Читать книгу Princess of Mars / Принцесса Марса. Уровень 2 - Эдгар Берроуз, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Эдгар Райс Берроуз - Страница 3

Delicious dreaminess overcame me and my muscles relaxed. I was half-asleep when the sound of approaching horses reached my ears. I tried to spring to my feet but was horrified to discover that my muscles refused to respond. I was awake but unable to move. I noticed a slight vapor filling the cave. A faintly pungent odor came to my nostrils. I assumed that it was some poisoning gas. But I could not explain why I should retain my mental faculties and yet be unable to move.

I didn't have to wait long in my living tomb before a stealthy sound told me of the Indians' nearness. Then, I saw a war-bonneted, paint-streaked face staring at me. I was sure he could see me as the early morning sun was falling full upon me through the opening.

Instead of approaching, the fellow merely stood and stared. His eyes were bulging and his jaw was dropped. And then another savage face appeared, and a third and fourth and fifth. They craned their necks over the shoulders of their fellows whom they could not pass upon the narrow ledge. Each face was the picture of awe and fear but I could not see why.

Suddenly a low but distinct moaning sound issued from the recesses of the cave behind me. As it reached the ears of the Indians, they turned and fled in terror, panic-stricken. Their wild cries echoed in the canyon for a short time, and then all was still once more.

The sound did not repeat but it was sufficient for me to speculate on the possible horror, which lurked in the shadows at my back. Several times I thought I heard faint sounds behind me as of somebody moving cautiously, but eventually even these ceased. I could only vaguely conjecture the cause of my paralysis. My only hope was that it might pass off as suddenly as it fell upon me.

Late in the afternoon, my horse started slowly down the trail in search of food and water. I was alone with my mysterious unknown companion and the dead body of my friend.

From then until possibly midnight all was silence, the silence of the dead[10]. Suddenly, I heard the awful moan of the morning. The sound of a moving thing came again from the black shadow. The shock to my already overstrained nervous system[11] was terrible. With a superhuman effort I strove to break my awful bonds. It was an effort of the mind, of the will, of the nerves. And then, something gave and I stood with my back against the wall of the cave.

The moonlight flooded the cave and I saw my own body lying on the floor. My eyes were staring toward the open ledge and the hands were resting limply upon the ground. I lay clothed, and yet here I stood naked as at the minute of my birth.

The transition was so sudden and so unexpected that I forgot anything else than my strange metamorphosis. My first thought was, is this death? But I could not believe this because I could feel my heart pounding against my ribs. My breath was coming in quick, short gasps, cold sweat stood out from every pore of my body. Definitely, I was anything other than a ghost.

Suddenly, the weird moan from the depths of the cave repeated. I was naked and unarmed and I had no desire to face the unseen thing which menaced me. I could no longer resist the temptation to escape this horrible place. I leaped quickly through the opening into the starlight of a clear Arizona night.

The crisp, fresh mountain air outside the cave made me feel new life and new courage coursing through me. The fact, that I lay helpless for many hours within the cave and nothing molested me, convinced me those noises might resulted from purely natural and harmless causes.

I filled my lungs with the pure, invigorating night air of the mountains. As I did so, I saw the beautiful vista of rocky gorge, and level, cacti-studded flat, transformed by the moonlight into a miracle of soft splendor and wondrous enchantment stretching far below me.

I turned my gaze from the landscape to the heavens where the myriad stars formed a gorgeous and fitting canopy for the wonders of the earthly scene[12]. A large red star close to the distant horizon quickly riveted my attention. It was Mars, the god of war. As a fighting man, I was fascinated by it. I closed my eyes, stretched out my arms toward the god of my vocation and felt myself drawn with the suddenness of thought through the trackless immensity of space. There was an instant of extreme cold and utter darkness.