* * * * *
I have written the letters. Mina’s is in shorthand,and I simply ask Mr. Hawkins to communicate with her.To her I have explained my situation,but without the horrors which I may only surmise.It would shock and frighten her to death were I to expose my heart to her.Should the letters not carry,then the Count shall not yet know my secret or the extent of my knowledge....
* * * * *
I have given the letters;I threw them through the bars of my window with a gold piece,and made what signs I could to have them posted.The man who took them pressed them to his heart and bowed,and then put them in his cap. I could do no more.I stole back to the study, and began to read.As the Count did not come in, I have written here....
* * * * *
The Count has come. He sat down beside me,and said in his smoothest voice as he opened two letters: --
“The Szgany has given me these, of which,though I know not whence they come, I shall, of course, take care. See!”--he must have looked at it--“one is from you,and to my friend Peter Hawkins;the other”--here he caught sight of the strange symbols as he opened the envelope, and the dark look came into his face, and his eyes blazed wickedly--“the other is a vile thing, an outrage upon friendship and hospitality!It is not signed. Well!so it cannot matter to us.” And he calmly held letter and envelope in the flame of the lamp till they were consumed. Then he went on:--
“The letter to Hawkins--that I shall, of course,send on, since it is yours.Your letters are sacred to me. Your pardon, my friend,that unknowingly I did break the seal.Will you not cover it again?” He held out the letter to me,and with a courteous bow handed me a clean envelope.I could only redirect it and hand it to him in silence.When he went out of the room I could hear the key turn softly.A minute later I went over and tried it,and the door was locked.
When, an hour or two after,the Count came quietly into the room,his coming awakened me,for I had gone to sleep on the sofa.He was very courteous and very cheery in his manner,and seeing that I had been sleeping, he said:--
“So, my friend, you are tired?Get to bed. There is the surest rest.I may not have the pleasure to talk to-night,since there are many labours to me; but you will sleep,I pray.” I passed to my room and went to bed, and,strange to say, slept without dreaming.Despair has its own calms.
* * * * *
_31 May._--This morning when I woke I thought I would provide myself with some paper and envelopes from my bag and keep them in my pocket, so that I might write in case I should get an opportunity, but again a surprise, again a shock!
Every scrap of paper was gone, and with it all my notes,my memoranda, relating to railways and travel,my letter of credit,in fact all that might be useful to me were I once outside the castle.I sat and pondered awhile,and then some thought occurred to me,and I made search of my portmanteau and in the wardrobe where I had placed my clothes.
The suit in which I had travelled was gone,and also my overcoat and rug;I could find no trace of them anywhere.This looked like some new scheme of villainy....
* * * * *
_17 June._--This morning,as I was sitting on the edge of my bed cudgelling my brains,I heard without a cracking of whips and pounding and scraping of horses’ feet up the rocky path beyond the courtyard. With joy I hurried to the window, and saw drive into the yard two great leiter-wagons, each drawn by eight sturdy horses, and at the head of each pair a Slovak, with his wide hat, great nail-studded belt, dirty sheepskin, and high boots. They had also their long staves in hand. I ran to the door, intending to descend and try and join them through the main hall, as I thought that way might be opened for them. Again a shock: my door was fastened on the outside.
Then I ran to the window and cried to them.They looked up at me stupidly and pointed,but just then the “hetman” of the Szgany came out,and seeing them pointing to my window, said something,at which they laughed. Henceforth no effort of mine,no piteous cry or agonised entreaty,would make them even look at me.They resolutely turned away.The leiter-wagons contained great, square boxes,with handles of thick rope;these were evidently empty by the ease with which the Slovaks handled them,and by their resonance as they were roughly moved.When they were all unloaded and packed in a great heap in one corner of the yard, the Slovaks were given some money by the Szgany, and spitting on it for luck, lazily went each to his horse’s head. Shortly afterwards, I heard the cracking of their whips die away in the distance.
* * * * *
_24 June, before morning._--Last night the Count left me early,and locked himself into his own room.As soon as I dared I ran up the winding stair,and looked out of the window, which opened south.I thought I would watch for the Count,for there is something going on.The Szgany are quartered somewhere in the castle and are doing work of some kind. I know it, for now and then I hear a far-away muffled sound as of mattock and spade, and, whatever it is, it must be the end of some ruthless villainy.
I had been at the window somewhat less than half an hour,when I saw something coming out of the Count’s window.I drew back and watched carefully,and saw the whole man emerge.It was a new shock to me to find that he had on the suit of clothes which I had worn whilst travelling here, and slung over his shoulder the terrible bag which I had seen the women take away. There could be no doubt as to his quest, and in my garb, too!This, then, is his new scheme of evil:that he will allow others to see me, as they think,so that he may both leave evidence that I have been seen in the towns or villages posting my own letters, and that any wickedness which he may do shall by the local people be attributed to me.
It makes me rage to think that this can go on,and whilst I am shut up here, a veritable prisoner,but without that protection of the law which is even a criminal’s right and consolation.
I thought I would watch for the Count’s return,and for a long time sat doggedly at the window.Then I began to notice that there were some quaint little specks floating in the rays of the moonlight. They were like the tiniest grains of dust, and they whirled round and gathered in clusters in a nebulous sort of way. I watched them with a sense of soothing, and a sort of calm stole over me. I leaned back in the embrasure in a more comfortable position, so that I could enjoy more fully the aërial gambolling.
Something made me start up, a low,piteous howling of dogs somewhere far below in the valley,which was hidden from my sight.Louder it seemed to ring in my ears,and the floating motes of dust to take new shapes to the sound as they danced in the moonlight. I felt myself struggling to awake to some call of my instincts; nay, my very soul was struggling, and my half-remembered sensibilities were striving to answer the call. I was becoming hypnotised!Quicker and quicker danced the dust;the moonbeams seemed to quiver as they went by me into the mass of gloom beyond. More and more they gathered till they seemed to take dim phantom shapes. And then I started, broad awake and in full possession of my senses, and ran screaming from the place. The phantom shapes, which were becoming gradually materialised from the moonbeams, were those of the three ghostly women to whom I was doomed. I fled, and felt somewhat safer in my own room, where there was no moonlight and where the lamp was burning brightly.