Hitchcock, Alfred (ed) - 12 Stories for Late at Night / Хичкок, Альфред (ред) - 12 историй для поздней ночи [1966, EPUB, ENG]

DEATH IS A DREAM / Смерть — это сон by Robert Arthur THE WHOLE TOWN'S SLEEPING / Весь город спит by Ray Bradbury EVENING PRIMROSE / Вечерняя примула by John Collier THE COCOON / Кокон by John B. L. Goodwin VINTAGE SEASON / Лучшее время года by C. L. Moore THE ASH TREE / Ясень by M. R. James SIDE BET / Ставка by Murray Leinster (as by Will F. Jenkins) SECOND NIGHT OUT / Вторая ночь в море by Frank Belknap Long OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS / Наши пернатые друзья by Philip Macdonald BACK THERE IN THE GRASS / Полинезийская «статуэтка» by Gouverneur Morris D-DAY by Robert Trout THE MAN WHO LIKED DICKENS / Поклонник Диккенса by Evelyn Waugh

It was past midnight when I left my stateroom. The upper promenade deck was entirely deserted and thin wisps of fog hovered about the deck chairs and curled and uncurled about the gleaming rails. There was no air stirring. The ship moved forward sluggishly through a quiet, fog-enshrouded sea. But I did not object to the fog. I leaned against the rail and inhaled the damp, murky air with a positive greediness. The almost unendurable nausea, the pervasive physical and mental misery had departed, leaving me serene and at peace. I was again capable of experiencing sensuous delight, and the aroma of the brine was not to be exchanged for pearls and rubies. I had paid in exorbitant coinage for what I was about to enjoy—for the five brief days of freedom and exploration in glamorous, sea-splendid Havana which I had been promised by an enterprising and, I hoped, reasonably honest tourist agent. I am in all respects the antithesis of a wealthy man, and I had drawn so heavily upon my bank balance to satisfy the greedy demands of The Loriland Tours, Inc., that I had been compelled to renounce such really indispensable amenities as after-dinner cigars and ocean-privileged sherry and chartreuse. . . .