It seemed as if years had gone by when I awoke one morning from a deep sleep, and found my wife watching by my bedside. I will pass over the scene that ensued, and give you, in half a dozen words, the tale she told me with tears of thanksgiving. I had fallen over a precipice, close against the junction of the old coach-road and the new, and had only been saved from certain death by lighting upon a deep snowdrift that had accumulated at the foot of the rock beneath. In this snowdrift I was discovered at daybreak, by a couple of shepherds, who carried me to the nearest shelter, and brought a surgeon to my aid. The surgeon found me in a state of raving delirium, with a broken arm and a compound fracture of the skull. The letters in my pocket-book showed my name and address; my wife was summoned to nurse me; and, thanks to youth and a fine constitution, I came out of danger at last. The place of my fall, I need scarcely say, was precisely that at which a frightful accident had happened to the north mail nine years before.

      I never told my wife the fearful events which I have just related to you (я никогда не рассказывал своей жене о тех страшных событиях, о которых только что вам поведал). I told the surgeon who attended me (я рассказал хирургу, который выхаживал меня; to attend – посещать; присутствовать; ухаживать за /больным/); but he treated the whole adventure as a mere dream (но он расценил все это приключение как всего лишь сон = кошмар; to treat – трактовать; рассматривать; mere – простой, не более чем, всего лишь) born of the fever in my brain (вызванный лихорадкой в моем мозгу; to bear – носить; рождать, производить на свет). We discussed the question over and over again (мы обсуждали этот вопрос снова и снова), until we found that we could discuss it with temper no longer (до тех пор, пока не обнаружили, что мы больше не можем обсуждать его, не выходя из себя; temper – самообладание, сдержанность; умение держать себя в руках), and then we dropped it (и тогда мы оставили: «забросили» его; to drop – капать; ронять; бросать). Others may form what conclusions they please (другие могут делать какие угодно выводы; to please – быть в радость, нравиться) – I know that twenty years ago I was the fourth inside passenger in that Phantom Coach (я /точно/ знаю, что двадцать лет назад я был четвертым пассажиром внутри этого дилижанса-призрака).

 I never told my wife the fearful events which I have just related to you. I told the surgeon who attended me; but he treated the whole adventure as a mere dream born of the fever in my brain. We discussed the question over and over again, until we found that we could discuss it with temper no longer, and then we dropped it. Others may form what conclusions they please – I know that twenty years ago I was the fourth inside passenger in that Phantom Coach.

      The Moonlit Road

      (Дорога, залитая лунным светом[10])

      Ambrose Bierce (Амброз Бирс)

      I. Statement of Joel Hetman, JR

      (Cвидетельство Джоэла Хетмена-младшего[11])

      I am the most unfortunate of men (я самый несчастный из людей). Rich (богатый), respected (уважаемый), fairly well educated (довольно хорошо образованный; fairly – красиво, мило; довольно) and of sound health (крепкого здоровья) – with many other advantages usually valued by those having them and coveted by those who have them not (со многими другими преимуществами, обычно ценимыми теми, у кого они есть, и которыми стремятся обладать те, у кого их нет; to covet – жаждать, домогаться, сильно желать) – I sometimes think that I

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