The Devil of East Lupton

Начало книги

To this day nobody pretends to understand the Devil of East Lupton, Vermont. There are even differences of opinion about the end to which that devil came. Mr. Tedder is sure he was the fiend in question, and that he ceased to be fiend­ish when he rid himself of the pot over his head.

Other authorities believe that heavy ordnance did the trick, and point to a quarter-mile crater for proof. It takes close reasoning to decide.

But if by the Devil of East Lupton you mean the What­ever-it-was that came out of Somewhere to Here, and caused all the catastrophes by his mere arrival—why—then the Devil was the Whatever-it-was in the leathery, hidelike covering on the morning Mr. Tedder ran away from the con­stable.

On that morning, Mr. Tedder ran like a deer—or as nearly like a deer as Mr. Tedder could hope to run. The resemblance was not close. Deer do not hesitate helplessly between pos­sible avenues of escape. Deer do not plunge out of con­cealing thickets to scuttle through merely shoulder-high brush because a pathway shows. But Mr. Tedder did.

Читать дальше →