登陆注册
4718300000026

第26章

Thrown into confusion by the extinction of the lights they were now being attacked by the red police. Then he became aware that he was standing alone, that his guards and Lincoln were along the gallery in the direction along which he had come before the darkness fell. He saw they were gesticulating to him wildly, running back towards him. A great shouting came from across the ways. Then it seemed as though the whole face of the darkened building opposite was lined and speckled with red-clad men. And they were pointing over to him and shouting. "The Sleeper! Save the Sleeper!" shouted a multitude of throats.

Something struck the wall above his head. He looked up at the impact and saw a star-shaped splash of silvery metal. He saw Lincoln near him. Felt his arm gripped. Then, pat, pat; he had been missed twice.

For a moment he did not understand this. The street was hidden, everything was hidden, as he looked.

The second flare had burned out.

Lincoln had gripped Graham by the arm, was lugging him along the gallery. "Before the next light!" he cried. His haste was contagious.

Graham's instinct of self-preservation overcame the paralysis of his incredulous astonishment. He became for a time the blind creature of the fear of death. He ran, stumbling because of the uncertainty of the darkness, blundered into his guards as they turned to run with him. Haste was his one desire, to escape this perilous gallery upon which he was exposed. A third glare came close on its predecessors. With it came a great shouting across the ways, an answering tumult from the ways. The red-coats below, he saw, had now almost gained the central passage. Their countless faces turned towards him, and they shouted. The white facade opposite was densely stippled with red.

All these wonderful things concerned him, turned upon him as a pivot. These were the guards of the Council attempting to recapture him.

Lucky it was for him that these shots were the first fired in anger for a hundred and fifty years. He heard bullets whacking over his head, felt a splash of molten metal sting his ear, and perceived without looking that the whole opposite facade, an unmasked ambuscade of red police, was crowded and bawling and firing at him.

Down went one of his guards before him, and Graham, unable to stop, leapt the writhing body.

In another second he had plunged, unhurt, into a black passage, and incontinently someone, coming, it may be, in a transverse direction, blundered violently into him. He was hurling down a staircase in absolute darkness. He reeled, and was struck again, and came against a wall with his hands. He was crushed by a weight of struggling bodies, whirled round, and thrust to the right. A vast pressure pinned him. He could not breathe, his ribs seemed cracking. He felt a momentary relaxation, and then the whole mass of people moving together, bore him back towards the great theatre from which he had so recently come.

There were moments when his feet did not touch the ground. Then he was staggering and shoving. He heard shouts of "They are coming!" and a muffled cry close to him. His foot blundered against something soft, he heard a hoarse scream under foot. He heard shouts of "The Sleeper!" but he was too confused to speak. He heard the green weapons crackling. For a space he lost his individual will, became an atom in a panic, blind, unthinking, mechanical.

He thrust and pressed back and writhed in the pressure, kicked presently against a step, and found himself ascending a slope. And abruptly the faces all about him leapt out of the black, visible, ghastly-white and astonished, terrified, perspiring, in a livid glare.

One face, a young man's, was very near to him, not twenty inches away. At the time it was but a passing incident of no emotional value, but afterwards it came back to him in his dreams. For this young man, wedged upright in the crowd for a time, had been shot and was already dead.

A fourth white star must have been lit by the man on the cable. Its light came glaring in through vast windows and arches and showed Graham that he was now one of a dense mass of flying black figures pressed back across the lower area of the great theatre. This time the picture was livid and fragmentary slashed and barred with black shadows. He saw that quite near to him the red guards were fighting their way through the people. He could not tell whether they saw him. He looked for Lincoln and his guards. He saw Lincoln near the stage of the theatre surrounded in a crowd of black-badged revolutionaries, lifted up and staring to and fro as if seeking him. Graham perceived that he himself was near the opposite edge of the crowd, that behind him, separated by a barrier, sloped the now vacant seats of the theatre. A sudden idea came to him, and he began fighting his way towards the barrier. As he reached it the glare came to an end.

In a moment he had thrown off the great cloak that not only impeded his movements but made him conspicuous, and had slipped it from his shoulders. He heard someone trip in its folds. In another he was scaling the barrier and had dropped into the blackness on the further side. Then feeling his way he came to the lower end of an ascending gangway. In the darkness the sound of firing ceased and the roar of feet and voices lulled. Then suddenly he came to an unexpected step and tripped and fell. As he did so pools and islands amidst the darkness about him leapt to vivid light again, the uproar surged louder and the glare of the fifth white star shone through the vast fenestrations of the theatre walls.

He rolled over among some seats, heard a shouting and the whirring rattle of weapons, struggled up and was knocked back again, perceived that a number of black-badged men were all about him firing at the rebels below, leaping from seat to seat, crouching among the seats to reload. Instinctively he crouched amidst the seats, as stray shots ripped the pneumatic cushions and cut bright slashes on their soft metal frames.

同类推荐
  • THE SIGN OF FOUR

    THE SIGN OF FOUR

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 续灯正统

    续灯正统

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 圆觉经佚文

    圆觉经佚文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 人谋下

    人谋下

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 方简肃文集

    方简肃文集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 独家记忆

    独家记忆

    世界上最美好的事情莫过于,我喜欢你的同时,刚好你也喜欢我。超人气作家木浮生五年畅销口碑代表作。初见时,她是考生,他是巡考员,因一场乌龙的作弊案,她被他抓了个正着;再见时,她是课代表,他是代课教师,因一个发不出的弹音,她被他留下单独辅导。从此,“慕承和”三个字,成为她平淡无奇生活的转折点。原以为他是她的意外惊喜,殊不知她才是他灰暗生活里的一抹亮色。“你知道我为什么叫你Роза?”“玫瑰?”
  • 印度,漂浮的次大陆

    印度,漂浮的次大陆

    为什么所有的人都喜欢把中国和印度做比较?印度和中国同样是古老的国家,到底有哪些不一样?为什么他们穿着纱丽、练着瑜伽、谈论着玄之又玄的精神生活,却又讲着英语、玩着鼠标……作者跋涉两万公里,走遍了印度70个城市,上百个景点,同时结合大量史实,穿越于历史与现实间,用一步步的脚印去丈量印度这片土地。从不同的宗教根源入手,以政治、经济、历史等多个视角去拷问印度的文化,描绘出一个多姿多彩的印度浮世绘。《印度:漂浮的次大陆》一书为作者“文化旅行”系列作品第一部,后续作品《一半印度、一半中国》、《骑车去元朝》等即将出版。
  • 二嫁萌妻:靳总难招架

    二嫁萌妻:靳总难招架

    唐菱觉得自己挺倒霉的,说好的未婚夫在婚礼上给她戴了顶陈年绿帽子。她一不做二不休,转身就调戏了未婚夫的小叔。“先生,你有女朋友吗?”“有。”你介不介意多个女朋友?貌美如我那种。”男人矜贵的抿紧唇,唐菱趁热打铁的凑在他耳边,“小叔,实不相瞒,我趁你睡觉的时候拍了几张照片。所以,你就从了吧。”
  • 望族夫人

    望族夫人

    大家族长女叶婉心,心灵手巧,聪明能干。却在家中爹不疼,娘不爱。大婚之日,被父亲锁在屋中,让亲妹妹替嫁。她苦咽泪水,默默接受命运!家族生意危机,她被对方要求联姻。父亲又想故伎重演,却被未婚夫当场戳穿奸计。原本以为只是一场金钱利益的交换,没曾想到这个丈夫却对她处处维护,小心呵护,宠溺无边!片段一:新婚之夜,他掀开她的红盖头,看清了她的模样,一直紧绷的脸才缓缓的舒展开。“反正都是联姻,你娶谁不是娶?新娘都送到你家门口了,为什么还要退回来?”她仰起头,清冷的眸光里没有一丝温度,说出话也极尽嘲讽!他潸然一笑,伸手勾起她的下颌,性感的双唇微启,“我的屁股都被你看了,难不成你还想赖账么?我金世修从一开始要娶的人就是你,也只能是你!”片段二:夜里,他早早上床歇息,只是临上床前却灭了她的灯,抢了她的针,扔了她的线。“这幅图是明天要用的,我今晚上必须做完。”她满脸怒气,双目瞪圆愤愤的吼道。他双手环胸,笑容满面,缓缓开口,“今天的事都还没做完,怎么就惦记着明天了?”“我今天还有什么事没做完?”她仔细的回想着。他突然上前捧着她的脸颊,在她脸上偷香一记,坏坏的说道,“身为妻子,每日伺候你的丈夫是你的必备功课,这么重要的事怎么能忘记呢?”“金世修你这个无赖,放开我…”蜡烛灭,黑暗中,黑夜的妖娆之花慢慢的绽放,散发着阵阵的幽香!
  • 河南建成小康社会的理论与实践

    河南建成小康社会的理论与实践

    本书坚持三个自信(道路自信、理论自信、制度自信),围绕新四化(新型工业化、信息化、城镇化、农业现代化),实现五位一体(经济建设、政治建设、文化建设、社会建设、生态文明建设),打造四个河南(富强河南、文明河南、平安河南、美丽河南),完成两项建设(推进社会主义民主政治制度建设、加强和提高党的执政能力制度建设),紧扣三大国家战略规划(粮食生产核心区、中原经济区、郑州航空港经济综合实验区),在“一路一带战略”中,探索中原城市群和河南自由贸易区的建设。
  • 浅夏风笙

    浅夏风笙

    没有人会在原地等你,错过的终究是回不来的,不是你的就放手吧,别害了自己也伤了他
  • 都市之网游神话

    都市之网游神话

    这里有神死了,魔灭了,这里也有一见无始道成空,也有不为成仙,只为在红尘中等你;还有女娲,伏羲,老子,通天等……公元3038年,一款神奇的网游,掀起了一个波澜壮阔的世界
  • 菡萏曲

    菡萏曲

    武周久视年间,十五岁的少女苏菡萏下山重夺家主之位,名闻天下意气风发之时,围绕她的秘密与诡计却早已展开。烟雨望春双城困,瑾年流光往事沉。从江南云碧到漠北月白,从荒山凉夜到九重之巅,她与他携手走过十年风雨,而秘密的尽头,又是一场风雨。一句话简介:双重人格少女的江湖复仇之路。
  • 没有七彩的灯

    没有七彩的灯

    严青站起来,在吴双澄的视线里,像电影慢镜头般地站起来。吴双澄也站起来。他们看着对方的眼睛。吴双澄觉得又一个十二年都过去了,严青才伸出手臂把她搂进了怀里。他那么小心,好像她是玻璃器皿,一不小心就会碰碎。他是那么激动,好像要爆炸似的,好像要把自己所有的热力挤出来给她。他的拥抱越来越猛烈,以至于弄疼了她。然后,然后他松开手臂,用双手轻轻地捧住了吴双澄的头,吴双澄的脸。他轻轻地,轻轻地,那么虔诚,那么柔情,那么小心,那么狂野地吻住了吴双澄的嘴唇。
  • Ancient Poems

    Ancient Poems

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。