雙城記 Book1-2b The Mail
The Dover mail was in its usual genial position that theguard suspected the passengers, the passengers suspected oneanother and the guard, they all suspected everybody else, andthe coachman was sure of nothing but the horses; as to whichcattle he could with a clear conscience have taken his oath onthe two Testaments that they were not fit for the journey.
`Wo-ho!' said the coachman. `So, then One more pull andyou're at the top and be damned to you, for I have had troubleenough to get you to it--Joe!'
`Halloa' the guard replied.
`What o'clock do you make it, Joe?'
`Ten minutes, good, past eleven.'
`My blood' ejaculated the vexed coachman, `and not atop of Shooter's yet! Tst! Yah! Get on with you!'
The emphatic horse, cut short by the whip in a most decidednegative, made a decided scramble for it, and the three otherhorses followed suit. Once more, the Dover mail struggled on,with the jack-boots of its passengers squashing along by itsside. They had stopped when the coach stopped, and they keptclose company with it. If any one of the three had had the hardihood to propose to another to walk on a little ahead intothe mist and darkness, he would have put himself in a fair wayof getting shot instantly as a highwayman.
The last burst carried the mail to the summit of the hill.
The horses stopped to breathe again, and the guard got down toskid the wheel for the descent, and open the coach-door to letthe passengers in.
`Tst Joe!' cried the coachman in a warning voice, lookingdown from his box.
What do you say, Tom?'
They both listened.
`I say a horse at a canter coming up, Joe.'
`I say a horse at a gallop, Tom,' returned the guard, leavinghis hold of the door, and mounting nimbly to his place.
`Gentlemen! In the king's name, all of you!'
With this hurried adjuration, he cocked his blunderbuss, andstood on the offensive.
The passenger booked by this history, was on the coach-step:
getting in; the two other passengers were close behind him,and about to follow. He remained on the step, half in thecoach and half out of it; they remained in the road below him.
They all looked from the coachman to the guard, and from theguard to the coachman, and listened. The coachman looked backand the guard looked back, and even the emphatic leaderpricked up his ears and looked back, without contradicting.
The stillness consequent on the cessation of the rumbling andlabouring of the coach, added to the stillness of he nightmade it very quiet indeed. The panting of the horsescommunicated a tremulous motion to the coach, as if it were ina state o] agitation. The hearts of the passengers beat loudenough perhaps to be heard; but at any rate, the quiet pausewas audibly expressive of people out of breath, and holdingthe breath, an' having the pulses quickened by expectation.
The sound of a horse at a gallop came fast and furiously upthe hill.
`So-ho!' the guard sang out, as loud as he could roar. `Yothere! Stand! I shall fire!'
The pace was suddenly checked, and, with much splashing andfloundering, a man's voice called from the mist, `Is that the Dover mail?'
`Never you mind what it is?' the guard retorted. `Wham areyou?'
`Is that the Dover mail?'
`Why do you want to know?'
