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- Фрэнк Норрис
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- Спрут: Калифорнийская история
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- Стр. 355/416
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He
fancied
himself
to
be
fired
with
the
purblind
,
mistaken
heroism
of
the
anarchist
,
hurling
his
victim
to
destruction
with
full
knowledge
that
the
catastrophe
shall
sweep
him
also
into
the
vortex
it
creates
.
But
his
constitutional
irresoluteness
obstructed
his
path
continually
;
brain
-
sick
,
weak
of
will
,
emotional
,
timid
even
,
he
temporised
,
procrastinated
,
brooded
;
came
to
decisions
in
the
dark
hours
of
the
night
,
only
to
abandon
them
in
the
morning
.
Once
only
he
had
ACTED
.
And
at
this
moment
,
as
he
was
carried
through
the
windy
,
squalid
streets
,
he
trembled
at
the
remembrance
of
it
.
The
horror
of
“
what
might
have
been
”
incompatible
with
the
vengeance
whose
minister
he
fancied
he
was
,
oppressed
him
.
The
scene
perpetually
reconstructed
itself
in
his
imagination
.
He
saw
himself
under
the
shade
of
the
encompassing
trees
and
shrubbery
,
creeping
on
his
belly
toward
the
house
,
in
the
suburbs
of
Bonneville
,
watching
his
chances
,
seizing
opportunities
,
spying
upon
the
lighted
windows
where
the
raised
curtains
afforded
a
view
of
the
interior
.
Then
had
come
the
appearance
in
the
glare
of
the
gas
of
the
figure
of
the
man
for
whom
he
waited
.
He
saw
himself
rise
and
run
forward
.
He
remembered
the
feel
and
weight
in
his
hand
of
Caraher
’
s
bomb
—
the
six
inches
of
plugged
gas
pipe
.
His
upraised
arm
shot
forward
.
There
was
a
shiver
of
smashed
window
-
panes
,
then
—
a
void
—
a
red
whirl
of
confusion
,
the
air
rent
,
the
ground
rocking
,
himself
flung
headlong
,
flung
off
the
spinning
circumference
of
things
out
into
a
place
of
terror
and
vacancy
and
darkness
.
And
then
after
a
long
time
the
return
of
reason
,
the
consciousness
that
his
feet
were
set
upon
the
road
to
Los
Muertos
,
and
that
he
was
fleeing
terror
-
stricken
,
gasping
,
all
but
insane
with
hysteria
.
Then
the
never
-
to
-
be
-
forgotten
night
that
ensued
,
when
he
descended
into
the
pit
,
horrified
at
what
he
supposed
he
had
done
,
at
one
moment
ridden
with
remorse
,
at
another
raging
against
his
own
feebleness
,
his
lack
of
courage
,
his
wretched
,
vacillating
spirit
.
But
morning
had
come
,
and
with
it
the
knowledge
that
he
had
failed
,
and
the
baser
assurance
that
he
was
not
even
remotely
suspected
.
His
own
escape
had
been
no
less
miraculous
than
that
of
his
enemy
,
and
he
had
fallen
on
his
knees
in
inarticulate
prayer
,
weeping
,
pouring
out
his
thanks
to
God
for
the
deliverance
from
the
gulf
to
the
very
brink
of
which
his
feet
had
been
drawn
.
After
this
,
however
,
there
had
come
to
Presley
a
deep
-
rooted
suspicion
that
he
was
—
of
all
human
beings
,
the
most
wretched
—
a
failure
.
Everything
to
which
he
had
set
his
mind
failed
—
his
great
epic
,
his
efforts
to
help
the
people
who
surrounded
him
,
even
his
attempted
destruction
of
the
enemy
,
all
these
had
come
to
nothing
.
Girding
his
shattered
strength
together
,
he
resolved
upon
one
last
attempt
to
live
up
to
the
best
that
was
in
him
,
and
to
that
end
had
set
himself
to
lift
out
of
the
despair
into
which
they
had
been
thrust
,
the
bereaved
family
of
the
German
,
Hooven
.
After
all
was
over
,
and
Hooven
,
together
with
the
seven
others
who
had
fallen
at
the
irrigating
ditch
,
was
buried
in
the
Bonneville
cemetery
,
Mrs
.
Hooven
,
asking
no
one
’
s
aid
or
advice
,
and
taking
with
her
Minna
and
little
Hilda
,
had
gone
to
San
Francisco
—
had
gone
to
find
work
,
abandoning
Los
Muertos
and
her
home
forever
.
Presley
only
learned
of
the
departure
of
the
family
after
fifteen
days
had
elapsed
.
At
once
,
however
,
the
suspicion
forced
itself
upon
him
that
Mrs
.
Hooven
—
and
Minna
,
too
for
the
matter
of
that
—
country
-
bred
,
ignorant
of
city
ways
,
might
easily
come
to
grief
in
the
hard
,
huge
struggle
of
city
life
.
This
suspicion
had
swiftly
hardened
to
a
conviction
,
acting
at
last
upon
which
Presley
had
followed
them
to
San
Francisco
,
bent
upon
finding
and
assisting
them
.
The
house
to
which
Presley
was
led
by
the
address
in
his
memorandum
book
was
a
cheap
but
fairly
decent
hotel
near
the
power
house
of
the
Castro
Street
cable
.
He
inquired
for
Mrs
.
Hooven
.
The
landlady
recollected
the
Hoovens
perfectly
.
