"'Well, it may have little to do with Dracula, after all,' I said, to comfort myself. 'I just wish we had more time to examine this library. We have to fly back to Istanbul on Monday, unfortunately - I don't have permission to stay beyond the duration of the conference. If you do find anything of interest - '
"'Of course,' Hugh said. 'I'll be around for another six days. If I find something, shall I write to you at your department?' "This gave me a turn; it had been days since I'd thought seriously about home, and I had no idea when I would next be checking my mail in my departmental box there. 'No, no,' I said hastily. 'At least, not yet. If you find something you really think might help us, please call Professor Bora. Just explain to him that we talked. If I speak with him myself, I'll let him know you might get in touch with him.' I took out Turgut's card and wrote the number down for Hugh.
"'Very good.' He tucked it into his breast pocket. 'And here's my card for you. I do hope we'll be running into each other again.' We sat there in silence for a few seconds, his gaze lowered to the table with its empty cups and plates and flickering candle flame. 'Look here,' he said finally. 'If all you've said is true - or all Rossi said, anyway - and there is a Count Dracula, or a Vlad the Impaler - extant - in some awful sense, then I'd like to help you - '
"'Eradicate him?' I finished quietly. 'I'll remember that.'
"There seemed to be nothing left for us to say just now, although I hoped we would talk again someday. We found a taxi to take us back to Pest, and he insisted on walking me into the hotel. We were saying a cordial good-bye at the front desk when the clerk I'd talked with earlier suddenly came out of his cubicle and grasped my arm. 'Herr Paul!' he said urgently.
"'What is it?' Hugh and I both turned to stare at the man. He was a tall, drooping man in a blue worker's jacket, with mustaches that would have suited a Hun warrior. He pulled me close to speak in a low voice, and I managed to signal to Hugh not to leave us. There was no one else in sight, and I didn't especially want to be alone with any new crisis.
"'Herr Paul, I know who was in your zimmer this afternoon.'
"'What? Who?' I said.
"'Hmm, hmm.' The clerk began almost to hum to himself and to glance around, searching his jacket pocket in what would have been a meaningful way if only I'd understood his meaning. I wondered if the man was some sort of idiot.
"'He wants a bribe,' Hugh translated in an undertone.
"'Oh, for heaven's sake,' I said in exasperation, but the man's eyes seemed to glaze over, brightening only when I fished out two large Hungarian bills. He took them secretively and hid them in his pocket, but said nothing to acknowledge my capitulation."'Herr American,' he whispered. 'I know it was not only ein man from this afternoon. It is two men. One comes in first, very important man. Then the other. I see him when I go up with a suitcase to another zimmer. Then I see them. They talk. They walk out together.'
"'Didn't anyone stop them?' I snapped. 'Who were they? Were they Hungarian?' The man was glancing all around him again, and I suppressed the urge to throttle him. This atmosphere of censorship was taking a toll on my nerves. I must have looked angry, because Hugh put a restraining hand on my arm.
"'Important man Hungarian. Other man not Hungarian.'
"'How do you know?'"He lowered his voice.
'One man Hungarian, but they speaks Anglisch together.' That was all he would say, despite my increasingly threatening questions. Since he had apparently decided he'd given me enough information for the number of forints I'd handed over, I might never have heard another word from him had it not been for something that seemed suddenly to catch his attention. He was looking past me, and after a second I turned, too, to follow his gaze through the great window by the hotel door. Through it, for a split second, I saw a hungry, hollow-eyed countenance I'd come to know much too well, a face that belonged in a grave, not on the street. The clerk was spluttering,