“Do you wish me to stay so long?” I asked, for my heart grew cold at the thought.
“I desire it much; nay, I will take no refusal. When your master, employer, sent someone here, it was understood that my needs only were to be consulted.[45] Is it not so?”
What could I do? It was Mr. Hawkins’s interest, not mine, and I had to think of him, not myself; and besides, I was a prisoner, I had no choice.
“I pray you, my good young friend, that you will discuss only business in your letters. Your friends will be happy to know that you are well. Is it not so?”
As he spoke he handed me three sheets of paper and three envelopes. So I decided to write only formal notes now, but to write fully to Mr. Hawkins in secret, and also to Mina, for to her I could write in shorthand.[46] When I had written my two letters I sat quiet, reading a book. The Count took my two letters and left, the door closed behind him.
Soon the Count entered the room. He took up the letters on the table and stamped them carefully, and then said, “I hope you will forgive me, but I have much work to do this evening. You will, I hope, find all things as you wish.”
At the door he turned, and after a moment’s pause said, “Let me advise you, my dear young friend – let me warn you with all seriousness. If you leave these rooms don’t go to sleep in any other part of the castle. It is old, and has many memories, and there are bad dreams for those who sleep unwisely. Be careful! In your own chamber your rest will then be safe. But if you be not careful in this respect, then…”
Same day, later. – I will not fear to sleep in any place where he is not. I have placed the cross over the head of my bed – I imagine that my rest is thus freer from dreams.
When he left me I went to my room. After a little while,[47] I came out and went up the stone stair. There I could look out towards the South. There was some sense of freedom. I felt that I was indeed in prison, and I wanted a breath of fresh air. This nocturnal existence is destroying my nerve. As I leaned from the window my eye noticed something moving a storey below me. There were the windows of the Count’s own room. I drew back, and looked carefully out.
The Count’s head was coming out from the window. I did not see the face, but I knew the man by the neck and the movement of his back and arms. The Count slowly emerged from the window and began to crawl down the castle wall over the dreadful abyss. His cloak was spreading out around him like great wings. At first I could not believe my eyes. I thought it was some trick of the moonlight, some weird effect of shadow. But I kept looking,[48] and it could be no delusion. His fingers and toes grasped the corners of the stones, he was crawling just as a lizard.
What is he? I feel the dread of this horrible place; I am in fear – in awful fear – and there is no escape for me.
15 May. – The Count went out in his lizard fashion[49] again. He moved downwards and vanished into some hole or window. When his head had disappeared, I decided to use the opportunity to explore the castle. I knew he had left the castle now. I went back to the room and took a lamp. Then I tried all the doors. They were all locked, as I had expected, and the locks were comparatively new. I went down the stone stairs to the hall where I had entered originally.
