Читать книгу The Complete Works of Algernon Blackwood. Novels, Short Stories, Horror Classics, Occult & Supernatural Tales, Plays онлайн

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Then, suddenly, they moved closer and stretched out their arms towards him, their bodies swaying rhythmically together, while their combined voices, raised just above a whisper, sang to him—

"Dare you fly out to-night,

When the Moon is so strong?

Though the stars are so bright,

There is death in their song;

You're a hostage to Fright,

And to us you belong!

Dare you fly out alone

Through the shadows that wave,

When the course is unknown

And there's no one to save?

You are bone of our bone,

And for ever His slave!"

And, following these words, came from somewhere in the air that voice like the thunder of a river. Jimbo knew only too well to whom it belonged as he listened to the rhyme of the West Wind—

"For the Wind of the West

Is a wind unblest,

And its dangerous breath

Will entice you to death!

Fly not with the Wind of the West, O child,

With the terrible Wind of the West!"

But the boy knew perfectly well that these efforts to stop him were all part of a trap. They were lying to him. It was not the Wind of the West at all; it was the South Wind! That at least he knew by the odours that were wafted in through the window. Again he tried to call to the governess, but his tongue lay stiff in his mouth and no sound came.