Part 29 (1/2)
”Nonsense! He has not had a drop ever since we left Dustbury.”
”Confound it!” screamed Mr. Skinner, taking his pipe from his mouth, which the last jolt had chucked so far down his throat that he was in some danger of swallowing it; ”Od's wounds! but this is worse than the last judgment. Stop! Stop, I say! I'll get out--”
”Don't!” cried the attorney. ”You cannot get out here, we are in the very deepest of the mud. Let us go on to the heath, it's dry ground there!”
”It's because the pigs have broken the ground,” sighed the justice; ”it's more dangerous still. Here there's at least a chance of falling on a soft place. No! I _will_ get out.”
”If you do, there is no knowing when we shall come to St. Vilmosh.”
”Dear me! no! Stop! we're spilt! Terrem tette, stop! Jants.h.i.+, you beast!” screamed the justice still louder, while he clung to the cus.h.i.+ons of the seat, and looked out for a chance of leaping to the ground.
”Go on!” cried the attorney, with suppressed laughter. ”We've gained the heath now! On with you, or the cold of the night will kill us.”
”Never mind the cold, if we can but get off with our bones unbroken.”
”Yes, but think of my rheumatism! You know how much I suffer from it. It makes me shudder to breathe this damp air.”
”You're bilious, that's the long and the short of it!” said Mr. Skinner, as the horses proceeded at a slow trot. ”But mind what I tell you, that fellow will break all the bones in my body before we come to St.
Vilmosh.”
”Don't be a coward! You see I am not at all afraid, and yet I am as fond of my life as you can be.”
”Oh, it's all very well for you to say so. You're not married; but I have a wife and four small children----”
”That's the very reason why I ought to love my life five times better than you do yours. But, mercy on us! how damp the air is, and how cold the wind! And I have forgotten to provide myself with elder flowers! Now if I don't have tea and a warm bed at St. Vilmosh, I'm a dead man; and you're my murderer, because you won't allow the driver to go on as fast as he can.”
”Don't be a fool!” said the justice, very composedly, for his curses and threats had at length caused Jants.h.i.+ to proceed at a slow pace. Thus they sat for a considerable time, each grunting at the cowardice of his companion. In due time they left the heath and turned again into the road. The driver cursed the horses, and Mr. Skinner cursed the driver, while the attorney bewailed his antic.i.p.ated illness: in short, we may leave the party with the firm conviction that unless they make greater haste than they have hitherto done, the Gulyash is sure to reach St.
Vilmosh long before they can hope to arrive there.
CHAP. III.
The concluding sentence of the last chapter expresses the very hope which animated the Gulyash Ishtvan and his companion. It was indeed three hours ago since Susi met Tzifra near Garatsh, and Garatsh was at least three miles nearer to the forest of St. Vilmosh than Ishtvan's Tanya. But it was probable that the judge had not set out immediately; and besides, those gentry travel in a carriage, and on a heavy road too, while Ishtvan's cart seems to fly over the smooth heath; and, after all, the horses of the Gulyash are the best runners in the world.
It was dark when they started. The weak rays of the new moon were absorbed by a dense fog, and it required all the instinct of locality which characterises the Hungarian herdsmen to guide them over the vast plain, which offered scarcely any marks by which a traveller might shape his course. A heap of earth, the gigantic beam of a well looming through the darkness, the remains of a stack of straw, a ditch, or a few distant willows,--such were the only objects which might be discerned, and even these were few and far between. But the Gulyash drove his horses on, without once stopping to examine the country round him, for all the world as if he had been galloping along on a broad smooth road; and the very horses seemed resolved to do their best. They tore away as though they were running a race with the dragon of the wizard student[22], while Ishtvan, flouris.h.i.+ng his whip, more in sport than because it was wanted, called out to them, ”Vertshe ne! Sharga ne! Don't they run, the tatoshes![23] They are the best horses in Hungary!”
[Footnote 22: See Note V.]
[Footnote 23: See Note VI.]
Willows and hills, well-beams and straw stacks, pa.s.sed by them; the manes of the horses streamed in the breeze; the Gulyash, with his bunda thrown back, and his s.h.i.+rt inflated with the air, sat on the box as if he were driving a race with the Spirit of the Storm. The horses galloped away as if the soil were burning under their hoofs.
”Fear nothing, Susi!” cried the Gulyash; ”we are there before that cursed thief of a judge has left his house. Vertshe ne!” And Susi sighed, ”G.o.d grant it!”
”Confound him, if we are too late. But now tell me, Susi, on your soul, did you ever ride in this way?”
”Never!” said she.