English for Everybody - Elementary reading comprehension

Dracula

Page 16

Going nowhere

Without a word my new driver started his horses, and we drove into the darkness of the pass. I looked back and saw the horses of the coach in the light of its lamps, and the dark shapes of the people I had been travelling with. Then the coach driver started his horses as well, and the people on the coach set off for Bukovina. As they vanished into the darkness I felt strangely cold, and also started to feel very lonely. But the driver put a cloak over my shoulders, and a blanket across my knees. He said in excellent German "The night is cold Sir, and my master the Count told me take good care of you. There is a bottle of slivovitz (the plum brandy of the country) underneath the seat, if you want something to drink."

I did not drink any, but it was still good to know it was there. I felt rather strange, and I was frightened too. I thought that I would prefer to do almost anything else rather than go on with that journey into the night. The carriage went quickly straight along the road. Then we turned around completely and went along another straight road. It seemed to me that we were going over and over the same piece of the road. I looked for something along the road that I could recognize, and when we went past it again, I knew that we were not actually going anywhere. I would have liked to ask the driver what was going on. However, I was afraid to do this, since even if it was being done on purpose, there was nothing I could do about it anyway.

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