? Maramball vzyal v rot novuyu papirosku i zazheg spichku. No tut sluchilos nechto, zastavivshee ego zabyt o feletone i povergshee ego snachala v nedoumenie, a potom i v uzhas.Spichka zazhglas s treskom, kak ej polagaetsya, no Maramball ne uvidel ognya, xotya slux ne mog obmanut ego, chto spichka zazhglas. Razdumyvaya nad etim neponyatnym yavleniem, on prodolzhal derzhat spichku mezh palcev i vdrug vskriknul ot ozhoga. Maramball brosil spichku, otdernuv ruku. Teper on ter rukoj obozhzhennyj palec i v to zhe vremya prodolzhal videt svoyu protyanutuyu nad stolom ruku so spichkoj. Maramball v uzhase otkinulsya na spinku kresla i nablyudal etu tretyu ruku, v to vremya kak ego drozhashhie ruki pokoilis uzhe na kolenyax. On sidel tak nepodvizhno minut pyat, poka novoe yavlenie ne porazilo ego: on uvidel, kak vspyxnula nakonec spichka v prizrachnoj ruke, kak dogorela i kak otdernulas ruka posle ozhoga palcev. Slovom, on uvidel to, chto dolzhen byl videt, kogda zazheg spichku, no videl eto s opozdaniem v pyat minut. Maramball protyanul ruku i zazheg lampu na pismennom stole. Vyklyuchatel shhelknul, no ognya ne bylo, ne videl Maramball i svoej protyanutoj k lampe ruki. On pochuvstvoval, kak zashevelilis volosy na ego golove. ?
Alexander Romanovich Belyaev (Russian: Александр Беляев); born 16 March 1884 in Smolensk, Russian Empire; died 6 January 1942 in Pushkin, USSR] Born in Smolensk, at the age of 30 Alexander became ill with tuberculosis. Treatment was unsuccessful; the infection spread to his spine and resulted in paralysis of the legs. Belyayev suffered constant pain and was paralysed for six years. In search for the right treatment he moved to Yalta together with his mother and old nanny. During his convalescence, he read the work of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and began to write poetry in his hospital bed. By 1922 he had overcome the disease and in 1923 returned to Moscow where he began his serious literary activity as writer of science fiction novels. In 1925 his first novel, Professor Dowell's Head (Голова Профессора Доуэля) was published. From 1931 he lived in Leningrad with his wife and oldest daughter; his youngest daughter died of meningitis in 1930, aged six. In Leningrad he met H. G. Wells, who visited the USSR in 1934. In the last years of his life Belyaev lived in the Leningrad suburb of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo). At the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union during Second World War he refused to evacuate because he was recovering after an operation that he had undergone a few months earlier. Belyayev died of hunger in the Soviet town of Pushkin in 1942 while it was occupied by the Nazis. His wife and daughter, who managed to survive, were taken away to Poland by the Nazis. The exact location of his grave is unknown. A memorial stone at the Kazanskoe cemetery in the town of Pushkin is placed on the mass grave where his body is assumed to be buried.