"Bram Stoker - Dracula's Guest" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

"Serve us right for coming out on this night!Truly we have
earned our thousand marks!" were the ejaculations of a fourth.

"There was blood on the broken marble," another said after
a pause, "the lightning never brought that there. And for him-
-is he safe? Look at his throat! See comrades, the wolf has
been lying on him and keeping his blood warm."

The officer looked at my throat and replied, "He is all
right, the skin is not pierced. What does it all mean? We
should never have found him but for the yelping of the wolf."

"What became of it?" asked the man who was holding up my
head and who seemed the least panic-stricken of the party,
for his hands were steady and without tremor. On his sleeve
was the chevron of a petty officer.

"It went home," answered the man, whose long face was pall-
id and who actually shook with terror as he glanced around
him fearfully. "There are graves enough there in which it may
lie. Come, comrades--come quickly! Let us leave this cursed
spot."

The officer raised me to a sitting posture, as he uttered
a word of command; then several men placed me upon a horse.He
sprang to the saddle behind me, took me in his arms, gave the
word to advance; and, turning our faces away from the cypress-
es, we rode away in swift military order.

As yet my tongue refused its office, and I was perforce
silent. I must have fallen asleep; for the next thing I remem-
bered was finding myself standing up, supported by a soldier
on each side of me. It was almost broad daylight, and to the
north a red streak of sunlight was reflected like a path of
blood over the waste of snow. The officer was telling the men
to say nothing of what they had seen, except that they found
an English stranger, guarded by a large dog.

"Dog! that was no dog," cut in the man who had exhibited
such fear. "I think I know a wolf when I see one."

The young officer answered calmly, "I said a dog."

"Dog!" reiterated the other ironically.It was evident that
his courage was rising with the sun; and, pointing to me, he
said, "Look at his throat. Is that the work of a dog, master?"

Instinctively I raised my hand to my throat, and as I touch-
ed it I cried out in pain. The men crowded round to look, some
stooping down from their saddles;and again there came the calm