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[ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] Dracula wanted to inform me, out of Merivale's hearing, that on his way back to the Saracen's Head he had detoured to the private cemetery. There he had managed to pick up another piece or two of the recently stolen jewelry, and had also found evidence that our chief enemy Count Kulakov, if our suspicions were correct had revisited the old chapel in our absence. This evidence took the form of rampant, raging vandalism headstones and a decorative stone bench had been smashed and the pieces scattered about. In any case, we might as well give up all hope and pretense of keeping the secret of Holmes's survival. While the inspector was still in our sitting room at the Saracen's Head, I was called downstairs to take another telephone communication from Mycroft in London. The chief news Mycroft offered was that no connection whatsoever could be traced between the Russian exile named Gregory Efimovitch, and Count Kulakov, or to anyone else in Buckinghamshire "though perhaps there is one to that fellow Ulyanov I mentioned." Even more dashing to our hopes for a solution, Mycroft's Gregory Page 101 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Efimovitch had been in jail in Liverpool for the past several months. After returning to the inn, and there holding a brief private talk with Watson, I, Prince Dracula, enjoyed a short private chat with Inspector Merivale of Scotland Yard. Something about me had evidently interested the inspector when we were introduced. I could have wished that this second meeting might have taken place in more doubtful lighting, and under circumstances denying the file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...20Tepes%2008%20-%20Seance %20for%20a%20Vampire.html (213 of 318)22-2-2006 2:00:15 Fred Saberhagen - Séance for a Vampire inspector any chance to examine me closely or engage in prolonged conversation but only the last of those conditions was fulfilled. I had been introduced to Merivale, as I had been presented to Armstrong, to Rebecca Altamont, and to others, as Mr. Prince, one of the members of the small organization that the great detective had begun to put together in recent years particularly since Watson had moved out of the Baker Street lodgings. Merivale, as he talked to me now, appeared a little dubious about Mr. Prince or would have been dubious had not Sherlock Holmes solemnly vouched for me. On hearing that I had just come from Norberton House, the inspector naturally wanted to know whether I had spoken to Sarah Kirkaldy there, and if so, what I might have found out from her. "Yes, I was privileged to talk to the bereaved girl she is a sweet soul." Out of the corner of my eye I beheld Watson, who had just entered the room, staring at me. What had possessed me to make Mr. Prince such a cloying individual in the eyes of Scotland Yard, I really do not know. "Her brother's funeral is Saturday." "Right, and I plan to be there. How about you, Mr. Holmes?" Holmes, who had now come in as well, shook his head. "My plans are as yet uncertain." Merivale was determined to interview the young woman yet again. I did my best to discourage him from the effort, without seeming to try to do so. Despite my warnings to myself, I was already beginning to take a personal interest in Sarah. Ah, was ever woman in such humor file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...20Tepes%2008%20-%20Seance %20for%20a%20Vampire.html (214 of 318)22-2-2006 2:00:15 Fred Saberhagen - Séance for a Vampire wooed? Was ever woman in such humor won? Richard the Third. Shakespeare. Remind me to tell you a story about him some day. I mean the poet, not the king. Though our careers did somewhat overlap (he died, I think, in 1485), I never met that monarch. I hear myself beginning to babble, but never mind. I told you at the start that certain aspects of this tale of séances tend to make me nervous and we are getting closer to them. Ah, that Edwardian summer! The delights of young love no, of course I hardly qualified as young myself but all the more delightful to my aging bones was the experience of youth, the gift of Sarah's warm young skin, and later her blood, and our shared laughter. Yes, during the following nights and days, I did that much for Sarah Kirkaldy: taught her how to begin to laugh again, gave her strong armament with which to face the fear and murder of the world. It was a vintage year in many ways. In 1903, motorcars were becoming commonplace in Britain where there were Page 102 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html already more than eight thousand such machines and in much of the United States, where that very summer, the Ford Motor Company was being organized and the Wright brothers were hard at work [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] |