"Brian Stoker - Dracula" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

each passenger, no one would give me the slightest explanation.
This state of excitement kept on for some little time.
And at last we saw before us the Pass opening out on
the eastern side. There were dark, rolling clouds overhead,
and in the air the heavy, oppressive sense of thunder.
It seemed as though the mountain range had separated
two atmospheres, and that now we had got into the thunderous one.
I was now myself looking out for the conveyance which was
to take me to the Count. Each moment I expected to see
the glare of lamps through the blackness, but all was dark.
The only light was the flickering rays of our own lamps, in which
the steam from our hard-driven horses rose in a white cloud.
We could see now the sandy road lying white before us, but there
was on it no sign of a vehicle. The passengers drew back with a
sigh of gladness, which seemed to mock my own disappointment.
I was already thinking what I had best do, when the driver,
looking at his watch, said to the others something which I
could hardly hear, it was spoken so quietly and in so low
a tone, I thought it was "An hour less than the time."
Then turning to me, he spoke in German worse than my own.

"There is no carriage here. The Herr is not expected after all.
He will now come on to Bukovina, and return tomorrow or the next day,
better the next day." Whilst he was speaking the horses began
to neigh and snort and plunge wildly, so that the driver had to hold
them up. Then, amongst a chorus of screams from the peasants
and a universal crossing of themselves, a caleche, with four horses,
drove up behind us, overtook us, and drew up beside the coach.
I could see from the flash of our lamps as the rays fell on them,
that the horses were coal-black and splendid animals. They were
driven by a tall man, with a long brown beard and a great black hat,
which seemed to hide his face from us. I could only see the gleam
of a pair of very bright eyes, which seemed red in the lamplight,
as he turned to us.

He said to the driver, "You are early tonight, my friend."

The man stammered in reply, "The English Herr was in a hurry."

To which the stranger replied, "That is why, I suppose, you wished
him to go on to Bukovina. You cannot deceive me, my friend.
I know too much, and my horses are swift."

As he spoke he smiled,and the lamplight fell on a hard-looking mouth,
with very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory.
One of my companions whispered to another the line from Burger's "Lenore".

"Denn die Todten reiten Schnell." ("For the dead travel fast.")