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 madly, so that the driver had to use all his great
strength to keep them from bolting. In a few minutes, however, my
own ears got accustomed to the sound, and the horses so far became
quiet that the driver was able to descend and to stand before
them.
He petted and soothed them, and whispered something in theirthem.
He petted and soothed them, and whispered something in their
ears, as I have heard of horse-tamers doing, and with extraordinary
effect, for under his caresses they became quite manageable again,
though they still trembled. The driver again took his seat, and
shaking his reins, started off at a great pace. This time, after
going to the far side or the Pass, he suddenly turned down a narrow
roadway which ran sharply to the right.
Soon we were hemmed in with trees, which in places arched right
over the roadway till we passed as through a tunnel. And again
great frowning rocks guarded us boldly on either side. Though we
were in shelter, we could hear the rising wind, for it moaned and
whistled through the rocks, and the branches of the trees crashed
together as we swept along. It grew colder and colder still, and
fine, powdery snow began to fall, so that soon we and all around us
were covered with a white blanket. The keen wind still carried the
howling of the dogs, though this grew fainter as we went on our
way. The baying of the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though
they were closing round on us from every side. I grew dreadfully
afraid, and the horses shared my fear. The driver, however, was not
in the least disturbed. He kept turning his head to left and right,
but I could not see anything through the darkness.
Suddenly, away on our left I saw a fain flickering blue flame.
The driver saw it at the same moment. He at once checked the
horses, and, jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness.
I did not know what to do, the less as the howling of the wolves
grew closer. But while I wondered, the driver suddenly appeared
again, and without a word took his seat, and we resumed our
journey. I think I must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the
incident, for it seemed to be repeated endlessly, and now looking
back, it is like a sort of awful nightmare. Once the flame appeared
so near the road, that even in the darkness around us I could watchso near the road, that even in the darkness around us I could watch
the driver's motions. He went rapidly to where the blue flame
arose, it must have been very faint, for it did not seem to
illumine the place around it at all, and gathering a few stones,
formed them into some device.
Once there appeared a strange optical effect. When he stood
between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see
its ghostly flicker all the same. This startled me, but as the
effect was only momentary, I took it that my eyes deceived me
straining through the darkness. Then for a time there were no blue
flames, and we sped onwards through the gloom, with the howling of
the wolves around us, as though they were following in a moving
circle.
At last there came a time when the driver went further afield
than he had yet gone, and during his absence, the horses began to
tremble worse than ever and to snort and scream with fright. I
could not see any cause for it, for the howling of the wolves had
ceased altogether. But just then the moon, sailing through the
black clouds, appeared behind the jagged crest of a beetling,
pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a ring of wolves,
with white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs
and shaggy hair. They were a hundred times more terrible in the
grim silence which held them than even when they howled. For
myself, I felt a sort of paralysis of fear. It is only when a man
feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand
their true import.
All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had
had some peculiar effect on them. The horses jumped about and
reared, and looked helplessly round with eyes that rolled in a way
painful to see. But the living ring of terror encompassed them on
every side, and they had perforce to remain within it. I called to
the 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, Ito 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 the 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 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 sky.