Dracula. Bram Stoker
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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 dream-
ing. Despair has its own calms.
31 May. This morning when I woke I thought I would pro-
vide 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,
Jonathan Harker’s Journal 41
in fact all that might be useful to me were I once outside the
castle. I sat and pondered awhile, and then some thought oc-
curred 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 over-
coat 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 some-
thing 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.
42 Dracula
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 protec-
tion 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 hi 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 aerial 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 grad-
ually 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.
When