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CHAPTER XIV

FROM ATTORNEY AZMI BEY

’S DIARY

1 October, before noon—The only difficult thing about this horrible situation would have been my dear Güzin’s intervention But my Güzin, delicate as a rose, tender as a hyacinth, turned out to be as tough as steel—no, as tough as a true Turkish girl Turkish girls… What qualities should be described to differentiate them? The easiest is the pride and enthusiaserous challenges and obstacles!

Doctor Resuhî Bey, the o down in history, said:

“My friends, we are walking toward a danger greater than you can iht we need every kind of weapon Our ene as twenty or thirty ainst these things For exa and place it close to your heart Doctor Afif, do not laugh at what I say; do not laugh Even if it has no effect, the extra 25 grams will not hurt”

Then Doctor Resuhî turned to Doctor Afif Bey and asked, “Are the keys ready?” Afif produced a fely-an walking and we all followed hio into too reat, old, dilapidated ht this place through correspondence with “A Real Estate Center” After passing through a garden which resele, we opened thea staircase to a dirt baseround floor The place was dark, and we had to light two lanterns that we had prepared earlier I held one of theht of my lantern seemed almost afraid to illu However, the footprints of the carriers who delivered Count Dracula’s crates of earth were visible in the dust like tracks in the snow Since I was the agent of the business office and the intermediary in the purchase of the mansion, I knew the layout well In fact, when I was in Dracula’s accursed castle in Transylvania, I described its interiors to the vampire

Doctor Resuhî Bey said:

“Children, e must do now is scour this place and discover how many of the coffins the Impaler Voivode has sent here to use as shelter This terrible, cunning monster has perhaps not put all of the coffins in the same place, as a precaution He ht”

At these words we began to search the basement Yes, many of the coffins I saw in Count Dracula’s castle were here We counted them; there were only twenty-nine of the fifty coffins

As we busied ourselves with this, daas quickening Doctor Resuhî Bey said:

“Our first night of reconnaissance has passed without danger We have the inforet away from here now!”

2 October—We friends all reconvened After a long and tiring investigation,have the necessary infor two more properties Count Dracula has purchased We even have the interior layouts of the houses We investigated the carriers without arousing suspicion That ins

3 October—This Doctor Resuhî Bey is a very calm man I think that were it not for hi After we visited the va:

“Of course youthe va there, Count Dracula would have guessed that ere onto him and would have taken many different measures to elude us But now he has no idea e know There is a very good chance that the vampire does not knoe have the tools to sterilize his soil Since we learned about the other two properties, and it is possible to get into empty houses without difficulty, we mustsun sets, the vae his shape I have made a plan of attack”