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

"Long, long," he answered, "in the spring and summer; but
with the snow the wolves have been here not so long."

Whilst he was petting the horses and trying to quiet them,
dark clouds drifted rapidly across the sky. The sunshine pass-
ed away, and a breath of cold wind seemed to drift over us.It
was only a breath, however, and more of a warning than a fact,
for the sun came out brightly again.

Johann looked under his lifted hand at the horizon and
said, "The storm of snow, he comes before long time." Then he
looked at his watch again, and, straightway holding his reins
firmly--for the horses were still pawing the ground restless-
ly and shaking their heads--he climbed to his box as though
the time had come for proceeding on our journey.

I felt a little obstinate and did not at once get into the
carriage.

"Tell me," I said, "about this place where the road leads,"
and I pointed down.

Again he crossed himself and mumbled a prayer before he an-
swered, "It is unholy."

"What is unholy?" I enquired.

"The village."

"Then there is a village?"

"No, no. No one lives there hundreds of years."

My curiosity was piqued, "But you said there was a village."

"There was."

"Where is it now?"

Whereupon he burst out into a long story in German and Eng-
lish, so mixed up that I could not quite understand exactly
what he said. Roughly I gathered that long ago, hundreds of
years, men had died there and been buried in their graves;
but sounds were heard under the clay, and when the graves
were opened,men and women were found rosy with life and their
mouths red with blood. And so, in haste to save their lives
(aye, and their souls!--and here he crossed himself)those who
were left fled away to other places, where the living lived
and the dead were dead and not--not something. He was evident-
ly afraid to speak the last words. As he proceeded with his