othing whatever but eternally unsatisfied black hate; a sort of dank atmosphere of poison, in which everything that I had ever cared for seemed to moulder away into nastiness. I [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] can’t explain, I can’t explain.”
John had [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] been sitting on the corner of my writing-table. He got up suddenly and walked to the window. “Thank God for light,” he said, looking at the grey sky. “If there was some one who could understand, I could tell it all and be rid of it, perhaps. But half-telling it just makes it all come welling up again. And some say there’s no Hell!”
He remained silent for some time, looking out of the window. Then he said, “Look at that cormorant. He’s got a conger fatter than his own neck.” I came up beside him, and we watched the fish writhing and lashing. Sometimes bird and prey disappeared together under water. Once [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] the conger got away, but was speedily recovered. After many failures, the cormorant caught it by the head, and swallowed it, slick, so that nothing was to be seen of it but its tail, and a huge swelling in the bird’s neck.
“And now,” said John, “he’ll be digested. That’s what nearly happened to me. I [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] felt my whole mind being disintegrated by the digestive juices of that [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] Satanic young mollusc. I [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] don’t know what happened next, I remember seeing a perfectly diabolic expression on the kid’s face; and then I must have saved myself somehow, for presently I found myself lying on the grass some way from the house, alone and in a cold sweat. The very sight of the house in the distance gave me the creeps. I couldn’t think. I kept seeing that infantile grin of hate, and turning stupid again. After a while I realized I was cold, so I got up and walked toward the little bay where the boats were, Presently I began to ask myself what sort of a [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] devil this baby Satan really was. Was he one of ‘us’, or something quite different? But there was very little doubt in my mind, actually. Of course he was one of us, and probably a much mightier one than either J. J. or my