The door is shut, the chains rattle.  There is a grinding of the key in the lock.  I can hear the key withdrawn, then another door opens and shuts.  I hear the creaking of lock and bolt.

Hark!  In the courtyard and down the rocky way the roll of heavy wheels, the crack of whips, and the chorus of the Szgany as they pass into the distance.

I am alone in the castle with those horrible women.  Faugh!  Mina is a woman, and there is nought in common.  They are devils of the Pit!

I shall not remain alone with them.  I shall try to scale the castle wall farther than I have yet attempted.  I shall take some of the gold with me, lest I want it later.  I may find a way from this dreadful place.

And then away for home!  Away to the quickest and nearest train!  Away from the cursed spot, from this cursed land, where the devil and his children still walk with earthly feet!

At least God’s mercy is better than that of those monsters, and the precipice is steep and high.  At its foot a man may sleep, as a man.  Goodbye, all.  Mina!

CHAPTER 5

LETTER FROM MISS MINA MURRAY TO MISS LUCY WESTENRA

9 May.

My dearest Lucy,

Forgive my long delay in writing, but I have been simply overwhelmed with work.  The life of an assistant schoolmistress is sometimes trying.  I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.  I have been working very hard lately, because I want to keep up with Jonathan’s studies, and I have been practicing shorthand very assiduously.  When we are married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan, and if I can stenograph well enough I can take down what he wants to say in this way and write it out for him on the typewriter, at which also I am practicing very hard.

He and I sometimes write letters in shorthand, and he is keeping a stenographic journal of his travels abroad.  When I am with you I shall keep a diary in the same way.  I don’t mean one of those two-pages-to-the-week-with-Sunday-squeezed-in-a-corner diaries, but a sort of journal which I can write in whenever I feel inclined.

I do not suppose there will be much of interest to other people, but it is not intended for them.  I may show it to Jonathan some day if there is in it anything worth sharing, but it is really an exercise book.  I shall try to do what I see lady journalists do, interviewing and writing descriptions and trying to remember conversations.  I am told that, with a little practice, one can remember all that goes on or that one hears said during a day.

However, we shall see.  I will tell you of my little plans when we meet.  I have just had a few hurried lines from Jonathan from Transylvania.  He is well, and will be returning in about a week.  I am longing to hear all his news.  It must be nice to see strange countries.  I wonder if we, I mean Jonathan and I, shall ever see them together.  There is the ten o’clock bell ringing.  Goodbye.