Short-Stories. Коллектив авторов

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ to pieces. Also, the exhibition causes the throat of the on-looker to close at the top.

      "Poor devil!" said the colonel, coughing tremendously, "We ought to send him to hospital. He's been manhandled."

      Now the adjutant loved his rifles. They were to him as his grandchildren – the men standing in the first place. He grunted rebelliously: "I can understand an Afghan stealing, because he's made that way. But I can't understand his crying. That makes it worse."

      The brandy must have affected Dirkovitch, for he lay back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. There was nothing special in the ceiling beyond a shadow as of a huge black coffin. Owing to some peculiarity in the construction of the mess room this shadow was always thrown when the candles were lighted. It never disturbed the digestion of the White Hussars. They were, in rather proud of it.

      "Is he going to cry all night?" said the colonel, "or are we supposed to sit up with Little Mildred's guest until he feels better?"

      The man in the chair threw up his head and stared at the mess. Outside, the wheels of the first of those bidden to the festivities crunched the roadway.

      "Oh, my God!" said the man in the chair, and every soul in the mess rose to his feet. Then the Lushkar captain did a deed for which he ought to have been given the Victoria Cross – distinguished gallantry in a fight against overwhelming curiosity. He picked up his team with his eyes as the hostess picks up the ladies at the opportune moment, and pausing only by the colonel's chair to say, "This isn't our affair, you know, sir," led the team into the veranda and the gardens. Hira Singh was the last, and he looked at Dirkovitch as he moved. But Dirkovitch had departed into a brandy paradise of his own. His lips moved without sound, and he was studying the coffin on the ceiling.

      "White – white all over," said Basset-Holmer, the adjutant. "What a pernicious renegade26 he must be! I wonder where he came from?"

      The colonel shook the man gently by the arm, and "Who are you?" said he.

      There was no answer. The man stared round the mess room and smiled in the colonel's face. Little Mildred, who was always more of a woman than a man till "Boot and saddle" was sounded, repeated the question in a voice that would have drawn confidences from a geyser. The man only smiled. Dirkovitch, at the far end of the table, slid gently from his chair to the floor, No son of Adam, in this present imperfect world, can mix the Hussars' champagne with the Hussars' brandy by five and eight glasses of each without remembering the pit whence he has been digged and descending thither. The band began to play the tune with which the White Hussars, from the date of their formation, preface all their functions. They would sooner be disbanded than abandon that tune. It is a part of their system. The man straightened himself in his chair and drummed on the table with his fingers.

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

      1

      American Short-Stories, by Charles Sears Baldwin, New

      York: Longmans, Green, & Company, 1904.

      2

      This story was written in 1860. Translated from the Norwegian by Professor Rasmus B. Anderson. It is printed by permission of and special arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Co., publishers.

1

American Short-Stories, by Charles Sears Baldwin, New

York: Longmans, Green, & Company, 1904.

2

This story was written in 1860. Translated from the Norwegian by Professor Rasmus B. Anderson. It is printed by permission of and special arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Co., publishers.

3

3:28 thwart. A seat, across a boat, on which the oarsman, sits.

4

4:21 gard. A Norwegian farm.

5

Written in 1887. This story is used by permission of and special arrangement with Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers.

6

The Piece of String was written in 1884. Reprinted from Little French Masterpieces, by permission of the publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons.

7

34:5 char-ŕ-bancs. A pleasure car.

8

35:26 Angelus. A bell tolled at morning, noon, and night, according to the Roman Catholic Church custom, to indicate the time of the service of song and recitation in memory of the Virgin Mary. The name is taken from the first word of the recitation.

9

35:30 cabriolet. A cab. Originally a light, one-horse pleasure carriage with two seats.

10

35:30 tilbury. An old form of gig, seating two persons.

11

37:20 petit verre. Little glass.

12

The Man Who Was was written in 1889.

13

46:6 anomaly. Deviation from type.

14

47:1 Hussars. Light-horse troopers armed with sabre and carbine.

15

47:1 Peshawur. City in British India.

16

47:7 Tyrones. From a county in Ireland by this name.

17

47:26 Burmah. In southeastern Asia. Part of the British Empire.

18

47:27 Irrawaddy. Chief river of Burma.

19

48:27 Sotnia. Company of the Cossacks.

20

50:14 rupee. Indian coin worth about forty-eight cents.

21

50:21 vendettas. Private blood-feuds.

22

51:14 Punjab. Country of five rivers, tributaries of the Indus.

23

81:26 Sambhur. A rusine deer found in India.

24

51:26 nilghai. Antelope with hind legs shorter than its fore-legs.

25

54:9 expurgated. Purified.

26

57:23 renegade. One who deserts his faith.