Джек Лондон - Странник по звездам / The Star-Rover

I announced:

“Ten. They’re all waving their arms and yelling at the other men.”

“But they don’t come near them?” was the query.

I shook my head.

“They just stand right there and yell like they’re in trouble.”

“Go on,” urged the missionary. “What next? What’s the man doing in the front of the other crowd you said was walking along?”

“They’ve all stopped, and he’s saying something to the sick men. And the boys with the goats have stopped to look. Everybody’s looking.”

“And then?”

“That’s all. The sick men are heading for the houses. They aren’t yelling any more, and they don’t look sick any more.”

At this all three of my listeners broke into laughter.

“And I’m a big man!” I cried out angrily. “And I have a big sword!”

“Christ healed those ten lepers,” the missionary explained to my parents. “The boy has seen some famous paintings.”

But neither father nor mother could remember that I had ever seen famous paintings.

“He will certainly become a good Bible scholar,” the missionary told father and mother after I had kissed them good-night and departed for bed. “Or else, with that imagination, he’ll become a successful fiction-writer.”

Well, back to solitary. By self-hypnosis, which I began successfully to practise, I became able to put my conscious mind to sleep and to awaken and loose my subconscious mind. My method of mechanical hypnosis was simple. Sitting with folded legs on my straw-mattress, I gazed fixedly at a straw which I had attached to the wall of my cell near the door where the most light was. I gazed at the bright point. At the same time I relaxed all my will and gave myself to the swaying dizziness that always eventually came to me. And then I closed my eyes and fell unconscious on the mattress.

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are of other-worldness – принадлежат к другому миру

close about us – смыкаются над нами

I was not yet I – я не был самим собой

Darrell Standing – Даррел Стэндинг

Berkeley – Беркли

Haskell – Хаскел

I received a life-sentence – меня приговорили к пожизненному заключению

San Quentin – Сен-Квентин

solitary confinement – одиночное заключение

Ed Morrell – Эд Моррел

jute-mill – ткацкая мастерская

strait-jacket – смирительная рубашка

Warden Atherton – начальник тюрьмы Азертон

Cecil Winwood – Сесил Уинвуд

the lifers – пожизненно заключённые

prison-break – побег из тюрьмы

Bill Hodge – Билл Ходж

Barnum – Барнум

Captain of the Yard – старший надзиратель

was pardoned out – получил амнистию

Skysail Jack – Брамсель Джек

Thurston – Тэрстон

Jake Oppenheimer – Джек Оппенхеймер

Samaria – Самария