Зов Ктулху / The Call of Chulhu
Шрифт:
One thing I began to suspect, and which I now fear I know, is that my uncle’s death was not natural. He fell on a narrow hill street leading up from an ancient waterfront, after a careless push from a negro sailor. I did not forget the mixed blood and marine background of the cult-members in Louisiana, and I would not be surprised to learn of secret methods and rites and beliefs. Legrasse and his men, it is true, have been alive; but in Norway a certain seaman who saw everything is dead. Maybe the deeper inquiries of my uncle have come to sinister ears? I think Professor Angell died because he knew too much, or because he could learn too much. And at the moment I have learned much, too.
III. The Madness from the Sea
I had almost ceased my inquiries into what Professor Angell called the “Cthulhu Cult”, and was visiting a learned friend in Paterson, New Jersey; the curator of a local museum and a famous mineralogist. Examining one day the stones in a rear room of the museum, my eye noticed an odd picture in one of the old papers spread beneath the stones. It was the Australian journal, the Sydney Bulletin, [73] for April 18, 1925. There was a picture of a hideous stone image almost identical with that which Legrasse had found in the swamp.
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Australian journal, the Sydney Bulletin – австралийский журнал «Сиднейский бюллетень»
I read the article in detail. It was of great significance to my quest; and I carefully tore it out. It read as follows:
Vigilant Arrives With Helpless Armed New Zealand Yacht in Tow. [74]
One Survivor and Dead Man Found Aboard. Tale of Desperate Battle and Deaths at Sea. Rescued Seaman Refuses Particulars of Strange Experience. Odd Idol Found in His Possession. Inquiry to Follow. [75]
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Vigilant Arrives With Helpless Armed New Zealand Yacht in Tow. – «Неусыпный» прибывает в порт с неуправляемой новозеландской яхтой на буксире.
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Inquiry to Follow. – Предстоит расследование.
The Morrison Co.’s freighter Vigilant, [76] bound from Valparaiso, [77] arrived this morning at its wharf in Darling Harbour, [78] having in tow the battled and disabled but heavily armed steam yacht Alert of Dunedin, N. Z., [79] which was sighted April 12th in S. Latitude [80] 34°21’, W. Longitude [81] 152°17’, with one living and one dead man aboard.
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the Morrison Co.’s freighter Vigilant – сухогруз «Неусыпный», принадлежащий компании «Моррисон»
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Valparaiso – Вальпараисо, город и морской порт в Чили
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Darling Harbour – Дарлинг-Харбор
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steam yacht Alert of Dunedin, N. Z. – паровая яхта «Бдительная» из Данедина, Новая Зеландия
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S. Latitude – южная широта
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W. Longitude – западная долгота
The Vigilant left Valparaiso March 25th, and on April 2nd was driven considerably south of its course by exceptionally heavy storms and monster waves. On April 12th the derelict was sighted. One survivor in a half-delirious condition and one man who had evidently been dead for more than a week were found. The living man was holding a horrible stone idol of unknown origin, about foot in height. Its nature is unknown, the authorities at Sydney University, the Royal Society, and the Museum in College Street say. The survivor says he found it in the cabin of the yacht, in a small carved shrine.
This man told an exceedingly strange story of piracy and slaughter. He is Gustaf Johansen, [82] a Norwegian, from the two-masted schooner Emma of Auckland, [83] which sailed for Callao [84] February 20th with a complement of eleven men. The Emma, he says, was delayed and thrown widely south of her course by the great storm of March 1st, and on March 22nd, in S. Latitude 49°51’ W. Longitude 128°34’, encountered the Alert, manned by a queer and evil-looking crew of Kanakas and half-castes. [85] They ordered to turn back, Capt. Collins [86] refused; and the strange crew began to fire savagely and without warning. Though the schooner began to sink from shots beneath the water-line, the Emma’s men managed to heave alongside their enemy and board it. They were forced to kill them all.
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Gustaf Johansen – Густав Йохансен
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two-masted schooner Emma of Auckland – двухмачтовая шхуна «Эмма» из Окленда
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Callao – Кальяо, автономный регион в Перу на побережье Тихого океана
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Kanakas and half-castes – канаки и полукровки
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Capt. Collins – капитан Коллинз
Three of the Emma’s men, including Capt. Collins and First Mate Green, [87] were killed; and the remaining eight under Second Mate Johansen [88] proceeded to navigate the captured yacht. The next day, it appears, they raised and landed on a small island, although none knew about it in that part of the ocean. Six of the men somehow died ashore; Johansen says very little about this part of his story. Later, it seems, he and one companion boarded the yacht and tried to manage it, but were driven by the storm of April 2nd. From that time till his rescue on the 12th the man remembers little, and he does not even recall when William Briden, [89] his companion, died. There was no apparent cause for Briden’s death, and it happened probably due to excitement or exposure. The Alert was well known as an island trader, [90] and bore an evil reputation. It was owned by a curious group of half-castes whose frequent meetings and night trips to the woods attracted curiosity. It started in great haste just after the storm and earth tremors of March 1st. Our Auckland correspondent gives the Emma and her crew an excellent reputation, and Johansen is described as a sober and worthy man. The admiralty will make Johansen speak more freely than he has done hitherto.
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First Mate Green – первый помощник Грин
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under Second Mate Johansen – под командованием второго помощника Йохансена
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William Briden – Уильям Брайден
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island trader – каботажное судно
This was all, together with the picture of the hellish image; but what a train of ideas it started in my mind! Here were new data on the Cthulhu Cult, and evidence that it had strange interests at sea as well as on land. Why did the hybrid crew order the Emma to sail back? What was the unknown island on which six of the Emma’s crew had died, and about which Johansen was so secretive? And most important, what deep connection of dates was there, so carefully noted by my uncle?
March 1st – or February 28th according to the International Date Line [91] – the earthquake and storm had come. The Alert and her crew had sailed eagerly from Dunedin as if somebody had summoned it, and on the other side of the earth poets and artists had begun to dream of a strange Cyclopean city while a young sculptor had moulded in his sleep the form of the dreaded Cthulhu. March 23rd the crew of the Emma landed on an unknown island and left six men dead; and on that date the dreams of sensitive men gained heightened vividness and darkened with dread of a giant monster’s malign pursuit, while an architect had gone mad and a sculptor had gone suddenly into delirium! And what of this storm of April 2nd – the date on which all dreams of the strange city ceased, and Wilcox recovered from the strange fever? An old Castro talked about the sunken, star-born Old Ones and their coming reign; their faithful cult and their mastery of dreams. In some way the second of April had stopped monstrous menace, the siege of mankind’s soul.
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according to the International Date Line – согласно международной демаркацией суточного времени
That evening I took a train for San Francisco. In less than a month I was in Dunedin; where, however, I found that little was known of the strange cult-members who had entered the old sea-taverns. But there was vague talk about one inland trip these mongrels had made, during which faint drumming and red flame were noted on the distant hills. In Auckland I learned that Johansen had returned with yellow hair turned white [92] after a questioning at Sydney, and had thereafter sold his cottage in West Street and sailed with his wife to his old home in Oslo. All the admiralty officials could do was to give me his Oslo address.
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yellow hair turned white – русые волосы поседели