Pumpkins' Glow: 200+ Eerie Tales for Halloween. Джек Лондон

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      '"Then listen to me; I have had more of these affairs than you have, no doubt. Well, then, I have had experience which you have not. Now, I'll get a trotting-horse, and a covered cart or chaise - one that will go along well at ten miles an hour, and no mistake about it."

      '"But will it hold enough?"

      '"Yes, four or five or six, and upon a push, I have known eight to cram in it; but then you know we were not particular how we were placed; but still it will hold as many as a hackney coach, only not so conveniently; but then we have nobody in the affair to drive us, and there can't be too few."

      '"Well, that is perhaps best; but have you a man on whom you can depend, because if you could, why, I would not be in the affair at all."

      '"You must," said I; "in the first place, I can depend upon one man best; him I must leave here to mind the place; so if you can manage the girl, I will drive, and know the road as well as the way to my own mouth; I would rather have as few in it as possible."

      '"Your precaution is very good, and I think I will try and manage it, that there shall be only you and I acquainted with the transaction; at all events, should it become necessary, it will be time enough to let some other person into the secret at the moment their services are required. That, I think, will be the best arrangement that I can come to; what do you say?"

      '"That will do very well - when we get her here, and when I have seen a few days, I can tell you what to do with her."

      '"Exactly; and now, good-night - there is the money I promised, and now again, good-night! I shall see you at the appointed time."

      '"You will," said I - "one glass more, it will do you good, and keep the rain out."

      'He took off a glass of wine, and then pulled his hat over his face, and left the house.

      'It was a dark, wet night, and the wind blew, and we heard the sound of his horse's hoofs for some time; however, I shut the door and went in, thinking over in my own mind what would be the gain of my own exertions.

      * * * * *

      'Well, at the appointed time, I borrowed a chaise cart, a covered one, with what you call a head to it, and I trotted to town in it. At the appointed time, I was at the corner of Grosvenor-street; it was late, and yet I waited there an hour or more before I saw anyone.

      'I walked into a little house to get a glass of spirits to keep up the warmth of the body, and when I came out again, I saw someone standing at my horse's head. I immediately went up.

      '"Oh, you are here," he said.

      '"Yes, I am," said I, "I have been here the Lord knows how long. Are you ready?"

      '"Yes, I am come," said he, as he got into the cart, "come to the place I shall tell you - I shall only get her into the cart, and you must do the rest."

      '"You'll come back with me: I shall want help on the road, and I have no one with me."

      '"Yes, I will come with you, and manage the girl, but you must drive, and take all the casualties of the road, for I shall have enough to do to hold her, and keep her from screaming, when she does awake."

      '"What! is she asleep?"

      '"I have given her a small dose of laudanum, which will cause her to sleep comfortably for an hour or two, but the cold air and disturbance will most probably awaken her first."

      '"Throw something over her, and keep her warm, and have something ready to thrust into her mouth, in case she takes to screaming, and then you are all right."

      '"Good," he replied: "now wait here. I am going to yon house. When I've entered, and disappeared several minutes, you may quietly drive up, and take your station on the other side of the lamp-post."

      'As he spoke he got out, and walked to a large house which he entered softly, and left the door ajar; and after he had gone in, I walked the horse quietly up to the lamp-post, and as I placed it, the horse and front of the cart were completely in the dark.

      'I had scarcely got up to the spot, when the door opened, and he looked out to see if anybody was passing. I gave him the word, and out he came, leaving the door, and came with what looked like a bundle of clothes, but which was the young girl and some clothes he had brought with him.

      '"Give her to me," said I, "and jump up and take the reins; go on as quickly as you can.

      'I took the girl in my arms, and handed her into the back part of the chaise, while he jumped up, and drove away. I placed the young girl in an easy position upon some hay, and stuffed the clothes under her, so as to prevent the jolting from hurting her.

      "Well," said I, "you may as well come back here, and sit beside her: she is all right. You seem rather in a stew.~~

      '"Why, I have run with her in my arms, and altogether it has flurried me."

      '"You had better have some brandy," said I.

      '"No, no! don't stop."

      '"Pooh, pooh!" I replied, pulling up, "here is the last house we shall come to, to have a good stiff tumbler of hot brandy and water. Come, have you any change, about a sovereign will do, because I shall want change on the road? Come, be quick."

      'He handed me a sovereign, saying, "Don't you think it's dangerous to stop - we may be watched, or she may wake."

      '"Not a bit of it. She snores too loudly to wake just yet, and you'll faint without the cordial; so keep a good look-out upon the wench, and you will recover your nerves again."

      'As I spoke, I jumped out, and got two glasses of brandy and water, hot, strong, and sweet. I had in about two minutes made out of the house.

      '"Here," said I, "drink - drink it all up - it will bring the eyes out of your head."

      'I spoke the truth, for what with my recommendation and his nervousness and haste, he drank about half of it at a gulp.

      'I shall never forget his countenance. Ha! ha! ha! I can't keep my mirth to myself. Just imagine the girl inside a covered cart, all dark, so dark that you could hardly see the outlines of the shadow of a man -and then imagine, if you can, a pair of keen eyes, that shone in the dark like cat's eyes, suddenly give out a flash of light, and then turn round in their sockets, showing the whites awfully, and then listen to the fall of the glass, and see him grasp his throat with one hand, and thrust the other hand into his stomach.

      'There was a queer kind of voice came from his throat, and then something like a curse and a groan escaped him.

      '"Damn it," said I; "what is the matter now - you've supped all the liquor - you are very nervous - you had better have another dose."

      '"No more - no more," he said, faintly and huskily, "no more, for God's sake no more. I am almost choked, my throat is scalded, and my entrails on fire."

      "I told you it was hot," said I.

      '"Yes, hot, boiling - go on. I'm mad with pain - push on.

      '"Will you have any water or anything to cool your throat?" said I.

      '"No, no - go on.

      '"Yes," СКАЧАТЬ