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

rapidly accumulating. Their brilliant colour contrasted vividly with the
whitish-blue of their antagonists, for the struggle was indisputable.

He saw these things with Howard shouting in his ear and shaking his arm.
And then suddenly Howard was gone and he stood alone.

He perceived that the cries of "The Sleeper" grew in volume, and that the
people on the nearer platform were standing up. The nearer swifter platform
he perceived was empty to the right of him, and far across the space the
platform running in the opposite direction was coming crowded and passing
away bare. With incredible swiftness a vast crowd had gathered in the
central space before his eyes; a dense swaying mass of people, and the
shouts grew from a fitful crying to a voluminous incessant clamour: "The
Sleeper!" The Sleeper!" and yells and cheers, a waving of garments and
cries of "Stop the ways!" They were also crying another name strange to
Graham. It sounded like "Ostrog." The slower platforms were soon thick with
active people, running against the movement so as to keep themselves
opposite to him.

"Stop the ways," they cried. Agile figures ran up swiftly from the centre
to the swift road nearest to him, were borne rapidly past him, shouting
strange, unintelligible things, and ran back obliquely to the central way.
One thing he distinguished: "It is indeed the Sleeper. It is indeed the
Sleeper," they testified.

For a space Graham stood without a movement. Then he became vividly aware
that all this concerned him. He was pleased at his wonderful popularity, he
bowed, and, seeking a gesture of longer range, waved his arm. He was
astonished at the violence of uproar that this provoked. The tumult about
the descending stairway rose to furious violence. He became aware of
crowded balconies, of men sliding along ropes, of men in trapeze-like seats
hurling athwart the space. He heard voices behind him, a number of people
descending the steps through the archway; he suddenly perceived that his
guardian Howard was back again and gripping his arm painfully, and shouting
inaudibly in his ear.

He turned, and Howard's face was white. "Come back," he heard. "They will
stop the ways. The whole city will be in confusion."

He perceived a number of men hurrying along the passage of blue pillars
behind Howard, the red-haired man, the man with the flaxen beard, a tall
man in vivid vermilion, a crowd of others in red carrying staves, and all
these people had anxious eager faces.

"Get him away," cried Howard.

"But why?" said Graham. "I don't see-"

"You must come away!" said the man in red in a resolute voice. His face and
eyes were resolute, too. Graham's glances went from face to face, and he