraid it would be difficult
to-wire to your cousin. He is not in London now. But don't trouble about
arrangements yet; you have been asleep a very long time and the important
thing is to get over that, sir." (Graham concluded the word was sir, but
this man pronounced it "Sire.")