All Flesh is Grass

A club, I thought, and this was the end of it. But one of them would die perhaps two of them while they were killing me.

Наклоняюсь, шарю по земле  — вот оно, то, обо что я споткнулся. Обломок деревянного бруса длиной фута в четыре, чуть подгнивший по краям, но еще крепкий.

Дубинка. И на том конец. Но пока меня прикончат, один из них тоже распрощается с жизнью... а может быть, и двое.

“Run!” I screamed at Nancy, knowing she was out there somewhere, although I could not see her.

There was just one thing left, I told myself one thing more that I must do.

They had reached the bottom of the slope and were charging across the flat ground of the garden, with Hiram in the lead. I stood and waited for them, with the club half raised, watching Hiram run toward me, with the white gash of his teeth shining in the darkness of his face.

— Беги!  — кричу я Нэнси, она где-то там, хоть ее и не видно.

Осталось одно, еще только одно я должен сделать.

Вот они уже сбежали с холма, несутся по ровному месту, через сад. Впереди  — Хайрам. Стою и жду с дубиной наготове; а Хайрам все ближе, на темном лице, точно белый шрам, блестят оскаленные зубы.

Right between the eyes, I told myself, and split his skull wide open. And after that get another of them if there were time to do it.

The fire was roaring now, racing through the dryness of the house, and even where I stood the heat reached out to touch me.

The men were closing in and I raised the club a little higher, working my fingers to get a better grip upon it.

Надо метить между глаз, расколю ему башку пополам. А потом стукну и еще кого-нибудь... если успею.

Пожар разгорелся в полную силу, ведь дерево старое, сухое, даже и сюда пышет жаром.

А эти уже совсем близко... Я крепче сжал дубинку, занес повыше, жду.

But in that last instant before they came within my reach, they skidded to a milling halt, some of them half turning to run back up the slope, the others simply staring, with their mouths wide open in astonishment and horror.

Then they broke and ran, back toward the slope, and above the roaring of the burning house, I could hear their bellowing—like stampeded cattle racing before a prairie fire, bawling out their terror as they ran.