"My good young friend, I ask you not to discuss business in your letters. I am sure that it will please your friends to know that you are well, and that you look forward to getting home to them. Is it not so?"

As he spoke he handed me three sheets of note paper and three envelopes. They were all very thin. I looked at them, then at him. I noticed his quiet smile, and the sharp teeth lying over his red lower lip. As clearly as if he had told me, I knew that I should be careful what I wrote, because he would read it. So I decided to write only short, polite notes for now. Later I would write a lonfer letter to Mr. Hawkins in secret, and also to Mina. To her I could write shorthand, which would puzzle the Count. When I had written my two letters I sat quietly, reading a book. Meanwhile the Count wrote several notes. As he wrote he occasionally looked something up in some books on his table.

Then he took up my two letters and put them with his own. Then he finished with his writing and left the room. As soon as the door had closed behind him, I leaned over and looked at the letters on the table. I felt no guilt about doing this. In my poistion I felt that I should protect myself in every way I could. One of the letters was addressed to Samuel F. Billington, No. 7, The Crescent, Whitby, another latter was addressed to to Herr Leutner, Varna. The third letter was to Coutts & Co., London, and the fourth letter was to Herren Klopstock & Billreuth, bankers, Budapest.