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| Yet there was nothing to indicate that this region of the island was more dangerous than the rest. There was the same mad profusion of varieties of vegetation, the same unclassifiable leaves, fruits, and flowers. Only — or he imagined this — there were fewer birds. | Пока он не замечал никаких признаков опасности. Здесь было то же самое безумное множество разных видов растительности, те же самые не поддающиеся классификации листья, плоды и цветы. Только - или ему это показалось? здесь было меньше птиц. |
| One thing slowed their progress. At times the eastern bank of the rivulet seemed more open than their side, but Lilith steadfastly refused to permit him to cross. When he tried it, she clung so desperately and so violently to his arms that he at last yielded, and plowed his way through the underbrush on his own bank. It was as if the watercourse were a dividing line, a frontier, or — he frowned — a border. By noon they had reached a point which Carver knew must be close indeed to the spot he sought. He peered through the tunnel that arched over the course of the brook, and there ahead, so overgrown that it blended perfectly with the forest wall, he saw it. | Одно обстоятельство затрудняло их продвижение. Временами восточный берег речушки казался более открытым, чем тот, по которому они шли, но Лилит упорно отказывалась дать ему перейти туда. Как только он пытался это сделать, она так отчаянно и с такой силой вцеплялась в него, что Карвер наконец смирился. Казалось, ручей был разделительной линией, рубежом или он нахмурился - границей. |
| It was a cabin, or the remains of one. The log walls still stood, but the roof, doubtless of thatch, had long ago disintegrated. But what struck Carver first was the certainty, evident in design, in window openings, in doorway, that this was no native hut. It had been a white man's cabin of perhaps three rooms. | К полудню они вышли к виденной им накануне хижине. Бревенчатые стены все еще держались прочно, а тростниковая крыша давным-давно обрушилась. Но что в первую очередь поразило Карвера, так это то, что хижина не была туземной. Это был домик белого человека, очевидно, трехкомнатный. |
| It stood on the eastern bank; but by now the brook had narrowed to a mere rill, gurgling from pool to tiny rapids. He sprang across, disregarding Lilith's anguished cry. But at a glimpse of her face he did pause. Her magnificent honey-hued eyes were wide with fear, while her lips were set in a tense little line of grimmest determination. She looked as an ancient martyr must have looked marching out to face the lions, as she stepped deliberately across to his side. It was almost as if she said, "If you are bound to die, then I will die beside you." | Он стоял на восточном берегу, но теперь ручей сузился до небольшой канавки, на дне которой журчали крошечные потоки воды. Карвер перескочил на ту сторону, невзирая на испуганный вскрик Лилит. Но, поглядев ей в лицо, он остановился. Ее щеки побелели от страха, а губы вытянулись в напряженную тонкую линию, выражая мрачную решимость. Она выглядела так, как должен был выглядеть мученик на арене со львами, когда нехотя перешла за Карвером. Она как будто бы говорила: "Если уж тебе суждено умереть, так я умру рядом с тобой". |
| Yet within the crumbling walls there was nothing to inspire fear. There was no animal life at all, except a tiny, ratlike being that skittered out between the logs at their approach. Carver stared around him at the grassy and fern grown interior, at the remnants of decaying furniture and the fallen debris. It had been years since this place had known human occupants, a decade at the very least. His foot struck something. He glanced down to see a human skull and a human femur in the grass. And then other bones, though none of them were in a natural position. Their former owner must have died there where the ruined cot sagged, and been dragged here by — well, by whatever it was that had feasted on human carrion. | Однако в хижине не нашлось ничего такого, что могло бы внушить страх. Там не было никаких животных, кроме крошечного крысоподобного существа, которое обратилось в бегство, как только появились люди. Карвер хотел подойти к окну, но внезапно споткнулся обо что-то. Он посмотрел вниз и увидел человеческий череп и человеческую бедренную кость. А затем обнаружились и другие кости, в беспорядке разбросанные по полу. Должно быть, после того как этот человек умер, над его останками пировали какие-то хищники. |
| He glanced sidewise at Lilith, but she was simply staring affrightedly toward the east. She had not noticed the bones, or if she had, they had meant nothing to her. Carver poked gingerly among them for some clue to the identity of the remains, but there was nothing save a corroded belt buckle. That, of course, was a little; it had been a man, and most probably a white man. | Карвер украдкой посмотрел на Лилит, но она не заметила костей, а если и заметила, они для нее ничего не значили. |
| Most of the debris was inches deep in the accumulation of loam. He kicked among the fragments of what must once have been a cupboard, and again his foot struck something hard and round — no skull this time, but an ordinary jar. | Карвер пошарил в бывшем посудном шкафу и наткнулся на что-то твердое и круглое - на этот раз это был не череп, но обыкновенный кувшин. |
| He picked it up. It was sealed, and there was something in it. The cap was hopelessly stuck by the corrosion of years; Carver smashed the glass against a log. What he picked from the fragments was a notebook, yellowedged and brittle with time. He swore softly as a dozen leaves disintegrated in his hands, but what remained seemed stronger. He hunched down on the log and scanned the all-but-obliterated ink. | Карвер поднял его. Сосуд был запечатан, и пробка, покрытая пылью и грязью, намертво застряла в горлышке. Карвер разбил кувшин о бревно. То, что он вытащил из обломков, оказалось записной книжкой, пожелтевшей по краям и ломкой от времени. Он тихонько выругался, когда несколько страниц рассыпались у него в руке, но те, что остались, оказались крепче. Карвер присел на бревно и проглядел записи, сделанные несмываемыми чернилами. |
| There was a date and a name. The name was Ambrose Callan, and the date was October 25th, 1921. He frowned. In 1921 he had been — let's see, he mused; fifteen years ago — he had been in grade school. Yet the name Ambrose Callan had a familiar ring to it. | Там стояла дата - и имя. Амброз Каллан, 25 октября 1921 года. Карвер нахмурился. В 1921 году, пятнадцать лет назад он учился в начальной школе, но имя Амброза Каллана он уже где-то слышал. |
| He read more of the faded, written lines, then stared thoughtfully into space. That was the man, then. He remembered the Callan expedition because as a youngster he had been interested in far places, exploration, and adventure, as what youngster isn't? Professor Ambrose Callan of Northern; he began to remember that Morgan had based some of his work with artificial species — synthetic evolution — on Callan's observations. | Он прочел еще несколько выцветших строк и вспомнил об экспедиции Каллана. Профессор Амброз Каллан из Северного университета... Он встрепенулся - Лилит дергала его за руку и стонала: |
| But Morgan had only succeeded in creating a few new species of fruit fly, of Drosophila, by exposing germ plasm to hard X-rays. Nothing like this — this madhouse of Austin Island. He stole a look at the tense and fearful Lilith, and shuddered, for she seemed so lovely — and so human. He turned his eyes to the crumbling pages and read on, for here at last he was close to the secret. | - Алан, лешать! |
| He was startled by Lilith's sudden wail of terror. "Lay shot!" she cried. "Alan, lay shot!" He followed her gesture, but saw nothing. Her eyes were doubtless sharper than his, yet — There! In the deep afternoon shadows of the forest something moved. For an instant he saw it clearly — a malevolent pygmy like the cat-eyed horror he had glimpsed drinking from the stream. Like it? No, the same; it must be the same, for here on Austin no creature resembled another, nor ever could, save by the wildest of chances. | Он проследил за ее взглядом, но ничего не увидел. Ее зрение, безусловно, острее, чем его, но все же... Вот! Что-то двигалось в глубоких послеполуденных лесных тенях. На какую-то секунду он ясно увидел это существо - того злобного пигмея с кошачьими глазами, которого он едва не подстрелил в первый день. Кто-то похожий на то существо? Нет, это тот самый, ведь здесь, на Остине, ни одно создание не напоминает другое. |
| The creature vanished before he could draw his weapon, but in the shadows lurked other figures, other eyes that seemed alight with nonhuman intelligence. He fired, and a curious squawling cry came back, and it seemed to him that the forms receded for a time. But they came again, and he saw without surprise the nightmare horde of creatures. | Тварь исчезла, прежде чем Карвер успел вытащить оружие, но следом крались другие. Карвер выстрелил, и тварь пронзительно завизжала. |
| He stuffed the notebook in his pocket and seized Lilith's wrist, for she stood as if paralyzed by horror. He backed away out of the doorless entrance, over the narrow brook. The girl seemed dazed, half hypnotized by the glimpses of the things that followed them. Her eyes were wide with fear, and she stumbled after him unseeing. He sent another shot into the shadows. That seemed to rouse Lilith. "Lay shot!" she whimpered, then gathered her self-control. She uttered her curious call, and somewhere it was answered, and yet further off, answered again. Her pack was gathering for her defense, and Carver felt a surge of apprehension for his own position. Might he not be caught between two enemies? He never forgot that retreat down the course of the little stream. Only delirium itself could duplicate the wild battles he witnessed, the unearthly screaming, the death grips of creatures not quite natural, things that fought with the mad frenzy of freaks and outcasts. He and Lilith must have been slain immediately save for the intervention of her pack; they slunk out of the shadows with low, bestial noises, circling Carver cautiously, but betraying no scrap of caution against — the other things. He saw or sensed something that had almost escaped him before. Despite their forms, whatever their appearance happened to be, Lilith's pack was doglike. Not in looks, certainly; it was far deeper than that. In nature, in character; that was it. And their enemies, wild creatures of nightmare though they were, had something feline about them. Not in appearance, no more than the others, but in character and actions. Their method of fighting, for instance — all but silent, with deadly claw and needle teeth, none of the fencing of canine nature, but with the leap and talons of feline. But their aspect, their — their catness was more submerged by their outward appearance, for they ranged from the semi-human form of the little demon of the brook to ophidian-headed things as heavy and lithe as a panther. And they fought with a ferocity and intelligence that was itself abnormal. Carver's gun helped. He fired when he had any visible target, which was none too often; but his occasional hits seemed to instill respect into his adversaries. Lilith, weaponless save for stones and her wooden knife, simply huddled at his side as they backed slowly toward the beach. Their progress was maddeningly slow, and Carver began to note apprehensively that the shadows were stretching toward the east, as if to welcome the night that was sliding around from that half of the world. Night meant — destruction. If they could attain the beach, and if Lilith's pack could hold the others at bay until Carver could build a fire, they might survive. But the creatures that were allied with Lilith were being overcome. They were hopelessly outnumbered. They were being slain more rapidly with each one that fell, as ice melts more swiftly as its size decreases. Carver stumbled backward into orange-tinted sunlight. The beach! The sun was already touching the coral spit, and darkness was a matter of minutes — brief minutes. Out of the brush came the remnants of Lilith's pack, a half dozen nondescripts, snarling, bloody, panting, and exhausted. For the moment they were free of their attackers, since the catlike fiends chose to lurk among the shadows. Carver backed farther away, feeling a sense of doom as his own shadow lengthened in the brief instant of twilight that divided day from night in these latitudes. And then swift darkness came just as he dragged Lilith to the ridge of the coral spit. | Не мешкая, Карвер сунул записную книжку в карман, ухватил Лилит за руку и потащил ее к выходу из хижины. - Лешать! - захныкала Лилит, а потом отчаянно завыла, призывая свою стаю. До конца своих дней не мог забыть Карвер эту фантастическую битву. Их с Лилит должны были убить немедленно, если бы не вмешательство ее телохранителей. Нападающие по-кошачьи подвывали и норовили вскочить на загривок защитникам людей. Те, по-собачьи лязгая зубами, стояли кольцом вокруг Карвера и Лилит. Зоолог выстрелами расчищал себе дорогу, отступая к побережью. Они уже выскочили на песок, когда у него кончились патроны. Теперь вся надежда была лишь на войско Лилит, но и оно редело на глазах. Карвер схватил бесполезный теперь пистолет за ствол, намереваясь использовать его в последней схватке как дубинку. И вдруг, когда он уже потерял надежду, кошки внезапно обратились в бегство. Они отступили прочь к деревьям! |
| He saw the charge impending. Weird shadows detached themselves from the deeper shadows of the trees. Below, one of the nondescripts whined softly. Across the sand, clear for an instant against the white ground coral of the beach, the figure of the small devil with the half-human posture showed, and a malevolent sputtering snarl sounded. It was exactly as if the creature had leaped forward like a leader to exhort his troops to charge. Carver chose that figure as his target. His gun flashed; the snarl became a squawl of agony, and the charge came. Lilith's pack crouched; but Carver knew that this was the end. He fired. The flickering shadows came on. The magazine emptied; there was no time now to reload, so he reversed the weapon, clubbed it. He felt Lilith grow tense beside him. And then the charge halted. In unison, as if at command, the shadows were motionless, silent save for the low snarling of the dying creature on the sand. When they moved again, it was away — toward the trees! Carver gulped. A faint shimmering light on the wall of the forest caught his eye, and he spun. It was true! Down the beach, down there where he had left his box of supplies, a fire burned, and rigid against the light, facing toward them in the darkness, were human figures. The unknown peril of fire had frightened off the attack. He stared. There in the sea, dark against the faint glow of the West, was a familiar outline. The Fortune! The men there were his associates; they had heard his shots and lighted the fire as a guide. | Карвер перевел дух. В глаза ему бросился слабый мерцающий отсвет на листьях ближайших деревьев. Он обернулся. Ему не почудилось! На берегу, там, где зоолог оставил свой ящик с припасами, горел костер, а на фоне огня виднелись человеческие фигуры. Так это огонь отпугнул нападающих! Карвер вгляделся как следует. В море, на фоне догорающего заката, виднелся знакомый силуэт. "Фортуна"! |
| "Lilith!" he choked. "Look there. Come on!" | - Лилит, - позвал он, задыхаясь, - посмотри туда! Пойдем! |
| But the girl held back. The remnant of her pack slunk behind the shelter of the ridge of coral, away from the dread fire. It was no longer the fire that frightened Lilith, but the black figures around it, and Alan Carver found himself suddenly face to face with the hardest decision of his life. | Девушка стояла, опустив голову. Псы-мутанты отпрянули в укрытие за коралловой грядой, подальше от ужасного огня. Алан Карвер внезапно осознал, что оказался перед труднейшей задачей, которую ему когда-либо задавала жизнь. |
| He could leave her here. He knew she would not follow, knew it from the tragic light in her honey-hued eyes. And beyond all doubt that was the best thing to do; for he could not marry her. Nobody could ever marry her, and she was too lovely to take among men who might love her — as Carver did. But he shuddered a little as a picture flashed in his mind. Children! What sort of children would Lilith bear? No man could dare chance the possibility that Lilith, too, was touched by the curse of Austin Island. | Он мог оставить ее здесь. И, вне всякого сомнения, это было лучшее, что можно было сделать, потому что он не мог на ней жениться. Никто не мог бы на ней жениться, а она была слишком красивой, чтобы взять ее туда, где она будет среди мужчин. Дети! Что за детей родит Лилит? Ни один порядочный мужчина не отважится проверить, не тяготеет ли над Лилит проклятие острова Остин. |
| He turned sadly away — a step, two steps, toward the fire. Then he turned. | Он сделал шаг, второй по направлению к костру. Потом вернулся. |
| "Come, Lilith," he said gently, and added mournfully, "other people have married, lived, and died without children. I suppose we can, too." | - Пойдем, Лилит, - позвал он нежно. - Многие люди поженились, жили и умерли, не родив детей. Наверное, мы тоже так сможем. |
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(Weinbaum Stanley, "Proteus Island")
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