the red one-第6节
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
jungle beyond; and win to the beach; and to some labour…recruiting;
black…birding ketch or schooner; and on to civilization and the men
of civilization; to whom he could give news of the message from
other worlds that lay; darkly worshipped by beastmen; in the black
heart of Guadalcanal's midmost centre。
On the other nights; lying late under the breadfruit tree; Bassett
spent long hours watching the slow setting of the western stars
beyond the black wall of jungle where it had been thrust back by
the clearing for the village。 Possessed of more than a cursory
knowledge of astronomy; he took a sick man's pleasure in
speculating as to the dwellers on the unseen worlds of those
incredibly remote suns; to haunt whose houses of light; life came
forth; a shy visitant; from the rayless crypts of matter。 He could
no more apprehend limits to time than bounds to space。 No
subversive radium speculations had shaken his steady scientific
faith in the conservation of energy and the indestructibility of
matter。 Always and forever must there have been stars。 And
surely; in that cosmic ferment; all must be comparatively alike;
comparatively of the same substance; or substances; save for the
freaks of the ferment。 All must obey; or compose; the same laws
that ran without infraction through the entire experience of man。
Therefore; he argued and agreed; must worlds and life be appanages
to all the suns as they were appanages to the particular of his own
solar system。
Even as he lay here; under the breadfruit tree; an intelligence
that stared across the starry gulfs; so must all the universe be
exposed to the ceaseless scrutiny of innumerable eyes; like his;
though grantedly different; with behind them; by the same token;
intelligences that questioned and sought the meaning and the
construction of the whole。 So reasoning; he felt his soul go forth
in kinship with that august company; that multitude whose gaze was
forever upon the arras of infinity。
Who were they; what were they; those far distant and superior ones
who had bridged the sky with their gigantic; red…iridescent;
heaven…singing message? Surely; and long since; had they; too;
trod the path on which man had so recently; by the calendar of the
cosmos; set his feet。 And to be able to send a message across the
pit of space; surely they had reached those heights to which man;
in tears and travail and bloody sweat; in darkness and confusion of
many counsels; was so slowly struggling。 And what were they on
their heights? Had they won Brotherhood? Or had they learned that
the law of love imposed the penalty of weakness and decay? Was
strife; life? Was the rule of all the universe the pitiless rule
of natural selection? And; and most immediately and poignantly;
were their far conclusions; their long…won wisdoms; shut even then
in the huge; metallic heart of the Red One; waiting for the first
earth…man to read? Of one thing he was certain: No drop of red
dew shaken from the lion…mane of some sun in torment; was the
sounding sphere。 It was of design; not chance; and it contained
the speech and wisdom of the stars。
What engines and elements and mastered forces; what lore and
mysteries and destiny…controls; might be there! Undoubtedly; since
so much could be enclosed in so little a thing as the foundation
stone of a public building; this enormous sphere should contain
vast histories; profounds of research achieved beyond man's wildest
guesses; laws and formulae that; easily mastered; would make man's
life on earth; individual and collective; spring up from its
present mire to inconceivable heights of purity and power。 It was
Time's greatest gift to blindfold; insatiable; and sky…aspiring
man。 And to him; Bassett; had been vouchsafed the lordly fortune
to be the first to receive this message from man's interstellar
kin!
No white man; much less no outland man of the other bush…tribes;
had gazed upon the Red One and lived。 Such the law expounded by
Ngurn to Bassett。 There was such a thing as blood brotherhood。
Bassett; in return; had often argued in the past。 But Ngurn had
stated solemnly no。 Even the blood brotherhood was outside the
favour of the Red One。 Only a man born within the tribe could look
upon the Red One and live。 But now; his guilty secret known only
to Balatta; whose fear of immolation before the Red One fast…sealed
her lips; the situation was different。 What he had to do was to
recover from the abominable fevers that weakened him; and gain to
civilization。 Then would he lead an expedition back; and; although
the entire population of Guadalcanal he destroyed; extract from the
heart of the Red One the message of the world from other worlds。
But Bassett's relapses grew more frequent; his brief convalescences
less and less vigorous; his periods of coma longer; until he came
to know; beyond the last promptings of the optimism inherent in so
tremendous a constitution as his own; that he would never live to
cross the grass lands; perforate the perilous coast jungle; and
reach the sea。 He faded as the Southern Cross rose higher in the
sky; till even Balatta knew that he would be dead ere the nuptial
date determined by his taboo。 Ngurn made pilgrimage personally and
gathered the smoke materials for the curing of Bassett's head; and
to him made proud announcement and exhibition of the artistic
perfectness of his intention when Bassett should be dead。 As for
himself; Bassett was not shocked。 Too long and too deeply had life
ebbed down in him to bite him with fear of its impending
extinction。 He continued to persist; alternating periods of
unconsciousness with periods of semi…consciousness; dreamy and
unreal; in which he idly wondered whether he had ever truly beheld
the Red One or whether it was a nightmare fancy of delirium。
Came the day when all mists and cob…webs dissolved; when he found
his brain clear as a bell; and took just appraisement of his body's
weakness。 Neither hand nor foot could he lift。 So little control
of his body did he have; that he was scarcely aware of possessing
one。 Lightly indeed his flesh sat upon his soul; and his soul; in
its briefness of clarity; knew by its very clarity that the black
of cessation was near。 He knew the end was close; knew that in all
truth he had with his eyes beheld the Red One; the messenger
between the worlds; knew that he would never live to carry that
message to the world … that message; for aught to the contrary;
which might already have waited man's hearing in the heart of
Guadalcanal for ten thousand years。 And Bassett stirred with
resolve; calling Ngurn to him; out under the shade of the
breadfruit tree; and with the old devil…devil doctor discussing the
terms and arrangements of his last life effort; his final adventure
in the quick of the flesh。
〃I know the law; O Ngurn;〃 he concluded the matter。 〃Whoso is not
of the folk may not look upon the Red One and live。 I shall not
live anyway。 Your young men shall carry me before the face of the
Red One; and I shall look upon him; and hear his voice; and
thereupon die; under your hand; O Ngurn。 Thus will the three
things be satisfied: the law; my desire; and your quicker
possession of my head for which all your preparations wait。〃
To which Ngurn consented; adding:
〃It is better so。 A sick man who cannot get well is foolish to
live on for so little a while。 Also is it better for the living
that he should go。 You have been much in the way of late。 Not but
what it was good for me to talk to such a wise one。 But for moons
of days we have held little talk。 Instead; you have taken up room
in the house of heads; making noises like a dying pig; or talking
much and loudly in your own language which I do not understand。
This has been a confusion to me; for I like to think on the great
things of the light and dark as I turn the heads in the smoke。
Your much noise has thus been a disturbance to the long…learning
and hatching of the final wisdom that will be mine before I die。
As for you; upon whom the dark has already brooded; it is well that
you die now。 And I promise you; in the long days to come when I
turn your head in the smoke; no man of the tribe shall come in to
disturb us。 And I will tell you many secrets; for I am an old man
and very wise; and I shall be adding wisdom to wisdom as I turn
your head in the smoke。〃
So a litter was made; and; borne on the shoulders of half a dozen
of the men; Bassett departed on the last little adventure that was
to cap the total adventure; for him; of living。 With a body of
which he was scarcely aware; for even the pain had been exhausted
out of it; and with a bright clear brain that accommodated him to a
quiet ecstasy of sheer lucidness of thought; he lay back on the
lurching litter and watched the fading of the passing world;
beholding for the last time the breadfruit tr