The window did not lessen the effect The Falls had upon him but it enabled him to stand and watch ‘and think, as he had been unable to do on the outside. It was very much like ‘a peephole into a holocaust of water a window into a cold hell. He could watch without being destroyed—but the fear of what was on the other side did not lessen. Something black flickered in the falling water and was gone.
“There—did you see that,” he called out. “Something came down The Falls. What could it possibly ‘be?”
Bodum nodded wisely. “Over forty years I have been here and I can show you what comes down The Falls.”
He thrust a splint into the fire and lit a lamp from it.
Then, picking up the lamp, he waved Carter after ham.
They crossed tube room and he held the light to a large glass ‘bell jar.
“Must be twenty years ago it washed up ‘on the .shore.
Every bone in its body ‘broke too. Stuffed and mounted it myself.”
Carter pressed close, looking at the staring shoe-button eyes and the gaping jaws ‘and pointed teeth. The .limbs were ‘stiff and unnatural, the body under ‘the fur ‘bulging in the wrong places. Bodum was by no means a skillful taxidermist. Yet, perhaps ‘by accident, he had captured a look of terror in the animal’s expression and stance.
“It’s a dog,” Carter said. “Very much Ike other dogs.”
Bodum was offended, his voice as cold as shout can be. “Like them, perhaps, but not of them. ‘Every ‘bone broken I told you. How else could a dog have appeared here in this bay?”
“I’m sorry, I did not mean to suggest for an instant Down The Falls, of course. I just meant it is so much like the dogs we have that perhaps there is a whole new world up there. Dogs and everything, just like ours.”
“I never speculate,” Bodum said, mollified. “I’ll make some coffee.”
He took the lamp to the stove and Carter, left ‘alone in the partial darkness went back to ‘the window. It drew him. “I must ask you some questions for my article,” he said but did not speak loudly enough for Bodum to hear.
Everything he bad meant to do here seemed irrelevant as he looked out at The Falls. The wind shifted. The spray was briefly blown clear and The Falls were once more a mighty river coming down from the sky. When he canted his head he .saw exactly as if he were looking across a river.
And there, upstream, a ship appeared, a large liner with rows of portholes. It sailed the surface of .the river faster than ship had ever sailed before and he had to jerk his bead to follow its motion. When it passed, no more than a few hundred yards away, for one instant he could see it clearly. The people aboard it were banging to the rails, some with their mouths open as though shouting in fear.
Then it was gone and there was only the water, rushing endlessly by.
“Did you see it?” Carter shouted, spinning about.
“The coffee will be ready soon.”
“There, out there,” Carter cried, taking Bodum by the arm. “In The Falls. It was a ship, I swear it was, falling from up above. With people on it. There must be a whole world up there that we know nothing about.”
Bodum reached up to the shelf for a cup, breaking Carter’s grip with the powerful movement of his arm.
“My dog came down The Falls. I found it and stuffed it myself.”
“Your dog, of course, I’ll not deny that. But there were people on that ship and I’ll swear—I’m not mad—that their skins were a different color from ours.”
“Skin is skin, just skin color.”
“I know. That is what we have. But it must be possible for skims to be other colors, even if we don’t know about it.”
“Sugar?”
“Yes, please. Two.”
Carter sipped at the coffee-it was strong and warm. In spite of himself he was drawn back to the window. He looked out and sipped at the coffee—and started when something black and formless came down. And other things. He could not tell what they were because the spray was blowing toward the house again. He tasted grounds at the bottom of ‘his cup ‘and left the last sips. He put ‘the cup carefully aside.