"stoker-dracula-168" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

coachman to come, for it seemed to me that our only chance was to
try to break out through the ring and to aid his approach. I shouted
and beat the side of the caleche, hoping by the noise to scare the
wolves from that side, so as to give him a chance of reaching the
trap. How he came there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a
tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw him
stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms, as though brushing
aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell back and back
further still. Just then a heavy cloud passed across the face of the
moon, so that we were again in darkness.

When I could see again the driver was climbing into the caleche, and
the wolves had disappeared. This was all so strange and uncanny that a
dreadful fear came upon me, and I was afraid to speak or move. The
time seemed interminable as we swept on our way, now in almost
complete darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon. We kept
on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in the
main always ascending. Suddenly I became conscious of the fact that
the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of
a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of
light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the
moonlit sky.

CHAPTER II.

JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL.

5 May.- I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fully
awake I must have noticed the approach of such a remarkable place.
In the gloom the courtyard looked of considerable size, and as several
dark ways led from it under great round arches it perhaps seemed
bigger than it really is. I have not yet been able to see it by
daylight.

When the caleche stopped the driver jumped down, and held out his
hand to assist me to alight. Again I could not but notice his
prodigious strength. His hand actually seemed like a steel vice that
could have crushed mine if he had chosen. Then he took out my traps,
and placed them on the ground beside me as I stood close to a great
door, old and studded with large iron nails, and set in a projecting
doorway of massive stone. I could see even in the dim light that the
stone was massively carved, but that the carving had been much worn by
time and weather. As I stood, the driver jumped again into his seat
and shook the reins; the horses started forward, and trap and all
disappeared down one of the dark openings.

I stood in silence where I was, for I did not know what to do. Of
bell or knocker there was no sign; through these frowning walls and
dark window openings it was not likely that my voice could
penetrate. The time I waited seemed endless, and I felt doubts and