Dracula | Page 8

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.")
The strange driver evidently heard the words, for he looked up with a
gleaming smile. The passenger turned his face away, at the same time
putting out his two fingers and crossing himself. "Give me the Herr's
luggage," said the driver, and with exceeding alacrity my bags were
handed out and put in the caleche. Then I descended from the side of
the coach, as the caleche was close alongside, the driver helping me
with a hand which caught my arm in a grip of steel. His strength must
have been prodigious.
Without a word he shook his reins, the horses turned, and we swept
into the darkness of the pass. As I looked back I saw the steam from the
horses of the coach by the light of the lamps, and projected against it
the figures of my late companions crossing themselves. Then the driver
cracked his whip and called to his horses, and off they swept on their
way to Bukovina. As they sank into the darkness I felt a strange chill,
and a lonely feeling come over me. But a cloak was thrown over my
shoulders, and a rug across my knees, and the driver said in excellent
German--"The night is chill, mein Herr, and my master the Count bade
me take all care of you. There is a flask of slivovitz (the plum brandy of
the country) underneath the seat, if you should require it."
I did not take any, but it was a comfort to know it was there all the
same. I felt a little strangely, and not a little frightened. I think had
there been any alternative I should have taken it, instead of prosecuting

that unknown night journey. The carriage went at a hard pace straight
along, then we made a complete turn and went along another straight
road. It seemed to me that we were simply going over and over the
same ground again, and so I took note of some salient point, and found
that this was so. I would have liked to have asked the driver what this
all meant, but I really feared to do so, for I thought that, placed as I was,
any protest would have had no effect in case there had been an
intention to delay.
By-and-by, however, as I was curious to know how time was passing, I
struck a match, and by its flame looked at my watch. It was within a
few minutes of midnight. This gave me a sort of shock, for I suppose
the general superstition about midnight was increased by my recent
experiences. I waited with a sick feeling of suspense.
Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road,
a long, agonized wailing, as if from fear. The sound was taken up by
another dog, and then another and another, till, borne on the wind
which now sighed softly through the Pass, a wild howling began, which
seemed to come from all over the country, as far as the imagination
could grasp it through the gloom of the night.
At the first howl the horses began to strain and rear, but the driver
spoke to them soothingly, and they quieted down, but shivered and
sweated as though after a runaway from sudden fright. Then, far off in
the distance, from the mountains on each side of us began a louder and
a sharper howling, that of wolves, which affected both the horses and
myself in the same way. For I was minded to jump from the caleche
and run, whilst they reared again and plunged