Дракула / Dracula - стр. 12
When he went out of the room I heard the key. The door was locked.
An hour or two after, the Count came quietly into the room. He was very courteous and very cheery, and he said, “So, my friend, you are tired? Get to bed.”
I passed to my room and went to bed, and slept without dreaming.
31 May. – This morning when I woke I decided to take some paper and envelopes from my bag and keep them in my pocket. But again a surprise, again a shock!
Every paper was gone, and with it all my notes, my memoranda, my letter of credit, in fact all that can be useful to me.
Moreover: the suit in which I had travelled was gone, and also my overcoat and rug…
17 June. – This morning the gypsies brought great, square boxes, with handles of thick rope. The boxes were packed in a great heap in one corner of the yard.
24 June, before morning. – Last night the Count left me early, and locked himself into his own room. Something is going on.
The gypsies are in the castle and are doing some work with the boxes.
When I watched from the window, it was a new shock to me. The Count put on my suit and slung over his shoulder the terrible bag! This, then, is his new scheme of evil: that he will allow others to see me, as they think.
In a couple of hours I heard something in the Count’s room, something like a sharp wail; and then there was silence, deep, awful silence, which chilled me. I tried the door; but I was locked in my prison, and could do nothing. I sat down and simply cried.
I heard a sound in the courtyard – the agonized cry of a woman. I rushed to the window, and peered out between the bars. There, indeed, was a woman. She was holding her hands over her heart. She was leaning against a corner of the gateway. When she saw my face at the window, she threw herself forward, and shouted, “Monster, give me my child!”
She threw herself on her knees, and raising up her hands, cried the same words. Then she threw herself forward. Her naked hands were beating against the door.
Somewhere I heard the voice of the Count, his harsh, metallic whisper. Suddenly the wolves appeared… There was no cry from the woman. The wolves went away, licking their lips.
What shall I do? What can I do? How can I escape from this dreadful castle of night and gloom and fear?
25 June, morning. – I must take action. Last night one of my letters went to post, the first of that fatal series. Action! I have not yet seen the Count in the daylight. Does he sleep when others wake? I want to get into his room! But there is no possible way. The door is always locked, no way for me.