Английский для смелых. Истории о духах и привидениях / Great Ghost Stories

 ‘Horrible! Were many lives lost?’

‘All. Four were found dead, and t’other two died next morning.’

‘How long is it since this happened?’

‘Just nine year.’

‘Near the sign-post, you say? I will bear it in mind. Good night.’

‘Gude night, sir, and thankee.’ Jacob pocketed his half-crown, made a faint pretence of touching his hat, and trudged back by the way he had come.

I watched the light of his lantern till it quite disappeared, and then turned to pursue my way alone. This was no longer matter of the slightest difficulty, for, despite the dead darkness overhead, the line of stone fence showed distinctly enough against the pale gleam of the snow. How silent it seemed now, with only my footsteps to listen to; how silent and how solitary! A strange disagreeable sense of loneliness stole over me. I walked faster. I hummed a fragment of a tune. I cast up enormous sums in my head, and accumulated them at compound interest, I did my best, in short, to forget the startling speculations to which I had but just been listening, and, to some extent, I succeeded.