"stoker-dracula-168" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

and laid by in a manner which was not my habit. My watch was still
unwound, and I am rigourously accustomed to wind it the last thing
before going to bed, and many such details. But these things are no
proof, for they may have been evidences that my mind was not as usual,
and, from some cause or another, I had certainly been much upset. I
must watch for proof. Of one thing I am glad: if it was that the Count
carried me here and undressed me, he must have been hurried in his
task, for my pockets are intact. I am sure this diary would have
been a mystery to him which he would not have brooked. He would have
taken or destroyed it. As I look round this room, although it has been
to me so full of fear, it is now a sort of sanctuary, for nothing
can be more dreadful than those awful women, who were- who are-
waiting to suck my blood.

18 May.- I have been down to look at that room again in daylight,
for I must know the truth. When I got to the doorway at the top of the
stairs I found it closed. It had been so forcibly driven against the
jamb that part of the woodwork was splintered. I could see that the
bolt of the lock had not been shot, but the door is fastened from
the inside. I fear it was no dream, and must act on this surmise.

19 May.- I am surely in the toils. Last night the Count asked me
in the suavest tones to write three letters, one saying that my work
here was nearly done, and that I should start for home within a few
days, another that I was starting on the next morning from the time of
the letter, and the third that I had left the castle and arrived at
Bistritz. I would fain have rebelled, but felt that in the present
state of things it would be madness to quarrel openly with the Count
whilst I am so absolutely in his power; and to refuse would be to
excite his suspicion and to arouse his anger. He knows that I know too
much, and that I must not live, lest I be dangerous to him; my only
chance is to prolong my opportunities. Something may occur which
will give me a chance to escape. I saw in his eyes something of that
gathering wrath which was manifest when he hurled that fair woman from
him. He explained to me that posts were few and uncertain, and that my
writing now would ensure ease of mind to my friends; and he assured me
with so much impressiveness that he would countermand the later
letters, which would be held over at Bistritz until due time in case
chance would admit of my prolonging my stay, that to oppose him
would have been to create new suspicion. I therefore pretended to fall
in with his views, and asked him what dates I should put on the
letters. He calculated a minute, and then said:-

"The first should be June 12, the second June 19, and the third June
29."

I know now the span of my life. God help me!

28 May.- There is a chance of escape, or at any rate of being able
to send word home. A band of Szgany have come to the castle, and are