Читать книгу The Perfect World. A romance of strange people and strange places онлайн

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“Dez, old boy!” cried his cousin, his sobs coming thick and fast. “Dez! Thank God I’ve found you. Steady, boy, steady—it’s two against those purple devils now,” and the strong man bent low and sobbed as if his heart would break.

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For some time after the cousins met again so strangely, they could only grasp each other’s hands—their hearts were too full for words.

“I’m like a silly woman,” said Desmond at last “but oh! Alan, I seem to have been in this Hell a lifetime.”

“Poor old boy.”

“No one to speak to but Kaweeka—no one to look at but Kaweeka—always Kaweeka—until I felt I should go mad.”

“How did you get here?” asked Alan at last. “We were never able to discover the origin of the Light. Oh,” he shuddered, “I shall never forget seeing you carried off—whirling through space—it was terrible.”

Then Desmond began his story in a quick jerky way, as if eager to get it done. “The Light came upon me so suddenly, I didn’t realize what had happened. All I knew was—that I had a fearful burning sensation round my waist—and that I was being carried through space. Then came a descent through darkness which seemed to last a lifetime. I seemed to be going on and on—and then suddenly I found myself in the presence of the high priest in the temple here. I have no recollection of how I reached it—I think I must have lost consciousness and then—”