Again the eddying wind currents shifted the screen of spray to one side just in time for him to see another of the objects go by.
“That was a house! I saw it as clearly as I see this one.
But wood perhaps, not stone, and smaller. And black as though it had been partially burned. Come look, there may be more.”
Bodum banged the pot as he rinsed it out in the sink.
“What do your newspapers want to know about me?
Over forty years here—there are a lot of things I can tell you about.”
“What is up there above The Falls—on top of the cliff?
Do people live up ‘there? Can there be a whole world up there of which we live ‘in total ignorance?”
Bodum hesitated, frowned in thought before he answered.
“I believe they have do~ up there.”
“Yes,” Carter answered, hammering Ms fist on ‘the window ledge, not knowing whether to smile or cry. The water fell by; the floor and walls shook with the power of it.
“There—more and more things going by.” He spoke quietly, to himself. “I can’t tell what they are. That—that could have ‘been a tree ‘and that a bit of fence. The smaller ones may be bodies—animals, logs, anything. There is a different world above The Falls and in that world something terrible is happening. And we don’t even know about it. We don’t even know that world is there.”
He struck again and again on the stone until his fist hunt.
The sun ‘shone on the water ‘and he saw the change, just here and there at first, an altering and shifting.
“Why—the water seems to be changing color. Pink it is—no, red. More and more of it. There, for an instant, it was all red. The color of blood.”
He spun about to face the dim room and tried to smile but his lips were drawn back hard from his teeth when he did.
“Blood? Impossible. There can’t be that much blood in the whole world. What is happening up there? What is happening?”
His scream did not disturb Bodum, who only nodded has head in agreement.
“111 show you something,”’ he said. “But only if you promise not to write about it. People might laugh at me.
I’ve been here over forty years and that is nothing to laugh about.”
“My word of honor, not a word. Just show me. Perhaps it has something to do with what is happening.”
Bodum took down a heavy bible and opened it on the table next to the lamp. It was set in very black type, serious and impressive. He turned pages until he came to a piece of very ordinary paper.
“I found this on the shore. During the winter. No one had been here for months. It may have come over The Falls. Now I’m not saying it did—but it is possible. You will agree it is possible?”
“Oh, yes—quite possible. How else could it have come here?” Carter reached out and touched it. “I agree, ordinary paper. Torn on one edge, wrinkled where it was wet and then dried.” He turned it over. “There is lettering on the other ‘aide.”
“Yes. But it is meaningless. It is no word I know.”
“Nor I, and I speak four languages. Could it have a meaning?”
“Impossible. A word like that.”
“No human language.” He shaped his lips ‘and spoke the letters aloud. “Aich—Eee—Ell—Pea.”
“What could HELP mean,” Bodum shouted, louder than ever. “A child scribbled it. Meaningless.” He seized the paper and crumpled it and threw it into the fire.
“You’ll want to write a story about me,” he said proud-ly. “I have ‘been here over forty years, and if there is one man in the entire world who is an authority on The Falls it is me.
“I know everything that there is to know about them.”