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

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“Then that is the grave of all the lost ones from Marshfielden?”

“I am afraid so.”

“What exactly is the ‘Light’?”

“I don’t know—I’ve tried to find out—but it is some power of their own that they have learnt to control. I think it is some force—something to do with the natural light that pervades this place. It is sent through the earth itself by the aid of some infernal mechanism, and when it reaches the world above, it attracts a victim which it strikes and brings back—a living, sacrifice to this hell down here.”

“It is a very terrible menace to our world.”

“Indeed it is! Some of the victims arrive mutilated and burnt, and welcome the fire to deliver them from their pains. In some miraculous way I was unhurt by it—at least I was burnt very slightly, and soon recovered. But, Alan! How did you get here? Did the Light bring you too?”

“No, Desmond!” And Alan told the story of the coal mine disaster and how he found the river that brought him to his cousin.

Suddenly their eyes met, and a quick flash passed through their brains simultaneously. Alan was the first to dispel it.