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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dracula, by Bram Stoker
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+Title: Dracula
+
+Author: Bram Stoker
+
+Release Date: August 16, 2013 [EBook #345]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DRACULA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ DRACULA
+
+
+
+
+
+ DRACULA
+
+ _by_
+
+ Bram Stoker
+
+ [Illustration: colophon]
+
+ NEW YORK
+
+ GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+ _Publishers_
+
+ Copyright, 1897, in the United States of America, according
+ to Act of Congress, by Bram Stoker
+
+ [_All rights reserved._]
+
+ PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
+ AT
+ THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
+
+
+
+
+ TO
+
+ MY DEAR FRIEND
+
+ HOMMY-BEG
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+ Page
+
+Jonathan Harker's Journal 1
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Jonathan Harker's Journal 14
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Jonathan Harker's Journal 26
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Jonathan Harker's Journal 38
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Letters--Lucy and Mina 51
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Mina Murray's Journal 59
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Cutting from "The Dailygraph," 8 August 71
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Mina Murray's Journal 84
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Mina Murray's Journal 98
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Mina Murray's Journal 111
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Lucy Westenra's Diary 124
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 136
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 152
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Mina Harker's Journal 167
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 181
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 194
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 204
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 216
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Jonathan Harker's Journal 231
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+Jonathan Harker's Journal 243
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 256
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Jonathan Harker's Journal 269
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 281
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+Dr. Seward's Phonograph Diary, spoken by Van Helsing 294
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 308
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+Dr. Seward's Diary 322
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+Mina Harker's Journal 338
+
+
+
+
+DRACULA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL
+
+(_Kept in shorthand._)
+
+
+_3 May. Bistritz._--Left Munich at 8:35 P. M., on 1st May, arriving at
+Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an
+hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I
+got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the
+streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived
+late and would start as near the correct time as possible. The
+impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the
+East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is
+here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish
+rule.
+
+We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh.
+Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or
+rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was
+very good but thirsty. (_Mem._, get recipe for Mina.) I asked the
+waiter, and he said it was called "paprika hendl," and that, as it was a
+national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the
+Carpathians. I found my smattering of German very useful here; indeed, I
+don't know how I should be able to get on without it.
+
+Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the
+British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library
+regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the
+country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a
+nobleman of that country. I find that the district he named is in the
+extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states,
+Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian
+mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe. I was
+not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the
+Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare
+with our own Ordnance Survey maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post
+town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter
+here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my
+travels with Mina.
+
+In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities:
+Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the
+descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the
+East and North. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended
+from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered
+the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. I
+read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the
+horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of
+imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (_Mem._, I
+must ask the Count all about them.)
+
+I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had
+all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my
+window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been
+the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was
+still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous
+knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then.
+I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour
+which they said was "mamaliga," and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a
+very excellent dish, which they call "impletata." (_Mem._, get recipe
+for this also.) I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little
+before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to
+the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour
+before we began to move. It seems to me that the further east you go the
+more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?
+
+All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of
+beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the
+top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by
+rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side
+of them to be subject to great floods. It takes a lot of water, and
+running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear. At every
+station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts
+of attire. Some of them were just like the peasants at home or those I
+saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets and round hats
+and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque. The women
+looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy
+about the waist. They had all full white sleeves of some kind or other,
+and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of something
+fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of course there
+were petticoats under them. The strangest figures we saw were the
+Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest, with their big cow-boy
+hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous
+heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass
+nails. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and
+had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. They are very
+picturesque, but do not look prepossessing. On the stage they would be
+set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. They are,
+however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural
+self-assertion.
+
+It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a
+very interesting old place. Being practically on the frontier--for the
+Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina--it has had a very stormy
+existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. Fifty years ago a series
+of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate
+occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent
+a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war
+proper being assisted by famine and disease.
+
+Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I
+found, to my great delight, to be thoroughly old-fashioned, for of
+course I wanted to see all I could of the ways of the country. I was
+evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a
+cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress--white
+undergarment with long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff
+fitting almost too tight for modesty. When I came close she bowed and
+said, "The Herr Englishman?" "Yes," I said, "Jonathan Harker." She
+smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirt-sleeves,
+who had followed her to the door. He went, but immediately returned with
+a letter:--
+
+ "My Friend.--Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting
+ you. Sleep well to-night. At three to-morrow the diligence will
+ start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo
+ Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me. I trust
+ that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you
+ will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.
+
+"Your friend,
+
+"DRACULA."
+
+
+_4 May._--I found that my landlord had got a letter from the Count,
+directing him to secure the best place on the coach for me; but on
+making inquiries as to details he seemed somewhat reticent, and
+pretended that he could not understand my German. This could not be
+true, because up to then he had understood it perfectly; at least, he
+answered my questions exactly as if he did. He and his wife, the old
+lady who had received me, looked at each other in a frightened sort of
+way. He mumbled out that the money had been sent in a letter, and that
+was all he knew. When I asked him if he knew Count Dracula, and could
+tell me anything of his castle, both he and his wife crossed themselves,
+and, saying that they knew nothing at all, simply refused to speak
+further. It was so near the time of starting that I had no time to ask
+any one else, for it was all very mysterious and not by any means
+comforting.
+
+Just before I was leaving, the old lady came up to my room and said in a
+very hysterical way:
+
+"Must you go? Oh! young Herr, must you go?" She was in such an excited
+state that she seemed to have lost her grip of what German she knew, and
+mixed it all up with some other language which I did not know at all. I
+was just able to follow her by asking many questions. When I told her
+that I must go at once, and that I was engaged on important business,
+she asked again:
+
+"Do you know what day it is?" I answered that it was the fourth of May.
+She shook her head as she said again:
+
+"Oh, yes! I know that! I know that, but do you know what day it is?" On
+my saying that I did not understand, she went on:
+
+"It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that to-night, when
+the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have
+full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?"
+She was in such evident distress that I tried to comfort her, but
+without effect. Finally she went down on her knees and implored me not
+to go; at least to wait a day or two before starting. It was all very
+ridiculous but I did not feel comfortable. However, there was business
+to be done, and I could allow nothing to interfere with it. I therefore
+tried to raise her up, and said, as gravely as I could, that I thanked
+her, but my duty was imperative, and that I must go. She then rose and
+dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me. I
+did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been
+taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it
+seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a
+state of mind. She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the
+rosary round my neck, and said, "For your mother's sake," and went out
+of the room. I am writing up this part of the diary whilst I am waiting
+for the coach, which is, of course, late; and the crucifix is still
+round my neck. Whether it is the old lady's fear, or the many ghostly
+traditions of this place, or the crucifix itself, I do not know, but I
+am not feeling nearly as easy in my mind as usual. If this book should
+ever reach Mina before I do, let it bring my good-bye. Here comes the
+coach!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_5 May. The Castle._--The grey of the morning has passed, and the sun is
+high over the distant horizon, which seems jagged, whether with trees or
+hills I know not, for it is so far off that big things and little are
+mixed. I am not sleepy, and, as I am not to be called till I awake,
+naturally I write till sleep comes. There are many odd things to put
+down, and, lest who reads them may fancy that I dined too well before I
+left Bistritz, let me put down my dinner exactly. I dined on what they
+called "robber steak"--bits of bacon, onion, and beef, seasoned with red
+pepper, and strung on sticks and roasted over the fire, in the simple
+style of the London cat's meat! The wine was Golden Mediasch, which
+produces a queer sting on the tongue, which is, however, not
+disagreeable. I had only a couple of glasses of this, and nothing else.
+
+When I got on the coach the driver had not taken his seat, and I saw him
+talking with the landlady. They were evidently talking of me, for every
+now and then they looked at me, and some of the people who were sitting
+on the bench outside the door--which they call by a name meaning
+"word-bearer"--came and listened, and then looked at me, most of them
+pityingly. I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for
+there were many nationalities in the crowd; so I quietly got my polyglot
+dictionary from my bag and looked them out. I must say they were not
+cheering to me, for amongst them were "Ordog"--Satan, "pokol"--hell,
+"stregoica"--witch, "vrolok" and "vlkoslak"--both of which mean the same
+thing, one being Slovak and the other Servian for something that is
+either were-wolf or vampire. (_Mem._, I must ask the Count about these
+superstitions)
+
+When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had by this time
+swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of the cross and
+pointed two fingers towards me. With some difficulty I got a
+fellow-passenger to tell me what they meant; he would not answer at
+first, but on learning that I was English, he explained that it was a
+charm or guard against the evil eye. This was not very pleasant for me,
+just starting for an unknown place to meet an unknown man; but every one
+seemed so kind-hearted, and so sorrowful, and so sympathetic that I
+could not but be touched. I shall never forget the last glimpse which I
+had of the inn-yard and its crowd of picturesque figures, all crossing
+themselves, as they stood round the wide archway, with its background of
+rich foliage of oleander and orange trees in green tubs clustered in the
+centre of the yard. Then our driver, whose wide linen drawers covered
+the whole front of the box-seat--"gotza" they call them--cracked his big
+whip over his four small horses, which ran abreast, and we set off on
+our journey.
+
+I soon lost sight and recollection of ghostly fears in the beauty of the
+scene as we drove along, although had I known the language, or rather
+languages, which my fellow-passengers were speaking, I might not have
+been able to throw them off so easily. Before us lay a green sloping
+land full of forests and woods, with here and there steep hills, crowned
+with clumps of trees or with farmhouses, the blank gable end to the
+road. There was everywhere a bewildering mass of fruit blossom--apple,
+plum, pear, cherry; and as we drove by I could see the green grass under
+the trees spangled with the fallen petals. In and out amongst these
+green hills of what they call here the "Mittel Land" ran the road,
+losing itself as it swept round the grassy curve, or was shut out by the
+straggling ends of pine woods, which here and there ran down the
+hillsides like tongues of flame. The road was rugged, but still we
+seemed to fly over it with a feverish haste. I could not understand then
+what the haste meant, but the driver was evidently bent on losing no
+time in reaching Borgo Prund. I was told that this road is in summertime
+excellent, but that it had not yet been put in order after the winter
+snows. In this respect it is different from the general run of roads in
+the Carpathians, for it is an old tradition that they are not to be kept
+in too good order. Of old the Hospadars would not repair them, lest the
+Turk should think that they were preparing to bring in foreign troops,
+and so hasten the war which was always really at loading point.
+
+Beyond the green swelling hills of the Mittel Land rose mighty slopes
+of forest up to the lofty steeps of the Carpathians themselves. Right
+and left of us they towered, with the afternoon sun falling full upon
+them and bringing out all the glorious colours of this beautiful range,
+deep blue and purple in the shadows of the peaks, green and brown where
+grass and rock mingled, and an endless perspective of jagged rock and
+pointed crags, till these were themselves lost in the distance, where
+the snowy peaks rose grandly. Here and there seemed mighty rifts in the
+mountains, through which, as the sun began to sink, we saw now and again
+the white gleam of falling water. One of my companions touched my arm as
+we swept round the base of a hill and opened up the lofty, snow-covered
+peak of a mountain, which seemed, as we wound on our serpentine way, to
+be right before us:--
+
+"Look! Isten szek!"--"God's seat!"--and he crossed himself reverently.
+
+As we wound on our endless way, and the sun sank lower and lower behind
+us, the shadows of the evening began to creep round us. This was
+emphasised by the fact that the snowy mountain-top still held the
+sunset, and seemed to glow out with a delicate cool pink. Here and there
+we passed Cszeks and Slovaks, all in picturesque attire, but I noticed
+that goitre was painfully prevalent. By the roadside were many crosses,
+and as we swept by, my companions all crossed themselves. Here and there
+was a peasant man or woman kneeling before a shrine, who did not even
+turn round as we approached, but seemed in the self-surrender of
+devotion to have neither eyes nor ears for the outer world. There were
+many things new to me: for instance, hay-ricks in the trees, and here
+and there very beautiful masses of weeping birch, their white stems
+shining like silver through the delicate green of the leaves. Now and
+again we passed a leiter-wagon--the ordinary peasant's cart--with its
+long, snake-like vertebra, calculated to suit the inequalities of the
+road. On this were sure to be seated quite a group of home-coming
+peasants, the Cszeks with their white, and the Slovaks with their
+coloured, sheepskins, the latter carrying lance-fashion their long
+staves, with axe at end. As the evening fell it began to get very cold,
+and the growing twilight seemed to merge into one dark mistiness the
+gloom of the trees, oak, beech, and pine, though in the valleys which
+ran deep between the spurs of the hills, as we ascended through the
+Pass, the dark firs stood out here and there against the background of
+late-lying snow. Sometimes, as the road was cut through the pine woods
+that seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us, great masses of
+greyness, which here and there bestrewed the trees, produced a
+peculiarly weird and solemn effect, which carried on the thoughts and
+grim fancies engendered earlier in the evening, when the falling sunset
+threw into strange relief the ghost-like clouds which amongst the
+Carpathians seem to wind ceaselessly through the valleys. Sometimes the
+hills were so steep that, despite our driver's haste, the horses could
+only go slowly. I wished to get down and walk up them, as we do at home,
+but the driver would not hear of it. "No, no," he said; "you must not
+walk here; the dogs are too fierce"; and then he added, with what he
+evidently meant for grim pleasantry--for he looked round to catch the
+approving smile of the rest--"and you may have enough of such matters
+before you go to sleep." The only stop he would make was a moment's
+pause to light his lamps.
+
+When it grew dark there seemed to be some excitement amongst the
+passengers, and they kept speaking to him, one after the other, as
+though urging him to further speed. He lashed the horses unmercifully
+with his long whip, and with wild cries of encouragement urged them on
+to further exertions. Then through the darkness I could see a sort of
+patch of grey light ahead of us, as though there were a cleft in the
+hills. The excitement of the passengers grew greater; the crazy coach
+rocked on its great leather springs, and swayed like a boat tossed on a
+stormy sea. I had to hold on. The road grew more level, and we appeared
+to fly along. Then the mountains seemed to come nearer to us on each
+side and to frown down upon us; we were entering on the Borgo Pass. One
+by one several of the passengers offered me gifts, which they pressed
+upon me with an earnestness which would take no denial; these were
+certainly of an odd and varied kind, but each was given in simple good
+faith, with a kindly word, and a blessing, and that strange mixture of
+fear-meaning movements which I had seen outside the hotel at
+Bistritz--the sign of the cross and the guard against the evil eye.
+Then, as we flew along, the driver leaned forward, and on each side the
+passengers, craning over the edge of the coach, peered eagerly into the
+darkness. It was evident that something very exciting was either
+happening or expected, but though I asked each passenger, no one would
+give me the slightest explanation. This state of excitement kept on for
+some little time; and at last we saw before us the Pass opening out on
+the eastern side. There were dark, rolling clouds overhead, and in the
+air the heavy, oppressive sense of thunder. It seemed as though the
+mountain range had separated two atmospheres, and that now we had got
+into the thunderous one. I was now myself looking out for the conveyance
+which was to take me to the Count. Each moment I expected to see the
+glare of lamps through the blackness; but all was dark. The only light
+was the flickering rays of our own lamps, in which the steam from our
+hard-driven horses rose in a white cloud. We could see now the sandy
+road lying white before us, but there was on it no sign of a vehicle.
+The passengers drew back with a sigh of gladness, which seemed to mock
+my own disappointment. I was already thinking what I had best do, when
+the driver, looking at his watch, said to the others something which I
+could hardly hear, it was spoken so quietly and in so low a tone; I
+thought it was "An hour less than the time." Then turning to me, he said
+in German worse than my own:--
+
+"There is no carriage here. The Herr is not expected after all. He will
+now come on to Bukovina, and return to-morrow or the next day; better
+the next day." Whilst he was speaking the horses began to neigh and
+snort and plunge wildly, so that the driver had to hold them up. Then,
+amongst a chorus of screams from the peasants and a universal crossing
+of themselves, a calèche, with four horses, drove up behind us, overtook
+us, and drew up beside the coach. I could see from the flash of our
+lamps, as the rays fell on them, that the horses were coal-black and
+splendid animals. They were driven by a tall man, with a long brown
+beard and a great black hat, which seemed to hide his face from us. I
+could only see the gleam of a pair of very bright eyes, which seemed red
+in the lamplight, as he turned to us. He said to the driver:--
+
+"You are early to-night, my friend." The man stammered in reply:--
+
+"The English Herr was in a hurry," to which the stranger replied:--
+
+"That is why, I suppose, you wished him to go on to Bukovina. You cannot
+deceive me, my friend; I know too much, and my horses are swift." As he
+spoke he smiled, and the lamplight fell on a hard-looking mouth, with
+very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory. One of my
+companions whispered to another the line from Burger's "Lenore":--
+
+ "Denn die Todten reiten schnell"--
+ ("For the dead travel fast.")
+
+The strange driver evidently heard the words, for he looked up with a
+gleaming smile. The passenger turned his face away, at the same time
+putting out his two fingers and crossing himself. "Give me the Herr's
+luggage," said the driver; and with exceeding alacrity my bags were
+handed out and put in the calèche. Then I descended from the side of the
+coach, as the calèche was close alongside, the driver helping me with a
+hand which caught my arm in a grip of steel; his strength must have been
+prodigious. Without a word he shook his reins, the horses turned, and we
+swept into the darkness of the Pass. As I looked back I saw the steam
+from the horses of the coach by the light of the lamps, and projected
+against it the figures of my late companions crossing themselves. Then
+the driver cracked his whip and called to his horses, and off they swept
+on their way to Bukovina. As they sank into the darkness I felt a
+strange chill, and a lonely feeling came over me; but a cloak was thrown
+over my shoulders, and a rug across my knees, and the driver said in
+excellent German:--
+
+"The night is chill, mein Herr, and my master the Count bade me take all
+care of you. There is a flask of slivovitz (the plum brandy of the
+country) underneath the seat, if you should require it." I did not take
+any, but it was a comfort to know it was there all the same. I felt a
+little strangely, and not a little frightened. I think had there been
+any alternative I should have taken it, instead of prosecuting that
+unknown night journey. The carriage went at a hard pace straight along,
+then we made a complete turn and went along another straight road. It
+seemed to me that we were simply going over and over the same ground
+again; and so I took note of some salient point, and found that this was
+so. I would have liked to have asked the driver what this all meant, but
+I really feared to do so, for I thought that, placed as I was, any
+protest would have had no effect in case there had been an intention to
+delay. By-and-by, however, as I was curious to know how time was
+passing, I struck a match, and by its flame looked at my watch; it was
+within a few minutes of midnight. This gave me a sort of shock, for I
+suppose the general superstition about midnight was increased by my
+recent experiences. I waited with a sick feeling of suspense.
+
+Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road--a
+long, agonised wailing, as if from fear. The sound was taken up by
+another dog, and then another and another, till, borne on the wind which
+now sighed softly through the Pass, a wild howling began, which seemed
+to come from all over the country, as far as the imagination could grasp
+it through the gloom of the night. At the first howl the horses began to
+strain and rear, but the driver spoke to them soothingly, and they
+quieted down, but shivered and sweated as though after a runaway from
+sudden fright. Then, far off in the distance, from the mountains on each
+side of us began a louder and a sharper howling--that of wolves--which
+affected both the horses and myself in the same way--for I was minded to
+jump from the calèche and run, whilst they reared again and plunged
+madly, so that the driver had to use all his great strength to keep them
+from bolting. In a few minutes, however, my own ears got accustomed to
+the sound, and the horses so far became quiet that the driver was able
+to descend and to stand before them. He petted and soothed them, and
+whispered something in their ears, as I have heard of horse-tamers
+doing, and with extraordinary effect, for under his caresses they became
+quite manageable again, though they still trembled. The driver again
+took his seat, and shaking his reins, started off at a great pace. This
+time, after going to the far side of the Pass, he suddenly turned down a
+narrow roadway which ran sharply to the right.
+
+Soon we were hemmed in with trees, which in places arched right over the
+roadway till we passed as through a tunnel; and again great frowning
+rocks guarded us boldly on either side. Though we were in shelter, we
+could hear the rising wind, for it moaned and whistled through the
+rocks, and the branches of the trees crashed together as we swept along.
+It grew colder and colder still, and fine, powdery snow began to fall,
+so that soon we and all around us were covered with a white blanket. The
+keen wind still carried the howling of the dogs, though this grew
+fainter as we went on our way. The baying of the wolves sounded nearer
+and nearer, as though they were closing round on us from every side. I
+grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses shared my fear. The driver,
+however, was not in the least disturbed; he kept turning his head to
+left and right, but I could not see anything through the darkness.
+
+Suddenly, away on our left, I saw a faint flickering blue flame. The
+driver saw it at the same moment; he at once checked the horses, and,
+jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness. I did not know
+what to do, the less as the howling of the wolves grew closer; but while
+I wondered the driver suddenly appeared again, and without a word took
+his seat, and we resumed our journey. I think I must have fallen asleep
+and kept dreaming of the incident, for it seemed to be repeated
+endlessly, and now looking back, it is like a sort of awful nightmare.
+Once the flame appeared so near the road, that even in the darkness
+around us I could watch the driver's motions. He went rapidly to where
+the blue flame arose--it must have been very faint, for it did not seem
+to illumine the place around it at all--and gathering a few stones,
+formed them into some device. Once there appeared a strange optical
+effect: when he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it,
+for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same. This startled me, but
+as the effect was only momentary, I took it that my eyes deceived me
+straining through the darkness. Then for a time there were no blue
+flames, and we sped onwards through the gloom, with the howling of the
+wolves around us, as though they were following in a moving circle.
+
+At last there came a time when the driver went further afield than he
+had yet gone, and during his absence, the horses began to tremble worse
+than ever and to snort and scream with fright. I could not see any cause
+for it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether; but just
+then the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared behind the
+jagged crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw
+around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues,
+with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair. They were a hundred times more
+terrible in the grim silence which held them than even when they howled.
+For myself, I felt a sort of paralysis of fear. It is only when a man
+feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand
+their true import.
+
+All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had had
+some peculiar effect on them. The horses jumped about and reared, and
+looked helplessly round with eyes that rolled in a way painful to see;
+but the living ring of terror encompassed them on every side; and they
+had perforce to remain within it. I called to the coachman to come, for
+it seemed to me that our only chance was to try to break out through the
+ring and to aid his approach. I shouted and beat the side of the
+calèche, hoping by the noise to scare the wolves from that side, so as
+to give him a chance of reaching the trap. How he came there, I know
+not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and
+looking towards the sound, saw him stand in the roadway. As he swept his
+long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves
+fell back and back further still. Just then a heavy cloud passed across
+the face of the moon, so that we were again in darkness.
+
+When I could see again the driver was climbing into the calèche, and the
+wolves had disappeared. This was all so strange and uncanny that a
+dreadful fear came upon me, and I was afraid to speak or move. The time
+seemed interminable as we swept on our way, now in almost complete
+darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon. We kept on
+ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in the main
+always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious of the fact that the
+driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a
+vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light,
+and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit
+sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL--_continued_
+
+
+_5 May._--I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fully
+awake I must have noticed the approach of such a remarkable place. In
+the gloom the courtyard looked of considerable size, and as several dark
+ways led from it under great round arches, it perhaps seemed bigger than
+it really is. I have not yet been able to see it by daylight.
+
+When the calèche stopped, the driver jumped down and held out his hand
+to assist me to alight. Again I could not but notice his prodigious
+strength. His hand actually seemed like a steel vice that could have
+crushed mine if he had chosen. Then he took out my traps, and placed
+them on the ground beside me as I stood close to a great door, old and
+studded with large iron nails, and set in a projecting doorway of
+massive stone. I could see even in the dim light that the stone was
+massively carved, but that the carving had been much worn by time and
+weather. As I stood, the driver jumped again into his seat and shook the
+reins; the horses started forward, and trap and all disappeared down one
+of the dark openings.
+
+I stood in silence where I was, for I did not know what to do. Of bell
+or knocker there was no sign; through these frowning walls and dark
+window openings it was not likely that my voice could penetrate. The
+time I waited seemed endless, and I felt doubts and fears crowding upon
+me. What sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of people?
+What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked? Was this a
+customary incident in the life of a solicitor's clerk sent out to
+explain the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner? Solicitor's
+clerk! Mina would not like that. Solicitor--for just before leaving
+London I got word that my examination was successful; and I am now a
+full-blown solicitor! I began to rub my eyes and pinch myself to see if
+I were awake. It all seemed like a horrible nightmare to me, and I
+expected that I should suddenly awake, and find myself at home, with
+the dawn struggling in through the windows, as I had now and again felt
+in the morning after a day of overwork. But my flesh answered the
+pinching test, and my eyes were not to be deceived. I was indeed awake
+and among the Carpathians. All I could do now was to be patient, and to
+wait the coming of the morning.
+
+Just as I had come to this conclusion I heard a heavy step approaching
+behind the great door, and saw through the chinks the gleam of a coming
+light. Then there was the sound of rattling chains and the clanking of
+massive bolts drawn back. A key was turned with the loud grating noise
+of long disuse, and the great door swung back.
+
+Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white
+moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck
+of colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silver
+lamp, in which the flame burned without chimney or globe of any kind,
+throwing long quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught of the
+open door. The old man motioned me in with his right hand with a courtly
+gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a strange intonation:--
+
+"Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!" He made no
+motion of stepping to meet me, but stood like a statue, as though his
+gesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. The instant, however, that
+I had stepped over the threshold, he moved impulsively forward, and
+holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince,
+an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed as cold as
+ice--more like the hand of a dead than a living man. Again he said:--
+
+"Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the
+happiness you bring!" The strength of the handshake was so much akin to
+that which I had noticed in the driver, whose face I had not seen, that
+for a moment I doubted if it were not the same person to whom I was
+speaking; so to make sure, I said interrogatively:--
+
+"Count Dracula?" He bowed in a courtly way as he replied:--
+
+"I am Dracula; and I bid you welcome, Mr. Harker, to my house. Come in;
+the night air is chill, and you must need to eat and rest." As he was
+speaking, he put the lamp on a bracket on the wall, and stepping out,
+took my luggage; he had carried it in before I could forestall him. I
+protested but he insisted:--
+
+"Nay, sir, you are my guest. It is late, and my people are not
+available. Let me see to your comfort myself." He insisted on carrying
+my traps along the passage, and then up a great winding stair, and
+along another great passage, on whose stone floor our steps rang
+heavily. At the end of this he threw open a heavy door, and I rejoiced
+to see within a well-lit room in which a table was spread for supper,
+and on whose mighty hearth a great fire of logs, freshly replenished,
+flamed and flared.
+
+The Count halted, putting down my bags, closed the door, and crossing
+the room, opened another door, which led into a small octagonal room lit
+by a single lamp, and seemingly without a window of any sort. Passing
+through this, he opened another door, and motioned me to enter. It was a
+welcome sight; for here was a great bedroom well lighted and warmed with
+another log fire,--also added to but lately, for the top logs were
+fresh--which sent a hollow roar up the wide chimney. The Count himself
+left my luggage inside and withdrew, saying, before he closed the
+door:--
+
+"You will need, after your journey, to refresh yourself by making your
+toilet. I trust you will find all you wish. When you are ready, come
+into the other room, where you will find your supper prepared."
+
+The light and warmth and the Count's courteous welcome seemed to have
+dissipated all my doubts and fears. Having then reached my normal state,
+I discovered that I was half famished with hunger; so making a hasty
+toilet, I went into the other room.
+
+I found supper already laid out. My host, who stood on one side of the
+great fireplace, leaning against the stonework, made a graceful wave of
+his hand to the table, and said:--
+
+"I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will, I trust, excuse
+me that I do not join you; but I have dined already, and I do not sup."
+
+I handed to him the sealed letter which Mr. Hawkins had entrusted to me.
+He opened it and read it gravely; then, with a charming smile, he handed
+it to me to read. One passage of it, at least, gave me a thrill of
+pleasure.
+
+"I must regret that an attack of gout, from which malady I am a constant
+sufferer, forbids absolutely any travelling on my part for some time to
+come; but I am happy to say I can send a sufficient substitute, one in
+whom I have every possible confidence. He is a young man, full of energy
+and talent in his own way, and of a very faithful disposition. He is
+discreet and silent, and has grown into manhood in my service. He shall
+be ready to attend on you when you will during his stay, and shall take
+your instructions in all matters."
+
+The Count himself came forward and took off the cover of a dish, and I
+fell to at once on an excellent roast chicken. This, with some cheese
+and a salad and a bottle of old Tokay, of which I had two glasses, was
+my supper. During the time I was eating it the Count asked me many
+questions as to my journey, and I told him by degrees all I had
+experienced.
+
+By this time I had finished my supper, and by my host's desire had drawn
+up a chair by the fire and begun to smoke a cigar which he offered me,
+at the same time excusing himself that he did not smoke. I had now an
+opportunity of observing him, and found him of a very marked
+physiognomy.
+
+His face was a strong--a very strong--aquiline, with high bridge of the
+thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and
+hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His
+eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy
+hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I
+could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather
+cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over
+the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a
+man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops
+extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm
+though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.
+
+Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees
+in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing
+them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather
+coarse--broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in
+the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp
+point. As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me, I could not
+repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a
+horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could
+not conceal. The Count, evidently noticing it, drew back; and with a
+grim sort of smile, which showed more than he had yet done his
+protuberant teeth, sat himself down again on his own side of the
+fireplace. We were both silent for a while; and as I looked towards the
+window I saw the first dim streak of the coming dawn. There seemed a
+strange stillness over everything; but as I listened I heard as if from
+down below in the valley the howling of many wolves. The Count's eyes
+gleamed, and he said:--
+
+"Listen to them--the children of the night. What music they make!"
+Seeing, I suppose, some expression in my face strange to him, he
+added:--
+
+"Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings of the
+hunter." Then he rose and said:--
+
+"But you must be tired. Your bedroom is all ready, and to-morrow you
+shall sleep as late as you will. I have to be away till the afternoon;
+so sleep well and dream well!" With a courteous bow, he opened for me
+himself the door to the octagonal room, and I entered my bedroom....
+
+I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things,
+which I dare not confess to my own soul. God keep me, if only for the
+sake of those dear to me!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_7 May._--It is again early morning, but I have rested and enjoyed the
+last twenty-four hours. I slept till late in the day, and awoke of my
+own accord. When I had dressed myself I went into the room where we had
+supped, and found a cold breakfast laid out, with coffee kept hot by the
+pot being placed on the hearth. There was a card on the table, on which
+was written:--
+
+"I have to be absent for a while. Do not wait for me.--D." I set to and
+enjoyed a hearty meal. When I had done, I looked for a bell, so that I
+might let the servants know I had finished; but I could not find one.
+There are certainly odd deficiencies in the house, considering the
+extraordinary evidences of wealth which are round me. The table service
+is of gold, and so beautifully wrought that it must be of immense value.
+The curtains and upholstery of the chairs and sofas and the hangings of
+my bed are of the costliest and most beautiful fabrics, and must have
+been of fabulous value when they were made, for they are centuries old,
+though in excellent order. I saw something like them in Hampton Court,
+but there they were worn and frayed and moth-eaten. But still in none of
+the rooms is there a mirror. There is not even a toilet glass on my
+table, and I had to get the little shaving glass from my bag before I
+could either shave or brush my hair. I have not yet seen a servant
+anywhere, or heard a sound near the castle except the howling of wolves.
+Some time after I had finished my meal--I do not know whether to call it
+breakfast or dinner, for it was between five and six o'clock when I had
+it--I looked about for something to read, for I did not like to go about
+the castle until I had asked the Count's permission. There was
+absolutely nothing in the room, book, newspaper, or even writing
+materials; so I opened another door in the room and found a sort of
+library. The door opposite mine I tried, but found it locked.
+
+In the library I found, to my great delight, a vast number of English
+books, whole shelves full of them, and bound volumes of magazines and
+newspapers. A table in the centre was littered with English magazines
+and newspapers, though none of them were of very recent date. The books
+were of the most varied kind--history, geography, politics, political
+economy, botany, geology, law--all relating to England and English life
+and customs and manners. There were even such books of reference as the
+London Directory, the "Red" and "Blue" books, Whitaker's Almanac, the
+Army and Navy Lists, and--it somehow gladdened my heart to see it--the
+Law List.
+
+Whilst I was looking at the books, the door opened, and the Count
+entered. He saluted me in a hearty way, and hoped that I had had a good
+night's rest. Then he went on:--
+
+"I am glad you found your way in here, for I am sure there is much that
+will interest you. These companions"--and he laid his hand on some of
+the books--"have been good friends to me, and for some years past, ever
+since I had the idea of going to London, have given me many, many hours
+of pleasure. Through them I have come to know your great England; and to
+know her is to love her. I long to go through the crowded streets of
+your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of
+humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes
+it what it is. But alas! as yet I only know your tongue through books.
+To you, my friend, I look that I know it to speak."
+
+"But, Count," I said, "you know and speak English thoroughly!" He bowed
+gravely.
+
+"I thank you, my friend, for your all too-flattering estimate, but yet I
+fear that I am but a little way on the road I would travel. True, I know
+the grammar and the words, but yet I know not how to speak them."
+
+"Indeed," I said, "you speak excellently."
+
+"Not so," he answered. "Well, I know that, did I move and speak in your
+London, none there are who would not know me for a stranger. That is not
+enough for me. Here I am noble; I am _boyar_; the common people know me,
+and I am master. But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one; men
+know him not--and to know not is to care not for. I am content if I am
+like the rest, so that no man stops if he see me, or pause in his
+speaking if he hear my words, 'Ha, ha! a stranger!' I have been so long
+master that I would be master still--or at least that none other should
+be master of me. You come to me not alone as agent of my friend Peter
+Hawkins, of Exeter, to tell me all about my new estate in London. You
+shall, I trust, rest here with me awhile, so that by our talking I may
+learn the English intonation; and I would that you tell me when I make
+error, even of the smallest, in my speaking. I am sorry that I had to be
+away so long to-day; but you will, I know, forgive one who has so many
+important affairs in hand."
+
+Of course I said all I could about being willing, and asked if I might
+come into that room when I chose. He answered: "Yes, certainly," and
+added:--
+
+"You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the doors are
+locked, where of course you will not wish to go. There is reason that
+all things are as they are, and did you see with my eyes and know with
+my knowledge, you would perhaps better understand." I said I was sure of
+this, and then he went on:--
+
+"We are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are
+not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things. Nay, from
+what you have told me of your experiences already, you know something of
+what strange things there may be."
+
+This led to much conversation; and as it was evident that he wanted to
+talk, if only for talking's sake, I asked him many questions regarding
+things that had already happened to me or come within my notice.
+Sometimes he sheered off the subject, or turned the conversation by
+pretending not to understand; but generally he answered all I asked most
+frankly. Then as time went on, and I had got somewhat bolder, I asked
+him of some of the strange things of the preceding night, as, for
+instance, why the coachman went to the places where he had seen the blue
+flames. He then explained to me that it was commonly believed that on a
+certain night of the year--last night, in fact, when all evil spirits
+are supposed to have unchecked sway--a blue flame is seen over any place
+where treasure has been concealed. "That treasure has been hidden," he
+went on, "in the region through which you came last night, there can be
+but little doubt; for it was the ground fought over for centuries by the
+Wallachian, the Saxon, and the Turk. Why, there is hardly a foot of soil
+in all this region that has not been enriched by the blood of men,
+patriots or invaders. In old days there were stirring times, when the
+Austrian and the Hungarian came up in hordes, and the patriots went out
+to meet them--men and women, the aged and the children too--and waited
+their coming on the rocks above the passes, that they might sweep
+destruction on them with their artificial avalanches. When the invader
+was triumphant he found but little, for whatever there was had been
+sheltered in the friendly soil."
+
+"But how," said I, "can it have remained so long undiscovered, when
+there is a sure index to it if men will but take the trouble to look?"
+The Count smiled, and as his lips ran back over his gums, the long,
+sharp, canine teeth showed out strangely; he answered:--
+
+"Because your peasant is at heart a coward and a fool! Those flames only
+appear on one night; and on that night no man of this land will, if he
+can help it, stir without his doors. And, dear sir, even if he did he
+would not know what to do. Why, even the peasant that you tell me of who
+marked the place of the flame would not know where to look in daylight
+even for his own work. Even you would not, I dare be sworn, be able to
+find these places again?"
+
+"There you are right," I said. "I know no more than the dead where even
+to look for them." Then we drifted into other matters.
+
+"Come," he said at last, "tell me of London and of the house which you
+have procured for me." With an apology for my remissness, I went into my
+own room to get the papers from my bag. Whilst I was placing them in
+order I heard a rattling of china and silver in the next room, and as I
+passed through, noticed that the table had been cleared and the lamp
+lit, for it was by this time deep into the dark. The lamps were also lit
+in the study or library, and I found the Count lying on the sofa,
+reading, of all things in the world, an English Bradshaw's Guide. When I
+came in he cleared the books and papers from the table; and with him I
+went into plans and deeds and figures of all sorts. He was interested in
+everything, and asked me a myriad questions about the place and its
+surroundings. He clearly had studied beforehand all he could get on the
+subject of the neighbourhood, for he evidently at the end knew very much
+more than I did. When I remarked this, he answered:--
+
+"Well, but, my friend, is it not needful that I should? When I go there
+I shall be all alone, and my friend Harker Jonathan--nay, pardon me, I
+fall into my country's habit of putting your patronymic first--my friend
+Jonathan Harker will not be by my side to correct and aid me. He will be
+in Exeter, miles away, probably working at papers of the law with my
+other friend, Peter Hawkins. So!"
+
+We went thoroughly into the business of the purchase of the estate at
+Purfleet. When I had told him the facts and got his signature to the
+necessary papers, and had written a letter with them ready to post to
+Mr. Hawkins, he began to ask me how I had come across so suitable a
+place. I read to him the notes which I had made at the time, and which I
+inscribe here:--
+
+"At Purfleet, on a by-road, I came across just such a place as seemed to
+be required, and where was displayed a dilapidated notice that the place
+was for sale. It is surrounded by a high wall, of ancient structure,
+built of heavy stones, and has not been repaired for a large number of
+years. The closed gates are of heavy old oak and iron, all eaten with
+rust.
+
+"The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old _Quatre
+Face_, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the cardinal points of
+the compass. It contains in all some twenty acres, quite surrounded by
+the solid stone wall above mentioned. There are many trees on it, which
+make it in places gloomy, and there is a deep, dark-looking pond or
+small lake, evidently fed by some springs, as the water is clear and
+flows away in a fair-sized stream. The house is very large and of all
+periods back, I should say, to mediæval times, for one part is of stone
+immensely thick, with only a few windows high up and heavily barred with
+iron. It looks like part of a keep, and is close to an old chapel or
+church. I could not enter it, as I had not the key of the door leading
+to it from the house, but I have taken with my kodak views of it from
+various points. The house has been added to, but in a very straggling
+way, and I can only guess at the amount of ground it covers, which must
+be very great. There are but few houses close at hand, one being a very
+large house only recently added to and formed into a private lunatic
+asylum. It is not, however, visible from the grounds."
+
+When I had finished, he said:--
+
+"I am glad that it is old and big. I myself am of an old family, and to
+live in a new house would kill me. A house cannot be made habitable in a
+day; and, after all, how few days go to make up a century. I rejoice
+also that there is a chapel of old times. We Transylvanian nobles love
+not to think that our bones may lie amongst the common dead. I seek not
+gaiety nor mirth, not the bright voluptuousness of much sunshine and
+sparkling waters which please the young and gay. I am no longer young;
+and my heart, through weary years of mourning over the dead, is not
+attuned to mirth. Moreover, the walls of my castle are broken; the
+shadows are many, and the wind breathes cold through the broken
+battlements and casements. I love the shade and the shadow, and would
+be alone with my thoughts when I may." Somehow his words and his look
+did not seem to accord, or else it was that his cast of face made his
+smile look malignant and saturnine.
+
+Presently, with an excuse, he left me, asking me to put all my papers
+together. He was some little time away, and I began to look at some of
+the books around me. One was an atlas, which I found opened naturally at
+England, as if that map had been much used. On looking at it I found in
+certain places little rings marked, and on examining these I noticed
+that one was near London on the east side, manifestly where his new
+estate was situated; the other two were Exeter, and Whitby on the
+Yorkshire coast.
+
+It was the better part of an hour when the Count returned. "Aha!" he
+said; "still at your books? Good! But you must not work always. Come; I
+am informed that your supper is ready." He took my arm, and we went into
+the next room, where I found an excellent supper ready on the table. The
+Count again excused himself, as he had dined out on his being away from
+home. But he sat as on the previous night, and chatted whilst I ate.
+After supper I smoked, as on the last evening, and the Count stayed with
+me, chatting and asking questions on every conceivable subject, hour
+after hour. I felt that it was getting very late indeed, but I did not
+say anything, for I felt under obligation to meet my host's wishes in
+every way. I was not sleepy, as the long sleep yesterday had fortified
+me; but I could not help experiencing that chill which comes over one at
+the coming of the dawn, which is like, in its way, the turn of the tide.
+They say that people who are near death die generally at the change to
+the dawn or at the turn of the tide; any one who has when tired, and
+tied as it were to his post, experienced this change in the atmosphere
+can well believe it. All at once we heard the crow of a cock coming up
+with preternatural shrillness through the clear morning air; Count
+Dracula, jumping to his feet, said:--
+
+"Why, there is the morning again! How remiss I am to let you stay up so
+long. You must make your conversation regarding my dear new country of
+England less interesting, so that I may not forget how time flies by
+us," and, with a courtly bow, he quickly left me.
+
+I went into my own room and drew the curtains, but there was little to
+notice; my window opened into the courtyard, all I could see was the
+warm grey of quickening sky. So I pulled the curtains again, and have
+written of this day.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_8 May._--I began to fear as I wrote in this book that I was getting too
+diffuse; but now I am glad that I went into detail from the first, for
+there is something so strange about this place and all in it that I
+cannot but feel uneasy. I wish I were safe out of it, or that I had
+never come. It may be that this strange night-existence is telling on
+me; but would that that were all! If there were any one to talk to I
+could bear it, but there is no one. I have only the Count to speak with,
+and he!--I fear I am myself the only living soul within the place. Let
+me be prosaic so far as facts can be; it will help me to bear up, and
+imagination must not run riot with me. If it does I am lost. Let me say
+at once how I stand--or seem to.
+
+I only slept a few hours when I went to bed, and feeling that I could
+not sleep any more, got up. I had hung my shaving glass by the window,
+and was just beginning to shave. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder,
+and heard the Count's voice saying to me, "Good-morning." I started, for
+it amazed me that I had not seen him, since the reflection of the glass
+covered the whole room behind me. In starting I had cut myself slightly,
+but did not notice it at the moment. Having answered the Count's
+salutation, I turned to the glass again to see how I had been mistaken.
+This time there could be no error, for the man was close to me, and I
+could see him over my shoulder. But there was no reflection of him in
+the mirror! The whole room behind me was displayed; but there was no
+sign of a man in it, except myself. This was startling, and, coming on
+the top of so many strange things, was beginning to increase that vague
+feeling of uneasiness which I always have when the Count is near; but at
+the instant I saw that the cut had bled a little, and the blood was
+trickling over my chin. I laid down the razor, turning as I did so half
+round to look for some sticking plaster. When the Count saw my face, his
+eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at
+my throat. I drew away, and his hand touched the string of beads which
+held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed
+so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there.
+
+"Take care," he said, "take care how you cut yourself. It is more
+dangerous than you think in this country." Then seizing the shaving
+glass, he went on: "And this is the wretched thing that has done the
+mischief. It is a foul bauble of man's vanity. Away with it!" and
+opening the heavy window with one wrench of his terrible hand, he flung
+out the glass, which was shattered into a thousand pieces on the stones
+of the courtyard far below. Then he withdrew without a word. It is very
+annoying, for I do not see how I am to shave, unless in my watch-case or
+the bottom of the shaving-pot, which is fortunately of metal.
+
+When I went into the dining-room, breakfast was prepared; but I could
+not find the Count anywhere. So I breakfasted alone. It is strange that
+as yet I have not seen the Count eat or drink. He must be a very
+peculiar man! After breakfast I did a little exploring in the castle. I
+went out on the stairs, and found a room looking towards the South. The
+view was magnificent, and from where I stood there was every opportunity
+of seeing it. The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A
+stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without
+touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree
+tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and
+there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through
+the forests.
+
+But I am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the view I
+explored further; doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and
+bolted. In no place save from the windows in the castle walls is there
+an available exit.
+
+The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL--_continued_
+
+
+When I found that I was a prisoner a sort of wild feeling came over me.
+I rushed up and down the stairs, trying every door and peering out of
+every window I could find; but after a little the conviction of my
+helplessness overpowered all other feelings. When I look back after a
+few hours I think I must have been mad for the time, for I behaved much
+as a rat does in a trap. When, however, the conviction had come to me
+that I was helpless I sat down quietly--as quietly as I have ever done
+anything in my life--and began to think over what was best to be done. I
+am thinking still, and as yet have come to no definite conclusion. Of
+one thing only am I certain; that it is no use making my ideas known to
+the Count. He knows well that I am imprisoned; and as he has done it
+himself, and has doubtless his own motives for it, he would only deceive
+me if I trusted him fully with the facts. So far as I can see, my only
+plan will be to keep my knowledge and my fears to myself, and my eyes
+open. I am, I know, either being deceived, like a baby, by my own fears,
+or else I am in desperate straits; and if the latter be so, I need, and
+shall need, all my brains to get through.
+
+I had hardly come to this conclusion when I heard the great door below
+shut, and knew that the Count had returned. He did not come at once into
+the library, so I went cautiously to my own room and found him making
+the bed. This was odd, but only confirmed what I had all along
+thought--that there were no servants in the house. When later I saw him
+through the chink of the hinges of the door laying the table in the
+dining-room, I was assured of it; for if he does himself all these
+menial offices, surely it is proof that there is no one else to do them.
+This gave me a fright, for if there is no one else in the castle, it
+must have been the Count himself who was the driver of the coach that
+brought me here. This is a terrible thought; for if so, what does it
+mean that he could control the wolves, as he did, by only holding up his
+hand in silence. How was it that all the people at Bistritz and on the
+coach had some terrible fear for me? What meant the giving of the
+crucifix, of the garlic, of the wild rose, of the mountain ash? Bless
+that good, good woman who hung the crucifix round my neck! for it is a
+comfort and a strength to me whenever I touch it. It is odd that a thing
+which I have been taught to regard with disfavour and as idolatrous
+should in a time of loneliness and trouble be of help. Is it that there
+is something in the essence of the thing itself, or that it is a medium,
+a tangible help, in conveying memories of sympathy and comfort? Some
+time, if it may be, I must examine this matter and try to make up my
+mind about it. In the meantime I must find out all I can about Count
+Dracula, as it may help me to understand. To-night he may talk of
+himself, if I turn the conversation that way. I must be very careful,
+however, not to awake his suspicion.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Midnight._--I have had a long talk with the Count. I asked him a few
+questions on Transylvania history, and he warmed up to the subject
+wonderfully. In his speaking of things and people, and especially of
+battles, he spoke as if he had been present at them all. This he
+afterwards explained by saying that to a _boyar_ the pride of his house
+and name is his own pride, that their glory is his glory, that their
+fate is his fate. Whenever he spoke of his house he always said "we,"
+and spoke almost in the plural, like a king speaking. I wish I could put
+down all he said exactly as he said it, for to me it was most
+fascinating. It seemed to have in it a whole history of the country. He
+grew excited as he spoke, and walked about the room pulling his great
+white moustache and grasping anything on which he laid his hands as
+though he would crush it by main strength. One thing he said which I
+shall put down as nearly as I can; for it tells in its way the story of
+his race:--
+
+"We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood
+of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship. Here,
+in the whirlpool of European races, the Ugric tribe bore down from
+Iceland the fighting spirit which Thor and Wodin gave them, which their
+Berserkers displayed to such fell intent on the seaboards of Europe, ay,
+and of Asia and Africa too, till the peoples thought that the
+were-wolves themselves had come. Here, too, when they came, they found
+the Huns, whose warlike fury had swept the earth like a living flame,
+till the dying peoples held that in their veins ran the blood of those
+old witches, who, expelled from Scythia had mated with the devils in the
+desert. Fools, fools! What devil or what witch was ever so great as
+Attila, whose blood is in these veins?" He held up his arms. "Is it a
+wonder that we were a conquering race; that we were proud; that when the
+Magyar, the Lombard, the Avar, the Bulgar, or the Turk poured his
+thousands on our frontiers, we drove them back? Is it strange that when
+Arpad and his legions swept through the Hungarian fatherland he found us
+here when he reached the frontier; that the Honfoglalas was completed
+there? And when the Hungarian flood swept eastward, the Szekelys were
+claimed as kindred by the victorious Magyars, and to us for centuries
+was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkey-land; ay, and more
+than that, endless duty of the frontier guard, for, as the Turks say,
+'water sleeps, and enemy is sleepless.' Who more gladly than we
+throughout the Four Nations received the 'bloody sword,' or at its
+warlike call flocked quicker to the standard of the King? When was
+redeemed that great shame of my nation, the shame of Cassova, when the
+flags of the Wallach and the Magyar went down beneath the Crescent? Who
+was it but one of my own race who as Voivode crossed the Danube and beat
+the Turk on his own ground? This was a Dracula indeed! Woe was it that
+his own unworthy brother, when he had fallen, sold his people to the
+Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them! Was it not this Dracula,
+indeed, who inspired that other of his race who in a later age again and
+again brought his forces over the great river into Turkey-land; who,
+when he was beaten back, came again, and again, and again, though he had
+to come alone from the bloody field where his troops were being
+slaughtered, since he knew that he alone could ultimately triumph! They
+said that he thought only of himself. Bah! what good are peasants
+without a leader? Where ends the war without a brain and heart to
+conduct it? Again, when, after the battle of Mohács, we threw off the
+Hungarian yoke, we of the Dracula blood were amongst their leaders, for
+our spirit would not brook that we were not free. Ah, young sir, the
+Szekelys--and the Dracula as their heart's blood, their brains, and
+their swords--can boast a record that mushroom growths like the
+Hapsburgs and the Romanoffs can never reach. The warlike days are over.
+Blood is too precious a thing in these days of dishonourable peace; and
+the glories of the great races are as a tale that is told."
+
+It was by this time close on morning, and we went to bed. (_Mem._, this
+diary seems horribly like the beginning of the "Arabian Nights," for
+everything has to break off at cockcrow--or like the ghost of Hamlet's
+father.)
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_12 May._--Let me begin with facts--bare, meagre facts, verified by
+books and figures, and of which there can be no doubt. I must not
+confuse them with experiences which will have to rest on my own
+observation, or my memory of them. Last evening when the Count came from
+his room he began by asking me questions on legal matters and on the
+doing of certain kinds of business. I had spent the day wearily over
+books, and, simply to keep my mind occupied, went over some of the
+matters I had been examined in at Lincoln's Inn. There was a certain
+method in the Count's inquiries, so I shall try to put them down in
+sequence; the knowledge may somehow or some time be useful to me.
+
+First, he asked if a man in England might have two solicitors or more. I
+told him he might have a dozen if he wished, but that it would not be
+wise to have more than one solicitor engaged in one transaction, as only
+one could act at a time, and that to change would be certain to militate
+against his interest. He seemed thoroughly to understand, and went on to
+ask if there would be any practical difficulty in having one man to
+attend, say, to banking, and another to look after shipping, in case
+local help were needed in a place far from the home of the banking
+solicitor. I asked him to explain more fully, so that I might not by any
+chance mislead him, so he said:--
+
+"I shall illustrate. Your friend and mine, Mr. Peter Hawkins, from under
+the shadow of your beautiful cathedral at Exeter, which is far from
+London, buys for me through your good self my place at London. Good! Now
+here let me say frankly, lest you should think it strange that I have
+sought the services of one so far off from London instead of some one
+resident there, that my motive was that no local interest might be
+served save my wish only; and as one of London residence might, perhaps,
+have some purpose of himself or friend to serve, I went thus afield to
+seek my agent, whose labours should be only to my interest. Now, suppose
+I, who have much of affairs, wish to ship goods, say, to Newcastle, or
+Durham, or Harwich, or Dover, might it not be that it could with more
+ease be done by consigning to one in these ports?" I answered that
+certainly it would be most easy, but that we solicitors had a system of
+agency one for the other, so that local work could be done locally on
+instruction from any solicitor, so that the client, simply placing
+himself in the hands of one man, could have his wishes carried out by
+him without further trouble.
+
+"But," said he, "I could be at liberty to direct myself. Is it not so?"
+
+"Of course," I replied; and "such is often done by men of business, who
+do not like the whole of their affairs to be known by any one person."
+
+"Good!" he said, and then went on to ask about the means of making
+consignments and the forms to be gone through, and of all sorts of
+difficulties which might arise, but by forethought could be guarded
+against. I explained all these things to him to the best of my ability,
+and he certainly left me under the impression that he would have made a
+wonderful solicitor, for there was nothing that he did not think of or
+foresee. For a man who was never in the country, and who did not
+evidently do much in the way of business, his knowledge and acumen were
+wonderful. When he had satisfied himself on these points of which he had
+spoken, and I had verified all as well as I could by the books
+available, he suddenly stood up and said:--
+
+"Have you written since your first letter to our friend Mr. Peter
+Hawkins, or to any other?" It was with some bitterness in my heart that
+I answered that I had not, that as yet I had not seen any opportunity of
+sending letters to anybody.
+
+"Then write now, my young friend," he said, laying a heavy hand on my
+shoulder: "write to our friend and to any other; and say, if it will
+please you, that you shall stay with me until a month from now."
+
+"Do you wish me to stay so long?" I asked, for my heart grew cold at the
+thought.
+
+"I desire it much; nay, I will take no refusal. When your master,
+employer, what you will, engaged that someone should come on his behalf,
+it was understood that my needs only were to be consulted. I have not
+stinted. Is it not so?"
+
+What could I do but bow acceptance? It was Mr. Hawkins's interest, not
+mine, and I had to think of him, not myself; and besides, while Count
+Dracula was speaking, there was that in his eyes and in his bearing
+which made me remember that I was a prisoner, and that if I wished it I
+could have no choice. The Count saw his victory in my bow, and his
+mastery in the trouble of my face, for he began at once to use them, but
+in his own smooth, resistless way:--
+
+"I pray you, my good young friend, that you will not discourse of things
+other than business in your letters. It will doubtless 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 of the thinnest foreign
+post, and looking at them, then at him, and noticing his quiet smile,
+with the sharp, canine teeth lying over the red underlip, I understood
+as well as if he had spoken that I should be careful what I wrote, for
+he would be able to read it. So I determined to write only formal notes
+now, but to write fully to Mr. Hawkins in secret, and also to Mina, for
+to her I could write in shorthand, which would puzzle the Count, if he
+did see it. When I had written my two letters I sat quiet, reading a
+book whilst the Count wrote several notes, referring as he wrote them to
+some books on his table. Then he took up my two and placed them with his
+own, and put by his writing materials, after which, the instant the door
+had closed behind him, I leaned over and looked at the letters, which
+were face down on the table. I felt no compunction in doing so, for
+under the circumstances I felt that I should protect myself in every way
+I could.
+
+One of the letters was directed to Samuel F. Billington, No. 7, The
+Crescent, Whitby, another to Herr Leutner, Varna; the third was to
+Coutts & Co., London, and the fourth to Herren Klopstock & Billreuth,
+bankers, Buda-Pesth. The second and fourth were unsealed. I was just
+about to look at them when I saw the door-handle move. I sank back in my
+seat, having just had time to replace the letters as they had been and
+to resume my book before the Count, holding still another letter in his
+hand, entered the room. He took up the letters on the table and stamped
+them carefully, and then turning to me, said:--
+
+"I trust you will forgive me, but I have much work to do in private this
+evening. You will, I hope, find all things as you wish." At the door he
+turned, and after a moment's pause said:--
+
+"Let me advise you, my dear young friend--nay, let me warn you with all
+seriousness, that should you leave these rooms you will not by any
+chance go to sleep in any other part of the castle. It is old, and has
+many memories, and there are bad dreams for those who sleep unwisely. Be
+warned! Should sleep now or ever overcome you, or be like to do, then
+haste to your own chamber or to these rooms, for your rest will then be
+safe. But if you be not careful in this respect, then"--He finished his
+speech in a gruesome way, for he motioned with his hands as if he were
+washing them. I quite understood; my only doubt was as to whether any
+dream could be more terrible than the unnatural, horrible net of gloom
+and mystery which seemed closing around me.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--I endorse the last words written, but this time there is no
+doubt in question. I shall not fear to sleep in any place where he is
+not. I have placed the crucifix over the head of my bed--I imagine that
+my rest is thus freer from dreams; and there it shall remain.
+
+When he left me I went to my room. After a little while, not hearing any
+sound, I came out and went up the stone stair to where I could look out
+towards the South. There was some sense of freedom in the vast expanse,
+inaccessible though it was to me, as compared with the narrow darkness
+of the courtyard. Looking out on this, I felt that I was indeed in
+prison, and I seemed to want a breath of fresh air, though it were of
+the night. I am beginning to feel this nocturnal existence tell on me.
+It is destroying my nerve. I start at my own shadow, and am full of all
+sorts of horrible imaginings. God knows that there is ground for my
+terrible fear in this accursed place! I looked out over the beautiful
+expanse, bathed in soft yellow moonlight till it was almost as light as
+day. In the soft light the distant hills became melted, and the shadows
+in the valleys and gorges of velvety blackness. The mere beauty seemed
+to cheer me; there was peace and comfort in every breath I drew. As I
+leaned from the window my eye was caught by something moving a storey
+below me, and somewhat to my left, where I imagined, from the order of
+the rooms, that the windows of the Count's own room would look out. The
+window at which I stood was tall and deep, stone-mullioned, and though
+weatherworn, was still complete; but it was evidently many a day since
+the case had been there. I drew back behind the stonework, and looked
+carefully out.
+
+What I saw was the Count's head coming out from the window. I did not
+see the face, but I knew the man by the neck and the movement of his
+back and arms. In any case I could not mistake the hands which I had had
+so many opportunities of studying. I was at first interested and
+somewhat amused, for it is wonderful how small a matter will interest
+and amuse a man when he is a prisoner. But my very feelings changed to
+repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the
+window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss,
+_face down_ with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings. At
+first I could not believe my eyes. I thought it was some trick of the
+moonlight, some weird effect of shadow; but I kept looking, and it could
+be no delusion. I saw the fingers and toes grasp the corners of the
+stones, worn clear of the mortar by the stress of years, and by thus
+using every projection and inequality move downwards with considerable
+speed, just as a lizard moves along a wall.
+
+What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature is it in the
+semblance of man? I feel the dread of this horrible place overpowering
+me; I am in fear--in awful fear--and there is no escape for me; I am
+encompassed about with terrors that I dare not think of....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_15 May._--Once more have I seen the Count go out in his lizard fashion.
+He moved downwards in a sidelong way, some hundred feet down, and a good
+deal to the left. He vanished into some hole or window. When his head
+had disappeared, I leaned out to try and see more, but without
+avail--the distance was too great to allow a proper angle of sight. I
+knew he had left the castle now, and thought to use the opportunity to
+explore more than I had dared to do as yet. I went back to the room, and
+taking a lamp, tried all the doors. They were all locked, as I had
+expected, and the locks were comparatively new; but I went down the
+stone stairs to the hall where I had entered originally. I found I could
+pull back the bolts easily enough and unhook the great chains; but the
+door was locked, and the key was gone! That key must be in the Count's
+room; I must watch should his door be unlocked, so that I may get it and
+escape. I went on to make a thorough examination of the various stairs
+and passages, and to try the doors that opened from them. One or two
+small rooms near the hall were open, but there was nothing to see in
+them except old furniture, dusty with age and moth-eaten. At last,
+however, I found one door at the top of the stairway which, though it
+seemed to be locked, gave a little under pressure. I tried it harder,
+and found that it was not really locked, but that the resistance came
+from the fact that the hinges had fallen somewhat, and the heavy door
+rested on the floor. Here was an opportunity which I might not have
+again, so I exerted myself, and with many efforts forced it back so that
+I could enter. I was now in a wing of the castle further to the right
+than the rooms I knew and a storey lower down. From the windows I could
+see that the suite of rooms lay along to the south of the castle, the
+windows of the end room looking out both west and south. On the latter
+side, as well as to the former, there was a great precipice. The castle
+was built on the corner of a great rock, so that on three sides it was
+quite impregnable, and great windows were placed here where sling, or
+bow, or culverin could not reach, and consequently light and comfort,
+impossible to a position which had to be guarded, were secured. To the
+west was a great valley, and then, rising far away, great jagged
+mountain fastnesses, rising peak on peak, the sheer rock studded with
+mountain ash and thorn, whose roots clung in cracks and crevices and
+crannies of the stone. This was evidently the portion of the castle
+occupied by the ladies in bygone days, for the furniture had more air of
+comfort than any I had seen. The windows were curtainless, and the
+yellow moonlight, flooding in through the diamond panes, enabled one to
+see even colours, whilst it softened the wealth of dust which lay over
+all and disguised in some measure the ravages of time and the moth. My
+lamp seemed to be of little effect in the brilliant moonlight, but I was
+glad to have it with me, for there was a dread loneliness in the place
+which chilled my heart and made my nerves tremble. Still, it was better
+than living alone in the rooms which I had come to hate from the
+presence of the Count, and after trying a little to school my nerves, I
+found a soft quietude come over me. Here I am, sitting at a little oak
+table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much
+thought and many blushes, her ill-spelt love-letter, and writing in my
+diary in shorthand all that has happened since I closed it last. It is
+nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance. And yet, unless my
+senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own
+which mere "modernity" cannot kill.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later: the Morning of 16 May._--God preserve my sanity, for to this I
+am reduced. Safety and the assurance of safety are things of the past.
+Whilst I live on here there is but one thing to hope for, that I may not
+go mad, if, indeed, I be not mad already. If I be sane, then surely it
+is maddening to think that of all the foul things that lurk in this
+hateful place the Count is the least dreadful to me; that to him alone I
+can look for safety, even though this be only whilst I can serve his
+purpose. Great God! merciful God! Let me be calm, for out of that way
+lies madness indeed. I begin to get new lights on certain things which
+have puzzled me. Up to now I never quite knew what Shakespeare meant
+when he made Hamlet say:--
+
+ "My tablets! quick, my tablets!
+ 'Tis meet that I put it down," etc.,
+
+for now, feeling as though my own brain were unhinged or as if the shock
+had come which must end in its undoing, I turn to my diary for repose.
+The habit of entering accurately must help to soothe me.
+
+The Count's mysterious warning frightened me at the time; it frightens
+me more now when I think of it, for in future he has a fearful hold upon
+me. I shall fear to doubt what he may say!
+
+When I had written in my diary and had fortunately replaced the book and
+pen in my pocket I felt sleepy. The Count's warning came into my mind,
+but I took a pleasure in disobeying it. The sense of sleep was upon me,
+and with it the obstinacy which sleep brings as outrider. The soft
+moonlight soothed, and the wide expanse without gave a sense of freedom
+which refreshed me. I determined not to return to-night to the
+gloom-haunted rooms, but to sleep here, where, of old, ladies had sat
+and sung and lived sweet lives whilst their gentle breasts were sad for
+their menfolk away in the midst of remorseless wars. I drew a great
+couch out of its place near the corner, so that as I lay, I could look
+at the lovely view to east and south, and unthinking of and uncaring for
+the dust, composed myself for sleep. I suppose I must have fallen
+asleep; I hope so, but I fear, for all that followed was startlingly
+real--so real that now sitting here in the broad, full sunlight of the
+morning, I cannot in the least believe that it was all sleep.
+
+I was not alone. The room was the same, unchanged in any way since I
+came into it; I could see along the floor, in the brilliant moonlight,
+my own footsteps marked where I had disturbed the long accumulation of
+dust. In the moonlight opposite me were three young women, ladies by
+their dress and manner. I thought at the time that I must be dreaming
+when I saw them, for, though the moonlight was behind them, they threw
+no shadow on the floor. They came close to me, and looked at me for some
+time, and then whispered together. Two were dark, and had high aquiline
+noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes that seemed to be
+almost red when contrasted with the pale yellow moon. The other was
+fair, as fair as can be, with great wavy masses of golden hair and eyes
+like pale sapphires. I seemed somehow to know her face, and to know it
+in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the
+moment how or where. All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like
+pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something
+about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some
+deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would
+kiss me with those red lips. It is not good to note this down, lest some
+day it should meet Mina's eyes and cause her pain; but it is the truth.
+They whispered together, and then they all three laughed--such a
+silvery, musical laugh, but as hard as though the sound never could have
+come through the softness of human lips. It was like the intolerable,
+tingling sweetness of water-glasses when played on by a cunning hand.
+The fair girl shook her head coquettishly, and the other two urged her
+on. One said:--
+
+"Go on! You are first, and we shall follow; yours is the right to
+begin." The other added:--
+
+"He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all." I lay quiet,
+looking out under my eyelashes in an agony of delightful anticipation.
+The fair girl advanced and bent over me till I could feel the movement
+of her breath upon me. Sweet it was in one sense, honey-sweet, and sent
+the same tingling through the nerves as her voice, but with a bitter
+underlying the sweet, a bitter offensiveness, as one smells in blood.
+
+I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw perfectly under
+the lashes. The girl went on her knees, and bent over me, simply
+gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling
+and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips
+like an animal, till I could see in the moonlight the moisture shining
+on the scarlet lips and on the red tongue as it lapped the white sharp
+teeth. Lower and lower went her head as the lips went below the range of
+my mouth and chin and seemed about to fasten on my throat. Then she
+paused, and I could hear the churning sound of her tongue as it licked
+her teeth and lips, and could feel the hot breath on my neck. Then the
+skin of my throat began to tingle as one's flesh does when the hand that
+is to tickle it approaches nearer--nearer. I could feel the soft,
+shivering touch of the lips on the super-sensitive skin of my throat,
+and the hard dents of two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there.
+I closed my eyes in a languorous ecstasy and waited--waited with beating
+heart.
+
+But at that instant, another sensation swept through me as quick as
+lightning. I was conscious of the presence of the Count, and of his
+being as if lapped in a storm of fury. As my eyes opened involuntarily I
+saw his strong hand grasp the slender neck of the fair woman and with
+giant's power draw it back, the blue eyes transformed with fury, the
+white teeth champing with rage, and the fair cheeks blazing red with
+passion. But the Count! Never did I imagine such wrath and fury, even to
+the demons of the pit. His eyes were positively blazing. The red light
+in them was lurid, as if the flames of hell-fire blazed behind them. His
+face was deathly pale, and the lines of it were hard like drawn wires;
+the thick eyebrows that met over the nose now seemed like a heaving bar
+of white-hot metal. With a fierce sweep of his arm, he hurled the woman
+from him, and then motioned to the others, as though he were beating
+them back; it was the same imperious gesture that I had seen used to the
+wolves. In a voice which, though low and almost in a whisper seemed to
+cut through the air and then ring round the room he said:--
+
+"How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when
+I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware
+how you meddle with him, or you'll have to deal with me." The fair girl,
+with a laugh of ribald coquetry, turned to answer him:--
+
+"You yourself never loved; you never love!" On this the other women
+joined, and such a mirthless, hard, soulless laughter rang through the
+room that it almost made me faint to hear; it seemed like the pleasure
+of fiends. Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively,
+and said in a soft whisper:--
+
+"Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it
+not so? Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him you shall
+kiss him at your will. Now go! go! I must awaken him, for there is work
+to be done."
+
+"Are we to have nothing to-night?" said one of them, with a low laugh,
+as she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor, and which
+moved as though there were some living thing within it. For answer he
+nodded his head. One of the women jumped forward and opened it. If my
+ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a
+half-smothered child. The women closed round, whilst I was aghast with
+horror; but as I looked they disappeared, and with them the dreadful
+bag. There was no door near them, and they could not have passed me
+without my noticing. They simply seemed to fade into the rays of the
+moonlight and pass out through the window, for I could see outside the
+dim, shadowy forms for a moment before they entirely faded away.
+
+Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL--_continued_
+
+
+I awoke in my own bed. If it be that I had not dreamt, the Count must
+have carried me here. I tried to satisfy myself on the subject, but
+could not arrive at any unquestionable result. To be sure, there were
+certain small evidences, such as that my clothes were folded and laid by
+in a manner which was not my habit. My watch was still unwound, and I am
+rigorously accustomed to wind it the last thing before going to bed, and
+many such details. But these things are no proof, for they may have been
+evidences that my mind was not as usual, and, from some cause or
+another, I had certainly been much upset. I must watch for proof. Of one
+thing I am glad: if it was that the Count carried me here and undressed
+me, he must have been hurried in his task, for my pockets are intact. I
+am sure this diary would have been a mystery to him which he would not
+have brooked. He would have taken or destroyed it. As I look round this
+room, although it has been to me so full of fear, it is now a sort of
+sanctuary, for nothing can be more dreadful than those awful women, who
+were--who _are_--waiting to suck my blood.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_18 May._--I have been down to look at that room again in daylight, for
+I _must_ know the truth. When I got to the doorway at the top of the
+stairs I found it closed. It had been so forcibly driven against the
+jamb that part of the woodwork was splintered. I could see that the bolt
+of the lock had not been shot, but the door is fastened from the inside.
+I fear it was no dream, and must act on this surmise.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_19 May._--I am surely in the toils. Last night the Count asked me in
+the suavest tones to write three letters, one saying that my work here
+was nearly done, and that I should start for home within a few days,
+another that I was starting on the next morning from the time of the
+letter, and the third that I had left the castle and arrived at
+Bistritz. I would fain have rebelled, but felt that in the present state
+of things it would be madness to quarrel openly with the Count whilst I
+am so absolutely in his power; and to refuse would be to excite his
+suspicion and to arouse his anger. He knows that I know too much, and
+that I must not live, lest I be dangerous to him; my only chance is to
+prolong my opportunities. Something may occur which will give me a
+chance to escape. I saw in his eyes something of that gathering wrath
+which was manifest when he hurled that fair woman from him. He explained
+to me that posts were few and uncertain, and that my writing now would
+ensure ease of mind to my friends; and he assured me with so much
+impressiveness that he would countermand the later letters, which would
+be held over at Bistritz until due time in case chance would admit of my
+prolonging my stay, that to oppose him would have been to create new
+suspicion. I therefore pretended to fall in with his views, and asked
+him what dates I should put on the letters. He calculated a minute, and
+then said:--
+
+"The first should be June 12, the second June 19, and the third June
+29."
+
+I know now the span of my life. God help me!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_28 May._--There is a chance of escape, or at any rate of being able to
+send word home. A band of Szgany have come to the castle, and are
+encamped in the courtyard. These Szgany are gipsies; I have notes of
+them in my book. They are peculiar to this part of the world, though
+allied to the ordinary gipsies all the world over. There are thousands
+of them in Hungary and Transylvania, who are almost outside all law.
+They attach themselves as a rule to some great noble or _boyar_, and
+call themselves by his name. They are fearless and without religion,
+save superstition, and they talk only their own varieties of the Romany
+tongue.
+
+I shall write some letters home, and shall try to get them to have them
+posted. I have already spoken them through my window to begin
+acquaintanceship. They took their hats off and made obeisance and many
+signs, which, however, I could not understand any more than I could
+their spoken language....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I have written the letters. Mina's is in shorthand, and I simply ask Mr.
+Hawkins to communicate with her. To her I have explained my situation,
+but without the horrors which I may only surmise. It would shock and
+frighten her to death were I to expose my heart to her. Should the
+letters not carry, then the Count shall not yet know my secret or the
+extent of my knowledge....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I have given the letters; I threw them through the bars of my window
+with a gold piece, and made what signs I could to have them posted. The
+man who took them pressed them to his heart and bowed, and then put them
+in his cap. I could do no more. I stole back to the study, and began to
+read. As the Count did not come in, I have written here....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Count has come. He sat down beside me, and said in his smoothest
+voice as he opened two letters:--
+
+"The Szgany has given me these, of which, though I know not whence they
+come, I shall, of course, take care. See!"--he must have looked at
+it--"one is from you, and to my friend Peter Hawkins; the other"--here
+he caught sight of the strange symbols as he opened the envelope, and
+the dark look came into his face, and his eyes blazed wickedly--"the
+other is a vile thing, an outrage upon friendship and hospitality! It is
+not signed. Well! so it cannot matter to us." And he calmly held letter
+and envelope in the flame of the lamp till they were consumed. Then he
+went on:--
+
+"The letter to Hawkins--that I shall, of course, send on, since it is
+yours. Your letters are sacred to me. Your pardon, my friend, that
+unknowingly I did break the seal. Will you not cover it again?" He held
+out the letter to me, and with a courteous bow handed me a clean
+envelope. I could only redirect it and hand it to him in silence. When
+he went out of the room I could hear the key turn softly. A minute later
+I went over and tried it, and the door was locked.
+
+When, an hour or two after, the Count came quietly into the room, his
+coming awakened me, for I had gone to sleep on the sofa. He was very
+courteous and very cheery in his manner, and seeing that I had been
+sleeping, he said:--
+
+"So, my friend, you are tired? Get to bed. There is the surest rest. I
+may not have the pleasure to talk to-night, since there are many labours
+to me; but you will sleep, I pray." I passed to my room and went to bed,
+and, strange to say, slept without dreaming. Despair has its own calms.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_31 May._--This morning when I woke I thought I would provide myself
+with some paper and envelopes from my bag and keep them in my pocket, so
+that I might write in case I should get an opportunity, but again a
+surprise, again a shock!
+
+Every scrap of paper was gone, and with it all my notes, my memoranda,
+relating to railways and travel, my letter of credit, in fact all that
+might be useful to me were I once outside the castle. I sat and pondered
+awhile, and then some thought occurred to me, and I made search of my
+portmanteau and in the wardrobe where I had placed my clothes.
+
+The suit in which I had travelled was gone, and also my overcoat and
+rug; I could find no trace of them anywhere. This looked like some new
+scheme of villainy....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_17 June._--This morning, as I was sitting on the edge of my bed
+cudgelling my brains, I heard without a cracking of whips and pounding
+and scraping of horses' feet up the rocky path beyond the courtyard.
+With joy I hurried to the window, and saw drive into the yard two great
+leiter-wagons, each drawn by eight sturdy horses, and at the head of
+each pair a Slovak, with his wide hat, great nail-studded belt, dirty
+sheepskin, and high boots. They had also their long staves in hand. I
+ran to the door, intending to descend and try and join them through the
+main hall, as I thought that way might be opened for them. Again a
+shock: my door was fastened on the outside.
+
+Then I ran to the window and cried to them. They looked up at me
+stupidly and pointed, but just then the "hetman" of the Szgany came out,
+and seeing them pointing to my window, said something, at which they
+laughed. Henceforth no effort of mine, no piteous cry or agonised
+entreaty, would make them even look at me. They resolutely turned away.
+The leiter-wagons contained great, square boxes, with handles of thick
+rope; these were evidently empty by the ease with which the Slovaks
+handled them, and by their resonance as they were roughly moved. When
+they were all unloaded and packed in a great heap in one corner of the
+yard, the Slovaks were given some money by the Szgany, and spitting on
+it for luck, lazily went each to his horse's head. Shortly afterwards, I
+heard the cracking of their whips die away in the distance.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_24 June, before morning._--Last night the Count left me early, and
+locked himself into his own room. As soon as I dared I ran up the
+winding stair, and looked out of the window, which opened south. I
+thought I would watch for the Count, for there is something going on.
+The Szgany are quartered somewhere in the castle and are doing work of
+some kind. I know it, for now and then I hear a far-away muffled sound
+as of mattock and spade, and, whatever it is, it must be the end of some
+ruthless villainy.
+
+I had been at the window somewhat less than half an hour, when I saw
+something coming out of the Count's window. I drew back and watched
+carefully, and saw the whole man emerge. It was a new shock to me to
+find that he had on the suit of clothes which I had worn whilst
+travelling here, and slung over his shoulder the terrible bag which I
+had seen the women take away. There could be no doubt as to his quest,
+and in my garb, too! This, then, is his new scheme of evil: that he will
+allow others to see me, as they think, so that he may both leave
+evidence that I have been seen in the towns or villages posting my own
+letters, and that any wickedness which he may do shall by the local
+people be attributed to me.
+
+It makes me rage to think that this can go on, and whilst I am shut up
+here, a veritable prisoner, but without that protection of the law which
+is even a criminal's right and consolation.
+
+I thought I would watch for the Count's return, and for a long time sat
+doggedly at the window. Then I began to notice that there were some
+quaint little specks floating in the rays of the moonlight. They were
+like the tiniest grains of dust, and they whirled round and gathered in
+clusters in a nebulous sort of way. I watched them with a sense of
+soothing, and a sort of calm stole over me. I leaned back in the
+embrasure in a more comfortable position, so that I could enjoy more
+fully the aërial gambolling.
+
+Something made me start up, a low, piteous howling of dogs somewhere far
+below in the valley, which was hidden from my sight. Louder it seemed to
+ring in my ears, and the floating motes of dust to take new shapes to
+the sound as they danced in the moonlight. I felt myself struggling to
+awake to some call of my instincts; nay, my very soul was struggling,
+and my half-remembered sensibilities were striving to answer the call. I
+was becoming hypnotised! Quicker and quicker danced the dust; the
+moonbeams seemed to quiver as they went by me into the mass of gloom
+beyond. More and more they gathered till they seemed to take dim phantom
+shapes. And then I started, broad awake and in full possession of my
+senses, and ran screaming from the place. The phantom shapes, which were
+becoming gradually materialised from the moonbeams, were those of the
+three ghostly women to whom I was doomed. I fled, and felt somewhat
+safer in my own room, where there was no moonlight and where the lamp
+was burning brightly.
+
+When a couple of hours had passed I heard something stirring in the
+Count's room, something like a sharp wail quickly suppressed; and then
+there was silence, deep, awful silence, which chilled me. With a
+beating heart, I tried the door; but I was locked in my prison, and
+could do nothing. I sat down and simply cried.
+
+As I sat I heard a sound in the courtyard without--the agonised cry of a
+woman. I rushed to the window, and throwing it up, peered out between
+the bars. There, indeed, was a woman with dishevelled hair, holding her
+hands over her heart as one distressed with running. She was leaning
+against a corner of the gateway. When she saw my face at the window she
+threw herself forward, and shouted in a voice laden with menace:--
+
+"Monster, give me my child!"
+
+She threw herself on her knees, and raising up her hands, cried the same
+words in tones which wrung my heart. Then she tore her hair and beat her
+breast, and abandoned herself to all the violences of extravagant
+emotion. Finally, she threw herself forward, and, though I could not see
+her, I could hear the beating of her naked hands against the door.
+
+Somewhere high overhead, probably on the tower, I heard the voice of the
+Count calling in his harsh, metallic whisper. His call seemed to be
+answered from far and wide by the howling of wolves. Before many minutes
+had passed a pack of them poured, like a pent-up dam when liberated,
+through the wide entrance into the courtyard.
+
+There was no cry from the woman, and the howling of the wolves was but
+short. Before long they streamed away singly, licking their lips.
+
+I could not pity her, for I knew now what had become of her child, and
+she was better dead.
+
+What shall I do? what can I do? How can I escape from this dreadful
+thing of night and gloom and fear?
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_25 June, morning._--No man knows till he has suffered from the night
+how sweet and how dear to his heart and eye the morning can be. When the
+sun grew so high this morning that it struck the top of the great
+gateway opposite my window, the high spot which it touched seemed to me
+as if the dove from the ark had lighted there. My fear fell from me as
+if it had been a vaporous garment which dissolved in the warmth. I must
+take action of some sort whilst the courage of the day is upon me. Last
+night one of my post-dated letters went to post, the first of that fatal
+series which is to blot out the very traces of my existence from the
+earth.
+
+Let me not think of it. Action!
+
+It has always been at night-time that I have been molested or
+threatened, or in some way in danger or in fear. I have not yet seen the
+Count in the daylight. Can it be that he sleeps when others wake, that
+he may be awake whilst they sleep? If I could only get into his room!
+But there is no possible way. The door is always locked, no way for me.
+
+Yes, there is a way, if one dares to take it. Where his body has gone
+why may not another body go? I have seen him myself crawl from his
+window. Why should not I imitate him, and go in by his window? The
+chances are desperate, but my need is more desperate still. I shall risk
+it. At the worst it can only be death; and a man's death is not a
+calf's, and the dreaded Hereafter may still be open to me. God help me
+in my task! Good-bye, Mina, if I fail; good-bye, my faithful friend and
+second father; good-bye, all, and last of all Mina!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Same day, later._--I have made the effort, and God, helping me, have
+come safely back to this room. I must put down every detail in order. I
+went whilst my courage was fresh straight to the window on the south
+side, and at once got outside on the narrow ledge of stone which runs
+around the building on this side. The stones are big and roughly cut,
+and the mortar has by process of time been washed away between them. I
+took off my boots, and ventured out on the desperate way. I looked down
+once, so as to make sure that a sudden glimpse of the awful depth would
+not overcome me, but after that kept my eyes away from it. I knew pretty
+well the direction and distance of the Count's window, and made for it
+as well as I could, having regard to the opportunities available. I did
+not feel dizzy--I suppose I was too excited--and the time seemed
+ridiculously short till I found myself standing on the window-sill and
+trying to raise up the sash. I was filled with agitation, however, when
+I bent down and slid feet foremost in through the window. Then I looked
+around for the Count, but, with surprise and gladness, made a discovery.
+The room was empty! It was barely furnished with odd things, which
+seemed to have never been used; the furniture was something the same
+style as that in the south rooms, and was covered with dust. I looked
+for the key, but it was not in the lock, and I could not find it
+anywhere. The only thing I found was a great heap of gold in one
+corner--gold of all kinds, Roman, and British, and Austrian, and
+Hungarian, and Greek and Turkish money, covered with a film of dust, as
+though it had lain long in the ground. None of it that I noticed was
+less than three hundred years old. There were also chains and ornaments,
+some jewelled, but all of them old and stained.
+
+At one corner of the room was a heavy door. I tried it, for, since I
+could not find the key of the room or the key of the outer door, which
+was the main object of my search, I must make further examination, or
+all my efforts would be in vain. It was open, and led through a stone
+passage to a circular stairway, which went steeply down. I descended,
+minding carefully where I went, for the stairs were dark, being only lit
+by loopholes in the heavy masonry. At the bottom there was a dark,
+tunnel-like passage, through which came a deathly, sickly odour, the
+odour of old earth newly turned. As I went through the passage the smell
+grew closer and heavier. At last I pulled open a heavy door which stood
+ajar, and found myself in an old, ruined chapel, which had evidently
+been used as a graveyard. The roof was broken, and in two places were
+steps leading to vaults, but the ground had recently been dug over, and
+the earth placed in great wooden boxes, manifestly those which had been
+brought by the Slovaks. There was nobody about, and I made search for
+any further outlet, but there was none. Then I went over every inch of
+the ground, so as not to lose a chance. I went down even into the
+vaults, where the dim light struggled, although to do so was a dread to
+my very soul. Into two of these I went, but saw nothing except fragments
+of old coffins and piles of dust; in the third, however, I made a
+discovery.
+
+There, in one of the great boxes, of which there were fifty in all, on a
+pile of newly dug earth, lay the Count! He was either dead or asleep, I
+could not say which--for the eyes were open and stony, but without the
+glassiness of death--and the cheeks had the warmth of life through all
+their pallor; the lips were as red as ever. But there was no sign of
+movement, no pulse, no breath, no beating of the heart. I bent over him,
+and tried to find any sign of life, but in vain. He could not have lain
+there long, for the earthy smell would have passed away in a few hours.
+By the side of the box was its cover, pierced with holes here and there.
+I thought he might have the keys on him, but when I went to search I saw
+the dead eyes, and in them, dead though they were, such a look of hate,
+though unconscious of me or my presence, that I fled from the place, and
+leaving the Count's room by the window, crawled again up the castle
+wall. Regaining my room, I threw myself panting upon the bed and tried
+to think....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_29 June._--To-day is the date of my last letter, and the Count has
+taken steps to prove that it was genuine, for again I saw him leave the
+castle by the same window, and in my clothes. As he went down the wall,
+lizard fashion, I wished I had a gun or some lethal weapon, that I might
+destroy him; but I fear that no weapon wrought alone by man's hand would
+have any effect on him. I dared not wait to see him return, for I feared
+to see those weird sisters. I came back to the library, and read there
+till I fell asleep.
+
+I was awakened by the Count, who looked at me as grimly as a man can
+look as he said:--
+
+"To-morrow, my friend, we must part. You return to your beautiful
+England, I to some work which may have such an end that we may never
+meet. Your letter home has been despatched; to-morrow I shall not be
+here, but all shall be ready for your journey. In the morning come the
+Szgany, who have some labours of their own here, and also come some
+Slovaks. When they have gone, my carriage shall come for you, and shall
+bear you to the Borgo Pass to meet the diligence from Bukovina to
+Bistritz. But I am in hopes that I shall see more of you at Castle
+Dracula." I suspected him, and determined to test his sincerity.
+Sincerity! It seems like a profanation of the word to write it in
+connection with such a monster, so asked him point-blank:--
+
+"Why may I not go to-night?"
+
+"Because, dear sir, my coachman and horses are away on a mission."
+
+"But I would walk with pleasure. I want to get away at once." He smiled,
+such a soft, smooth, diabolical smile that I knew there was some trick
+behind his smoothness. He said:--
+
+"And your baggage?"
+
+"I do not care about it. I can send for it some other time."
+
+The Count stood up, and said, with a sweet courtesy which made me rub my
+eyes, it seemed so real:--
+
+"You English have a saying which is close to my heart, for its spirit is
+that which rules our _boyars_: 'Welcome the coming; speed the parting
+guest.' Come with me, my dear young friend. Not an hour shall you wait
+in my house against your will, though sad am I at your going, and that
+you so suddenly desire it. Come!" With a stately gravity, he, with the
+lamp, preceded me down the stairs and along the hall. Suddenly he
+stopped.
+
+"Hark!"
+
+Close at hand came the howling of many wolves. It was almost as if the
+sound sprang up at the rising of his hand, just as the music of a great
+orchestra seems to leap under the bâton of the conductor. After a pause
+of a moment, he proceeded, in his stately way, to the door, drew back
+the ponderous bolts, unhooked the heavy chains, and began to draw it
+open.
+
+To my intense astonishment I saw that it was unlocked. Suspiciously, I
+looked all round, but could see no key of any kind.
+
+As the door began to open, the howling of the wolves without grew louder
+and angrier; their red jaws, with champing teeth, and their blunt-clawed
+feet as they leaped, came in through the opening door. I knew then that
+to struggle at the moment against the Count was useless. With such
+allies as these at his command, I could do nothing. But still the door
+continued slowly to open, and only the Count's body stood in the gap.
+Suddenly it struck me that this might be the moment and means of my
+doom; I was to be given to the wolves, and at my own instigation. There
+was a diabolical wickedness in the idea great enough for the Count, and
+as a last chance I cried out:--
+
+"Shut the door; I shall wait till morning!" and covered my face with my
+hands to hide my tears of bitter disappointment. With one sweep of his
+powerful arm, the Count threw the door shut, and the great bolts clanged
+and echoed through the hall as they shot back into their places.
+
+In silence we returned to the library, and after a minute or two I went
+to my own room. The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand
+to me; with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that
+Judas in hell might be proud of.
+
+When I was in my room and about to lie down, I thought I heard a
+whispering at my door. I went to it softly and listened. Unless my ears
+deceived me, I heard the voice of the Count:--
+
+"Back, back, to your own place! Your time is not yet come. Wait! Have
+patience! To-night is mine. To-morrow night is yours!" There was a low,
+sweet ripple of laughter, and in a rage I threw open the door, and saw
+without the three terrible women licking their lips. As I appeared they
+all joined in a horrible laugh, and ran away.
+
+I came back to my room and threw myself on my knees. It is then so near
+the end? To-morrow! to-morrow! Lord, help me, and those to whom I am
+dear!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_30 June, morning._--These may be the last words I ever write in this
+diary. I slept till just before the dawn, and when I woke threw myself
+on my knees, for I determined that if Death came he should find me
+ready.
+
+At last I felt that subtle change in the air, and knew that the morning
+had come. Then came the welcome cock-crow, and I felt that I was safe.
+With a glad heart, I opened my door and ran down to the hall. I had seen
+that the door was unlocked, and now escape was before me. With hands
+that trembled with eagerness, I unhooked the chains and drew back the
+massive bolts.
+
+But the door would not move. Despair seized me. I pulled, and pulled, at
+the door, and shook it till, massive as it was, it rattled in its
+casement. I could see the bolt shot. It had been locked after I left the
+Count.
+
+Then a wild desire took me to obtain that key at any risk, and I
+determined then and there to scale the wall again and gain the Count's
+room. He might kill me, but death now seemed the happier choice of
+evils. Without a pause I rushed up to the east window, and scrambled
+down the wall, as before, into the Count's room. It was empty, but that
+was as I expected. I could not see a key anywhere, but the heap of gold
+remained. I went through the door in the corner and down the winding
+stair and along the dark passage to the old chapel. I knew now well
+enough where to find the monster I sought.
+
+The great box was in the same place, close against the wall, but the lid
+was laid on it, not fastened down, but with the nails ready in their
+places to be hammered home. I knew I must reach the body for the key, so
+I raised the lid, and laid it back against the wall; and then I saw
+something which filled my very soul with horror. There lay the Count,
+but looking as if his youth had been half renewed, for the white hair
+and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey; the cheeks were fuller,
+and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than
+ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the
+corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck. Even the deep,
+burning eyes seemed set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches
+underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were
+simply gorged with blood. He lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his
+repletion. I shuddered as I bent over to touch him, and every sense in
+me revolted at the contact; but I had to search, or I was lost. The
+coming night might see my own body a banquet in a similar way to those
+horrid three. I felt all over the body, but no sign could I find of the
+key. Then I stopped and looked at the Count. There was a mocking smile
+on the bloated face which seemed to drive me mad. This was the being I
+was helping to transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come
+he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and
+create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the
+helpless. The very thought drove me mad. A terrible desire came upon me
+to rid the world of such a monster. There was no lethal weapon at hand,
+but I seized a shovel which the workmen had been using to fill the
+cases, and lifting it high, struck, with the edge downward, at the
+hateful face. But as I did so the head turned, and the eyes fell full
+upon me, with all their blaze of basilisk horror. The sight seemed to
+paralyse me, and the shovel turned in my hand and glanced from the face,
+merely making a deep gash above the forehead. The shovel fell from my
+hand across the box, and as I pulled it away the flange of the blade
+caught the edge of the lid which fell over again, and hid the horrid
+thing from my sight. The last glimpse I had was of the bloated face,
+blood-stained and fixed with a grin of malice which would have held its
+own in the nethermost hell.
+
+I thought and thought what should be my next move, but my brain seemed
+on fire, and I waited with a despairing feeling growing over me. As I
+waited I heard in the distance a gipsy song sung by merry voices coming
+closer, and through their song the rolling of heavy wheels and the
+cracking of whips; the Szgany and the Slovaks of whom the Count had
+spoken were coming. With a last look around and at the box which
+contained the vile body, I ran from the place and gained the Count's
+room, determined to rush out at the moment the door should be opened.
+With strained ears, I listened, and heard downstairs the grinding of the
+key in the great lock and the falling back of the heavy door. There must
+have been some other means of entry, or some one had a key for one of
+the locked doors. Then there came the sound of many feet tramping and
+dying away in some passage which sent up a clanging echo. I turned to
+run down again towards the vault, where I might find the new entrance;
+but at the moment there seemed to come a violent puff of wind, and the
+door to the winding stair blew to with a shock that set the dust from
+the lintels flying. When I ran to push it open, I found that it was
+hopelessly fast. I was again a prisoner, and the net of doom was closing
+round me more closely.
+
+As I write there is in the passage below a sound of many tramping feet
+and the crash of weights being set down heavily, doubtless the boxes,
+with their freight of earth. There is a sound of hammering; it is the
+box being nailed down. Now I can hear the heavy feet tramping again
+along the hall, with many other idle feet coming behind them.
+
+The door is shut, and the chains rattle; there is a grinding of the key
+in the lock; I can hear the key withdraw: 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 awful 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 this 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 these monsters, and the
+precipice is steep and high. At its foot a man may sleep--as a man.
+Good-bye, all! Mina!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+_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 practising 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 practising 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 so 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. Good-bye.
+
+"Your loving
+
+"MINA.
+
+"Tell me all the news when you write. You have not told me anything for
+a long time. I hear rumours, and especially of a tall, handsome,
+curly-haired man???"
+
+
+_Letter, Lucy Westenra to Mina Murray_.
+
+"_17, Chatham Street_,
+
+"_Wednesday_.
+
+"My dearest Mina,--
+
+"I must say you tax me _very_ unfairly with being a bad correspondent. I
+wrote to you _twice_ since we parted, and your last letter was only your
+_second_. Besides, I have nothing to tell you. There is really nothing
+to interest you. Town is very pleasant just now, and we go a good deal
+to picture-galleries and for walks and rides in the park. As to the
+tall, curly-haired man, I suppose it was the one who was with me at the
+last Pop. Some one has evidently been telling tales. That was Mr.
+Holmwood. He often comes to see us, and he and mamma get on very well
+together; they have so many things to talk about in common. We met some
+time ago a man that would just _do for you_, if you were not already
+engaged to Jonathan. He is an excellent _parti_, being handsome, well
+off, and of good birth. He is a doctor and really clever. Just fancy! He
+is only nine-and-twenty, and he has an immense lunatic asylum all under
+his own care. Mr. Holmwood introduced him to me, and he called here to
+see us, and often comes now. I think he is one of the most resolute men
+I ever saw, and yet the most calm. He seems absolutely imperturbable. I
+can fancy what a wonderful power he must have over his patients. He has
+a curious habit of looking one straight in the face, as if trying to
+read one's thoughts. He tries this on very much with me, but I flatter
+myself he has got a tough nut to crack. I know that from my glass. Do
+you ever try to read your own face? _I do_, and I can tell you it is not
+a bad study, and gives you more trouble than you can well fancy if you
+have never tried it. He says that I afford him a curious psychological
+study, and I humbly think I do. I do not, as you know, take sufficient
+interest in dress to be able to describe the new fashions. Dress is a
+bore. That is slang again, but never mind; Arthur says that every day.
+There, it is all out. Mina, we have told all our secrets to each other
+since we were _children_; we have slept together and eaten together, and
+laughed and cried together; and now, though I have spoken, I would like
+to speak more. Oh, Mina, couldn't you guess? I love him. I am blushing
+as I write, for although I _think_ he loves me, he has not told me so in
+words. But oh, Mina, I love him; I love him; I love him! There, that
+does me good. I wish I were with you, dear, sitting by the fire
+undressing, as we used to sit; and I would try to tell you what I feel.
+I do not know how I am writing this even to you. I am afraid to stop,
+or I should tear up the letter, and I don't want to stop, for I _do_ so
+want to tell you all. Let me hear from you _at once_, and tell me all
+that you think about it. Mina, I must stop. Good-night. Bless me in your
+prayers; and, Mina, pray for my happiness.
+
+"LUCY.
+
+"P.S.--I need not tell you this is a secret. Good-night again.
+
+"L."
+
+_Letter, Lucy Westenra to Mina Murray_.
+
+"_24 May_.
+
+"My dearest Mina,--
+
+"Thanks, and thanks, and thanks again for your sweet letter. It was so
+nice to be able to tell you and to have your sympathy.
+
+"My dear, it never rains but it pours. How true the old proverbs are.
+Here am I, who shall be twenty in September, and yet I never had a
+proposal till to-day, not a real proposal, and to-day I have had three.
+Just fancy! THREE proposals in one day! Isn't it awful! I feel sorry,
+really and truly sorry, for two of the poor fellows. Oh, Mina, I am so
+happy that I don't know what to do with myself. And three proposals!
+But, for goodness' sake, don't tell any of the girls, or they would be
+getting all sorts of extravagant ideas and imagining themselves injured
+and slighted if in their very first day at home they did not get six at
+least. Some girls are so vain! You and I, Mina dear, who are engaged and
+are going to settle down soon soberly into old married women, can
+despise vanity. Well, I must tell you about the three, but you must keep
+it a secret, dear, from _every one_, except, of course, Jonathan. You
+will tell him, because I would, if I were in your place, certainly tell
+Arthur. A woman ought to tell her husband everything--don't you think
+so, dear?--and I must be fair. Men like women, certainly their wives, to
+be quite as fair as they are; and women, I am afraid, are not always
+quite as fair as they should be. Well, my dear, number One came just
+before lunch. I told you of him, Dr. John Seward, the lunatic-asylum
+man, with the strong jaw and the good forehead. He was very cool
+outwardly, but was nervous all the same. He had evidently been schooling
+himself as to all sorts of little things, and remembered them; but he
+almost managed to sit down on his silk hat, which men don't generally do
+when they are cool, and then when he wanted to appear at ease he kept
+playing with a lancet in a way that made me nearly scream. He spoke to
+me, Mina, very straightforwardly. He told me how dear I was to him,
+though he had known me so little, and what his life would be with me to
+help and cheer him. He was going to tell me how unhappy he would be if I
+did not care for him, but when he saw me cry he said that he was a brute
+and would not add to my present trouble. Then he broke off and asked if
+I could love him in time; and when I shook my head his hands trembled,
+and then with some hesitation he asked me if I cared already for any one
+else. He put it very nicely, saying that he did not want to wring my
+confidence from me, but only to know, because if a woman's heart was
+free a man might have hope. And then, Mina, I felt a sort of duty to
+tell him that there was some one. I only told him that much, and then he
+stood up, and he looked very strong and very grave as he took both my
+hands in his and said he hoped I would be happy, and that if I ever
+wanted a friend I must count him one of my best. Oh, Mina dear, I can't
+help crying: and you must excuse this letter being all blotted. Being
+proposed to is all very nice and all that sort of thing, but it isn't at
+all a happy thing when you have to see a poor fellow, whom you know
+loves you honestly, going away and looking all broken-hearted, and to
+know that, no matter what he may say at the moment, you are passing
+quite out of his life. My dear, I must stop here at present, I feel so
+miserable, though I am so happy.
+
+"_Evening._
+
+"Arthur has just gone, and I feel in better spirits than when I left
+off, so I can go on telling you about the day. Well, my dear, number Two
+came after lunch. He is such a nice fellow, an American from Texas, and
+he looks so young and so fresh that it seems almost impossible that he
+has been to so many places and has had such adventures. I sympathise
+with poor Desdemona when she had such a dangerous stream poured in her
+ear, even by a black man. I suppose that we women are such cowards that
+we think a man will save us from fears, and we marry him. I know now
+what I would do if I were a man and wanted to make a girl love me. No, I
+don't, for there was Mr. Morris telling us his stories, and Arthur never
+told any, and yet---- My dear, I am somewhat previous. Mr. Quincey P.
+Morris found me alone. It seems that a man always does find a girl
+alone. No, he doesn't, for Arthur tried twice to _make_ a chance, and I
+helping him all I could; I am not ashamed to say it now. I must tell you
+beforehand that Mr. Morris doesn't always speak slang--that is to say,
+he never does so to strangers or before them, for he is really well
+educated and has exquisite manners--but he found out that it amused me
+to hear him talk American slang, and whenever I was present, and there
+was no one to be shocked, he said such funny things. I am afraid, my
+dear, he has to invent it all, for it fits exactly into whatever else he
+has to say. But this is a way slang has. I do not know myself if I shall
+ever speak slang; I do not know if Arthur likes it, as I have never
+heard him use any as yet. Well, Mr. Morris sat down beside me and looked
+as happy and jolly as he could, but I could see all the same that he was
+very nervous. He took my hand in his, and said ever so sweetly:--
+
+"'Miss Lucy, I know I ain't good enough to regulate the fixin's of your
+little shoes, but I guess if you wait till you find a man that is you
+will go join them seven young women with the lamps when you quit. Won't
+you just hitch up alongside of me and let us go down the long road
+together, driving in double harness?'
+
+"Well, he did look so good-humoured and so jolly that it didn't seem
+half so hard to refuse him as it did poor Dr. Seward; so I said, as
+lightly as I could, that I did not know anything of hitching, and that I
+wasn't broken to harness at all yet. Then he said that he had spoken in
+a light manner, and he hoped that if he had made a mistake in doing so
+on so grave, so momentous, an occasion for him, I would forgive him. He
+really did look serious when he was saying it, and I couldn't help
+feeling a bit serious too--I know, Mina, you will think me a horrid
+flirt--though I couldn't help feeling a sort of exultation that he was
+number two in one day. And then, my dear, before I could say a word he
+began pouring out a perfect torrent of love-making, laying his very
+heart and soul at my feet. He looked so earnest over it that I shall
+never again think that a man must be playful always, and never earnest,
+because he is merry at times. I suppose he saw something in my face
+which checked him, for he suddenly stopped, and said with a sort of
+manly fervour that I could have loved him for if I had been free:--
+
+"'Lucy, you are an honest-hearted girl, I know. I should not be here
+speaking to you as I am now if I did not believe you clean grit, right
+through to the very depths of your soul. Tell me, like one good fellow
+to another, is there any one else that you care for? And if there is
+I'll never trouble you a hair's breadth again, but will be, if you will
+let me, a very faithful friend.'
+
+"My dear Mina, why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy
+of them? Here was I almost making fun of this great-hearted, true
+gentleman. I burst into tears--I am afraid, my dear, you will think
+this a very sloppy letter in more ways than one--and I really felt very
+badly. Why can't they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want
+her, and save all this trouble? But this is heresy, and I must not say
+it. I am glad to say that, though I was crying, I was able to look into
+Mr. Morris's brave eyes, and I told him out straight:--
+
+"'Yes, there is some one I love, though he has not told me yet that he
+even loves me.' I was right to speak to him so frankly, for quite a
+light came into his face, and he put out both his hands and took mine--I
+think I put them into his--and said in a hearty way:--
+
+"'That's my brave girl. It's better worth being late for a chance of
+winning you than being in time for any other girl in the world. Don't
+cry, my dear. If it's for me, I'm a hard nut to crack; and I take it
+standing up. If that other fellow doesn't know his happiness, well, he'd
+better look for it soon, or he'll have to deal with me. Little girl,
+your honesty and pluck have made me a friend, and that's rarer than a
+lover; it's more unselfish anyhow. My dear, I'm going to have a pretty
+lonely walk between this and Kingdom Come. Won't you give me one kiss?
+It'll be something to keep off the darkness now and then. You can, you
+know, if you like, for that other good fellow--he must be a good fellow,
+my dear, and a fine fellow, or you could not love him--hasn't spoken
+yet.' That quite won me, Mina, for it _was_ brave and sweet of him, and
+noble, too, to a rival--wasn't it?--and he so sad; so I leant over and
+kissed him. He stood up with my two hands in his, and as he looked down
+into my face--I am afraid I was blushing very much--he said:--
+
+"'Little girl, I hold your hand, and you've kissed me, and if these
+things don't make us friends nothing ever will. Thank you for your sweet
+honesty to me, and good-bye.' He wrung my hand, and taking up his hat,
+went straight out of the room without looking back, without a tear or a
+quiver or a pause; and I am crying like a baby. Oh, why must a man like
+that be made unhappy when there are lots of girls about who would
+worship the very ground he trod on? I know I would if I were free--only
+I don't want to be free. My dear, this quite upset me, and I feel I
+cannot write of happiness just at once, after telling you of it; and I
+don't wish to tell of the number three until it can be all happy.
+
+"Ever your loving
+
+"LUCY.
+
+"P.S.--Oh, about number Three--I needn't tell you of number Three, need
+I? Besides, it was all so confused; it seemed only a moment from his
+coming into the room till both his arms were round me, and he was
+kissing me. I am very, very happy, and I don't know what I have done to
+deserve it. I must only try in the future to show that I am not
+ungrateful to God for all His goodness to me in sending to me such a
+lover, such a husband, and such a friend.
+
+"Good-bye."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+(Kept in phonograph)
+
+_25 May._--Ebb tide in appetite to-day. Cannot eat, cannot rest, so
+diary instead. Since my rebuff of yesterday I have a sort of empty
+feeling; nothing in the world seems of sufficient importance to be worth
+the doing.... As I knew that the only cure for this sort of thing was
+work, I went down amongst the patients. I picked out one who has
+afforded me a study of much interest. He is so quaint that I am
+determined to understand him as well as I can. To-day I seemed to get
+nearer than ever before to the heart of his mystery.
+
+I questioned him more fully than I had ever done, with a view to making
+myself master of the facts of his hallucination. In my manner of doing
+it there was, I now see, something of cruelty. I seemed to wish to keep
+him to the point of his madness--a thing which I avoid with the patients
+as I would the mouth of hell.
+
+(_Mem._, under what circumstances would I _not_ avoid the pit of hell?)
+_Omnia Romæ venalia sunt._ Hell has its price! _verb. sap._ If there be
+anything behind this instinct it will be valuable to trace it afterwards
+_accurately_, so I had better commence to do so, therefore--
+
+R. M. Renfield, ætat 59.--Sanguine temperament; great physical strength;
+morbidly excitable; periods of gloom, ending in some fixed idea which I
+cannot make out. I presume that the sanguine temperament itself and the
+disturbing influence end in a mentally-accomplished finish; a possibly
+dangerous man, probably dangerous if unselfish. In selfish men caution
+is as secure an armour for their foes as for themselves. What I think of
+on this point is, when self is the fixed point the centripetal force is
+balanced with the centrifugal; when duty, a cause, etc., is the fixed
+point, the latter force is paramount, and only accident or a series of
+accidents can balance it.
+
+
+_Letter, Quincey P. Morris to Hon. Arthur Holmwood._
+
+"_25 May._
+
+"My dear Art,--
+
+"We've told yarns by the camp-fire in the prairies; and dressed one
+another's wounds after trying a landing at the Marquesas; and drunk
+healths on the shore of Titicaca. There are more yarns to be told, and
+other wounds to be healed, and another health to be drunk. Won't you let
+this be at my camp-fire to-morrow night? I have no hesitation in asking
+you, as I know a certain lady is engaged to a certain dinner-party, and
+that you are free. There will only be one other, our old pal at the
+Korea, Jack Seward. He's coming, too, and we both want to mingle our
+weeps over the wine-cup, and to drink a health with all our hearts to
+the happiest man in all the wide world, who has won the noblest heart
+that God has made and the best worth winning. We promise you a hearty
+welcome, and a loving greeting, and a health as true as your own right
+hand. We shall both swear to leave you at home if you drink too deep to
+a certain pair of eyes. Come!
+
+"Yours, as ever and always,
+
+"QUINCEY P. MORRIS."
+
+
+_Telegram from Arthur Holmwood to Quincey P. Morris._
+
+"_26 May._
+
+"Count me in every time. I bear messages which will make both your ears
+tingle.
+
+"ART."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MINA MURRAY'S JOURNAL
+
+
+_24 July. Whitby._--Lucy met me at the station, looking sweeter and
+lovelier than ever, and we drove up to the house at the Crescent in
+which they have rooms. This is a lovely place. The little river, the
+Esk, runs through a deep valley, which broadens out as it comes near the
+harbour. A great viaduct runs across, with high piers, through which the
+view seems somehow further away than it really is. The valley is
+beautifully green, and it is so steep that when you are on the high land
+on either side you look right across it, unless you are near enough to
+see down. The houses of the old town--the side away from us--are all
+red-roofed, and seem piled up one over the other anyhow, like the
+pictures we see of Nuremberg. Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby
+Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes, and which is the scene of part of
+"Marmion," where the girl was built up in the wall. It is a most noble
+ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits; there is
+a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows. Between it and
+the town there is another church, the parish one, round which is a big
+graveyard, all full of tombstones. This is to my mind the nicest spot in
+Whitby, for it lies right over the town, and has a full view of the
+harbour and all up the bay to where the headland called Kettleness
+stretches out into the sea. It descends so steeply over the harbour that
+part of the bank has fallen away, and some of the graves have been
+destroyed. In one place part of the stonework of the graves stretches
+out over the sandy pathway far below. There are walks, with seats beside
+them, through the churchyard; and people go and sit there all day long
+looking at the beautiful view and enjoying the breeze. I shall come and
+sit here very often myself and work. Indeed, I am writing now, with my
+book on my knee, and listening to the talk of three old men who are
+sitting beside me. They seem to do nothing all day but sit up here and
+talk.
+
+The harbour lies below me, with, on the far side, one long granite wall
+stretching out into the sea, with a curve outwards at the end of it, in
+the middle of which is a lighthouse. A heavy sea-wall runs along outside
+of it. On the near side, the sea-wall makes an elbow crooked inversely,
+and its end too has a lighthouse. Between the two piers there is a
+narrow opening into the harbour, which then suddenly widens.
+
+It is nice at high water; but when the tide is out it shoals away to
+nothing, and there is merely the stream of the Esk, running between
+banks of sand, with rocks here and there. Outside the harbour on this
+side there rises for about half a mile a great reef, the sharp edge of
+which runs straight out from behind the south lighthouse. At the end of
+it is a buoy with a bell, which swings in bad weather, and sends in a
+mournful sound on the wind. They have a legend here that when a ship is
+lost bells are heard out at sea. I must ask the old man about this; he
+is coming this way....
+
+He is a funny old man. He must be awfully old, for his face is all
+gnarled and twisted like the bark of a tree. He tells me that he is
+nearly a hundred, and that he was a sailor in the Greenland fishing
+fleet when Waterloo was fought. He is, I am afraid, a very sceptical
+person, for when I asked him about the bells at sea and the White Lady
+at the abbey he said very brusquely:--
+
+"I wouldn't fash masel' about them, miss. Them things be all wore out.
+Mind, I don't say that they never was, but I do say that they wasn't in
+my time. They be all very well for comers and trippers, an' the like,
+but not for a nice young lady like you. Them feet-folks from York and
+Leeds that be always eatin' cured herrin's an' drinkin' tea an' lookin'
+out to buy cheap jet would creed aught. I wonder masel' who'd be
+bothered tellin' lies to them--even the newspapers, which is full of
+fool-talk." I thought he would be a good person to learn interesting
+things from, so I asked him if he would mind telling me something about
+the whale-fishing in the old days. He was just settling himself to begin
+when the clock struck six, whereupon he laboured to get up, and said:--
+
+"I must gang ageeanwards home now, miss. My grand-daughter doesn't like
+to be kept waitin' when the tea is ready, for it takes me time to
+crammle aboon the grees, for there be a many of 'em; an', miss, I lack
+belly-timber sairly by the clock."
+
+He hobbled away, and I could see him hurrying, as well as he could, down
+the steps. The steps are a great feature on the place. They lead from
+the town up to the church, there are hundreds of them--I do not know how
+many--and they wind up in a delicate curve; the slope is so gentle that
+a horse could easily walk up and down them. I think they must originally
+have had something to do with the abbey. I shall go home too. Lucy went
+out visiting with her mother, and as they were only duty calls, I did
+not go. They will be home by this.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_1 August._--I came up here an hour ago with Lucy, and we had a most
+interesting talk with my old friend and the two others who always come
+and join him. He is evidently the Sir Oracle of them, and I should think
+must have been in his time a most dictatorial person. He will not admit
+anything, and downfaces everybody. If he can't out-argue them he bullies
+them, and then takes their silence for agreement with his views. Lucy
+was looking sweetly pretty in her white lawn frock; she has got a
+beautiful colour since she has been here. I noticed that the old men did
+not lose any time in coming up and sitting near her when we sat down.
+She is so sweet with old people; I think they all fell in love with her
+on the spot. Even my old man succumbed and did not contradict her, but
+gave me double share instead. I got him on the subject of the legends,
+and he went off at once into a sort of sermon. I must try to remember it
+and put it down:--
+
+"It be all fool-talk, lock, stock, and barrel; that's what it be, an'
+nowt else. These bans an' wafts an' boh-ghosts an' barguests an' bogles
+an' all anent them is only fit to set bairns an' dizzy women
+a-belderin'. They be nowt but air-blebs. They, an' all grims an' signs
+an' warnin's, be all invented by parsons an' illsome beuk-bodies an'
+railway touters to skeer an' scunner hafflin's, an' to get folks to do
+somethin' that they don't other incline to. It makes me ireful to think
+o' them. Why, it's them that, not content with printin' lies on paper
+an' preachin' them out of pulpits, does want to be cuttin' them on the
+tombstones. Look here all around you in what airt ye will; all them
+steans, holdin' up their heads as well as they can out of their pride,
+is acant--simply tumblin' down with the weight o' the lies wrote on
+them, 'Here lies the body' or 'Sacred to the memory' wrote on all of
+them, an' yet in nigh half of them there bean't no bodies at all; an'
+the memories of them bean't cared a pinch of snuff about, much less
+sacred. Lies all of them, nothin' but lies of one kind or another! My
+gog, but it'll be a quare scowderment at the Day of Judgment when they
+come tumblin' up in their death-sarks, all jouped together an' tryin' to
+drag their tombsteans with them to prove how good they was; some of them
+trimmlin' and ditherin', with their hands that dozzened an' slippy from
+lyin' in the sea that they can't even keep their grup o' them."
+
+I could see from the old fellow's self-satisfied air and the way in
+which he looked round for the approval of his cronies that he was
+"showing off," so I put in a word to keep him going:--
+
+"Oh, Mr. Swales, you can't be serious. Surely these tombstones are not
+all wrong?"
+
+"Yabblins! There may be a poorish few not wrong, savin' where they make
+out the people too good; for there be folk that do think a balm-bowl be
+like the sea, if only it be their own. The whole thing be only lies. Now
+look you here; you come here a stranger, an' you see this kirk-garth." I
+nodded, for I thought it better to assent, though I did not quite
+understand his dialect. I knew it had something to do with the church.
+He went on: "And you consate that all these steans be aboon folk that be
+happed here, snod an' snog?" I assented again. "Then that be just where
+the lie comes in. Why, there be scores of these lay-beds that be toom as
+old Dun's 'bacca-box on Friday night." He nudged one of his companions,
+and they all laughed. "And my gog! how could they be otherwise? Look at
+that one, the aftest abaft the bier-bank: read it!" I went over and
+read:--
+
+"Edward Spencelagh, master mariner, murdered by pirates off the coast of
+Andres, April, 1854, æt. 30." When I came back Mr. Swales went on:--
+
+"Who brought him home, I wonder, to hap him here? Murdered off the coast
+of Andres! an' you consated his body lay under! Why, I could name ye a
+dozen whose bones lie in the Greenland seas above"--he pointed
+northwards--"or where the currents may have drifted them. There be the
+steans around ye. Ye can, with your young eyes, read the small-print of
+the lies from here. This Braithwaite Lowrey--I knew his father, lost in
+the _Lively_ off Greenland in '20; or Andrew Woodhouse, drowned in the
+same seas in 1777; or John Paxton, drowned off Cape Farewell a year
+later; or old John Rawlings, whose grandfather sailed with me, drowned
+in the Gulf of Finland in '50. Do ye think that all these men will have
+to make a rush to Whitby when the trumpet sounds? I have me antherums
+aboot it! I tell ye that when they got here they'd be jommlin' an'
+jostlin' one another that way that it 'ud be like a fight up on the ice
+in the old days, when we'd be at one another from daylight to dark, an'
+tryin' to tie up our cuts by the light of the aurora borealis." This was
+evidently local pleasantry, for the old man cackled over it, and his
+cronies joined in with gusto.
+
+"But," I said, "surely you are not quite correct, for you start on the
+assumption that all the poor people, or their spirits, will have to
+take their tombstones with them on the Day of Judgment. Do you think
+that will be really necessary?"
+
+"Well, what else be they tombstones for? Answer me that, miss!"
+
+"To please their relatives, I suppose."
+
+"To please their relatives, you suppose!" This he said with intense
+scorn. "How will it pleasure their relatives to know that lies is wrote
+over them, and that everybody in the place knows that they be lies?" He
+pointed to a stone at our feet which had been laid down as a slab, on
+which the seat was rested, close to the edge of the cliff. "Read the
+lies on that thruff-stean," he said. The letters were upside down to me
+from where I sat, but Lucy was more opposite to them, so she leant over
+and read:--
+
+"Sacred to the memory of George Canon, who died, in the hope of a
+glorious resurrection, on July, 29, 1873, falling from the rocks at
+Kettleness. This tomb was erected by his sorrowing mother to her dearly
+beloved son. 'He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.'
+Really, Mr. Swales, I don't see anything very funny in that!" She spoke
+her comment very gravely and somewhat severely.
+
+"Ye don't see aught funny! Ha! ha! But that's because ye don't gawm the
+sorrowin' mother was a hell-cat that hated him because he was
+acrewk'd--a regular lamiter he was--an' he hated her so that he
+committed suicide in order that she mightn't get an insurance she put on
+his life. He blew nigh the top of his head off with an old musket that
+they had for scarin' the crows with. 'Twarn't for crows then, for it
+brought the clegs and the dowps to him. That's the way he fell off the
+rocks. And, as to hopes of a glorious resurrection, I've often heard him
+say masel' that he hoped he'd go to hell, for his mother was so pious
+that she'd be sure to go to heaven, an' he didn't want to addle where
+she was. Now isn't that stean at any rate"--he hammered it with his
+stick as he spoke--"a pack of lies? and won't it make Gabriel keckle
+when Geordie comes pantin' up the grees with the tombstean balanced on
+his hump, and asks it to be took as evidence!"
+
+I did not know what to say, but Lucy turned the conversation as she
+said, rising up:--
+
+"Oh, why did you tell us of this? It is my favourite seat, and I cannot
+leave it; and now I find I must go on sitting over the grave of a
+suicide."
+
+"That won't harm ye, my pretty; an' it may make poor Geordie gladsome to
+have so trim a lass sittin' on his lap. That won't hurt ye. Why, I've
+sat here off an' on for nigh twenty years past, an' it hasn't done me
+no harm. Don't ye fash about them as lies under ye, or that doesn' lie
+there either! It'll be time for ye to be getting scart when ye see the
+tombsteans all run away with, and the place as bare as a stubble-field.
+There's the clock, an' I must gang. My service to ye, ladies!" And off
+he hobbled.
+
+Lucy and I sat awhile, and it was all so beautiful before us that we
+took hands as we sat; and she told me all over again about Arthur and
+their coming marriage. That made me just a little heart-sick, for I
+haven't heard from Jonathan for a whole month.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_The same day._ I came up here alone, for I am very sad. There was no
+letter for me. I hope there cannot be anything the matter with Jonathan.
+The clock has just struck nine. I see the lights scattered all over the
+town, sometimes in rows where the streets are, and sometimes singly;
+they run right up the Esk and die away in the curve of the valley. To my
+left the view is cut off by a black line of roof of the old house next
+the abbey. The sheep and lambs are bleating in the fields away behind
+me, and there is a clatter of a donkey's hoofs up the paved road below.
+The band on the pier is playing a harsh waltz in good time, and further
+along the quay there is a Salvation Army meeting in a back street.
+Neither of the bands hears the other, but up here I hear and see them
+both. I wonder where Jonathan is and if he is thinking of me! I wish he
+were here.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_5 June._--The case of Renfield grows more interesting the more I get to
+understand the man. He has certain qualities very largely developed;
+selfishness, secrecy, and purpose. I wish I could get at what is the
+object of the latter. He seems to have some settled scheme of his own,
+but what it is I do not yet know. His redeeming quality is a love of
+animals, though, indeed, he has such curious turns in it that I
+sometimes imagine he is only abnormally cruel. His pets are of odd
+sorts. Just now his hobby is catching flies. He has at present such a
+quantity that I have had myself to expostulate. To my astonishment, he
+did not break out into a fury, as I expected, but took the matter in
+simple seriousness. He thought for a moment, and then said: "May I have
+three days? I shall clear them away." Of course, I said that would do. I
+must watch him.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_18 June._--He has turned his mind now to spiders, and has got several
+very big fellows in a box. He keeps feeding them with his flies, and
+the number of the latter is becoming sensibly diminished, although he
+has used half his food in attracting more flies from outside to his
+room.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_1 July._--His spiders are now becoming as great a nuisance as his
+flies, and to-day I told him that he must get rid of them. He looked
+very sad at this, so I said that he must clear out some of them, at all
+events. He cheerfully acquiesced in this, and I gave him the same time
+as before for reduction. He disgusted me much while with him, for when a
+horrid blow-fly, bloated with some carrion food, buzzed into the room,
+he caught it, held it exultantly for a few moments between his finger
+and thumb, and, before I knew what he was going to do, put it in his
+mouth and ate it. I scolded him for it, but he argued quietly that it
+was very good and very wholesome; that it was life, strong life, and
+gave life to him. This gave me an idea, or the rudiment of one. I must
+watch how he gets rid of his spiders. He has evidently some deep problem
+in his mind, for he keeps a little note-book in which he is always
+jotting down something. Whole pages of it are filled with masses of
+figures, generally single numbers added up in batches, and then the
+totals added in batches again, as though he were "focussing" some
+account, as the auditors put it.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_8 July._--There is a method in his madness, and the rudimentary idea in
+my mind is growing. It will be a whole idea soon, and then, oh,
+unconscious cerebration! you will have to give the wall to your
+conscious brother. I kept away from my friend for a few days, so that I
+might notice if there were any change. Things remain as they were except
+that he has parted with some of his pets and got a new one. He has
+managed to get a sparrow, and has already partially tamed it. His means
+of taming is simple, for already the spiders have diminished. Those that
+do remain, however, are well fed, for he still brings in the flies by
+tempting them with his food.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_19 July._--We are progressing. My friend has now a whole colony of
+sparrows, and his flies and spiders are almost obliterated. When I came
+in he ran to me and said he wanted to ask me a great favour--a very,
+very great favour; and as he spoke he fawned on me like a dog. I asked
+him what it was, and he said, with a sort of rapture in his voice and
+bearing:--
+
+"A kitten, a nice little, sleek playful kitten, that I can play with,
+and teach, and feed--and feed--and feed!" I was not unprepared for this
+request, for I had noticed how his pets went on increasing in size and
+vivacity, but I did not care that his pretty family of tame sparrows
+should be wiped out in the same manner as the flies and the spiders; so
+I said I would see about it, and asked him if he would not rather have a
+cat than a kitten. His eagerness betrayed him as he answered:--
+
+"Oh, yes, I would like a cat! I only asked for a kitten lest you should
+refuse me a cat. No one would refuse me a kitten, would they?" I shook
+my head, and said that at present I feared it would not be possible, but
+that I would see about it. His face fell, and I could see a warning of
+danger in it, for there was a sudden fierce, sidelong look which meant
+killing. The man is an undeveloped homicidal maniac. I shall test him
+with his present craving and see how it will work out; then I shall know
+more.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_10 p. m._--I have visited him again and found him sitting in a corner
+brooding. When I came in he threw himself on his knees before me and
+implored me to let him have a cat; that his salvation depended upon it.
+I was firm, however, and told him that he could not have it, whereupon
+he went without a word, and sat down, gnawing his fingers, in the corner
+where I had found him. I shall see him in the morning early.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_20 July._--Visited Renfield very early, before the attendant went his
+rounds. Found him up and humming a tune. He was spreading out his sugar,
+which he had saved, in the window, and was manifestly beginning his
+fly-catching again; and beginning it cheerfully and with a good grace. I
+looked around for his birds, and not seeing them, asked him where they
+were. He replied, without turning round, that they had all flown away.
+There were a few feathers about the room and on his pillow a drop of
+blood. I said nothing, but went and told the keeper to report to me if
+there were anything odd about him during the day.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_11 a. m._--The attendant has just been to me to say that Renfield has
+been very sick and has disgorged a whole lot of feathers. "My belief is,
+doctor," he said, "that he has eaten his birds, and that he just took
+and ate them raw!"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_11 p. m._--I gave Renfield a strong opiate to-night, enough to make
+even him sleep, and took away his pocket-book to look at it. The thought
+that has been buzzing about my brain lately is complete, and the theory
+proved. My homicidal maniac is of a peculiar kind. I shall have to
+invent a new classification for him, and call him a zoöphagous
+(life-eating) maniac; what he desires is to absorb as many lives as he
+can, and he has laid himself out to achieve it in a cumulative way. He
+gave many flies to one spider and many spiders to one bird, and then
+wanted a cat to eat the many birds. What would have been his later
+steps? It would almost be worth while to complete the experiment. It
+might be done if there were only a sufficient cause. Men sneered at
+vivisection, and yet look at its results to-day! Why not advance science
+in its most difficult and vital aspect--the knowledge of the brain? Had
+I even the secret of one such mind--did I hold the key to the fancy of
+even one lunatic--I might advance my own branch of science to a pitch
+compared with which Burdon-Sanderson's physiology or Ferrier's
+brain-knowledge would be as nothing. If only there were a sufficient
+cause! I must not think too much of this, or I may be tempted; a good
+cause might turn the scale with me, for may not I too be of an
+exceptional brain, congenitally?
+
+How well the man reasoned; lunatics always do within their own scope. I
+wonder at how many lives he values a man, or if at only one. He has
+closed the account most accurately, and to-day begun a new record. How
+many of us begin a new record with each day of our lives?
+
+To me it seems only yesterday that my whole life ended with my new hope,
+and that truly I began a new record. So it will be until the Great
+Recorder sums me up and closes my ledger account with a balance to
+profit or loss. Oh, Lucy, Lucy, I cannot be angry with you, nor can I be
+angry with my friend whose happiness is yours; but I must only wait on
+hopeless and work. Work! work!
+
+If I only could have as strong a cause as my poor mad friend there--a
+good, unselfish cause to make me work--that would be indeed happiness.
+
+
+_Mina Murray's Journal._
+
+_26 July._--I am anxious, and it soothes me to express myself here; it
+is like whispering to one's self and listening at the same time. And
+there is also something about the shorthand symbols that makes it
+different from writing. I am unhappy about Lucy and about Jonathan. I
+had not heard from Jonathan for some time, and was very concerned; but
+yesterday dear Mr. Hawkins, who is always so kind, sent me a letter from
+him. I had written asking him if he had heard, and he said the enclosed
+had just been received. It is only a line dated from Castle Dracula,
+and says that he is just starting for home. That is not like Jonathan;
+I do not understand it, and it makes me uneasy. Then, too, Lucy,
+although she is so well, has lately taken to her old habit of walking in
+her sleep. Her mother has spoken to me about it, and we have decided
+that I am to lock the door of our room every night. Mrs. Westenra has
+got an idea that sleep-walkers always go out on roofs of houses and
+along the edges of cliffs and then get suddenly wakened and fall over
+with a despairing cry that echoes all over the place. Poor dear, she is
+naturally anxious about Lucy, and she tells me that her husband, Lucy's
+father, had the same habit; that he would get up in the night and dress
+himself and go out, if he were not stopped. Lucy is to be married in the
+autumn, and she is already planning out her dresses and how her house is
+to be arranged. I sympathise with her, for I do the same, only Jonathan
+and I will start in life in a very simple way, and shall have to try to
+make both ends meet. Mr. Holmwood--he is the Hon. Arthur Holmwood, only
+son of Lord Godalming--is coming up here very shortly--as soon as he can
+leave town, for his father is not very well, and I think dear Lucy is
+counting the moments till he comes. She wants to take him up to the seat
+on the churchyard cliff and show him the beauty of Whitby. I daresay it
+is the waiting which disturbs her; she will be all right when he
+arrives.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_27 July._--No news from Jonathan. I am getting quite uneasy about him,
+though why I should I do not know; but I do wish that he would write, if
+it were only a single line. Lucy walks more than ever, and each night I
+am awakened by her moving about the room. Fortunately, the weather is so
+hot that she cannot get cold; but still the anxiety and the perpetually
+being wakened is beginning to tell on me, and I am getting nervous and
+wakeful myself. Thank God, Lucy's health keeps up. Mr. Holmwood has been
+suddenly called to Ring to see his father, who has been taken seriously
+ill. Lucy frets at the postponement of seeing him, but it does not touch
+her looks; she is a trifle stouter, and her cheeks are a lovely
+rose-pink. She has lost that anæmic look which she had. I pray it will
+all last.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_3 August._--Another week gone, and no news from Jonathan, not even to
+Mr. Hawkins, from whom I have heard. Oh, I do hope he is not ill. He
+surely would have written. I look at that last letter of his, but
+somehow it does not satisfy me. It does not read like him, and yet it is
+his writing. There is no mistake of that. Lucy has not walked much in
+her sleep the last week, but there is an odd concentration about her
+which I do not understand; even in her sleep she seems to be watching
+me. She tries the door, and finding it locked, goes about the room
+searching for the key.
+
+_6 August._--Another three days, and no news. This suspense is getting
+dreadful. If I only knew where to write to or where to go to, I should
+feel easier; but no one has heard a word of Jonathan since that last
+letter. I must only pray to God for patience. Lucy is more excitable
+than ever, but is otherwise well. Last night was very threatening, and
+the fishermen say that we are in for a storm. I must try to watch it and
+learn the weather signs. To-day is a grey day, and the sun as I write is
+hidden in thick clouds, high over Kettleness. Everything is grey--except
+the green grass, which seems like emerald amongst it; grey earthy rock;
+grey clouds, tinged with the sunburst at the far edge, hang over the
+grey sea, into which the sand-points stretch like grey fingers. The sea
+is tumbling in over the shallows and the sandy flats with a roar,
+muffled in the sea-mists drifting inland. The horizon is lost in a grey
+mist. All is vastness; the clouds are piled up like giant rocks, and
+there is a "brool" over the sea that sounds like some presage of doom.
+Dark figures are on the beach here and there, sometimes half shrouded in
+the mist, and seem "men like trees walking." The fishing-boats are
+racing for home, and rise and dip in the ground swell as they sweep into
+the harbour, bending to the scuppers. Here comes old Mr. Swales. He is
+making straight for me, and I can see, by the way he lifts his hat, that
+he wants to talk....
+
+I have been quite touched by the change in the poor old man. When he sat
+down beside me, he said in a very gentle way:--
+
+"I want to say something to you, miss." I could see he was not at ease,
+so I took his poor old wrinkled hand in mine and asked him to speak
+fully; so he said, leaving his hand in mine:--
+
+"I'm afraid, my deary, that I must have shocked you by all the wicked
+things I've been sayin' about the dead, and such like, for weeks past;
+but I didn't mean them, and I want ye to remember that when I'm gone. We
+aud folks that be daffled, and with one foot abaft the krok-hooal, don't
+altogether like to think of it, and we don't want to feel scart of it;
+an' that's why I've took to makin' light of it, so that I'd cheer up my
+own heart a bit. But, Lord love ye, miss, I ain't afraid of dyin', not a
+bit; only I don't want to die if I can help it. My time must be nigh at
+hand now, for I be aud, and a hundred years is too much for any man to
+expect; and I'm so nigh it that the Aud Man is already whettin' his
+scythe. Ye see, I can't get out o' the habit of caffin' about it all at
+once; the chafts will wag as they be used to. Some day soon the Angel of
+Death will sound his trumpet for me. But don't ye dooal an' greet, my
+deary!"--for he saw that I was crying--"if he should come this very
+night I'd not refuse to answer his call. For life be, after all, only a
+waitin' for somethin' else than what we're doin'; and death be all that
+we can rightly depend on. But I'm content, for it's comin' to me, my
+deary, and comin' quick. It may be comin' while we be lookin' and
+wonderin'. Maybe it's in that wind out over the sea that's bringin' with
+it loss and wreck, and sore distress, and sad hearts. Look! look!" he
+cried suddenly. "There's something in that wind and in the hoast beyont
+that sounds, and looks, and tastes, and smells like death. It's in the
+air; I feel it comin'. Lord, make me answer cheerful when my call
+comes!" He held up his arms devoutly, and raised his hat. His mouth
+moved as though he were praying. After a few minutes' silence, he got
+up, shook hands with me, and blessed me, and said good-bye, and hobbled
+off. It all touched me, and upset me very much.
+
+I was glad when the coastguard came along, with his spy-glass under his
+arm. He stopped to talk with me, as he always does, but all the time
+kept looking at a strange ship.
+
+"I can't make her out," he said; "she's a Russian, by the look of her;
+but she's knocking about in the queerest way. She doesn't know her mind
+a bit; she seems to see the storm coming, but can't decide whether to
+run up north in the open, or to put in here. Look there again! She is
+steered mighty strangely, for she doesn't mind the hand on the wheel;
+changes about with every puff of wind. We'll hear more of her before
+this time to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CUTTING FROM "THE DAILYGRAPH," 8 AUGUST
+
+
+(_Pasted in Mina Murray's Journal._)
+
+From a Correspondent.
+
+_Whitby_.
+
+One of the greatest and suddenest storms on record has just been
+experienced here, with results both strange and unique. The weather had
+been somewhat sultry, but not to any degree uncommon in the month of
+August. Saturday evening was as fine as was ever known, and the great
+body of holiday-makers laid out yesterday for visits to Mulgrave Woods,
+Robin Hood's Bay, Rig Mill, Runswick, Staithes, and the various trips in
+the neighbourhood of Whitby. The steamers _Emma_ and _Scarborough_ made
+trips up and down the coast, and there was an unusual amount of
+"tripping" both to and from Whitby. The day was unusually fine till the
+afternoon, when some of the gossips who frequent the East Cliff
+churchyard, and from that commanding eminence watch the wide sweep of
+sea visible to the north and east, called attention to a sudden show of
+"mares'-tails" high in the sky to the north-west. The wind was then
+blowing from the south-west in the mild degree which in barometrical
+language is ranked "No. 2: light breeze." The coastguard on duty at once
+made report, and one old fisherman, who for more than half a century has
+kept watch on weather signs from the East Cliff, foretold in an emphatic
+manner the coming of a sudden storm. The approach of sunset was so very
+beautiful, so grand in its masses of splendidly-coloured clouds, that
+there was quite an assemblage on the walk along the cliff in the old
+churchyard to enjoy the beauty. Before the sun dipped below the black
+mass of Kettleness, standing boldly athwart the western sky, its
+downward way was marked by myriad clouds of every sunset-colour--flame,
+purple, pink, green, violet, and all the tints of gold; with here and
+there masses not large, but of seemingly absolute blackness, in all
+sorts of shapes, as well outlined as colossal silhouettes. The
+experience was not lost on the painters, and doubtless some of the
+sketches of the "Prelude to the Great Storm" will grace the R. A. and R.
+I. walls in May next. More than one captain made up his mind then and
+there that his "cobble" or his "mule," as they term the different
+classes of boats, would remain in the harbour till the storm had passed.
+The wind fell away entirely during the evening, and at midnight there
+was a dead calm, a sultry heat, and that prevailing intensity which, on
+the approach of thunder, affects persons of a sensitive nature. There
+were but few lights in sight at sea, for even the coasting steamers,
+which usually "hug" the shore so closely, kept well to seaward, and but
+few fishing-boats were in sight. The only sail noticeable was a foreign
+schooner with all sails set, which was seemingly going westwards. The
+foolhardiness or ignorance of her officers was a prolific theme for
+comment whilst she remained in sight, and efforts were made to signal
+her to reduce sail in face of her danger. Before the night shut down she
+was seen with sails idly flapping as she gently rolled on the undulating
+swell of the sea,
+
+ "As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean."
+
+Shortly before ten o'clock the stillness of the air grew quite
+oppressive, and the silence was so marked that the bleating of a sheep
+inland or the barking of a dog in the town was distinctly heard, and the
+band on the pier, with its lively French air, was like a discord in the
+great harmony of nature's silence. A little after midnight came a
+strange sound from over the sea, and high overhead the air began to
+carry a strange, faint, hollow booming.
+
+Then without warning the tempest broke. With a rapidity which, at the
+time, seemed incredible, and even afterwards is impossible to realize,
+the whole aspect of nature at once became convulsed. The waves rose in
+growing fury, each overtopping its fellow, till in a very few minutes
+the lately glassy sea was like a roaring and devouring monster.
+White-crested waves beat madly on the level sands and rushed up the
+shelving cliffs; others broke over the piers, and with their spume swept
+the lanthorns of the lighthouses which rise from the end of either pier
+of Whitby Harbour. The wind roared like thunder, and blew with such
+force that it was with difficulty that even strong men kept their feet,
+or clung with grim clasp to the iron stanchions. It was found necessary
+to clear the entire piers from the mass of onlookers, or else the
+fatalities of the night would have been increased manifold. To add to
+the difficulties and dangers of the time, masses of sea-fog came
+drifting inland--white, wet clouds, which swept by in ghostly fashion,
+so dank and damp and cold that it needed but little effort of
+imagination to think that the spirits of those lost at sea were
+touching their living brethren with the clammy hands of death, and many
+a one shuddered as the wreaths of sea-mist swept by. At times the mist
+cleared, and the sea for some distance could be seen in the glare of the
+lightning, which now came thick and fast, followed by such sudden peals
+of thunder that the whole sky overhead seemed trembling under the shock
+of the footsteps of the storm.
+
+Some of the scenes thus revealed were of immeasurable grandeur and of
+absorbing interest--the sea, running mountains high, threw skywards with
+each wave mighty masses of white foam, which the tempest seemed to
+snatch at and whirl away into space; here and there a fishing-boat, with
+a rag of sail, running madly for shelter before the blast; now and again
+the white wings of a storm-tossed sea-bird. On the summit of the East
+Cliff the new searchlight was ready for experiment, but had not yet been
+tried. The officers in charge of it got it into working order, and in
+the pauses of the inrushing mist swept with it the surface of the sea.
+Once or twice its service was most effective, as when a fishing-boat,
+with gunwale under water, rushed into the harbour, able, by the guidance
+of the sheltering light, to avoid the danger of dashing against the
+piers. As each boat achieved the safety of the port there was a shout of
+joy from the mass of people on shore, a shout which for a moment seemed
+to cleave the gale and was then swept away in its rush.
+
+Before long the searchlight discovered some distance away a schooner
+with all sails set, apparently the same vessel which had been noticed
+earlier in the evening. The wind had by this time backed to the east,
+and there was a shudder amongst the watchers on the cliff as they
+realized the terrible danger in which she now was. Between her and the
+port lay the great flat reef on which so many good ships have from time
+to time suffered, and, with the wind blowing from its present quarter,
+it would be quite impossible that she should fetch the entrance of the
+harbour. It was now nearly the hour of high tide, but the waves were so
+great that in their troughs the shallows of the shore were almost
+visible, and the schooner, with all sails set, was rushing with such
+speed that, in the words of one old salt, "she must fetch up somewhere,
+if it was only in hell." Then came another rush of sea-fog, greater than
+any hitherto--a mass of dank mist, which seemed to close on all things
+like a grey pall, and left available to men only the organ of hearing,
+for the roar of the tempest, and the crash of the thunder, and the
+booming of the mighty billows came through the damp oblivion even louder
+than before. The rays of the searchlight were kept fixed on the harbour
+mouth across the East Pier, where the shock was expected, and men waited
+breathless. The wind suddenly shifted to the north-east, and the remnant
+of the sea-fog melted in the blast; and then, _mirabile dictu_, between
+the piers, leaping from wave to wave as it rushed at headlong speed,
+swept the strange schooner before the blast, with all sail set, and
+gained the safety of the harbour. The searchlight followed her, and a
+shudder ran through all who saw her, for lashed to the helm was a
+corpse, with drooping head, which swung horribly to and fro at each
+motion of the ship. No other form could be seen on deck at all. A great
+awe came on all as they realised that the ship, as if by a miracle, had
+found the harbour, unsteered save by the hand of a dead man! However,
+all took place more quickly than it takes to write these words. The
+schooner paused not, but rushing across the harbour, pitched herself on
+that accumulation of sand and gravel washed by many tides and many
+storms into the south-east corner of the pier jutting under the East
+Cliff, known locally as Tate Hill Pier.
+
+There was of course a considerable concussion as the vessel drove up on
+the sand heap. Every spar, rope, and stay was strained, and some of the
+"top-hammer" came crashing down. But, strangest of all, the very instant
+the shore was touched, an immense dog sprang up on deck from below, as
+if shot up by the concussion, and running forward, jumped from the bow
+on the sand. Making straight for the steep cliff, where the churchyard
+hangs over the laneway to the East Pier so steeply that some of the flat
+tombstones--"thruff-steans" or "through-stones," as they call them in
+the Whitby vernacular--actually project over where the sustaining cliff
+has fallen away, it disappeared in the darkness, which seemed
+intensified just beyond the focus of the searchlight.
+
+It so happened that there was no one at the moment on Tate Hill Pier, as
+all those whose houses are in close proximity were either in bed or were
+out on the heights above. Thus the coastguard on duty on the eastern
+side of the harbour, who at once ran down to the little pier, was the
+first to climb on board. The men working the searchlight, after scouring
+the entrance of the harbour without seeing anything, then turned the
+light on the derelict and kept it there. The coastguard ran aft, and
+when he came beside the wheel, bent over to examine it, and recoiled at
+once as though under some sudden emotion. This seemed to pique general
+curiosity, and quite a number of people began to run. It is a good way
+round from the West Cliff by the Drawbridge to Tate Hill Pier, but your
+correspondent is a fairly good runner, and came well ahead of the crowd.
+When I arrived, however, I found already assembled on the pier a crowd,
+whom the coastguard and police refused to allow to come on board. By the
+courtesy of the chief boatman, I was, as your correspondent, permitted
+to climb on deck, and was one of a small group who saw the dead seaman
+whilst actually lashed to the wheel.
+
+It was no wonder that the coastguard was surprised, or even awed, for
+not often can such a sight have been seen. The man was simply fastened
+by his hands, tied one over the other, to a spoke of the wheel. Between
+the inner hand and the wood was a crucifix, the set of beads on which it
+was fastened being around both wrists and wheel, and all kept fast by
+the binding cords. The poor fellow may have been seated at one time, but
+the flapping and buffeting of the sails had worked through the rudder of
+the wheel and dragged him to and fro, so that the cords with which he
+was tied had cut the flesh to the bone. Accurate note was made of the
+state of things, and a doctor--Surgeon J. M. Caffyn, of 33, East Elliot
+Place--who came immediately after me, declared, after making
+examination, that the man must have been dead for quite two days. In his
+pocket was a bottle, carefully corked, empty save for a little roll of
+paper, which proved to be the addendum to the log. The coastguard said
+the man must have tied up his own hands, fastening the knots with his
+teeth. The fact that a coastguard was the first on board may save some
+complications, later on, in the Admiralty Court; for coastguards cannot
+claim the salvage which is the right of the first civilian entering on a
+derelict. Already, however, the legal tongues are wagging, and one young
+law student is loudly asserting that the rights of the owner are already
+completely sacrificed, his property being held in contravention of the
+statutes of mortmain, since the tiller, as emblemship, if not proof, of
+delegated possession, is held in a _dead hand_. It is needless to say
+that the dead steersman has been reverently removed from the place where
+he held his honourable watch and ward till death--a steadfastness as
+noble as that of the young Casabianca--and placed in the mortuary to
+await inquest.
+
+Already the sudden storm is passing, and its fierceness is abating;
+crowds are scattering homeward, and the sky is beginning to redden over
+the Yorkshire wolds. I shall send, in time for your next issue, further
+details of the derelict ship which found her way so miraculously into
+harbour in the storm.
+
+_Whitby_
+
+_9 August._--The sequel to the strange arrival of the derelict in the
+storm last night is almost more startling than the thing itself. It
+turns out that the schooner is a Russian from Varna, and is called the
+_Demeter_. She is almost entirely in ballast of silver sand, with only a
+small amount of cargo--a number of great wooden boxes filled with mould.
+This cargo was consigned to a Whitby solicitor, Mr. S. F. Billington, of
+7, The Crescent, who this morning went aboard and formally took
+possession of the goods consigned to him. The Russian consul, too,
+acting for the charter-party, took formal possession of the ship, and
+paid all harbour dues, etc. Nothing is talked about here to-day except
+the strange coincidence; the officials of the Board of Trade have been
+most exacting in seeing that every compliance has been made with
+existing regulations. As the matter is to be a "nine days' wonder," they
+are evidently determined that there shall be no cause of after
+complaint. A good deal of interest was abroad concerning the dog which
+landed when the ship struck, and more than a few of the members of the
+S. P. C. A., which is very strong in Whitby, have tried to befriend the
+animal. To the general disappointment, however, it was not to be found;
+it seems to have disappeared entirely from the town. It may be that it
+was frightened and made its way on to the moors, where it is still
+hiding in terror. There are some who look with dread on such a
+possibility, lest later on it should in itself become a danger, for it
+is evidently a fierce brute. Early this morning a large dog, a half-bred
+mastiff belonging to a coal merchant close to Tate Hill Pier, was found
+dead in the roadway opposite to its master's yard. It had been fighting,
+and manifestly had had a savage opponent, for its throat was torn away,
+and its belly was slit open as if with a savage claw.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--By the kindness of the Board of Trade inspector, I have been
+permitted to look over the log-book of the _Demeter_, which was in order
+up to within three days, but contained nothing of special interest
+except as to facts of missing men. The greatest interest, however, is
+with regard to the paper found in the bottle, which was to-day produced
+at the inquest; and a more strange narrative than the two between them
+unfold it has not been my lot to come across. As there is no motive for
+concealment, I am permitted to use them, and accordingly send you a
+rescript, simply omitting technical details of seamanship and
+supercargo. It almost seems as though the captain had been seized with
+some kind of mania before he had got well into blue water, and that
+this had developed persistently throughout the voyage. Of course my
+statement must be taken _cum grano_, since I am writing from the
+dictation of a clerk of the Russian consul, who kindly translated for
+me, time being short.
+
+ LOG OF THE "DEMETER."
+
+
+_Varna to Whitby._
+
+_Written 18 July, things so strange happening, that I shall keep
+accurate note henceforth till we land._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On 6 July we finished taking in cargo, silver sand and boxes of earth.
+At noon set sail. East wind, fresh. Crew, five hands ... two mates,
+cook, and myself (captain).
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On 11 July at dawn entered Bosphorus. Boarded by Turkish Customs
+officers. Backsheesh. All correct. Under way at 4 p. m.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On 12 July through Dardanelles. More Customs officers and flagboat of
+guarding squadron. Backsheesh again. Work of officers thorough, but
+quick. Want us off soon. At dark passed into Archipelago.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On 13 July passed Cape Matapan. Crew dissatisfied about something.
+Seemed scared, but would not speak out.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On 14 July was somewhat anxious about crew. Men all steady fellows, who
+sailed with me before. Mate could not make out what was wrong; they only
+told him there was _something_, and crossed themselves. Mate lost temper
+with one of them that day and struck him. Expected fierce quarrel, but
+all was quiet.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On 16 July mate reported in the morning that one of crew, Petrofsky, was
+missing. Could not account for it. Took larboard watch eight bells last
+night; was relieved by Abramoff, but did not go to bunk. Men more
+downcast than ever. All said they expected something of the kind, but
+would not say more than there was _something_ aboard. Mate getting very
+impatient with them; feared some trouble ahead.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On 17 July, yesterday, one of the men, Olgaren, came to my cabin, and in
+an awestruck way confided to me that he thought there was a strange man
+aboard the ship. He said that in his watch he had been sheltering
+behind the deck-house, as there was a rain-storm, when he saw a tall,
+thin man, who was not like any of the crew, come up the companion-way,
+and go along the deck forward, and disappear. He followed cautiously,
+but when he got to bows found no one, and the hatchways were all closed.
+He was in a panic of superstitious fear, and I am afraid the panic may
+spread. To allay it, I shall to-day search entire ship carefully from
+stem to stern.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Later in the day I got together the whole crew, and told them, as they
+evidently thought there was some one in the ship, we would search from
+stem to stern. First mate angry; said it was folly, and to yield to such
+foolish ideas would demoralise the men; said he would engage to keep
+them out of trouble with a handspike. I let him take the helm, while the
+rest began thorough search, all keeping abreast, with lanterns: we left
+no corner unsearched. As there were only the big wooden boxes, there
+were no odd corners where a man could hide. Men much relieved when
+search over, and went back to work cheerfully. First mate scowled, but
+said nothing.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_22 July_.--Rough weather last three days, and all hands busy with
+sails--no time to be frightened. Men seem to have forgotten their dread.
+Mate cheerful again, and all on good terms. Praised men for work in bad
+weather. Passed Gibralter and out through Straits. All well.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_24 July_.--There seems some doom over this ship. Already a hand short,
+and entering on the Bay of Biscay with wild weather ahead, and yet last
+night another man lost--disappeared. Like the first, he came off his
+watch and was not seen again. Men all in a panic of fear; sent a round
+robin, asking to have double watch, as they fear to be alone. Mate
+angry. Fear there will be some trouble, as either he or the men will do
+some violence.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_28 July_.--Four days in hell, knocking about in a sort of maelstrom,
+and the wind a tempest. No sleep for any one. Men all worn out. Hardly
+know how to set a watch, since no one fit to go on. Second mate
+volunteered to steer and watch, and let men snatch a few hours' sleep.
+Wind abating; seas still terrific, but feel them less, as ship is
+steadier.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_29 July_.--Another tragedy. Had single watch to-night, as crew too
+tired to double. When morning watch came on deck could find no one
+except steersman. Raised outcry, and all came on deck. Thorough search,
+but no one found. Are now without second mate, and crew in a panic. Mate
+and I agreed to go armed henceforth and wait for any sign of cause.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_30 July_.--Last night. Rejoiced we are nearing England. Weather fine,
+all sails set. Retired worn out; slept soundly; awaked by mate telling
+me that both man of watch and steersman missing. Only self and mate and
+two hands left to work ship.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_1 August_.--Two days of fog, and not a sail sighted. Had hoped when in
+the English Channel to be able to signal for help or get in somewhere.
+Not having power to work sails, have to run before wind. Dare not lower,
+as could not raise them again. We seem to be drifting to some terrible
+doom. Mate now more demoralised than either of men. His stronger nature
+seems to have worked inwardly against himself. Men are beyond fear,
+working stolidly and patiently, with minds made up to worst. They are
+Russian, he Roumanian.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_2 August, midnight_.--Woke up from few minutes' sleep by hearing a cry,
+seemingly outside my port. Could see nothing in fog. Rushed on deck, and
+ran against mate. Tells me heard cry and ran, but no sign of man on
+watch. One more gone. Lord, help us! Mate says we must be past Straits
+of Dover, as in a moment of fog lifting he saw North Foreland, just as
+he heard the man cry out. If so we are now off in the North Sea, and
+only God can guide us in the fog, which seems to move with us; and God
+seems to have deserted us.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_3 August_.--At midnight I went to relieve the man at the wheel, and
+when I got to it found no one there. The wind was steady, and as we ran
+before it there was no yawing. I dared not leave it, so shouted for the
+mate. After a few seconds he rushed up on deck in his flannels. He
+looked wild-eyed and haggard, and I greatly fear his reason has given
+way. He came close to me and whispered hoarsely, with his mouth to my
+ear, as though fearing the very air might hear: "_It_ is here; I know
+it, now. On the watch last night I saw It, like a man, tall and thin,
+and ghastly pale. It was in the bows, and looking out. I crept behind
+It, and gave It my knife; but the knife went through It, empty as the
+air." And as he spoke he took his knife and drove it savagely into
+space. Then he went on: "But It is here, and I'll find It. It is in the
+hold, perhaps in one of those boxes. I'll unscrew them one by one and
+see. You work the helm." And, with a warning look and his finger on his
+lip, he went below. There was springing up a choppy wind, and I could
+not leave the helm. I saw him come out on deck again with a tool-chest
+and a lantern, and go down the forward hatchway. He is mad, stark,
+raving mad, and it's no use my trying to stop him. He can't hurt those
+big boxes: they are invoiced as "clay," and to pull them about is as
+harmless a thing as he can do. So here I stay, and mind the helm, and
+write these notes. I can only trust in God and wait till the fog clears.
+Then, if I can't steer to any harbour with the wind that is, I shall cut
+down sails and lie by, and signal for help....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+It is nearly all over now. Just as I was beginning to hope that the mate
+would come out calmer--for I heard him knocking away at something in the
+hold, and work is good for him--there came up the hatchway a sudden,
+startled scream, which made my blood run cold, and up on the deck he
+came as if shot from a gun--a raging madman, with his eyes rolling and
+his face convulsed with fear. "Save me! save me!" he cried, and then
+looked round on the blanket of fog. His horror turned to despair, and in
+a steady voice he said: "You had better come too, captain, before it is
+too late. _He_ is there. I know the secret now. The sea will save me
+from Him, and it is all that is left!" Before I could say a word, or
+move forward to seize him, he sprang on the bulwark and deliberately
+threw himself into the sea. I suppose I know the secret too, now. It was
+this madman who had got rid of the men one by one, and now he has
+followed them himself. God help me! How am I to account for all these
+horrors when I get to port? _When_ I get to port! Will that ever be?
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_4 August._--Still fog, which the sunrise cannot pierce. I know there is
+sunrise because I am a sailor, why else I know not. I dared not go
+below, I dared not leave the helm; so here all night I stayed, and in
+the dimness of the night I saw It--Him! God forgive me, but the mate was
+right to jump overboard. It was better to die like a man; to die like a
+sailor in blue water no man can object. But I am captain, and I must not
+leave my ship. But I shall baffle this fiend or monster, for I shall tie
+my hands to the wheel when my strength begins to fail, and along with
+them I shall tie that which He--It!--dare not touch; and then, come good
+wind or foul, I shall save my soul, and my honour as a captain. I am
+growing weaker, and the night is coming on. If He can look me in the
+face again, I may not have time to act.... If we are wrecked, mayhap
+this bottle may be found, and those who find it may understand; if not,
+... well, then all men shall know that I have been true to my trust. God
+and the Blessed Virgin and the saints help a poor ignorant soul trying
+to do his duty....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Of course the verdict was an open one. There is no evidence to adduce;
+and whether or not the man himself committed the murders there is now
+none to say. The folk here hold almost universally that the captain is
+simply a hero, and he is to be given a public funeral. Already it is
+arranged that his body is to be taken with a train of boats up the Esk
+for a piece and then brought back to Tate Hill Pier and up the abbey
+steps; for he is to be buried in the churchyard on the cliff. The owners
+of more than a hundred boats have already given in their names as
+wishing to follow him to the grave.
+
+No trace has ever been found of the great dog; at which there is much
+mourning, for, with public opinion in its present state, he would, I
+believe, be adopted by the town. To-morrow will see the funeral; and so
+will end this one more "mystery of the sea."
+
+
+_Mina Murray's Journal._
+
+_8 August._--Lucy was very restless all night, and I, too, could not
+sleep. The storm was fearful, and as it boomed loudly among the
+chimney-pots, it made me shudder. When a sharp puff came it seemed to be
+like a distant gun. Strangely enough, Lucy did not wake; but she got up
+twice and dressed herself. Fortunately, each time I awoke in time and
+managed to undress her without waking her, and got her back to bed. It
+is a very strange thing, this sleep-walking, for as soon as her will is
+thwarted in any physical way, her intention, if there be any,
+disappears, and she yields herself almost exactly to the routine of her
+life.
+
+Early in the morning we both got up and went down to the harbour to see
+if anything had happened in the night. There were very few people about,
+and though the sun was bright, and the air clear and fresh, the big,
+grim-looking waves, that seemed dark themselves because the foam that
+topped them was like snow, forced themselves in through the narrow mouth
+of the harbour--like a bullying man going through a crowd. Somehow I
+felt glad that Jonathan was not on the sea last night, but on land. But,
+oh, is he on land or sea? Where is he, and how? I am getting fearfully
+anxious about him. If I only knew what to do, and could do anything!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_10 August._--The funeral of the poor sea-captain to-day was most
+touching. Every boat in the harbour seemed to be there, and the coffin
+was carried by captains all the way from Tate Hill Pier up to the
+churchyard. Lucy came with me, and we went early to our old seat, whilst
+the cortège of boats went up the river to the Viaduct and came down
+again. We had a lovely view, and saw the procession nearly all the way.
+The poor fellow was laid to rest quite near our seat so that we stood on
+it when the time came and saw everything. Poor Lucy seemed much upset.
+She was restless and uneasy all the time, and I cannot but think that
+her dreaming at night is telling on her. She is quite odd in one thing:
+she will not admit to me that there is any cause for restlessness; or if
+there be, she does not understand it herself. There is an additional
+cause in that poor old Mr. Swales was found dead this morning on our
+seat, his neck being broken. He had evidently, as the doctor said,
+fallen back in the seat in some sort of fright, for there was a look of
+fear and horror on his face that the men said made them shudder. Poor
+dear old man! Perhaps he had seen Death with his dying eyes! Lucy is so
+sweet and sensitive that she feels influences more acutely than other
+people do. Just now she was quite upset by a little thing which I did
+not much heed, though I am myself very fond of animals. One of the men
+who came up here often to look for the boats was followed by his dog.
+The dog is always with him. They are both quiet persons, and I never saw
+the man angry, nor heard the dog bark. During the service the dog would
+not come to its master, who was on the seat with us, but kept a few
+yards off, barking and howling. Its master spoke to it gently, and then
+harshly, and then angrily; but it would neither come nor cease to make a
+noise. It was in a sort of fury, with its eyes savage, and all its hairs
+bristling out like a cat's tail when puss is on the war-path. Finally
+the man, too, got angry, and jumped down and kicked the dog, and then
+took it by the scruff of the neck and half dragged and half threw it on
+the tombstone on which the seat is fixed. The moment it touched the
+stone the poor thing became quiet and fell all into a tremble. It did
+not try to get away, but crouched down, quivering and cowering, and was
+in such a pitiable state of terror that I tried, though without effect,
+to comfort it. Lucy was full of pity, too, but she did not attempt to
+touch the dog, but looked at it in an agonised sort of way. I greatly
+fear that she is of too super-sensitive a nature to go through the world
+without trouble. She will be dreaming of this to-night, I am sure. The
+whole agglomeration of things--the ship steered into port by a dead
+man; his attitude, tied to the wheel with a crucifix and beads; the
+touching funeral; the dog, now furious and now in terror--will all
+afford material for her dreams.
+
+I think it will be best for her to go to bed tired out physically, so I
+shall take her for a long walk by the cliffs to Robin Hood's Bay and
+back. She ought not to have much inclination for sleep-walking then.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MINA MURRAY'S JOURNAL
+
+
+_Same day, 11 o'clock p. m._--Oh, but I am tired! If it were not that I
+had made my diary a duty I should not open it to-night. We had a lovely
+walk. Lucy, after a while, was in gay spirits, owing, I think, to some
+dear cows who came nosing towards us in a field close to the lighthouse,
+and frightened the wits out of us. I believe we forgot everything
+except, of course, personal fear, and it seemed to wipe the slate clean
+and give us a fresh start. We had a capital "severe tea" at Robin Hood's
+Bay in a sweet little old-fashioned inn, with a bow-window right over
+the seaweed-covered rocks of the strand. I believe we should have
+shocked the "New Woman" with our appetites. Men are more tolerant, bless
+them! Then we walked home with some, or rather many, stoppages to rest,
+and with our hearts full of a constant dread of wild bulls. Lucy was
+really tired, and we intended to creep off to bed as soon as we could.
+The young curate came in, however, and Mrs. Westenra asked him to stay
+for supper. Lucy and I had both a fight for it with the dusty miller; I
+know it was a hard fight on my part, and I am quite heroic. I think that
+some day the bishops must get together and see about breeding up a new
+class of curates, who don't take supper, no matter how they may be
+pressed to, and who will know when girls are tired. Lucy is asleep and
+breathing softly. She has more colour in her cheeks than usual, and
+looks, oh, so sweet. If Mr. Holmwood fell in love with her seeing her
+only in the drawing-room, I wonder what he would say if he saw her now.
+Some of the "New Women" writers will some day start an idea that men and
+women should be allowed to see each other asleep before proposing or
+accepting. But I suppose the New Woman won't condescend in future to
+accept; she will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make
+of it, too! There's some consolation in that. I am so happy to-night,
+because dear Lucy seems better. I really believe she has turned the
+corner, and that we are over her troubles with dreaming. I should be
+quite happy if I only knew if Jonathan.... God bless and keep him.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_11 August, 3 a. m._--Diary again. No sleep now, so I may as well write.
+I am too agitated to sleep. We have had such an adventure, such an
+agonising experience. I fell asleep as soon as I had closed my diary....
+Suddenly I became broad awake, and sat up, with a horrible sense of fear
+upon me, and of some feeling of emptiness around me. The room was dark,
+so I could not see Lucy's bed; I stole across and felt for her. The bed
+was empty. I lit a match and found that she was not in the room. The
+door was shut, but not locked, as I had left it. I feared to wake her
+mother, who has been more than usually ill lately, so threw on some
+clothes and got ready to look for her. As I was leaving the room it
+struck me that the clothes she wore might give me some clue to her
+dreaming intention. Dressing-gown would mean house; dress, outside.
+Dressing-gown and dress were both in their places. "Thank God," I said
+to myself, "she cannot be far, as she is only in her nightdress." I ran
+downstairs and looked in the sitting-room. Not there! Then I looked in
+all the other open rooms of the house, with an ever-growing fear
+chilling my heart. Finally I came to the hall door and found it open. It
+was not wide open, but the catch of the lock had not caught. The people
+of the house are careful to lock the door every night, so I feared that
+Lucy must have gone out as she was. There was no time to think of what
+might happen; a vague, overmastering fear obscured all details. I took a
+big, heavy shawl and ran out. The clock was striking one as I was in the
+Crescent, and there was not a soul in sight. I ran along the North
+Terrace, but could see no sign of the white figure which I expected. At
+the edge of the West Cliff above the pier I looked across the harbour to
+the East Cliff, in the hope or fear--I don't know which--of seeing Lucy
+in our favourite seat. There was a bright full moon, with heavy black,
+driving clouds, which threw the whole scene into a fleeting diorama of
+light and shade as they sailed across. For a moment or two I could see
+nothing, as the shadow of a cloud obscured St. Mary's Church and all
+around it. Then as the cloud passed I could see the ruins of the abbey
+coming into view; and as the edge of a narrow band of light as sharp as
+a sword-cut moved along, the church and the churchyard became gradually
+visible. Whatever my expectation was, it was not disappointed, for
+there, on our favourite seat, the silver light of the moon struck a
+half-reclining figure, snowy white. The coming of the cloud was too
+quick for me to see much, for shadow shut down on light almost
+immediately; but it seemed to me as though something dark stood behind
+the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it. What it was,
+whether man or beast, I could not tell; I did not wait to catch another
+glance, but flew down the steep steps to the pier and along by the
+fish-market to the bridge, which was the only way to reach the East
+Cliff. The town seemed as dead, for not a soul did I see; I rejoiced
+that it was so, for I wanted no witness of poor Lucy's condition. The
+time and distance seemed endless, and my knees trembled and my breath
+came laboured as I toiled up the endless steps to the abbey. I must have
+gone fast, and yet it seemed to me as if my feet were weighted with
+lead, and as though every joint in my body were rusty. When I got almost
+to the top I could see the seat and the white figure, for I was now
+close enough to distinguish it even through the spells of shadow. There
+was undoubtedly something, long and black, bending over the
+half-reclining white figure. I called in fright, "Lucy! Lucy!" and
+something raised a head, and from where I was I could see a white face
+and red, gleaming eyes. Lucy did not answer, and I ran on to the
+entrance of the churchyard. As I entered, the church was between me and
+the seat, and for a minute or so I lost sight of her. When I came in
+view again the cloud had passed, and the moonlight struck so brilliantly
+that I could see Lucy half reclining with her head lying over the back
+of the seat. She was quite alone, and there was not a sign of any living
+thing about.
+
+When I bent over her I could see that she was still asleep. Her lips
+were parted, and she was breathing--not softly as usual with her, but in
+long, heavy gasps, as though striving to get her lungs full at every
+breath. As I came close, she put up her hand in her sleep and pulled the
+collar of her nightdress close around her throat. Whilst she did so
+there came a little shudder through her, as though she felt the cold. I
+flung the warm shawl over her, and drew the edges tight round her neck,
+for I dreaded lest she should get some deadly chill from the night air,
+unclad as she was. I feared to wake her all at once, so, in order to
+have my hands free that I might help her, I fastened the shawl at her
+throat with a big safety-pin; but I must have been clumsy in my anxiety
+and pinched or pricked her with it, for by-and-by, when her breathing
+became quieter, she put her hand to her throat again and moaned. When I
+had her carefully wrapped up I put my shoes on her feet and then began
+very gently to wake her. At first she did not respond; but gradually she
+became more and more uneasy in her sleep, moaning and sighing
+occasionally. At last, as time was passing fast, and, for many other
+reasons, I wished to get her home at once, I shook her more forcibly,
+till finally she opened her eyes and awoke. She did not seem surprised
+to see me, as, of course, she did not realise all at once where she was.
+Lucy always wakes prettily, and even at such a time, when her body must
+have been chilled with cold, and her mind somewhat appalled at waking
+unclad in a churchyard at night, she did not lose her grace. She
+trembled a little, and clung to me; when I told her to come at once with
+me home she rose without a word, with the obedience of a child. As we
+passed along, the gravel hurt my feet, and Lucy noticed me wince. She
+stopped and wanted to insist upon my taking my shoes; but I would not.
+However, when we got to the pathway outside the churchyard, where there
+was a puddle of water, remaining from the storm, I daubed my feet with
+mud, using each foot in turn on the other, so that as we went home, no
+one, in case we should meet any one, should notice my bare feet.
+
+Fortune favoured us, and we got home without meeting a soul. Once we saw
+a man, who seemed not quite sober, passing along a street in front of
+us; but we hid in a door till he had disappeared up an opening such as
+there are here, steep little closes, or "wynds," as they call them in
+Scotland. My heart beat so loud all the time that sometimes I thought I
+should faint. I was filled with anxiety about Lucy, not only for her
+health, lest she should suffer from the exposure, but for her reputation
+in case the story should get wind. When we got in, and had washed our
+feet, and had said a prayer of thankfulness together, I tucked her into
+bed. Before falling asleep she asked--even implored--me not to say a
+word to any one, even her mother, about her sleep-walking adventure. I
+hesitated at first to promise; but on thinking of the state of her
+mother's health, and how the knowledge of such a thing would fret her,
+and thinking, too, of how such a story might become distorted--nay,
+infallibly would--in case it should leak out, I thought it wiser to do
+so. I hope I did right. I have locked the door, and the key is tied to
+my wrist, so perhaps I shall not be again disturbed. Lucy is sleeping
+soundly; the reflex of the dawn is high and far over the sea....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Same day, noon._--All goes well. Lucy slept till I woke her and seemed
+not to have even changed her side. The adventure of the night does not
+seem to have harmed her; on the contrary, it has benefited her, for she
+looks better this morning than she has done for weeks. I was sorry to
+notice that my clumsiness with the safety-pin hurt her. Indeed, it might
+have been serious, for the skin of her throat was pierced. I must have
+pinched up a piece of loose skin and have transfixed it, for there are
+two little red points like pin-pricks, and on the band of her nightdress
+was a drop of blood. When I apologised and was concerned about it, she
+laughed and petted me, and said she did not even feel it. Fortunately it
+cannot leave a scar, as it is so tiny.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Same day, night._--We passed a happy day. The air was clear, and the
+sun bright, and there was a cool breeze. We took our lunch to Mulgrave
+Woods, Mrs. Westenra driving by the road and Lucy and I walking by the
+cliff-path and joining her at the gate. I felt a little sad myself, for
+I could not but feel how _absolutely_ happy it would have been had
+Jonathan been with me. But there! I must only be patient. In the evening
+we strolled in the Casino Terrace, and heard some good music by Spohr
+and Mackenzie, and went to bed early. Lucy seems more restful than she
+has been for some time, and fell asleep at once. I shall lock the door
+and secure the key the same as before, though I do not expect any
+trouble to-night.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_12 August._--My expectations were wrong, for twice during the night I
+was wakened by Lucy trying to get out. She seemed, even in her sleep, to
+be a little impatient at finding the door shut, and went back to bed
+under a sort of protest. I woke with the dawn, and heard the birds
+chirping outside of the window. Lucy woke, too, and, I was glad to see,
+was even better than on the previous morning. All her old gaiety of
+manner seemed to have come back, and she came and snuggled in beside me
+and told me all about Arthur. I told her how anxious I was about
+Jonathan, and then she tried to comfort me. Well, she succeeded
+somewhat, for, though sympathy can't alter facts, it can help to make
+them more bearable.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_13 August._--Another quiet day, and to bed with the key on my wrist as
+before. Again I awoke in the night, and found Lucy sitting up in bed,
+still asleep, pointing to the window. I got up quietly, and pulling
+aside the blind, looked out. It was brilliant moonlight, and the soft
+effect of the light over the sea and sky--merged together in one great,
+silent mystery--was beautiful beyond words. Between me and the moonlight
+flitted a great bat, coming and going in great whirling circles. Once or
+twice it came quite close, but was, I suppose, frightened at seeing me,
+and flitted away across the harbour towards the abbey. When I came back
+from the window Lucy had lain down again, and was sleeping peacefully.
+She did not stir again all night.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_14 August._--On the East Cliff, reading and writing all day. Lucy seems
+to have become as much in love with the spot as I am, and it is hard to
+get her away from it when it is time to come home for lunch or tea or
+dinner. This afternoon she made a funny remark. We were coming home for
+dinner, and had come to the top of the steps up from the West Pier and
+stopped to look at the view, as we generally do. The setting sun, low
+down in the sky, was just dropping behind Kettleness; the red light was
+thrown over on the East Cliff and the old abbey, and seemed to bathe
+everything in a beautiful rosy glow. We were silent for a while, and
+suddenly Lucy murmured as if to herself:--
+
+"His red eyes again! They are just the same." It was such an odd
+expression, coming _apropos_ of nothing, that it quite startled me. I
+slewed round a little, so as to see Lucy well without seeming to stare
+at her, and saw that she was in a half-dreamy state, with an odd look on
+her face that I could not quite make out; so I said nothing, but
+followed her eyes. She appeared to be looking over at our own seat,
+whereon was a dark figure seated alone. I was a little startled myself,
+for it seemed for an instant as if the stranger had great eyes like
+burning flames; but a second look dispelled the illusion. The red
+sunlight was shining on the windows of St. Mary's Church behind our
+seat, and as the sun dipped there was just sufficient change in the
+refraction and reflection to make it appear as if the light moved. I
+called Lucy's attention to the peculiar effect, and she became herself
+with a start, but she looked sad all the same; it may have been that she
+was thinking of that terrible night up there. We never refer to it; so I
+said nothing, and we went home to dinner. Lucy had a headache and went
+early to bed. I saw her asleep, and went out for a little stroll myself;
+I walked along the cliffs to the westward, and was full of sweet
+sadness, for I was thinking of Jonathan. When coming home--it was then
+bright moonlight, so bright that, though the front of our part of the
+Crescent was in shadow, everything could be well seen--I threw a glance
+up at our window, and saw Lucy's head leaning out. I thought that
+perhaps she was looking out for me, so I opened my handkerchief and
+waved it. She did not notice or make any movement whatever. Just then,
+the moonlight crept round an angle of the building, and the light fell
+on the window. There distinctly was Lucy with her head lying up against
+the side of the window-sill and her eyes shut. She was fast asleep, and
+by her, seated on the window-sill, was something that looked like a
+good-sized bird. I was afraid she might get a chill, so I ran upstairs,
+but as I came into the room she was moving back to her bed, fast
+asleep, and breathing heavily; she was holding her hand to her throat,
+as though to protect it from cold.
+
+I did not wake her, but tucked her up warmly; I have taken care that the
+door is locked and the window securely fastened.
+
+She looks so sweet as she sleeps; but she is paler than is her wont, and
+there is a drawn, haggard look under her eyes which I do not like. I
+fear she is fretting about something. I wish I could find out what it
+is.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_15 August._--Rose later than usual. Lucy was languid and tired, and
+slept on after we had been called. We had a happy surprise at breakfast.
+Arthur's father is better, and wants the marriage to come off soon. Lucy
+is full of quiet joy, and her mother is glad and sorry at once. Later on
+in the day she told me the cause. She is grieved to lose Lucy as her
+very own, but she is rejoiced that she is soon to have some one to
+protect her. Poor dear, sweet lady! She confided to me that she has got
+her death-warrant. She has not told Lucy, and made me promise secrecy;
+her doctor told her that within a few months, at most, she must die, for
+her heart is weakening. At any time, even now, a sudden shock would be
+almost sure to kill her. Ah, we were wise to keep from her the affair of
+the dreadful night of Lucy's sleep-walking.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_17 August._--No diary for two whole days. I have not had the heart to
+write. Some sort of shadowy pall seems to be coming over our happiness.
+No news from Jonathan, and Lucy seems to be growing weaker, whilst her
+mother's hours are numbering to a close. I do not understand Lucy's
+fading away as she is doing. She eats well and sleeps well, and enjoys
+the fresh air; but all the time the roses in her cheeks are fading, and
+she gets weaker and more languid day by day; at night I hear her gasping
+as if for air. I keep the key of our door always fastened to my wrist at
+night, but she gets up and walks about the room, and sits at the open
+window. Last night I found her leaning out when I woke up, and when I
+tried to wake her I could not; she was in a faint. When I managed to
+restore her she was as weak as water, and cried silently between long,
+painful struggles for breath. When I asked her how she came to be at the
+window she shook her head and turned away. I trust her feeling ill may
+not be from that unlucky prick of the safety-pin. I looked at her throat
+just now as she lay asleep, and the tiny wounds seem not to have healed.
+They are still open, and, if anything, larger than before, and the
+edges of them are faintly white. They are like little white dots with
+red centres. Unless they heal within a day or two, I shall insist on the
+doctor seeing about them.
+
+
+_Letter, Samuel F. Billington & Son, Solicitors, Whitby, to Messrs.
+Carter, Paterson & Co., London._
+
+"_17 August._
+
+"Dear Sirs,--
+
+"Herewith please receive invoice of goods sent by Great Northern
+Railway. Same are to be delivered at Carfax, near Purfleet, immediately
+on receipt at goods station King's Cross. The house is at present empty,
+but enclosed please find keys, all of which are labelled.
+
+"You will please deposit the boxes, fifty in number, which form the
+consignment, in the partially ruined building forming part of the house
+and marked 'A' on rough diagram enclosed. Your agent will easily
+recognise the locality, as it is the ancient chapel of the mansion. The
+goods leave by the train at 9:30 to-night, and will be due at King's
+Cross at 4:30 to-morrow afternoon. As our client wishes the delivery
+made as soon as possible, we shall be obliged by your having teams ready
+at King's Cross at the time named and forthwith conveying the goods to
+destination. In order to obviate any delays possible through any routine
+requirements as to payment in your departments, we enclose cheque
+herewith for ten pounds (£10), receipt of which please acknowledge.
+Should the charge be less than this amount, you can return balance; if
+greater, we shall at once send cheque for difference on hearing from
+you. You are to leave the keys on coming away in the main hall of the
+house, where the proprietor may get them on his entering the house by
+means of his duplicate key.
+
+"Pray do not take us as exceeding the bounds of business courtesy in
+pressing you in all ways to use the utmost expedition.
+
+_"We are, dear Sirs,
+
+"Faithfully yours,
+
+"SAMUEL F. BILLINGTON & SON."_
+
+
+_Letter, Messrs. Carter, Paterson & Co., London, to Messrs. Billington &
+Son, Whitby._
+
+"_21 August._
+
+"Dear Sirs,--
+
+"We beg to acknowledge £10 received and to return cheque £1 17s. 9d,
+amount of overplus, as shown in receipted account herewith. Goods are
+delivered in exact accordance with instructions, and keys left in parcel
+in main hall, as directed.
+
+"We are, dear Sirs,
+
+"Yours respectfully.
+
+"_Pro_ CARTER, PATERSON & CO."
+
+
+_Mina Murray's Journal._
+
+_18 August._--I am happy to-day, and write sitting on the seat in the
+churchyard. Lucy is ever so much better. Last night she slept well all
+night, and did not disturb me once. The roses seem coming back already
+to her cheeks, though she is still sadly pale and wan-looking. If she
+were in any way anæmic I could understand it, but she is not. She is in
+gay spirits and full of life and cheerfulness. All the morbid reticence
+seems to have passed from her, and she has just reminded me, as if I
+needed any reminding, of _that_ night, and that it was here, on this
+very seat, I found her asleep. As she told me she tapped playfully with
+the heel of her boot on the stone slab and said:--
+
+"My poor little feet didn't make much noise then! I daresay poor old Mr.
+Swales would have told me that it was because I didn't want to wake up
+Geordie." As she was in such a communicative humour, I asked her if she
+had dreamed at all that night. Before she answered, that sweet, puckered
+look came into her forehead, which Arthur--I call him Arthur from her
+habit--says he loves; and, indeed, I don't wonder that he does. Then she
+went on in a half-dreaming kind of way, as if trying to recall it to
+herself:--
+
+"I didn't quite dream; but it all seemed to be real. I only wanted to be
+here in this spot--I don't know why, for I was afraid of something--I
+don't know what. I remember, though I suppose I was asleep, passing
+through the streets and over the bridge. A fish leaped as I went by, and
+I leaned over to look at it, and I heard a lot of dogs howling--the
+whole town seemed as if it must be full of dogs all howling at once--as
+I went up the steps. Then I had a vague memory of something long and
+dark with red eyes, just as we saw in the sunset, and something very
+sweet and very bitter all around me at once; and then I seemed sinking
+into deep green water, and there was a singing in my ears, as I have
+heard there is to drowning men; and then everything seemed passing away
+from me; my soul seemed to go out from my body and float about the air.
+I seem to remember that once the West Lighthouse was right under me,
+and then there was a sort of agonising feeling, as if I were in an
+earthquake, and I came back and found you shaking my body. I saw you do
+it before I felt you."
+
+Then she began to laugh. It seemed a little uncanny to me, and I
+listened to her breathlessly. I did not quite like it, and thought it
+better not to keep her mind on the subject, so we drifted on to other
+subjects, and Lucy was like her old self again. When we got home the
+fresh breeze had braced her up, and her pale cheeks were really more
+rosy. Her mother rejoiced when she saw her, and we all spent a very
+happy evening together.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_19 August._--Joy, joy, joy! although not all joy. At last, news of
+Jonathan. The dear fellow has been ill; that is why he did not write. I
+am not afraid to think it or say it, now that I know. Mr. Hawkins sent
+me on the letter, and wrote himself, oh, so kindly. I am to leave in the
+morning and go over to Jonathan, and to help to nurse him if necessary,
+and to bring him home. Mr. Hawkins says it would not be a bad thing if
+we were to be married out there. I have cried over the good Sister's
+letter till I can feel it wet against my bosom, where it lies. It is of
+Jonathan, and must be next my heart, for he is _in_ my heart. My journey
+is all mapped out, and my luggage ready. I am only taking one change of
+dress; Lucy will bring my trunk to London and keep it till I send for
+it, for it may be that ... I must write no more; I must keep it to say
+to Jonathan, my husband. The letter that he has seen and touched must
+comfort me till we meet.
+
+
+_Letter, Sister Agatha, Hospital of St. Joseph and Ste. Mary,
+Buda-Pesth, to Miss Wilhelmina Murray._
+
+"_12 August._
+
+"Dear Madam,--
+
+"I write by desire of Mr. Jonathan Harker, who is himself not strong
+enough to write, though progressing well, thanks to God and St. Joseph
+and Ste. Mary. He has been under our care for nearly six weeks,
+suffering from a violent brain fever. He wishes me to convey his love,
+and to say that by this post I write for him to Mr. Peter Hawkins,
+Exeter, to say, with his dutiful respects, that he is sorry for his
+delay, and that all of his work is completed. He will require some few
+weeks' rest in our sanatorium in the hills, but will then return. He
+wishes me to say that he has not sufficient money with him, and that he
+would like to pay for his staying here, so that others who need shall
+not be wanting for help.
+
+"Believe me,
+
+"Yours, with sympathy and all blessings,
+
+"SISTER AGATHA.
+
+"P. S.--My patient being asleep, I open this to let you know something
+more. He has told me all about you, and that you are shortly to be his
+wife. All blessings to you both! He has had some fearful shock--so says
+our doctor--and in his delirium his ravings have been dreadful; of
+wolves and poison and blood; of ghosts and demons; and I fear to say of
+what. Be careful with him always that there may be nothing to excite him
+of this kind for a long time to come; the traces of such an illness as
+his do not lightly die away. We should have written long ago, but we
+knew nothing of his friends, and there was on him nothing that any one
+could understand. He came in the train from Klausenburg, and the guard
+was told by the station-master there that he rushed into the station
+shouting for a ticket for home. Seeing from his violent demeanour that
+he was English, they gave him a ticket for the furthest station on the
+way thither that the train reached.
+
+"Be assured that he is well cared for. He has won all hearts by his
+sweetness and gentleness. He is truly getting on well, and I have no
+doubt will in a few weeks be all himself. But be careful of him for
+safety's sake. There are, I pray God and St. Joseph and Ste. Mary, many,
+many, happy years for you both."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_19 August._--Strange and sudden change in Renfield last night. About
+eight o'clock he began to get excited and sniff about as a dog does when
+setting. The attendant was struck by his manner, and knowing my interest
+in him, encouraged him to talk. He is usually respectful to the
+attendant and at times servile; but to-night, the man tells me, he was
+quite haughty. Would not condescend to talk with him at all. All he
+would say was:--
+
+ "I don't want to talk to you: you don't count now; the Master is at
+ hand."
+
+The attendant thinks it is some sudden form of religious mania which has
+seized him. If so, we must look out for squalls, for a strong man with
+homicidal and religious mania at once might be dangerous. The
+combination is a dreadful one. At nine o'clock I visited him myself. His
+attitude to me was the same as that to the attendant; in his sublime
+self-feeling the difference between myself and attendant seemed to him
+as nothing. It looks like religious mania, and he will soon think that
+he himself is God. These infinitesimal distinctions between man and man
+are too paltry for an Omnipotent Being. How these madmen give themselves
+away! The real God taketh heed lest a sparrow fall; but the God created
+from human vanity sees no difference between an eagle and a sparrow. Oh,
+if men only knew!
+
+For half an hour or more Renfield kept getting excited in greater and
+greater degree. I did not pretend to be watching him, but I kept strict
+observation all the same. All at once that shifty look came into his
+eyes which we always see when a madman has seized an idea, and with it
+the shifty movement of the head and back which asylum attendants come to
+know so well. He became quite quiet, and went and sat on the edge of his
+bed resignedly, and looked into space with lack-lustre eyes. I thought I
+would find out if his apathy were real or only assumed, and tried to
+lead him to talk of his pets, a theme which had never failed to excite
+his attention. At first he made no reply, but at length said testily:--
+
+"Bother them all! I don't care a pin about them."
+
+"What?" I said. "You don't mean to tell me you don't care about
+spiders?" (Spiders at present are his hobby and the note-book is filling
+up with columns of small figures.) To this he answered enigmatically:--
+
+"The bride-maidens rejoice the eyes that wait the coming of the bride;
+but when the bride draweth nigh, then the maidens shine not to the eyes
+that are filled."
+
+He would not explain himself, but remained obstinately seated on his bed
+all the time I remained with him.
+
+I am weary to-night and low in spirits. I cannot but think of Lucy, and
+how different things might have been. If I don't sleep at once, chloral,
+the modern Morpheus--C_{2}HCl_{3}O. H_{2}O! I must be careful not to let
+it grow into a habit. No, I shall take none to-night! I have thought of
+Lucy, and I shall not dishonour her by mixing the two. If need be,
+to-night shall be sleepless....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Glad I made the resolution; gladder that I kept to it. I had
+lain tossing about, and had heard the clock strike only twice, when the
+night-watchman came to me, sent up from the ward, to say that Renfield
+had escaped. I threw on my clothes and ran down at once; my patient is
+too dangerous a person to be roaming about. Those ideas of his might
+work out dangerously with strangers. The attendant was waiting for me.
+He said he had seen him not ten minutes before, seemingly asleep in his
+bed, when he had looked through the observation-trap in the door. His
+attention was called by the sound of the window being wrenched out. He
+ran back and saw his feet disappear through the window, and had at once
+sent up for me. He was only in his night-gear, and cannot be far off.
+The attendant thought it would be more useful to watch where he should
+go than to follow him, as he might lose sight of him whilst getting out
+of the building by the door. He is a bulky man, and couldn't get through
+the window. I am thin, so, with his aid, I got out, but feet foremost,
+and, as we were only a few feet above ground, landed unhurt. The
+attendant told me the patient had gone to the left, and had taken a
+straight line, so I ran as quickly as I could. As I got through the belt
+of trees I saw a white figure scale the high wall which separates our
+grounds from those of the deserted house.
+
+I ran back at once, told the watchman to get three or four men
+immediately and follow me into the grounds of Carfax, in case our friend
+might be dangerous. I got a ladder myself, and crossing the wall,
+dropped down on the other side. I could see Renfield's figure just
+disappearing behind the angle of the house, so I ran after him. On the
+far side of the house I found him pressed close against the old
+ironbound oak door of the chapel. He was talking, apparently to some
+one, but I was afraid to go near enough to hear what he was saying, lest
+I might frighten him, and he should run off. Chasing an errant swarm of
+bees is nothing to following a naked lunatic, when the fit of escaping
+is upon him! After a few minutes, however, I could see that he did not
+take note of anything around him, and so ventured to draw nearer to
+him--the more so as my men had now crossed the wall and were closing him
+in. I heard him say:--
+
+"I am here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave, and You will
+reward me, for I shall be faithful. I have worshipped You long and afar
+off. Now that You are near, I await Your commands, and You will not pass
+me by, will You, dear Master, in Your distribution of good things?"
+
+He _is_ a selfish old beggar anyhow. He thinks of the loaves and fishes
+even when he believes he is in a Real Presence. His manias make a
+startling combination. When we closed in on him he fought like a tiger.
+He is immensely strong, for he was more like a wild beast than a man. I
+never saw a lunatic in such a paroxysm of rage before; and I hope I
+shall not again. It is a mercy that we have found out his strength and
+his danger in good time. With strength and determination like his, he
+might have done wild work before he was caged. He is safe now at any
+rate. Jack Sheppard himself couldn't get free from the strait-waistcoat
+that keeps him restrained, and he's chained to the wall in the padded
+room. His cries are at times awful, but the silences that follow are
+more deadly still, for he means murder in every turn and movement.
+
+Just now he spoke coherent words for the first time:--
+
+"I shall be patient, Master. It is coming--coming--coming!"
+
+So I took the hint, and came too. I was too excited to sleep, but this
+diary has quieted me, and I feel I shall get some sleep to-night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+_Letter, Mina Harker to Lucy Westenra._
+
+"_Buda-Pesth, 24 August._
+
+"My dearest Lucy,--
+
+"I know you will be anxious to hear all that has happened since we
+parted at the railway station at Whitby. Well, my dear, I got to Hull
+all right, and caught the boat to Hamburg, and then the train on here. I
+feel that I can hardly recall anything of the journey, except that I
+knew I was coming to Jonathan, and, that as I should have to do some
+nursing, I had better get all the sleep I could.... I found my dear one,
+oh, so thin and pale and weak-looking. All the resolution has gone out
+of his dear eyes, and that quiet dignity which I told you was in his
+face has vanished. He is only a wreck of himself, and he does not
+remember anything that has happened to him for a long time past. At
+least, he wants me to believe so, and I shall never ask. He has had some
+terrible shock, and I fear it might tax his poor brain if he were to try
+to recall it. Sister Agatha, who is a good creature and a born nurse,
+tells me that he raved of dreadful things whilst he was off his head. I
+wanted her to tell me what they were; but she would only cross herself,
+and say she would never tell; that the ravings of the sick were the
+secrets of God, and that if a nurse through her vocation should hear
+them, she should respect her trust. She is a sweet, good soul, and the
+next day, when she saw I was troubled, she opened up the subject again,
+and after saying that she could never mention what my poor dear raved
+about, added: 'I can tell you this much, my dear: that it was not about
+anything which he has done wrong himself; and you, as his wife to be,
+have no cause to be concerned. He has not forgotten you or what he owes
+to you. His fear was of great and terrible things, which no mortal can
+treat of.' I do believe the dear soul thought I might be jealous lest my
+poor dear should have fallen in love with any other girl. The idea of
+_my_ being jealous about Jonathan! And yet, my dear, let me whisper, I
+felt a thrill of joy through me when I _knew_ that no other woman was a
+cause of trouble. I am now sitting by his bedside, where I can see his
+face while he sleeps. He is waking!...
+
+"When he woke he asked me for his coat, as he wanted to get something
+from the pocket; I asked Sister Agatha, and she brought all his things.
+I saw that amongst them was his note-book, and was going to ask him to
+let me look at it--for I knew then that I might find some clue to his
+trouble--but I suppose he must have seen my wish in my eyes, for he sent
+me over to the window, saying he wanted to be quite alone for a moment.
+Then he called me back, and when I came he had his hand over the
+note-book, and he said to me very solemnly:--
+
+"'Wilhelmina'--I knew then that he was in deadly earnest, for he has
+never called me by that name since he asked me to marry him--'you know,
+dear, my ideas of the trust between husband and wife: there should be no
+secret, no concealment. I have had a great shock, and when I try to
+think of what it is I feel my head spin round, and I do not know if it
+was all real or the dreaming of a madman. You know I have had brain
+fever, and that is to be mad. The secret is here, and I do not want to
+know it. I want to take up my life here, with our marriage.' For, my
+dear, we had decided to be married as soon as the formalities are
+complete. 'Are you willing, Wilhelmina, to share my ignorance? Here is
+the book. Take it and keep it, read it if you will, but never let me
+know; unless, indeed, some solemn duty should come upon me to go back to
+the bitter hours, asleep or awake, sane or mad, recorded here.' He fell
+back exhausted, and I put the book under his pillow, and kissed him. I
+have asked Sister Agatha to beg the Superior to let our wedding be this
+afternoon, and am waiting her reply....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+"She has come and told me that the chaplain of the English mission
+church has been sent for. We are to be married in an hour, or as soon
+after as Jonathan awakes....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+"Lucy, the time has come and gone. I feel very solemn, but very, very
+happy. Jonathan woke a little after the hour, and all was ready, and he
+sat up in bed, propped up with pillows. He answered his 'I will' firmly
+and strongly. I could hardly speak; my heart was so full that even those
+words seemed to choke me. The dear sisters were so kind. Please God, I
+shall never, never forget them, nor the grave and sweet responsibilities
+I have taken upon me. I must tell you of my wedding present. When the
+chaplain and the sisters had left me alone with my husband--oh, Lucy, it
+is the first time I have written the words 'my husband'--left me alone
+with my husband, I took the book from under his pillow, and wrapped it
+up in white paper, and tied it with a little bit of pale blue ribbon
+which was round my neck, and sealed it over the knot with sealing-wax,
+and for my seal I used my wedding ring. Then I kissed it and showed it
+to my husband, and told him that I would keep it so, and then it would
+be an outward and visible sign for us all our lives that we trusted each
+other; that I would never open it unless it were for his own dear sake
+or for the sake of some stern duty. Then he took my hand in his, and oh,
+Lucy, it was the first time he took _his wife's_ hand, and said that it
+was the dearest thing in all the wide world, and that he would go
+through all the past again to win it, if need be. The poor dear meant to
+have said a part of the past, but he cannot think of time yet, and I
+shall not wonder if at first he mixes up not only the month, but the
+year.
+
+"Well, my dear, what could I say? I could only tell him that I was the
+happiest woman in all the wide world, and that I had nothing to give him
+except myself, my life, and my trust, and that with these went my love
+and duty for all the days of my life. And, my dear, when he kissed me,
+and drew me to him with his poor weak hands, it was like a very solemn
+pledge between us....
+
+"Lucy dear, do you know why I tell you all this? It is not only because
+it is all sweet to me, but because you have been, and are, very dear to
+me. It was my privilege to be your friend and guide when you came from
+the schoolroom to prepare for the world of life. I want you to see now,
+and with the eyes of a very happy wife, whither duty has led me; so that
+in your own married life you too may be all happy as I am. My dear,
+please Almighty God, your life may be all it promises: a long day of
+sunshine, with no harsh wind, no forgetting duty, no distrust. I must
+not wish you no pain, for that can never be; but I do hope you will be
+_always_ as happy as I am _now_. Good-bye, my dear. I shall post this at
+once, and, perhaps, write you very soon again. I must stop, for Jonathan
+is waking--I must attend to my husband!
+
+"Your ever-loving
+
+"MINA HARKER."
+
+
+_Letter, Lucy Westenra to Mina Harker._
+
+"_Whitby, 30 August._
+
+"My dearest Mina,--
+
+"Oceans of love and millions of kisses, and may you soon be in your own
+home with your husband. I wish you could be coming home soon enough to
+stay with us here. The strong air would soon restore Jonathan; it has
+quite restored me. I have an appetite like a cormorant, am full of
+life, and sleep well. You will be glad to know that I have quite given
+up walking in my sleep. I think I have not stirred out of my bed for a
+week, that is when I once got into it at night. Arthur says I am getting
+fat. By the way, I forgot to tell you that Arthur is here. We have such
+walks and drives, and rides, and rowing, and tennis, and fishing
+together; and I love him more than ever. He _tells_ me that he loves me
+more, but I doubt that, for at first he told me that he couldn't love me
+more than he did then. But this is nonsense. There he is, calling to me.
+So no more just at present from your loving
+
+"LUCY.
+
+"P. S.--Mother sends her love. She seems better, poor dear. "P. P.
+S.--We are to be married on 28 September."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_20 August._--The case of Renfield grows even more interesting. He has
+now so far quieted that there are spells of cessation from his passion.
+For the first week after his attack he was perpetually violent. Then one
+night, just as the moon rose, he grew quiet, and kept murmuring to
+himself: "Now I can wait; now I can wait." The attendant came to tell
+me, so I ran down at once to have a look at him. He was still in the
+strait-waistcoat and in the padded room, but the suffused look had gone
+from his face, and his eyes had something of their old pleading--I might
+almost say, "cringing"--softness. I was satisfied with his present
+condition, and directed him to be relieved. The attendants hesitated,
+but finally carried out my wishes without protest. It was a strange
+thing that the patient had humour enough to see their distrust, for,
+coming close to me, he said in a whisper, all the while looking
+furtively at them:--
+
+"They think I could hurt you! Fancy _me_ hurting _you_! The fools!"
+
+It was soothing, somehow, to the feelings to find myself dissociated
+even in the mind of this poor madman from the others; but all the same I
+do not follow his thought. Am I to take it that I have anything in
+common with him, so that we are, as it were, to stand together; or has
+he to gain from me some good so stupendous that my well-being is needful
+to him? I must find out later on. To-night he will not speak. Even the
+offer of a kitten or even a full-grown cat will not tempt him. He will
+only say: "I don't take any stock in cats. I have more to think of now,
+and I can wait; I can wait."
+
+After a while I left him. The attendant tells me that he was quiet
+until just before dawn, and that then he began to get uneasy, and at
+length violent, until at last he fell into a paroxysm which exhausted
+him so that he swooned into a sort of coma.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+... Three nights has the same thing happened--violent all day then quiet
+from moonrise to sunrise. I wish I could get some clue to the cause. It
+would almost seem as if there was some influence which came and went.
+Happy thought! We shall to-night play sane wits against mad ones. He
+escaped before without our help; to-night he shall escape with it. We
+shall give him a chance, and have the men ready to follow in case they
+are required....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_23 August._--"The unexpected always happens." How well Disraeli knew
+life. Our bird when he found the cage open would not fly, so all our
+subtle arrangements were for nought. At any rate, we have proved one
+thing; that the spells of quietness last a reasonable time. We shall in
+future be able to ease his bonds for a few hours each day. I have given
+orders to the night attendant merely to shut him in the padded room,
+when once he is quiet, until an hour before sunrise. The poor soul's
+body will enjoy the relief even if his mind cannot appreciate it. Hark!
+The unexpected again! I am called; the patient has once more escaped.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Another night adventure. Renfield artfully waited until the
+attendant was entering the room to inspect. Then he dashed out past him
+and flew down the passage. I sent word for the attendants to follow.
+Again he went into the grounds of the deserted house, and we found him
+in the same place, pressed against the old chapel door. When he saw me
+he became furious, and had not the attendants seized him in time, he
+would have tried to kill me. As we were holding him a strange thing
+happened. He suddenly redoubled his efforts, and then as suddenly grew
+calm. I looked round instinctively, but could see nothing. Then I caught
+the patient's eye and followed it, but could trace nothing as it looked
+into the moonlit sky except a big bat, which was flapping its silent and
+ghostly way to the west. Bats usually wheel and flit about, but this one
+seemed to go straight on, as if it knew where it was bound for or had
+some intention of its own. The patient grew calmer every instant, and
+presently said:--
+
+"You needn't tie me; I shall go quietly!" Without trouble we came back
+to the house. I feel there is something ominous in his calm, and shall
+not forget this night....
+
+
+_Lucy Westenra's Diary_
+
+_Hillingham, 24 August._--I must imitate Mina, and keep writing things
+down. Then we can have long talks when we do meet. I wonder when it will
+be. I wish she were with me again, for I feel so unhappy. Last night I
+seemed to be dreaming again just as I was at Whitby. Perhaps it is the
+change of air, or getting home again. It is all dark and horrid to me,
+for I can remember nothing; but I am full of vague fear, and I feel so
+weak and worn out. When Arthur came to lunch he looked quite grieved
+when he saw me, and I hadn't the spirit to try to be cheerful. I wonder
+if I could sleep in mother's room to-night. I shall make an excuse and
+try.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_25 August._--Another bad night. Mother did not seem to take to my
+proposal. She seems not too well herself, and doubtless she fears to
+worry me. I tried to keep awake, and succeeded for a while; but when the
+clock struck twelve it waked me from a doze, so I must have been falling
+asleep. There was a sort of scratching or flapping at the window, but I
+did not mind it, and as I remember no more, I suppose I must then have
+fallen asleep. More bad dreams. I wish I could remember them. This
+morning I am horribly weak. My face is ghastly pale, and my throat pains
+me. It must be something wrong with my lungs, for I don't seem ever to
+get air enough. I shall try to cheer up when Arthur comes, or else I
+know he will be miserable to see me so.
+
+
+_Letter, Arthur Holmwood to Dr. Seward._
+
+"_Albemarle Hotel, 31 August._
+
+"My dear Jack,--
+
+"I want you to do me a favour. Lucy is ill; that is, she has no special
+disease, but she looks awful, and is getting worse every day. I have
+asked her if there is any cause; I do not dare to ask her mother, for to
+disturb the poor lady's mind about her daughter in her present state of
+health would be fatal. Mrs. Westenra has confided to me that her doom is
+spoken--disease of the heart--though poor Lucy does not know it yet. I
+am sure that there is something preying on my dear girl's mind. I am
+almost distracted when I think of her; to look at her gives me a pang. I
+told her I should ask you to see her, and though she demurred at
+first--I know why, old fellow--she finally consented. It will be a
+painful task for you, I know, old friend, but it is for _her_ sake, and
+I must not hesitate to ask, or you to act. You are to come to lunch at
+Hillingham to-morrow, two o'clock, so as not to arouse any suspicion in
+Mrs. Westenra, and after lunch Lucy will take an opportunity of being
+alone with you. I shall come in for tea, and we can go away together; I
+am filled with anxiety, and want to consult with you alone as soon as I
+can after you have seen her. Do not fail!
+
+"ARTHUR."
+
+
+_Telegram, Arthur Holmwood to Seward._
+
+"_1 September._
+
+"Am summoned to see my father, who is worse. Am writing. Write me fully
+by to-night's post to Ring. Wire me if necessary."
+
+
+_Letter from Dr. Seward to Arthur Holmwood._
+
+"_2 September._
+
+"My dear old fellow,--
+
+"With regard to Miss Westenra's health I hasten to let you know at once
+that in my opinion there is not any functional disturbance or any malady
+that I know of. At the same time, I am not by any means satisfied with
+her appearance; she is woefully different from what she was when I saw
+her last. Of course you must bear in mind that I did not have full
+opportunity of examination such as I should wish; our very friendship
+makes a little difficulty which not even medical science or custom can
+bridge over. I had better tell you exactly what happened, leaving you to
+draw, in a measure, your own conclusions. I shall then say what I have
+done and propose doing.
+
+"I found Miss Westenra in seemingly gay spirits. Her mother was present,
+and in a few seconds I made up my mind that she was trying all she knew
+to mislead her mother and prevent her from being anxious. I have no
+doubt she guesses, if she does not know, what need of caution there is.
+We lunched alone, and as we all exerted ourselves to be cheerful, we
+got, as some kind of reward for our labours, some real cheerfulness
+amongst us. Then Mrs. Westenra went to lie down, and Lucy was left with
+me. We went into her boudoir, and till we got there her gaiety remained,
+for the servants were coming and going. As soon as the door was closed,
+however, the mask fell from her face, and she sank down into a chair
+with a great sigh, and hid her eyes with her hand. When I saw that her
+high spirits had failed, I at once took advantage of her reaction to
+make a diagnosis. She said to me very sweetly:--
+
+"'I cannot tell you how I loathe talking about myself.' I reminded her
+that a doctor's confidence was sacred, but that you were grievously
+anxious about her. She caught on to my meaning at once, and settled that
+matter in a word. 'Tell Arthur everything you choose. I do not care for
+myself, but all for him!' So I am quite free.
+
+"I could easily see that she is somewhat bloodless, but I could not see
+the usual anæmic signs, and by a chance I was actually able to test the
+quality of her blood, for in opening a window which was stiff a cord
+gave way, and she cut her hand slightly with broken glass. It was a
+slight matter in itself, but it gave me an evident chance, and I secured
+a few drops of the blood and have analysed them. The qualitative
+analysis gives a quite normal condition, and shows, I should infer, in
+itself a vigorous state of health. In other physical matters I was quite
+satisfied that there is no need for anxiety; but as there must be a
+cause somewhere, I have come to the conclusion that it must be something
+mental. She complains of difficulty in breathing satisfactorily at
+times, and of heavy, lethargic sleep, with dreams that frighten her, but
+regarding which she can remember nothing. She says that as a child she
+used to walk in her sleep, and that when in Whitby the habit came back,
+and that once she walked out in the night and went to East Cliff, where
+Miss Murray found her; but she assures me that of late the habit has not
+returned. I am in doubt, and so have done the best thing I know of; I
+have written to my old friend and master, Professor Van Helsing, of
+Amsterdam, who knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the
+world. I have asked him to come over, and as you told me that all things
+were to be at your charge, I have mentioned to him who you are and your
+relations to Miss Westenra. This, my dear fellow, is in obedience to
+your wishes, for I am only too proud and happy to do anything I can for
+her. Van Helsing would, I know, do anything for me for a personal
+reason, so, no matter on what ground he comes, we must accept his
+wishes. He is a seemingly arbitrary man, but this is because he knows
+what he is talking about better than any one else. He is a philosopher
+and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day;
+and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron
+nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, an indomitable resolution,
+self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the
+kindliest and truest heart that beats--these form his equipment for the
+noble work that he is doing for mankind--work both in theory and
+practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy. I
+tell you these facts that you may know why I have such confidence in
+him. I have asked him to come at once. I shall see Miss Westenra
+to-morrow again. She is to meet me at the Stores, so that I may not
+alarm her mother by too early a repetition of my call.
+
+"Yours always,
+
+"JOHN SEWARD."
+
+
+_Letter, Abraham Van Helsing, M. D., D. Ph., D. Lit., etc., etc., to Dr.
+Seward._
+
+"_2 September._
+
+"My good Friend,--
+
+"When I have received your letter I am already coming to you. By good
+fortune I can leave just at once, without wrong to any of those who have
+trusted me. Were fortune other, then it were bad for those who have
+trusted, for I come to my friend when he call me to aid those he holds
+dear. Tell your friend that when that time you suck from my wound so
+swiftly the poison of the gangrene from that knife that our other
+friend, too nervous, let slip, you did more for him when he wants my
+aids and you call for them than all his great fortune could do. But it
+is pleasure added to do for him, your friend; it is to you that I come.
+Have then rooms for me at the Great Eastern Hotel, so that I may be near
+to hand, and please it so arrange that we may see the young lady not too
+late on to-morrow, for it is likely that I may have to return here that
+night. But if need be I shall come again in three days, and stay longer
+if it must. Till then good-bye, my friend John.
+
+ "VAN HELSING."
+
+
+_Letter, Dr. Seward to Hon. Arthur Holmwood._
+
+"_3 September._
+
+"My dear Art,--
+
+"Van Helsing has come and gone. He came on with me to Hillingham, and
+found that, by Lucy's discretion, her mother was lunching out, so that
+we were alone with her. Van Helsing made a very careful examination of
+the patient. He is to report to me, and I shall advise you, for of
+course I was not present all the time. He is, I fear, much concerned,
+but says he must think. When I told him of our friendship and how you
+trust to me in the matter, he said: 'You must tell him all you think.
+Tell him what I think, if you can guess it, if you will. Nay, I am not
+jesting. This is no jest, but life and death, perhaps more.' I asked
+what he meant by that, for he was very serious. This was when we had
+come back to town, and he was having a cup of tea before starting on his
+return to Amsterdam. He would not give me any further clue. You must not
+be angry with me, Art, because his very reticence means that all his
+brains are working for her good. He will speak plainly enough when the
+time comes, be sure. So I told him I would simply write an account of
+our visit, just as if I were doing a descriptive special article for
+_The Daily Telegraph_. He seemed not to notice, but remarked that the
+smuts in London were not quite so bad as they used to be when he was a
+student here. I am to get his report to-morrow if he can possibly make
+it. In any case I am to have a letter.
+
+"Well, as to the visit. Lucy was more cheerful than on the day I first
+saw her, and certainly looked better. She had lost something of the
+ghastly look that so upset you, and her breathing was normal. She was
+very sweet to the professor (as she always is), and tried to make him
+feel at ease; though I could see that the poor girl was making a hard
+struggle for it. I believe Van Helsing saw it, too, for I saw the quick
+look under his bushy brows that I knew of old. Then he began to chat of
+all things except ourselves and diseases and with such an infinite
+geniality that I could see poor Lucy's pretense of animation merge into
+reality. Then, without any seeming change, he brought the conversation
+gently round to his visit, and suavely said:--
+
+"'My dear young miss, I have the so great pleasure because you are so
+much beloved. That is much, my dear, ever were there that which I do not
+see. They told me you were down in the spirit, and that you were of a
+ghastly pale. To them I say: "Pouf!"' And he snapped his fingers at me
+and went on: 'But you and I shall show them how wrong they are. How can
+he'--and he pointed at me with the same look and gesture as that with
+which once he pointed me out to his class, on, or rather after, a
+particular occasion which he never fails to remind me of--'know anything
+of a young ladies? He has his madams to play with, and to bring them
+back to happiness, and to those that love them. It is much to do, and,
+oh, but there are rewards, in that we can bestow such happiness. But the
+young ladies! He has no wife nor daughter, and the young do not tell
+themselves to the young, but to the old, like me, who have known so many
+sorrows and the causes of them. So, my dear, we will send him away to
+smoke the cigarette in the garden, whiles you and I have little talk all
+to ourselves.' I took the hint, and strolled about, and presently the
+professor came to the window and called me in. He looked grave, but
+said: 'I have made careful examination, but there is no functional
+cause. With you I agree that there has been much blood lost; it has
+been, but is not. But the conditions of her are in no way anæmic. I have
+asked her to send me her maid, that I may ask just one or two question,
+that so I may not chance to miss nothing. I know well what she will say.
+And yet there is cause; there is always cause for everything. I must go
+back home and think. You must send to me the telegram every day; and if
+there be cause I shall come again. The disease--for not to be all well
+is a disease--interest me, and the sweet young dear, she interest me
+too. She charm me, and for her, if not for you or disease, I come.'
+
+"As I tell you, he would not say a word more, even when we were alone.
+And so now, Art, you know all I know. I shall keep stern watch. I trust
+your poor father is rallying. It must be a terrible thing to you, my
+dear old fellow, to be placed in such a position between two people who
+are both so dear to you. I know your idea of duty to your father, and
+you are right to stick to it; but, if need be, I shall send you word to
+come at once to Lucy; so do not be over-anxious unless you hear from
+me."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_4 September._--Zoöphagous patient still keeps up our interest in him.
+He had only one outburst and that was yesterday at an unusual time. Just
+before the stroke of noon he began to grow restless. The attendant knew
+the symptoms, and at once summoned aid. Fortunately the men came at a
+run, and were just in time, for at the stroke of noon he became so
+violent that it took all their strength to hold him. In about five
+minutes, however, he began to get more and more quiet, and finally sank
+into a sort of melancholy, in which state he has remained up to now. The
+attendant tells me that his screams whilst in the paroxysm were really
+appalling; I found my hands full when I got in, attending to some of the
+other patients who were frightened by him. Indeed, I can quite
+understand the effect, for the sounds disturbed even me, though I was
+some distance away. It is now after the dinner-hour of the asylum, and
+as yet my patient sits in a corner brooding, with a dull, sullen,
+woe-begone look in his face, which seems rather to indicate than to show
+something directly. I cannot quite understand it.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Another change in my patient. At five o'clock I looked in on
+him, and found him seemingly as happy and contented as he used to be. He
+was catching flies and eating them, and was keeping note of his capture
+by making nail-marks on the edge of the door between the ridges of
+padding. When he saw me, he came over and apologised for his bad
+conduct, and asked me in a very humble, cringing way to be led back to
+his own room and to have his note-book again. I thought it well to
+humour him: so he is back in his room with the window open. He has the
+sugar of his tea spread out on the window-sill, and is reaping quite a
+harvest of flies. He is not now eating them, but putting them into a
+box, as of old, and is already examining the corners of his room to find
+a spider. I tried to get him to talk about the past few days, for any
+clue to his thoughts would be of immense help to me; but he would not
+rise. For a moment or two he looked very sad, and said in a sort of
+far-away voice, as though saying it rather to himself than to me:--
+
+"All over! all over! He has deserted me. No hope for me now unless I do
+it for myself!" Then suddenly turning to me in a resolute way, he said:
+"Doctor, won't you be very good to me and let me have a little more
+sugar? I think it would be good for me."
+
+"And the flies?" I said.
+
+"Yes! The flies like it, too, and I like the flies; therefore I like
+it." And there are people who know so little as to think that madmen do
+not argue. I procured him a double supply, and left him as happy a man
+as, I suppose, any in the world. I wish I could fathom his mind.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Midnight._--Another change in him. I had been to see Miss Westenra,
+whom I found much better, and had just returned, and was standing at our
+own gate looking at the sunset, when once more I heard him yelling. As
+his room is on this side of the house, I could hear it better than in
+the morning. It was a shock to me to turn from the wonderful smoky
+beauty of a sunset over London, with its lurid lights and inky shadows
+and all the marvellous tints that come on foul clouds even as on foul
+water, and to realise all the grim sternness of my own cold stone
+building, with its wealth of breathing misery, and my own desolate heart
+to endure it all. I reached him just as the sun was going down, and from
+his window saw the red disc sink. As it sank he became less and less
+frenzied; and just as it dipped he slid from the hands that held him, an
+inert mass, on the floor. It is wonderful, however, what intellectual
+recuperative power lunatics have, for within a few minutes he stood up
+quite calmly and looked around him. I signalled to the attendants not to
+hold him, for I was anxious to see what he would do. He went straight
+over to the window and brushed out the crumbs of sugar; then he took his
+fly-box, and emptied it outside, and threw away the box; then he shut
+the window, and crossing over, sat down on his bed. All this surprised
+me, so I asked him: "Are you not going to keep flies any more?"
+
+"No," said he; "I am sick of all that rubbish!" He certainly is a
+wonderfully interesting study. I wish I could get some glimpse of his
+mind or of the cause of his sudden passion. Stop; there may be a clue
+after all, if we can find why to-day his paroxysms came on at high noon
+and at sunset. Can it be that there is a malign influence of the sun at
+periods which affects certain natures--as at times the moon does others?
+We shall see.
+
+
+_Telegram, Seward, London, to Van Helsing, Amsterdam._
+
+"_4 September._--Patient still better to-day."
+
+
+_Telegram, Seward, London, to Van Helsing, Amsterdam._
+
+"_5 September._--Patient greatly improved. Good appetite; sleeps
+naturally; good spirits; colour coming back."
+
+
+_Telegram, Seward, London, to Van Helsing, Amsterdam._
+
+"_6 September._--Terrible change for the worse. Come at once; do not
+lose an hour. I hold over telegram to Holmwood till have seen you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+_Letter, Dr. Seward to Hon. Arthur Holmwood._
+
+"_6 September._
+
+"My dear Art,--
+
+"My news to-day is not so good. Lucy this morning had gone back a bit.
+There is, however, one good thing which has arisen from it; Mrs.
+Westenra was naturally anxious concerning Lucy, and has consulted me
+professionally about her. I took advantage of the opportunity, and told
+her that my old master, Van Helsing, the great specialist, was coming to
+stay with me, and that I would put her in his charge conjointly with
+myself; so now we can come and go without alarming her unduly, for a
+shock to her would mean sudden death, and this, in Lucy's weak
+condition, might be disastrous to her. We are hedged in with
+difficulties, all of us, my poor old fellow; but, please God, we shall
+come through them all right. If any need I shall write, so that, if you
+do not hear from me, take it for granted that I am simply waiting for
+news. In haste
+
+Yours ever,
+
+"JOHN SEWARD."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_7 September._--The first thing Van Helsing said to me when we met at
+Liverpool Street was:--
+
+"Have you said anything to our young friend the lover of her?"
+
+"No," I said. "I waited till I had seen you, as I said in my telegram. I
+wrote him a letter simply telling him that you were coming, as Miss
+Westenra was not so well, and that I should let him know if need be."
+
+"Right, my friend," he said, "quite right! Better he not know as yet;
+perhaps he shall never know. I pray so; but if it be needed, then he
+shall know all. And, my good friend John, let me caution you. You deal
+with the madmen. All men are mad in some way or the other; and inasmuch
+as you deal discreetly with your madmen, so deal with God's madmen,
+too--the rest of the world. You tell not your madmen what you do nor why
+you do it; you tell them not what you think. So you shall keep knowledge
+in its place, where it may rest--where it may gather its kind around it
+and breed. You and I shall keep as yet what we know here, and here." He
+touched me on the heart and on the forehead, and then touched himself
+the same way. "I have for myself thoughts at the present. Later I shall
+unfold to you."
+
+"Why not now?" I asked. "It may do some good; we may arrive at some
+decision." He stopped and looked at me, and said:--
+
+"My friend John, when the corn is grown, even before it has
+ripened--while the milk of its mother-earth is in him, and the sunshine
+has not yet begun to paint him with his gold, the husbandman he pull the
+ear and rub him between his rough hands, and blow away the green chaff,
+and say to you: 'Look! he's good corn; he will make good crop when the
+time comes.'" I did not see the application, and told him so. For reply
+he reached over and took my ear in his hand and pulled it playfully, as
+he used long ago to do at lectures, and said: "The good husbandman tell
+you so then because he knows, but not till then. But you do not find the
+good husbandman dig up his planted corn to see if he grow; that is for
+the children who play at husbandry, and not for those who take it as of
+the work of their life. See you now, friend John? I have sown my corn,
+and Nature has her work to do in making it sprout; if he sprout at all,
+there's some promise; and I wait till the ear begins to swell." He broke
+off, for he evidently saw that I understood. Then he went on, and very
+gravely:--
+
+"You were always a careful student, and your case-book was ever more
+full than the rest. You were only student then; now you are master, and
+I trust that good habit have not fail. Remember, my friend, that
+knowledge is stronger than memory, and we should not trust the weaker.
+Even if you have not kept the good practise, let me tell you that this
+case of our dear miss is one that may be--mind, I say _may be_--of such
+interest to us and others that all the rest may not make him kick the
+beam, as your peoples say. Take then good note of it. Nothing is too
+small. I counsel you, put down in record even your doubts and surmises.
+Hereafter it may be of interest to you to see how true you guess. We
+learn from failure, not from success!"
+
+When I described Lucy's symptoms--the same as before, but infinitely
+more marked--he looked very grave, but said nothing. He took with him a
+bag in which were many instruments and drugs, "the ghastly paraphernalia
+of our beneficial trade," as he once called, in one of his lectures, the
+equipment of a professor of the healing craft. When we were shown in,
+Mrs. Westenra met us. She was alarmed, but not nearly so much as I
+expected to find her. Nature in one of her beneficent moods has ordained
+that even death has some antidote to its own terrors. Here, in a case
+where any shock may prove fatal, matters are so ordered that, from some
+cause or other, the things not personal--even the terrible change in her
+daughter to whom she is so attached--do not seem to reach her. It is
+something like the way Dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an
+envelope of some insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that
+which it would otherwise harm by contact. If this be an ordered
+selfishness, then we should pause before we condemn any one for the vice
+of egoism, for there may be deeper root for its causes than we have
+knowledge of.
+
+I used my knowledge of this phase of spiritual pathology, and laid down
+a rule that she should not be present with Lucy or think of her illness
+more than was absolutely required. She assented readily, so readily that
+I saw again the hand of Nature fighting for life. Van Helsing and I were
+shown up to Lucy's room. If I was shocked when I saw her yesterday, I
+was horrified when I saw her to-day. She was ghastly, chalkily pale; the
+red seemed to have gone even from her lips and gums, and the bones of
+her face stood out prominently; her breathing was painful to see or
+hear. Van Helsing's face grew set as marble, and his eyebrows converged
+till they almost touched over his nose. Lucy lay motionless, and did not
+seem to have strength to speak, so for a while we were all silent. Then
+Van Helsing beckoned to me, and we went gently out of the room. The
+instant we had closed the door he stepped quickly along the passage to
+the next door, which was open. Then he pulled me quickly in with him and
+closed the door. "My God!" he said; "this is dreadful. There is no time
+to be lost. She will die for sheer want of blood to keep the heart's
+action as it should be. There must be transfusion of blood at once. Is
+it you or me?"
+
+"I am younger and stronger, Professor. It must be me."
+
+"Then get ready at once. I will bring up my bag. I am prepared."
+
+I went downstairs with him, and as we were going there was a knock at
+the hall-door. When we reached the hall the maid had just opened the
+door, and Arthur was stepping quickly in. He rushed up to me, saying in
+an eager whisper:--
+
+"Jack, I was so anxious. I read between the lines of your letter, and
+have been in an agony. The dad was better, so I ran down here to see for
+myself. Is not that gentleman Dr. Van Helsing? I am so thankful to you,
+sir, for coming." When first the Professor's eye had lit upon him he had
+been angry at his interruption at such a time; but now, as he took in
+his stalwart proportions and recognised the strong young manhood which
+seemed to emanate from him, his eyes gleamed. Without a pause he said to
+him gravely as he held out his hand:--
+
+"Sir, you have come in time. You are the lover of our dear miss. She is
+bad, very, very bad. Nay, my child, do not go like that." For he
+suddenly grew pale and sat down in a chair almost fainting. "You are to
+help her. You can do more than any that live, and your courage is your
+best help."
+
+"What can I do?" asked Arthur hoarsely. "Tell me, and I shall do it. My
+life is hers, and I would give the last drop of blood in my body for
+her." The Professor has a strongly humorous side, and I could from old
+knowledge detect a trace of its origin in his answer:--
+
+"My young sir, I do not ask so much as that--not the last!"
+
+"What shall I do?" There was fire in his eyes, and his open nostril
+quivered with intent. Van Helsing slapped him on the shoulder. "Come!"
+he said. "You are a man, and it is a man we want. You are better than
+me, better than my friend John." Arthur looked bewildered, and the
+Professor went on by explaining in a kindly way:--
+
+"Young miss is bad, very bad. She wants blood, and blood she must have
+or die. My friend John and I have consulted; and we are about to perform
+what we call transfusion of blood--to transfer from full veins of one to
+the empty veins which pine for him. John was to give his blood, as he is
+the more young and strong than me"--here Arthur took my hand and wrung
+it hard in silence--"but, now you are here, you are more good than us,
+old or young, who toil much in the world of thought. Our nerves are not
+so calm and our blood not so bright than yours!" Arthur turned to him
+and said:--
+
+"If you only knew how gladly I would die for her you would
+understand----"
+
+He stopped, with a sort of choke in his voice.
+
+"Good boy!" said Van Helsing. "In the not-so-far-off you will be happy
+that you have done all for her you love. Come now and be silent. You
+shall kiss her once before it is done, but then you must go; and you
+must leave at my sign. Say no word to Madame; you know how it is with
+her! There must be no shock; any knowledge of this would be one. Come!"
+
+We all went up to Lucy's room. Arthur by direction remained outside.
+Lucy turned her head and looked at us, but said nothing. She was not
+asleep, but she was simply too weak to make the effort. Her eyes spoke
+to us; that was all. Van Helsing took some things from his bag and laid
+them on a little table out of sight. Then he mixed a narcotic, and
+coming over to the bed, said cheerily:--
+
+"Now, little miss, here is your medicine. Drink it off, like a good
+child. See, I lift you so that to swallow is easy. Yes." She had made
+the effort with success.
+
+It astonished me how long the drug took to act. This, in fact, marked
+the extent of her weakness. The time seemed endless until sleep began to
+flicker in her eyelids. At last, however, the narcotic began to manifest
+its potency; and she fell into a deep sleep. When the Professor was
+satisfied he called Arthur into the room, and bade him strip off his
+coat. Then he added: "You may take that one little kiss whiles I bring
+over the table. Friend John, help to me!" So neither of us looked whilst
+he bent over her.
+
+Van Helsing turning to me, said:
+
+"He is so young and strong and of blood so pure that we need not
+defibrinate it."
+
+Then with swiftness, but with absolute method, Van Helsing performed the
+operation. As the transfusion went on something like life seemed to come
+back to poor Lucy's cheeks, and through Arthur's growing pallor the joy
+of his face seemed absolutely to shine. After a bit I began to grow
+anxious, for the loss of blood was telling on Arthur, strong man as he
+was. It gave me an idea of what a terrible strain Lucy's system must
+have undergone that what weakened Arthur only partially restored her.
+But the Professor's face was set, and he stood watch in hand and with
+his eyes fixed now on the patient and now on Arthur. I could hear my own
+heart beat. Presently he said in a soft voice: "Do not stir an instant.
+It is enough. You attend him; I will look to her." When all was over I
+could see how much Arthur was weakened. I dressed the wound and took his
+arm to bring him away, when Van Helsing spoke without turning round--the
+man seems to have eyes in the back of his head:--
+
+"The brave lover, I think, deserve another kiss, which he shall have
+presently." And as he had now finished his operation, he adjusted the
+pillow to the patient's head. As he did so the narrow black velvet band
+which she seems always to wear round her throat, buckled with an old
+diamond buckle which her lover had given her, was dragged a little up,
+and showed a red mark on her throat. Arthur did not notice it, but I
+could hear the deep hiss of indrawn breath which is one of Van Helsing's
+ways of betraying emotion. He said nothing at the moment, but turned to
+me, saying: "Now take down our brave young lover, give him of the port
+wine, and let him lie down a while. He must then go home and rest, sleep
+much and eat much, that he may be recruited of what he has so given to
+his love. He must not stay here. Hold! a moment. I may take it, sir,
+that you are anxious of result. Then bring it with you that in all ways
+the operation is successful. You have saved her life this time, and you
+can go home and rest easy in mind that all that can be is. I shall tell
+her all when she is well; she shall love you none the less for what you
+have done. Good-bye."
+
+When Arthur had gone I went back to the room. Lucy was sleeping gently,
+but her breathing was stronger; I could see the counterpane move as her
+breast heaved. By the bedside sat Van Helsing, looking at her intently.
+The velvet band again covered the red mark. I asked the Professor in a
+whisper:--
+
+"What do you make of that mark on her throat?"
+
+"What do you make of it?"
+
+"I have not examined it yet," I answered, and then and there proceeded
+to loose the band. Just over the external jugular vein there were two
+punctures, not large, but not wholesome-looking. There was no sign of
+disease, but the edges were white and worn-looking, as if by some
+trituration. It at once occurred to me that this wound, or whatever it
+was, might be the means of that manifest loss of blood; but I abandoned
+the idea as soon as formed, for such a thing could not be. The whole bed
+would have been drenched to a scarlet with the blood which the girl must
+have lost to leave such a pallor as she had before the transfusion.
+
+"Well?" said Van Helsing.
+
+"Well," said I, "I can make nothing of it." The Professor stood up. "I
+must go back to Amsterdam to-night," he said. "There are books and
+things there which I want. You must remain here all the night, and you
+must not let your sight pass from her."
+
+"Shall I have a nurse?" I asked.
+
+"We are the best nurses, you and I. You keep watch all night; see that
+she is well fed, and that nothing disturbs her. You must not sleep all
+the night. Later on we can sleep, you and I. I shall be back as soon as
+possible. And then we may begin."
+
+"May begin?" I said. "What on earth do you mean?"
+
+"We shall see!" he answered, as he hurried out. He came back a moment
+later and put his head inside the door and said with warning finger held
+up:--
+
+"Remember, she is your charge. If you leave her, and harm befall, you
+shall not sleep easy hereafter!"
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary--continued._
+
+_8 September._--I sat up all night with Lucy. The opiate worked itself
+off towards dusk, and she waked naturally; she looked a different being
+from what she had been before the operation. Her spirits even were good,
+and she was full of a happy vivacity, but I could see evidences of the
+absolute prostration which she had undergone. When I told Mrs. Westenra
+that Dr. Van Helsing had directed that I should sit up with her she
+almost pooh-poohed the idea, pointing out her daughter's renewed
+strength and excellent spirits. I was firm, however, and made
+preparations for my long vigil. When her maid had prepared her for the
+night I came in, having in the meantime had supper, and took a seat by
+the bedside. She did not in any way make objection, but looked at me
+gratefully whenever I caught her eye. After a long spell she seemed
+sinking off to sleep, but with an effort seemed to pull herself together
+and shook it off. This was repeated several times, with greater effort
+and with shorter pauses as the time moved on. It was apparent that she
+did not want to sleep, so I tackled the subject at once:--
+
+"You do not want to go to sleep?"
+
+"No; I am afraid."
+
+"Afraid to go to sleep! Why so? It is the boon we all crave for."
+
+"Ah, not if you were like me--if sleep was to you a presage of horror!"
+
+"A presage of horror! What on earth do you mean?"
+
+"I don't know; oh, I don't know. And that is what is so terrible. All
+this weakness comes to me in sleep; until I dread the very thought."
+
+"But, my dear girl, you may sleep to-night. I am here watching you, and
+I can promise that nothing will happen."
+
+"Ah, I can trust you!" I seized the opportunity, and said: "I promise
+you that if I see any evidence of bad dreams I will wake you at once."
+
+"You will? Oh, will you really? How good you are to me. Then I will
+sleep!" And almost at the word she gave a deep sigh of relief, and sank
+back, asleep.
+
+All night long I watched by her. She never stirred, but slept on and on
+in a deep, tranquil, life-giving, health-giving sleep. Her lips were
+slightly parted, and her breast rose and fell with the regularity of a
+pendulum. There was a smile on her face, and it was evident that no bad
+dreams had come to disturb her peace of mind.
+
+In the early morning her maid came, and I left her in her care and took
+myself back home, for I was anxious about many things. I sent a short
+wire to Van Helsing and to Arthur, telling them of the excellent result
+of the operation. My own work, with its manifold arrears, took me all
+day to clear off; it was dark when I was able to inquire about my
+zoöphagous patient. The report was good; he had been quite quiet for the
+past day and night. A telegram came from Van Helsing at Amsterdam whilst
+I was at dinner, suggesting that I should be at Hillingham to-night, as
+it might be well to be at hand, and stating that he was leaving by the
+night mail and would join me early in the morning.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_9 September_.--I was pretty tired and worn out when I got to
+Hillingham. For two nights I had hardly had a wink of sleep, and my
+brain was beginning to feel that numbness which marks cerebral
+exhaustion. Lucy was up and in cheerful spirits. When she shook hands
+with me she looked sharply in my face and said:--
+
+"No sitting up to-night for you. You are worn out. I am quite well
+again; indeed, I am; and if there is to be any sitting up, it is I who
+will sit up with you." I would not argue the point, but went and had my
+supper. Lucy came with me, and, enlivened by her charming presence, I
+made an excellent meal, and had a couple of glasses of the more than
+excellent port. Then Lucy took me upstairs, and showed me a room next
+her own, where a cozy fire was burning. "Now," she said, "you must stay
+here. I shall leave this door open and my door too. You can lie on the
+sofa for I know that nothing would induce any of you doctors to go to
+bed whilst there is a patient above the horizon. If I want anything I
+shall call out, and you can come to me at once." I could not but
+acquiesce, for I was "dog-tired," and could not have sat up had I tried.
+So, on her renewing her promise to call me if she should want anything,
+I lay on the sofa, and forgot all about everything.
+
+
+_Lucy Westenra's Diary._
+
+_9 September._--I feel so happy to-night. I have been so miserably weak,
+that to be able to think and move about is like feeling sunshine after
+a long spell of east wind out of a steel sky. Somehow Arthur feels very,
+very close to me. I seem to feel his presence warm about me. I suppose
+it is that sickness and weakness are selfish things and turn our inner
+eyes and sympathy on ourselves, whilst health and strength give Love
+rein, and in thought and feeling he can wander where he wills. I know
+where my thoughts are. If Arthur only knew! My dear, my dear, your ears
+must tingle as you sleep, as mine do waking. Oh, the blissful rest of
+last night! How I slept, with that dear, good Dr. Seward watching me.
+And to-night I shall not fear to sleep, since he is close at hand and
+within call. Thank everybody for being so good to me! Thank God!
+Good-night, Arthur.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_10 September._--I was conscious of the Professor's hand on my head, and
+started awake all in a second. That is one of the things that we learn
+in an asylum, at any rate.
+
+"And how is our patient?"
+
+"Well, when I left her, or rather when she left me," I answered.
+
+"Come, let us see," he said. And together we went into the room.
+
+The blind was down, and I went over to raise it gently, whilst Van
+Helsing stepped, with his soft, cat-like tread, over to the bed.
+
+As I raised the blind, and the morning sunlight flooded the room, I
+heard the Professor's low hiss of inspiration, and knowing its rarity, a
+deadly fear shot through my heart. As I passed over he moved back, and
+his exclamation of horror, "Gott in Himmel!" needed no enforcement from
+his agonised face. He raised his hand and pointed to the bed, and his
+iron face was drawn and ashen white. I felt my knees begin to tremble.
+
+There on the bed, seemingly in a swoon, lay poor Lucy, more horribly
+white and wan-looking than ever. Even the lips were white, and the gums
+seemed to have shrunken back from the teeth, as we sometimes see in a
+corpse after a prolonged illness. Van Helsing raised his foot to stamp
+in anger, but the instinct of his life and all the long years of habit
+stood to him, and he put it down again softly. "Quick!" he said. "Bring
+the brandy." I flew to the dining-room, and returned with the decanter.
+He wetted the poor white lips with it, and together we rubbed palm and
+wrist and heart. He felt her heart, and after a few moments of agonising
+suspense said:--
+
+"It is not too late. It beats, though but feebly. All our work is
+undone; we must begin again. There is no young Arthur here now; I have
+to call on you yourself this time, friend John." As he spoke, he was
+dipping into his bag and producing the instruments for transfusion; I
+had taken off my coat and rolled up my shirt-sleeve. There was no
+possibility of an opiate just at present, and no need of one; and so,
+without a moment's delay, we began the operation. After a time--it did
+not seem a short time either, for the draining away of one's blood, no
+matter how willingly it be given, is a terrible feeling--Van Helsing
+held up a warning finger. "Do not stir," he said, "but I fear that with
+growing strength she may wake; and that would make danger, oh, so much
+danger. But I shall precaution take. I shall give hypodermic injection
+of morphia." He proceeded then, swiftly and deftly, to carry out his
+intent. The effect on Lucy was not bad, for the faint seemed to merge
+subtly into the narcotic sleep. It was with a feeling of personal pride
+that I could see a faint tinge of colour steal back into the pallid
+cheeks and lips. No man knows, till he experiences it, what it is to
+feel his own life-blood drawn away into the veins of the woman he loves.
+
+The Professor watched me critically. "That will do," he said. "Already?"
+I remonstrated. "You took a great deal more from Art." To which he
+smiled a sad sort of smile as he replied:--
+
+"He is her lover, her _fiancé_. You have work, much work, to do for her
+and for others; and the present will suffice."
+
+When we stopped the operation, he attended to Lucy, whilst I applied
+digital pressure to my own incision. I laid down, whilst I waited his
+leisure to attend to me, for I felt faint and a little sick. By-and-by
+he bound up my wound, and sent me downstairs to get a glass of wine for
+myself. As I was leaving the room, he came after me, and half
+whispered:--
+
+"Mind, nothing must be said of this. If our young lover should turn up
+unexpected, as before, no word to him. It would at once frighten him and
+enjealous him, too. There must be none. So!"
+
+When I came back he looked at me carefully, and then said:--
+
+"You are not much the worse. Go into the room, and lie on your sofa, and
+rest awhile; then have much breakfast, and come here to me."
+
+I followed out his orders, for I knew how right and wise they were. I
+had done my part, and now my next duty was to keep up my strength. I
+felt very weak, and in the weakness lost something of the amazement at
+what had occurred. I fell asleep on the sofa, however, wondering over
+and over again how Lucy had made such a retrograde movement, and how
+she could have been drained of so much blood with no sign anywhere to
+show for it. I think I must have continued my wonder in my dreams, for,
+sleeping and waking, my thoughts always came back to the little
+punctures in her throat and the ragged, exhausted appearance of their
+edges--tiny though they were.
+
+Lucy slept well into the day, and when she woke she was fairly well and
+strong, though not nearly so much so as the day before. When Van Helsing
+had seen her, he went out for a walk, leaving me in charge, with strict
+injunctions that I was not to leave her for a moment. I could hear his
+voice in the hall, asking the way to the nearest telegraph office.
+
+Lucy chatted with me freely, and seemed quite unconscious that anything
+had happened. I tried to keep her amused and interested. When her mother
+came up to see her, she did not seem to notice any change whatever, but
+said to me gratefully:--
+
+"We owe you so much, Dr. Seward, for all you have done, but you really
+must now take care not to overwork yourself. You are looking pale
+yourself. You want a wife to nurse and look after you a bit; that you
+do!" As she spoke, Lucy turned crimson, though it was only momentarily,
+for her poor wasted veins could not stand for long such an unwonted
+drain to the head. The reaction came in excessive pallor as she turned
+imploring eyes on me. I smiled and nodded, and laid my finger on my
+lips; with a sigh, she sank back amid her pillows.
+
+Van Helsing returned in a couple of hours, and presently said to me:
+"Now you go home, and eat much and drink enough. Make yourself strong. I
+stay here to-night, and I shall sit up with little miss myself. You and
+I must watch the case, and we must have none other to know. I have grave
+reasons. No, do not ask them; think what you will. Do not fear to think
+even the most not-probable. Good-night."
+
+In the hall two of the maids came to me, and asked if they or either of
+them might not sit up with Miss Lucy. They implored me to let them; and
+when I said it was Dr. Van Helsing's wish that either he or I should sit
+up, they asked me quite piteously to intercede with the "foreign
+gentleman." I was much touched by their kindness. Perhaps it is because
+I am weak at present, and perhaps because it was on Lucy's account, that
+their devotion was manifested; for over and over again have I seen
+similar instances of woman's kindness. I got back here in time for a
+late dinner; went my rounds--all well; and set this down whilst waiting
+for sleep. It is coming.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_11 September._--This afternoon I went over to Hillingham. Found Van
+Helsing in excellent spirits, and Lucy much better. Shortly after I had
+arrived, a big parcel from abroad came for the Professor. He opened it
+with much impressment--assumed, of course--and showed a great bundle of
+white flowers.
+
+"These are for you, Miss Lucy," he said.
+
+"For me? Oh, Dr. Van Helsing!"
+
+"Yes, my dear, but not for you to play with. These are medicines." Here
+Lucy made a wry face. "Nay, but they are not to take in a decoction or
+in nauseous form, so you need not snub that so charming nose, or I shall
+point out to my friend Arthur what woes he may have to endure in seeing
+so much beauty that he so loves so much distort. Aha, my pretty miss,
+that bring the so nice nose all straight again. This is medicinal, but
+you do not know how. I put him in your window, I make pretty wreath, and
+hang him round your neck, so that you sleep well. Oh yes! they, like the
+lotus flower, make your trouble forgotten. It smell so like the waters
+of Lethe, and of that fountain of youth that the Conquistadores sought
+for in the Floridas, and find him all too late."
+
+Whilst he was speaking, Lucy had been examining the flowers and smelling
+them. Now she threw them down, saying, with half-laughter, and
+half-disgust:--
+
+"Oh, Professor, I believe you are only putting up a joke on me. Why,
+these flowers are only common garlic."
+
+To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his sternness, his
+iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting:--
+
+"No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in all I do;
+and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for the sake of
+others if not for your own." Then seeing poor Lucy scared, as she might
+well be, he went on more gently: "Oh, little miss, my dear, do not fear
+me. I only do for your good; but there is much virtue to you in those so
+common flowers. See, I place them myself in your room. I make myself the
+wreath that you are to wear. But hush! no telling to others that make so
+inquisitive questions. We must obey, and silence is a part of obedience;
+and obedience is to bring you strong and well into loving arms that wait
+for you. Now sit still awhile. Come with me, friend John, and you shall
+help me deck the room with my garlic, which is all the way from Haarlem,
+where my friend Vanderpool raise herb in his glass-houses all the year.
+I had to telegraph yesterday, or they would not have been here."
+
+We went into the room, taking the flowers with us. The Professor's
+actions were certainly odd and not to be found in any pharmacopoeia
+that I ever heard of. First he fastened up the windows and latched them
+securely; next, taking a handful of the flowers, he rubbed them all over
+the sashes, as though to ensure that every whiff of air that might get
+in would be laden with the garlic smell. Then with the wisp he rubbed
+all over the jamb of the door, above, below, and at each side, and round
+the fireplace in the same way. It all seemed grotesque to me, and
+presently I said:--
+
+"Well, Professor, I know you always have a reason for what you do, but
+this certainly puzzles me. It is well we have no sceptic here, or he
+would say that you were working some spell to keep out an evil spirit."
+
+"Perhaps I am!" he answered quietly as he began to make the wreath which
+Lucy was to wear round her neck.
+
+We then waited whilst Lucy made her toilet for the night, and when she
+was in bed he came and himself fixed the wreath of garlic round her
+neck. The last words he said to her were:--
+
+"Take care you do not disturb it; and even if the room feel close, do
+not to-night open the window or the door."
+
+"I promise," said Lucy, "and thank you both a thousand times for all
+your kindness to me! Oh, what have I done to be blessed with such
+friends?"
+
+As we left the house in my fly, which was waiting, Van Helsing said:--
+
+"To-night I can sleep in peace, and sleep I want--two nights of travel,
+much reading in the day between, and much anxiety on the day to follow,
+and a night to sit up, without to wink. To-morrow in the morning early
+you call for me, and we come together to see our pretty miss, so much
+more strong for my 'spell' which I have work. Ho! ho!"
+
+He seemed so confident that I, remembering my own confidence two nights
+before and with the baneful result, felt awe and vague terror. It must
+have been my weakness that made me hesitate to tell it to my friend, but
+I felt it all the more, like unshed tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+_Lucy Westenra's Diary._
+
+
+_12 September._--How good they all are to me. I quite love that dear Dr.
+Van Helsing. I wonder why he was so anxious about these flowers. He
+positively frightened me, he was so fierce. And yet he must have been
+right, for I feel comfort from them already. Somehow, I do not dread
+being alone to-night, and I can go to sleep without fear. I shall not
+mind any flapping outside the window. Oh, the terrible struggle that I
+have had against sleep so often of late; the pain of the sleeplessness,
+or the pain of the fear of sleep, with such unknown horrors as it has
+for me! How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no
+dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings
+nothing but sweet dreams. Well, here I am to-night, hoping for sleep,
+and lying like Ophelia in the play, with "virgin crants and maiden
+strewments." I never liked garlic before, but to-night it is delightful!
+There is peace in its smell; I feel sleep coming already. Good-night,
+everybody.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_13 September._--Called at the Berkeley and found Van Helsing, as usual,
+up to time. The carriage ordered from the hotel was waiting. The
+Professor took his bag, which he always brings with him now.
+
+Let all be put down exactly. Van Helsing and I arrived at Hillingham at
+eight o'clock. It was a lovely morning; the bright sunshine and all the
+fresh feeling of early autumn seemed like the completion of nature's
+annual work. The leaves were turning to all kinds of beautiful colours,
+but had not yet begun to drop from the trees. When we entered we met
+Mrs. Westenra coming out of the morning room. She is always an early
+riser. She greeted us warmly and said:--
+
+"You will be glad to know that Lucy is better. The dear child is still
+asleep. I looked into her room and saw her, but did not go in, lest I
+should disturb her." The Professor smiled, and looked quite jubilant. He
+rubbed his hands together, and said:--
+
+"Aha! I thought I had diagnosed the case. My treatment is working," to
+which she answered:--
+
+"You must not take all the credit to yourself, doctor. Lucy's state this
+morning is due in part to me."
+
+"How you do mean, ma'am?" asked the Professor.
+
+"Well, I was anxious about the dear child in the night, and went into
+her room. She was sleeping soundly--so soundly that even my coming did
+not wake her. But the room was awfully stuffy. There were a lot of those
+horrible, strong-smelling flowers about everywhere, and she had actually
+a bunch of them round her neck. I feared that the heavy odour would be
+too much for the dear child in her weak state, so I took them all away
+and opened a bit of the window to let in a little fresh air. You will be
+pleased with her, I am sure."
+
+She moved off into her boudoir, where she usually breakfasted early. As
+she had spoken, I watched the Professor's face, and saw it turn ashen
+grey. He had been able to retain his self-command whilst the poor lady
+was present, for he knew her state and how mischievous a shock would be;
+he actually smiled on her as he held open the door for her to pass into
+her room. But the instant she had disappeared he pulled me, suddenly and
+forcibly, into the dining-room and closed the door.
+
+Then, for the first time in my life, I saw Van Helsing break down. He
+raised his hands over his head in a sort of mute despair, and then beat
+his palms together in a helpless way; finally he sat down on a chair,
+and putting his hands before his face, began to sob, with loud, dry sobs
+that seemed to come from the very racking of his heart. Then he raised
+his arms again, as though appealing to the whole universe. "God! God!
+God!" he said. "What have we done, what has this poor thing done, that
+we are so sore beset? Is there fate amongst us still, sent down from the
+pagan world of old, that such things must be, and in such way? This poor
+mother, all unknowing, and all for the best as she think, does such
+thing as lose her daughter body and soul; and we must not tell her, we
+must not even warn her, or she die, and then both die. Oh, how we are
+beset! How are all the powers of the devils against us!" Suddenly he
+jumped to his feet. "Come," he said, "come, we must see and act. Devils
+or no devils, or all the devils at once, it matters not; we fight him
+all the same." He went to the hall-door for his bag; and together we
+went up to Lucy's room.
+
+Once again I drew up the blind, whilst Van Helsing went towards the bed.
+This time he did not start as he looked on the poor face with the same
+awful, waxen pallor as before. He wore a look of stern sadness and
+infinite pity.
+
+"As I expected," he murmured, with that hissing inspiration of his which
+meant so much. Without a word he went and locked the door, and then
+began to set out on the little table the instruments for yet another
+operation of transfusion of blood. I had long ago recognised the
+necessity, and begun to take off my coat, but he stopped me with a
+warning hand. "No!" he said. "To-day you must operate. I shall provide.
+You are weakened already." As he spoke he took off his coat and rolled
+up his shirt-sleeve.
+
+Again the operation; again the narcotic; again some return of colour to
+the ashy cheeks, and the regular breathing of healthy sleep. This time I
+watched whilst Van Helsing recruited himself and rested.
+
+Presently he took an opportunity of telling Mrs. Westenra that she must
+not remove anything from Lucy's room without consulting him; that the
+flowers were of medicinal value, and that the breathing of their odour
+was a part of the system of cure. Then he took over the care of the case
+himself, saying that he would watch this night and the next and would
+send me word when to come.
+
+After another hour Lucy waked from her sleep, fresh and bright and
+seemingly not much the worse for her terrible ordeal.
+
+What does it all mean? I am beginning to wonder if my long habit of life
+amongst the insane is beginning to tell upon my own brain.
+
+
+_Lucy Westenra's Diary._
+
+_17 September._--Four days and nights of peace. I am getting so strong
+again that I hardly know myself. It is as if I had passed through some
+long nightmare, and had just awakened to see the beautiful sunshine and
+feel the fresh air of the morning around me. I have a dim
+half-remembrance of long, anxious times of waiting and fearing; darkness
+in which there was not even the pain of hope to make present distress
+more poignant: and then long spells of oblivion, and the rising back to
+life as a diver coming up through a great press of water. Since,
+however, Dr. Van Helsing has been with me, all this bad dreaming seems
+to have passed away; the noises that used to frighten me out of my
+wits--the flapping against the windows, the distant voices which seemed
+so close to me, the harsh sounds that came from I know not where and
+commanded me to do I know not what--have all ceased. I go to bed now
+without any fear of sleep. I do not even try to keep awake. I have grown
+quite fond of the garlic, and a boxful arrives for me every day from
+Haarlem. To-night Dr. Van Helsing is going away, as he has to be for a
+day in Amsterdam. But I need not be watched; I am well enough to be left
+alone. Thank God for mother's sake, and dear Arthur's, and for all our
+friends who have been so kind! I shall not even feel the change, for
+last night Dr. Van Helsing slept in his chair a lot of the time. I found
+him asleep twice when I awoke; but I did not fear to go to sleep again,
+although the boughs or bats or something napped almost angrily against
+the window-panes.
+
+
+_"The Pall Mall Gazette," 18 September._
+
+ THE ESCAPED WOLF.
+
+ PERILOUS ADVENTURE OF OUR INTERVIEWER.
+
+ _Interview with the Keeper in the Zoölogical Gardens._
+
+After many inquiries and almost as many refusals, and perpetually using
+the words "Pall Mall Gazette" as a sort of talisman, I managed to find
+the keeper of the section of the Zoölogical Gardens in which the wolf
+department is included. Thomas Bilder lives in one of the cottages in
+the enclosure behind the elephant-house, and was just sitting down to
+his tea when I found him. Thomas and his wife are hospitable folk,
+elderly, and without children, and if the specimen I enjoyed of their
+hospitality be of the average kind, their lives must be pretty
+comfortable. The keeper would not enter on what he called "business"
+until the supper was over, and we were all satisfied. Then when the
+table was cleared, and he had lit his pipe, he said:--
+
+"Now, sir, you can go on and arsk me what you want. You'll excoose me
+refoosin' to talk of perfeshunal subjects afore meals. I gives the
+wolves and the jackals and the hyenas in all our section their tea afore
+I begins to arsk them questions."
+
+"How do you mean, ask them questions?" I queried, wishful to get him
+into a talkative humour.
+
+"'Ittin' of them over the 'ead with a pole is one way; scratchin' of
+their hears is another, when gents as is flush wants a bit of a show-orf
+to their gals. I don't so much mind the fust--the 'ittin' with a pole
+afore I chucks in their dinner; but I waits till they've 'ad their
+sherry and kawffee, so to speak, afore I tries on with the
+ear-scratchin'. Mind you," he added philosophically, "there's a deal of
+the same nature in us as in them theer animiles. Here's you a-comin' and
+arskin' of me questions about my business, and I that grumpy-like that
+only for your bloomin' 'arf-quid I'd 'a' seen you blowed fust 'fore I'd
+answer. Not even when you arsked me sarcastic-like if I'd like you to
+arsk the Superintendent if you might arsk me questions. Without offence
+did I tell yer to go to 'ell?"
+
+"You did."
+
+"An' when you said you'd report me for usin' of obscene language that
+was 'ittin' me over the 'ead; but the 'arf-quid made that all right. I
+weren't a-goin' to fight, so I waited for the food, and did with my 'owl
+as the wolves, and lions, and tigers does. But, Lor' love yer 'art, now
+that the old 'ooman has stuck a chunk of her tea-cake in me, an' rinsed
+me out with her bloomin' old teapot, and I've lit hup, you may scratch
+my ears for all you're worth, and won't git even a growl out of me.
+Drive along with your questions. I know what yer a-comin' at, that 'ere
+escaped wolf."
+
+"Exactly. I want you to give me your view of it. Just tell me how it
+happened; and when I know the facts I'll get you to say what you
+consider was the cause of it, and how you think the whole affair will
+end."
+
+"All right, guv'nor. This 'ere is about the 'ole story. That 'ere wolf
+what we called Bersicker was one of three grey ones that came from
+Norway to Jamrach's, which we bought off him four years ago. He was a
+nice well-behaved wolf, that never gave no trouble to talk of. I'm more
+surprised at 'im for wantin' to get out nor any other animile in the
+place. But, there, you can't trust wolves no more nor women."
+
+"Don't you mind him, sir!" broke in Mrs. Tom, with a cheery laugh. "'E's
+got mindin' the animiles so long that blest if he ain't like a old wolf
+'isself! But there ain't no 'arm in 'im."
+
+"Well, sir, it was about two hours after feedin' yesterday when I first
+hear my disturbance. I was makin' up a litter in the monkey-house for a
+young puma which is ill; but when I heard the yelpin' and 'owlin' I kem
+away straight. There was Bersicker a-tearin' like a mad thing at the
+bars as if he wanted to get out. There wasn't much people about that
+day, and close at hand was only one man, a tall, thin chap, with a 'ook
+nose and a pointed beard, with a few white hairs runnin' through it. He
+had a 'ard, cold look and red eyes, and I took a sort of mislike to him,
+for it seemed as if it was 'im as they was hirritated at. He 'ad white
+kid gloves on 'is 'ands, and he pointed out the animiles to me and says:
+'Keeper, these wolves seem upset at something.'
+
+"'Maybe it's you,' says I, for I did not like the airs as he give
+'isself. He didn't git angry, as I 'oped he would, but he smiled a kind
+of insolent smile, with a mouth full of white, sharp teeth. 'Oh no, they
+wouldn't like me,' 'e says.
+
+"'Ow yes, they would,' says I, a-imitatin' of him. 'They always likes a
+bone or two to clean their teeth on about tea-time, which you 'as a
+bagful.'
+
+"Well, it was a odd thing, but when the animiles see us a-talkin' they
+lay down, and when I went over to Bersicker he let me stroke his ears
+same as ever. That there man kem over, and blessed but if he didn't put
+in his hand and stroke the old wolf's ears too!
+
+"'Tyke care,' says I. 'Bersicker is quick.'
+
+"'Never mind,' he says. 'I'm used to 'em!'
+
+"'Are you in the business yourself?' I says, tyking off my 'at, for a
+man what trades in wolves, anceterer, is a good friend to keepers.
+
+"'No' says he, 'not exactly in the business, but I 'ave made pets of
+several.' And with that he lifts his 'at as perlite as a lord, and walks
+away. Old Bersicker kep' a-lookin' arter 'im till 'e was out of sight,
+and then went and lay down in a corner and wouldn't come hout the 'ole
+hevening. Well, larst night, so soon as the moon was hup, the wolves
+here all began a-'owling. There warn't nothing for them to 'owl at.
+There warn't no one near, except some one that was evidently a-callin' a
+dog somewheres out back of the gardings in the Park road. Once or twice
+I went out to see that all was right, and it was, and then the 'owling
+stopped. Just before twelve o'clock I just took a look round afore
+turnin' in, an', bust me, but when I kem opposite to old Bersicker's
+cage I see the rails broken and twisted about and the cage empty. And
+that's all I know for certing."
+
+"Did any one else see anything?"
+
+"One of our gard'ners was a-comin' 'ome about that time from a 'armony,
+when he sees a big grey dog comin' out through the garding 'edges. At
+least, so he says, but I don't give much for it myself, for if he did 'e
+never said a word about it to his missis when 'e got 'ome, and it was
+only after the escape of the wolf was made known, and we had been up all
+night-a-huntin' of the Park for Bersicker, that he remembered seein'
+anything. My own belief was that the 'armony 'ad got into his 'ead."
+
+"Now, Mr. Bilder, can you account in any way for the escape of the
+wolf?"
+
+"Well, sir," he said, with a suspicious sort of modesty, "I think I can;
+but I don't know as 'ow you'd be satisfied with the theory."
+
+"Certainly I shall. If a man like you, who knows the animals from
+experience, can't hazard a good guess at any rate, who is even to try?"
+
+"Well then, sir, I accounts for it this way; it seems to me that 'ere
+wolf escaped--simply because he wanted to get out."
+
+From the hearty way that both Thomas and his wife laughed at the joke I
+could see that it had done service before, and that the whole
+explanation was simply an elaborate sell. I couldn't cope in badinage
+with the worthy Thomas, but I thought I knew a surer way to his heart,
+so I said:--
+
+"Now, Mr. Bilder, we'll consider that first half-sovereign worked off,
+and this brother of his is waiting to be claimed when you've told me
+what you think will happen."
+
+"Right y'are, sir," he said briskly. "Ye'll excoose me, I know, for
+a-chaffin' of ye, but the old woman here winked at me, which was as much
+as telling me to go on."
+
+"Well, I never!" said the old lady.
+
+"My opinion is this: that 'ere wolf is a-'idin' of, somewheres. The
+gard'ner wot didn't remember said he was a-gallopin' northward faster
+than a horse could go; but I don't believe him, for, yer see, sir,
+wolves don't gallop no more nor dogs does, they not bein' built that
+way. Wolves is fine things in a storybook, and I dessay when they gets
+in packs and does be chivyin' somethin' that's more afeared than they is
+they can make a devil of a noise and chop it up, whatever it is. But,
+Lor' bless you, in real life a wolf is only a low creature, not half so
+clever or bold as a good dog; and not half a quarter so much fight in
+'im. This one ain't been used to fightin' or even to providin' for
+hisself, and more like he's somewhere round the Park a-'idin' an'
+a-shiverin' of, and, if he thinks at all, wonderin' where he is to get
+his breakfast from; or maybe he's got down some area and is in a
+coal-cellar. My eye, won't some cook get a rum start when she sees his
+green eyes a-shining at her out of the dark! If he can't get food he's
+bound to look for it, and mayhap he may chance to light on a butcher's
+shop in time. If he doesn't, and some nursemaid goes a-walkin' orf with
+a soldier, leavin' of the hinfant in the perambulator--well, then I
+shouldn't be surprised if the census is one babby the less. That's
+all."
+
+I was handing him the half-sovereign, when something came bobbing up
+against the window, and Mr. Bilder's face doubled its natural length
+with surprise.
+
+"God bless me!" he said. "If there ain't old Bersicker come back by
+'isself!"
+
+He went to the door and opened it; a most unnecessary proceeding it
+seemed to me. I have always thought that a wild animal never looks so
+well as when some obstacle of pronounced durability is between us; a
+personal experience has intensified rather than diminished that idea.
+
+After all, however, there is nothing like custom, for neither Bilder nor
+his wife thought any more of the wolf than I should of a dog. The animal
+itself was as peaceful and well-behaved as that father of all
+picture-wolves--Red Riding Hood's quondam friend, whilst moving her
+confidence in masquerade.
+
+The whole scene was an unutterable mixture of comedy and pathos. The
+wicked wolf that for half a day had paralysed London and set all the
+children in the town shivering in their shoes, was there in a sort of
+penitent mood, and was received and petted like a sort of vulpine
+prodigal son. Old Bilder examined him all over with most tender
+solicitude, and when he had finished with his penitent said:--
+
+"There, I knew the poor old chap would get into some kind of trouble;
+didn't I say it all along? Here's his head all cut and full of broken
+glass. 'E's been a-gettin' over some bloomin' wall or other. It's a
+shyme that people are allowed to top their walls with broken bottles.
+This 'ere's what comes of it. Come along, Bersicker."
+
+He took the wolf and locked him up in a cage, with a piece of meat that
+satisfied, in quantity at any rate, the elementary conditions of the
+fatted calf, and went off to report.
+
+I came off, too, to report the only exclusive information that is given
+to-day regarding the strange escapade at the Zoo.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_17 September._--I was engaged after dinner in my study posting up my
+books, which, through press of other work and the many visits to Lucy,
+had fallen sadly into arrear. Suddenly the door was burst open, and in
+rushed my patient, with his face distorted with passion. I was
+thunderstruck, for such a thing as a patient getting of his own accord
+into the Superintendent's study is almost unknown. Without an instant's
+pause he made straight at me. He had a dinner-knife in his hand, and,
+as I saw he was dangerous, I tried to keep the table between us. He was
+too quick and too strong for me, however; for before I could get my
+balance he had struck at me and cut my left wrist rather severely.
+Before he could strike again, however, I got in my right and he was
+sprawling on his back on the floor. My wrist bled freely, and quite a
+little pool trickled on to the carpet. I saw that my friend was not
+intent on further effort, and occupied myself binding up my wrist,
+keeping a wary eye on the prostrate figure all the time. When the
+attendants rushed in, and we turned our attention to him, his employment
+positively sickened me. He was lying on his belly on the floor licking
+up, like a dog, the blood which had fallen from my wounded wrist. He was
+easily secured, and, to my surprise, went with the attendants quite
+placidly, simply repeating over and over again: "The blood is the life!
+The blood is the life!"
+
+I cannot afford to lose blood just at present; I have lost too much of
+late for my physical good, and then the prolonged strain of Lucy's
+illness and its horrible phases is telling on me. I am over-excited and
+weary, and I need rest, rest, rest. Happily Van Helsing has not summoned
+me, so I need not forego my sleep; to-night I could not well do without
+it.
+
+
+_Telegram, Van Helsing, Antwerp, to Seward, Carfax._
+
+(Sent to Carfax, Sussex, as no county given; delivered late by
+twenty-two hours.)
+
+"_17 September._--Do not fail to be at Hillingham to-night. If not
+watching all the time frequently, visit and see that flowers are as
+placed; very important; do not fail. Shall be with you as soon as
+possible after arrival."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_18 September._--Just off for train to London. The arrival of Van
+Helsing's telegram filled me with dismay. A whole night lost, and I know
+by bitter experience what may happen in a night. Of course it is
+possible that all may be well, but what _may_ have happened? Surely
+there is some horrible doom hanging over us that every possible accident
+should thwart us in all we try to do. I shall take this cylinder with
+me, and then I can complete my entry on Lucy's phonograph.
+
+
+_Memorandum left by Lucy Westenra._
+
+_17 September. Night._--I write this and leave it to be seen, so that no
+one may by any chance get into trouble through me. This is an exact
+record of what took place to-night. I feel I am dying of weakness, and
+have barely strength to write, but it must be done if I die in the
+doing.
+
+I went to bed as usual, taking care that the flowers were placed as Dr.
+Van Helsing directed, and soon fell asleep.
+
+I was waked by the flapping at the window, which had begun after that
+sleep-walking on the cliff at Whitby when Mina saved me, and which now I
+know so well. I was not afraid, but I did wish that Dr. Seward was in
+the next room--as Dr. Van Helsing said he would be--so that I might have
+called him. I tried to go to sleep, but could not. Then there came to me
+the old fear of sleep, and I determined to keep awake. Perversely sleep
+would try to come then when I did not want it; so, as I feared to be
+alone, I opened my door and called out: "Is there anybody there?" There
+was no answer. I was afraid to wake mother, and so closed my door again.
+Then outside in the shrubbery I heard a sort of howl like a dog's, but
+more fierce and deeper. I went to the window and looked out, but could
+see nothing, except a big bat, which had evidently been buffeting its
+wings against the window. So I went back to bed again, but determined
+not to go to sleep. Presently the door opened, and mother looked in;
+seeing by my moving that I was not asleep, came in, and sat by me. She
+said to me even more sweetly and softly than her wont:--
+
+"I was uneasy about you, darling, and came in to see that you were all
+right."
+
+I feared she might catch cold sitting there, and asked her to come in
+and sleep with me, so she came into bed, and lay down beside me; she did
+not take off her dressing gown, for she said she would only stay a while
+and then go back to her own bed. As she lay there in my arms, and I in
+hers, the flapping and buffeting came to the window again. She was
+startled and a little frightened, and cried out: "What is that?" I tried
+to pacify her, and at last succeeded, and she lay quiet; but I could
+hear her poor dear heart still beating terribly. After a while there was
+the low howl again out in the shrubbery, and shortly after there was a
+crash at the window, and a lot of broken glass was hurled on the floor.
+The window blind blew back with the wind that rushed in, and in the
+aperture of the broken panes there was the head of a great, gaunt grey
+wolf. Mother cried out in a fright, and struggled up into a sitting
+posture, and clutched wildly at anything that would help her. Amongst
+other things, she clutched the wreath of flowers that Dr. Van Helsing
+insisted on my wearing round my neck, and tore it away from me. For a
+second or two she sat up, pointing at the wolf, and there was a strange
+and horrible gurgling in her throat; then she fell over--as if struck
+with lightning, and her head hit my forehead and made me dizzy for a
+moment or two. The room and all round seemed to spin round. I kept my
+eyes fixed on the window, but the wolf drew his head back, and a whole
+myriad of little specks seemed to come blowing in through the broken
+window, and wheeling and circling round like the pillar of dust that
+travellers describe when there is a simoon in the desert. I tried to
+stir, but there was some spell upon me, and dear mother's poor body,
+which seemed to grow cold already--for her dear heart had ceased to
+beat--weighed me down; and I remembered no more for a while.
+
+The time did not seem long, but very, very awful, till I recovered
+consciousness again. Somewhere near, a passing bell was tolling; the
+dogs all round the neighbourhood were howling; and in our shrubbery,
+seemingly just outside, a nightingale was singing. I was dazed and
+stupid with pain and terror and weakness, but the sound of the
+nightingale seemed like the voice of my dead mother come back to comfort
+me. The sounds seemed to have awakened the maids, too, for I could hear
+their bare feet pattering outside my door. I called to them, and they
+came in, and when they saw what had happened, and what it was that lay
+over me on the bed, they screamed out. The wind rushed in through the
+broken window, and the door slammed to. They lifted off the body of my
+dear mother, and laid her, covered up with a sheet, on the bed after I
+had got up. They were all so frightened and nervous that I directed them
+to go to the dining-room and have each a glass of wine. The door flew
+open for an instant and closed again. The maids shrieked, and then went
+in a body to the dining-room; and I laid what flowers I had on my dear
+mother's breast. When they were there I remembered what Dr. Van Helsing
+had told me, but I didn't like to remove them, and, besides, I would
+have some of the servants to sit up with me now. I was surprised that
+the maids did not come back. I called them, but got no answer, so I went
+to the dining-room to look for them.
+
+My heart sank when I saw what had happened. They all four lay helpless
+on the floor, breathing heavily. The decanter of sherry was on the table
+half full, but there was a queer, acrid smell about. I was suspicious,
+and examined the decanter. It smelt of laudanum, and looking on the
+sideboard, I found that the bottle which mother's doctor uses for
+her--oh! did use--was empty. What am I to do? what am I to do? I am back
+in the room with mother. I cannot leave her, and I am alone, save for
+the sleeping servants, whom some one has drugged. Alone with the dead! I
+dare not go out, for I can hear the low howl of the wolf through the
+broken window.
+
+The air seems full of specks, floating and circling in the draught from
+the window, and the lights burn blue and dim. What am I to do? God
+shield me from harm this night! I shall hide this paper in my breast,
+where they shall find it when they come to lay me out. My dear mother
+gone! It is time that I go too. Good-bye, dear Arthur, if I should not
+survive this night. God keep you, dear, and God help me!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
+
+
+_18 September._--I drove at once to Hillingham and arrived early.
+Keeping my cab at the gate, I went up the avenue alone. I knocked gently
+and rang as quietly as possible, for I feared to disturb Lucy or her
+mother, and hoped to only bring a servant to the door. After a while,
+finding no response, I knocked and rang again; still no answer. I cursed
+the laziness of the servants that they should lie abed at such an
+hour--for it was now ten o'clock--and so rang and knocked again, but
+more impatiently, but still without response. Hitherto I had blamed only
+the servants, but now a terrible fear began to assail me. Was this
+desolation but another link in the chain of doom which seemed drawing
+tight around us? Was it indeed a house of death to which I had come, too
+late? I knew that minutes, even seconds of delay, might mean hours of
+danger to Lucy, if she had had again one of those frightful relapses;
+and I went round the house to try if I could find by chance an entry
+anywhere.
+
+I could find no means of ingress. Every window and door was fastened and
+locked, and I returned baffled to the porch. As I did so, I heard the
+rapid pit-pat of a swiftly driven horse's feet. They stopped at the
+gate, and a few seconds later I met Van Helsing running up the avenue.
+When he saw me, he gasped out:--
+
+"Then it was you, and just arrived. How is she? Are we too late? Did you
+not get my telegram?"
+
+I answered as quickly and coherently as I could that I had only got his
+telegram early in the morning, and had not lost a minute in coming here,
+and that I could not make any one in the house hear me. He paused and
+raised his hat as he said solemnly:--
+
+"Then I fear we are too late. God's will be done!" With his usual
+recuperative energy, he went on: "Come. If there be no way open to get
+in, we must make one. Time is all in all to us now."
+
+We went round to the back of the house, where there was a kitchen
+window. The Professor took a small surgical saw from his case, and
+handing it to me, pointed to the iron bars which guarded the window. I
+attacked them at once and had very soon cut through three of them. Then
+with a long, thin knife we pushed back the fastening of the sashes and
+opened the window. I helped the Professor in, and followed him. There
+was no one in the kitchen or in the servants' rooms, which were close at
+hand. We tried all the rooms as we went along, and in the dining-room,
+dimly lit by rays of light through the shutters, found four
+servant-women lying on the floor. There was no need to think them dead,
+for their stertorous breathing and the acrid smell of laudanum in the
+room left no doubt as to their condition. Van Helsing and I looked at
+each other, and as we moved away he said: "We can attend to them later."
+Then we ascended to Lucy's room. For an instant or two we paused at the
+door to listen, but there was no sound that we could hear. With white
+faces and trembling hands, we opened the door gently, and entered the
+room.
+
+How shall I describe what we saw? On the bed lay two women, Lucy and her
+mother. The latter lay farthest in, and she was covered with a white
+sheet, the edge of which had been blown back by the draught through the
+broken window, showing the drawn, white face, with a look of terror
+fixed upon it. By her side lay Lucy, with face white and still more
+drawn. The flowers which had been round her neck we found upon her
+mother's bosom, and her throat was bare, showing the two little wounds
+which we had noticed before, but looking horribly white and mangled.
+Without a word the Professor bent over the bed, his head almost touching
+poor Lucy's breast; then he gave a quick turn of his head, as of one who
+listens, and leaping to his feet, he cried out to me:--
+
+"It is not yet too late! Quick! quick! Bring the brandy!"
+
+I flew downstairs and returned with it, taking care to smell and taste
+it, lest it, too, were drugged like the decanter of sherry which I found
+on the table. The maids were still breathing, but more restlessly, and I
+fancied that the narcotic was wearing off. I did not stay to make sure,
+but returned to Van Helsing. He rubbed the brandy, as on another
+occasion, on her lips and gums and on her wrists and the palms of her
+hands. He said to me:--
+
+"I can do this, all that can be at the present. You go wake those maids.
+Flick them in the face with a wet towel, and flick them hard. Make them
+get heat and fire and a warm bath. This poor soul is nearly as cold as
+that beside her. She will need be heated before we can do anything
+more."
+
+I went at once, and found little difficulty in waking three of the
+women. The fourth was only a young girl, and the drug had evidently
+affected her more strongly, so I lifted her on the sofa and let her
+sleep. The others were dazed at first, but as remembrance came back to
+them they cried and sobbed in a hysterical manner. I was stern with
+them, however, and would not let them talk. I told them that one life
+was bad enough to lose, and that if they delayed they would sacrifice
+Miss Lucy. So, sobbing and crying, they went about their way, half clad
+as they were, and prepared fire and water. Fortunately, the kitchen and
+boiler fires were still alive, and there was no lack of hot water. We
+got a bath and carried Lucy out as she was and placed her in it. Whilst
+we were busy chafing her limbs there was a knock at the hall door. One
+of the maids ran off, hurried on some more clothes, and opened it. Then
+she returned and whispered to us that there was a gentleman who had come
+with a message from Mr. Holmwood. I bade her simply tell him that he
+must wait, for we could see no one now. She went away with the message,
+and, engrossed with our work, I clean forgot all about him.
+
+I never saw in all my experience the Professor work in such deadly
+earnest. I knew--as he knew--that it was a stand-up fight with death,
+and in a pause told him so. He answered me in a way that I did not
+understand, but with the sternest look that his face could wear:--
+
+"If that were all, I would stop here where we are now, and let her fade
+away into peace, for I see no light in life over her horizon." He went
+on with his work with, if possible, renewed and more frenzied vigour.
+
+Presently we both began to be conscious that the heat was beginning to
+be of some effect. Lucy's heart beat a trifle more audibly to the
+stethoscope, and her lungs had a perceptible movement. Van Helsing's
+face almost beamed, and as we lifted her from the bath and rolled her in
+a hot sheet to dry her he said to me:--
+
+"The first gain is ours! Check to the King!"
+
+We took Lucy into another room, which had by now been prepared, and laid
+her in bed and forced a few drops of brandy down her throat. I noticed
+that Van Helsing tied a soft silk handkerchief round her throat. She was
+still unconscious, and was quite as bad as, if not worse than, we had
+ever seen her.
+
+Van Helsing called in one of the women, and told her to stay with her
+and not to take her eyes off her till we returned, and then beckoned me
+out of the room.
+
+"We must consult as to what is to be done," he said as we descended the
+stairs. In the hall he opened the dining-room door, and we passed in, he
+closing the door carefully behind him. The shutters had been opened, but
+the blinds were already down, with that obedience to the etiquette of
+death which the British woman of the lower classes always rigidly
+observes. The room was, therefore, dimly dark. It was, however, light
+enough for our purposes. Van Helsing's sternness was somewhat relieved
+by a look of perplexity. He was evidently torturing his mind about
+something, so I waited for an instant, and he spoke:--
+
+"What are we to do now? Where are we to turn for help? We must have
+another transfusion of blood, and that soon, or that poor girl's life
+won't be worth an hour's purchase. You are exhausted already; I am
+exhausted too. I fear to trust those women, even if they would have
+courage to submit. What are we to do for some one who will open his
+veins for her?"
+
+"What's the matter with me, anyhow?"
+
+The voice came from the sofa across the room, and its tones brought
+relief and joy to my heart, for they were those of Quincey Morris. Van
+Helsing started angrily at the first sound, but his face softened and a
+glad look came into his eyes as I cried out: "Quincey Morris!" and
+rushed towards him with outstretched hands.
+
+"What brought you here?" I cried as our hands met.
+
+"I guess Art is the cause."
+
+He handed me a telegram:--
+
+"Have not heard from Seward for three days, and am terribly anxious.
+Cannot leave. Father still in same condition. Send me word how Lucy is.
+Do not delay.--HOLMWOOD."
+
+"I think I came just in the nick of time. You know you have only to tell
+me what to do."
+
+Van Helsing strode forward, and took his hand, looking him straight in
+the eyes as he said:--
+
+"A brave man's blood is the best thing on this earth when a woman is in
+trouble. You're a man and no mistake. Well, the devil may work against
+us for all he's worth, but God sends us men when we want them."
+
+Once again we went through that ghastly operation. I have not the heart
+to go through with the details. Lucy had got a terrible shock and it
+told on her more than before, for though plenty of blood went into her
+veins, her body did not respond to the treatment as well as on the other
+occasions. Her struggle back into life was something frightful to see
+and hear. However, the action of both heart and lungs improved, and Van
+Helsing made a subcutaneous injection of morphia, as before, and with
+good effect. Her faint became a profound slumber. The Professor watched
+whilst I went downstairs with Quincey Morris, and sent one of the maids
+to pay off one of the cabmen who were waiting. I left Quincey lying down
+after having a glass of wine, and told the cook to get ready a good
+breakfast. Then a thought struck me, and I went back to the room where
+Lucy now was. When I came softly in, I found Van Helsing with a sheet or
+two of note-paper in his hand. He had evidently read it, and was
+thinking it over as he sat with his hand to his brow. There was a look
+of grim satisfaction in his face, as of one who has had a doubt solved.
+He handed me the paper saying only: "It dropped from Lucy's breast when
+we carried her to the bath."
+
+When I had read it, I stood looking at the Professor, and after a pause
+asked him: "In God's name, what does it all mean? Was she, or is she,
+mad; or what sort of horrible danger is it?" I was so bewildered that I
+did not know what to say more. Van Helsing put out his hand and took the
+paper, saying:--
+
+"Do not trouble about it now. Forget it for the present. You shall know
+and understand it all in good time; but it will be later. And now what
+is it that you came to me to say?" This brought me back to fact, and I
+was all myself again.
+
+"I came to speak about the certificate of death. If we do not act
+properly and wisely, there may be an inquest, and that paper would have
+to be produced. I am in hopes that we need have no inquest, for if we
+had it would surely kill poor Lucy, if nothing else did. I know, and you
+know, and the other doctor who attended her knows, that Mrs. Westenra
+had disease of the heart, and we can certify that she died of it. Let us
+fill up the certificate at once, and I shall take it myself to the
+registrar and go on to the undertaker."
+
+"Good, oh my friend John! Well thought of! Truly Miss Lucy, if she be
+sad in the foes that beset her, is at least happy in the friends that
+love her. One, two, three, all open their veins for her, besides one old
+man. Ah yes, I know, friend John; I am not blind! I love you all the
+more for it! Now go."
+
+In the hall I met Quincey Morris, with a telegram for Arthur telling him
+that Mrs. Westenra was dead; that Lucy also had been ill, but was now
+going on better; and that Van Helsing and I were with her. I told him
+where I was going, and he hurried me out, but as I was going said:--
+
+"When you come back, Jack, may I have two words with you all to
+ourselves?" I nodded in reply and went out. I found no difficulty about
+the registration, and arranged with the local undertaker to come up in
+the evening to measure for the coffin and to make arrangements.
+
+When I got back Quincey was waiting for me. I told him I would see him
+as soon as I knew about Lucy, and went up to her room. She was still
+sleeping, and the Professor seemingly had not moved from his seat at her
+side. From his putting his finger to his lips, I gathered that he
+expected her to wake before long and was afraid of forestalling nature.
+So I went down to Quincey and took him into the breakfast-room, where
+the blinds were not drawn down, and which was a little more cheerful, or
+rather less cheerless, than the other rooms. When we were alone, he said
+to me:--
+
+"Jack Seward, I don't want to shove myself in anywhere where I've no
+right to be; but this is no ordinary case. You know I loved that girl
+and wanted to marry her; but, although that's all past and gone, I can't
+help feeling anxious about her all the same. What is it that's wrong
+with her? The Dutchman--and a fine old fellow he is; I can see
+that--said, that time you two came into the room, that you must have
+_another_ transfusion of blood, and that both you and he were exhausted.
+Now I know well that you medical men speak _in camera_, and that a man
+must not expect to know what they consult about in private. But this is
+no common matter, and, whatever it is, I have done my part. Is not that
+so?"
+
+"That's so," I said, and he went on:--
+
+"I take it that both you and Van Helsing had done already what I did
+to-day. Is not that so?"
+
+"That's so."
+
+"And I guess Art was in it too. When I saw him four days ago down at his
+own place he looked queer. I have not seen anything pulled down so quick
+since I was on the Pampas and had a mare that I was fond of go to grass
+all in a night. One of those big bats that they call vampires had got at
+her in the night, and what with his gorge and the vein left open, there
+wasn't enough blood in her to let her stand up, and I had to put a
+bullet through her as she lay. Jack, if you may tell me without
+betraying confidence, Arthur was the first, is not that so?" As he spoke
+the poor fellow looked terribly anxious. He was in a torture of suspense
+regarding the woman he loved, and his utter ignorance of the terrible
+mystery which seemed to surround her intensified his pain. His very
+heart was bleeding, and it took all the manhood of him--and there was a
+royal lot of it, too--to keep him from breaking down. I paused before
+answering, for I felt that I must not betray anything which the
+Professor wished kept secret; but already he knew so much, and guessed
+so much, that there could be no reason for not answering, so I answered
+in the same phrase: "That's so."
+
+"And how long has this been going on?"
+
+"About ten days."
+
+"Ten days! Then I guess, Jack Seward, that that poor pretty creature
+that we all love has had put into her veins within that time the blood
+of four strong men. Man alive, her whole body wouldn't hold it." Then,
+coming close to me, he spoke in a fierce half-whisper: "What took it
+out?"
+
+I shook my head. "That," I said, "is the crux. Van Helsing is simply
+frantic about it, and I am at my wits' end. I can't even hazard a guess.
+There has been a series of little circumstances which have thrown out
+all our calculations as to Lucy being properly watched. But these shall
+not occur again. Here we stay until all be well--or ill." Quincey held
+out his hand. "Count me in," he said. "You and the Dutchman will tell me
+what to do, and I'll do it."
+
+When she woke late in the afternoon, Lucy's first movement was to feel
+in her breast, and, to my surprise, produced the paper which Van Helsing
+had given me to read. The careful Professor had replaced it where it had
+come from, lest on waking she should be alarmed. Her eye then lit on Van
+Helsing and on me too, and gladdened. Then she looked around the room,
+and seeing where she was, shuddered; she gave a loud cry, and put her
+poor thin hands before her pale face. We both understood what that
+meant--that she had realised to the full her mother's death; so we tried
+what we could to comfort her. Doubtless sympathy eased her somewhat, but
+she was very low in thought and spirit, and wept silently and weakly for
+a long time. We told her that either or both of us would now remain with
+her all the time, and that seemed to comfort her. Towards dusk she fell
+into a doze. Here a very odd thing occurred. Whilst still asleep she
+took the paper from her breast and tore it in two. Van Helsing stepped
+over and took the pieces from her. All the same, however, she went on
+with the action of tearing, as though the material were still in her
+hands; finally she lifted her hands and opened them as though scattering
+the fragments. Van Helsing seemed surprised, and his brows gathered as
+if in thought, but he said nothing.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_19 September._--All last night she slept fitfully, being always afraid
+to sleep, and something weaker when she woke from it. The Professor and
+I took it in turns to watch, and we never left her for a moment
+unattended. Quincey Morris said nothing about his intention, but I knew
+that all night long he patrolled round and round the house.
+
+When the day came, its searching light showed the ravages in poor Lucy's
+strength. She was hardly able to turn her head, and the little
+nourishment which she could take seemed to do her no good. At times she
+slept, and both Van Helsing and I noticed the difference in her, between
+sleeping and waking. Whilst asleep she looked stronger, although more
+haggard, and her breathing was softer; her open mouth showed the pale
+gums drawn back from the teeth, which thus looked positively longer and
+sharper than usual; when she woke the softness of her eyes evidently
+changed the expression, for she looked her own self, although a dying
+one. In the afternoon she asked for Arthur, and we telegraphed for him.
+Quincey went off to meet him at the station.
+
+When he arrived it was nearly six o'clock, and the sun was setting full
+and warm, and the red light streamed in through the window and gave more
+colour to the pale cheeks. When he saw her, Arthur was simply choking
+with emotion, and none of us could speak. In the hours that had passed,
+the fits of sleep, or the comatose condition that passed for it, had
+grown more frequent, so that the pauses when conversation was possible
+were shortened. Arthur's presence, however, seemed to act as a
+stimulant; she rallied a little, and spoke to him more brightly than she
+had done since we arrived. He too pulled himself together, and spoke as
+cheerily as he could, so that the best was made of everything.
+
+It was now nearly one o'clock, and he and Van Helsing are sitting with
+her. I am to relieve them in a quarter of an hour, and I am entering
+this on Lucy's phonograph. Until six o'clock they are to try to rest. I
+fear that to-morrow will end our watching, for the shock has been too
+great; the poor child cannot rally. God help us all.
+
+
+_Letter, Mina Harker to Lucy Westenra._
+
+(Unopened by her.)
+
+"_17 September._
+
+"My dearest Lucy,--
+
+"It seems _an age_ since I heard from you, or indeed since I wrote. You
+will pardon me, I know, for all my faults when you have read all my
+budget of news. Well, I got my husband back all right; when we arrived
+at Exeter there was a carriage waiting for us, and in it, though he had
+an attack of gout, Mr. Hawkins. He took us to his house, where there
+were rooms for us all nice and comfortable, and we dined together. After
+dinner Mr. Hawkins said:--
+
+"'My dears, I want to drink your health and prosperity; and may every
+blessing attend you both. I know you both from children, and have, with
+love and pride, seen you grow up. Now I want you to make your home here
+with me. I have left to me neither chick nor child; all are gone, and in
+my will I have left you everything.' I cried, Lucy dear, as Jonathan and
+the old man clasped hands. Our evening was a very, very happy one.
+
+"So here we are, installed in this beautiful old house, and from both my
+bedroom and the drawing-room I can see the great elms of the cathedral
+close, with their great black stems standing out against the old yellow
+stone of the cathedral and I can hear the rooks overhead cawing and
+cawing and chattering and gossiping all day, after the manner of
+rooks--and humans. I am busy, I need not tell you, arranging things and
+housekeeping. Jonathan and Mr. Hawkins are busy all day; for, now that
+Jonathan is a partner, Mr. Hawkins wants to tell him all about the
+clients.
+
+"How is your dear mother getting on? I wish I could run up to town for a
+day or two to see you, dear, but I dare not go yet, with so much on my
+shoulders; and Jonathan wants looking after still. He is beginning to
+put some flesh on his bones again, but he was terribly weakened by the
+long illness; even now he sometimes starts out of his sleep in a sudden
+way and awakes all trembling until I can coax him back to his usual
+placidity. However, thank God, these occasions grow less frequent as the
+days go on, and they will in time pass away altogether, I trust. And now
+I have told you my news, let me ask yours. When are you to be married,
+and where, and who is to perform the ceremony, and what are you to wear,
+and is it to be a public or a private wedding? Tell me all about it,
+dear; tell me all about everything, for there is nothing which interests
+you which will not be dear to me. Jonathan asks me to send his
+'respectful duty,' but I do not think that is good enough from the
+junior partner of the important firm Hawkins & Harker; and so, as you
+love me, and he loves me, and I love you with all the moods and tenses
+of the verb, I send you simply his 'love' instead. Good-bye, my dearest
+Lucy, and all blessings on you.
+
+"Yours,
+
+"MINA HARKER."
+
+
+_Report from Patrick Hennessey, M. D., M. R. C. S. L. K. Q. C. P. I.,
+etc., etc., to John Seward, M. D._
+
+"_20 September._
+
+"My dear Sir,--
+
+"In accordance with your wishes, I enclose report of the conditions of
+everything left in my charge.... With regard to patient, Renfield, there
+is more to say. He has had another outbreak, which might have had a
+dreadful ending, but which, as it fortunately happened, was unattended
+with any unhappy results. This afternoon a carrier's cart with two men
+made a call at the empty house whose grounds abut on ours--the house to
+which, you will remember, the patient twice ran away. The men stopped at
+our gate to ask the porter their way, as they were strangers. I was
+myself looking out of the study window, having a smoke after dinner, and
+saw one of them come up to the house. As he passed the window of
+Renfield's room, the patient began to rate him from within, and called
+him all the foul names he could lay his tongue to. The man, who seemed a
+decent fellow enough, contented himself by telling him to "shut up for a
+foul-mouthed beggar," whereon our man accused him of robbing him and
+wanting to murder him and said that he would hinder him if he were to
+swing for it. I opened the window and signed to the man not to notice,
+so he contented himself after looking the place over and making up his
+mind as to what kind of a place he had got to by saying: 'Lor' bless
+yer, sir, I wouldn't mind what was said to me in a bloomin' madhouse. I
+pity ye and the guv'nor for havin' to live in the house with a wild
+beast like that.' Then he asked his way civilly enough, and I told him
+where the gate of the empty house was; he went away, followed by threats
+and curses and revilings from our man. I went down to see if I could
+make out any cause for his anger, since he is usually such a
+well-behaved man, and except his violent fits nothing of the kind had
+ever occurred. I found him, to my astonishment, quite composed and most
+genial in his manner. I tried to get him to talk of the incident, but he
+blandly asked me questions as to what I meant, and led me to believe
+that he was completely oblivious of the affair. It was, I am sorry to
+say, however, only another instance of his cunning, for within half an
+hour I heard of him again. This time he had broken out through the
+window of his room, and was running down the avenue. I called to the
+attendants to follow me, and ran after him, for I feared he was intent
+on some mischief. My fear was justified when I saw the same cart which
+had passed before coming down the road, having on it some great wooden
+boxes. The men were wiping their foreheads, and were flushed in the
+face, as if with violent exercise. Before I could get up to him the
+patient rushed at them, and pulling one of them off the cart, began to
+knock his head against the ground. If I had not seized him just at the
+moment I believe he would have killed the man there and then. The other
+fellow jumped down and struck him over the head with the butt-end of his
+heavy whip. It was a terrible blow; but he did not seem to mind it, but
+seized him also, and struggled with the three of us, pulling us to and
+fro as if we were kittens. You know I am no light weight, and the others
+were both burly men. At first he was silent in his fighting; but as we
+began to master him, and the attendants were putting a strait-waistcoat
+on him, he began to shout: 'I'll frustrate them! They shan't rob me!
+they shan't murder me by inches! I'll fight for my Lord and Master!' and
+all sorts of similar incoherent ravings. It was with very considerable
+difficulty that they got him back to the house and put him in the padded
+room. One of the attendants, Hardy, had a finger broken. However, I set
+it all right; and he is going on well.
+
+"The two carriers were at first loud in their threats of actions for
+damages, and promised to rain all the penalties of the law on us. Their
+threats were, however, mingled with some sort of indirect apology for
+the defeat of the two of them by a feeble madman. They said that if it
+had not been for the way their strength had been spent in carrying and
+raising the heavy boxes to the cart they would have made short work of
+him. They gave as another reason for their defeat the extraordinary
+state of drouth to which they had been reduced by the dusty nature of
+their occupation and the reprehensible distance from the scene of their
+labours of any place of public entertainment. I quite understood their
+drift, and after a stiff glass of grog, or rather more of the same, and
+with each a sovereign in hand, they made light of the attack, and swore
+that they would encounter a worse madman any day for the pleasure of
+meeting so 'bloomin' good a bloke' as your correspondent. I took their
+names and addresses, in case they might be needed. They are as
+follows:--Jack Smollet, of Dudding's Rents, King George's Road, Great
+Walworth, and Thomas Snelling, Peter Farley's Row, Guide Court, Bethnal
+Green. They are both in the employment of Harris & Sons, Moving and
+Shipment Company, Orange Master's Yard, Soho.
+
+"I shall report to you any matter of interest occurring here, and shall
+wire you at once if there is anything of importance.
+
+"Believe me, dear Sir,
+
+"Yours faithfully,
+
+"PATRICK HENNESSEY."
+
+
+_Letter, Mina Harker to Lucy Westenra_.
+
+(Unopened by her.)
+
+"_18 September._
+
+"My dearest Lucy,--
+
+"Such a sad blow has befallen us. Mr. Hawkins has died very suddenly.
+Some may not think it so sad for us, but we had both come to so love him
+that it really seems as though we had lost a father. I never knew either
+father or mother, so that the dear old man's death is a real blow to me.
+Jonathan is greatly distressed. It is not only that he feels sorrow,
+deep sorrow, for the dear, good man who has befriended him all his life,
+and now at the end has treated him like his own son and left him a
+fortune which to people of our modest bringing up is wealth beyond the
+dream of avarice, but Jonathan feels it on another account. He says the
+amount of responsibility which it puts upon him makes him nervous. He
+begins to doubt himself. I try to cheer him up, and _my_ belief in _him_
+helps him to have a belief in himself. But it is here that the grave
+shock that he experienced tells upon him the most. Oh, it is too hard
+that a sweet, simple, noble, strong nature such as his--a nature which
+enabled him by our dear, good friend's aid to rise from clerk to master
+in a few years--should be so injured that the very essence of its
+strength is gone. Forgive me, dear, if I worry you with my troubles in
+the midst of your own happiness; but, Lucy dear, I must tell some one,
+for the strain of keeping up a brave and cheerful appearance to Jonathan
+tries me, and I have no one here that I can confide in. I dread coming
+up to London, as we must do the day after to-morrow; for poor Mr.
+Hawkins left in his will that he was to be buried in the grave with his
+father. As there are no relations at all, Jonathan will have to be chief
+mourner. I shall try to run over to see you, dearest, if only for a few
+minutes. Forgive me for troubling you. With all blessings,
+
+"Your loving
+
+"MINA HARKER."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_20 September._--Only resolution and habit can let me make an entry
+to-night. I am too miserable, too low-spirited, too sick of the world
+and all in it, including life itself, that I would not care if I heard
+this moment the flapping of the wings of the angel of death. And he has
+been flapping those grim wings to some purpose of late--Lucy's mother
+and Arthur's father, and now.... Let me get on with my work.
+
+I duly relieved Van Helsing in his watch over Lucy. We wanted Arthur to
+go to rest also, but he refused at first. It was only when I told him
+that we should want him to help us during the day, and that we must not
+all break down for want of rest, lest Lucy should suffer, that he agreed
+to go. Van Helsing was very kind to him. "Come, my child," he said;
+"come with me. You are sick and weak, and have had much sorrow and much
+mental pain, as well as that tax on your strength that we know of. You
+must not be alone; for to be alone is to be full of fears and alarms.
+Come to the drawing-room, where there is a big fire, and there are two
+sofas. You shall lie on one, and I on the other, and our sympathy will
+be comfort to each other, even though we do not speak, and even if we
+sleep." Arthur went off with him, casting back a longing look on Lucy's
+face, which lay in her pillow, almost whiter than the lawn. She lay
+quite still, and I looked round the room to see that all was as it
+should be. I could see that the Professor had carried out in this room,
+as in the other, his purpose of using the garlic; the whole of the
+window-sashes reeked with it, and round Lucy's neck, over the silk
+handkerchief which Van Helsing made her keep on, was a rough chaplet of
+the same odorous flowers. Lucy was breathing somewhat stertorously, and
+her face was at its worst, for the open mouth showed the pale gums. Her
+teeth, in the dim, uncertain light, seemed longer and sharper than they
+had been in the morning. In particular, by some trick of the light, the
+canine teeth looked longer and sharper than the rest. I sat down by her,
+and presently she moved uneasily. At the same moment there came a sort
+of dull flapping or buffeting at the window. I went over to it softly,
+and peeped out by the corner of the blind. There was a full moonlight,
+and I could see that the noise was made by a great bat, which wheeled
+round--doubtless attracted by the light, although so dim--and every now
+and again struck the window with its wings. When I came back to my seat,
+I found that Lucy had moved slightly, and had torn away the garlic
+flowers from her throat. I replaced them as well as I could, and sat
+watching her.
+
+Presently she woke, and I gave her food, as Van Helsing had prescribed.
+She took but a little, and that languidly. There did not seem to be with
+her now the unconscious struggle for life and strength that had hitherto
+so marked her illness. It struck me as curious that the moment she
+became conscious she pressed the garlic flowers close to her. It was
+certainly odd that whenever she got into that lethargic state, with the
+stertorous breathing, she put the flowers from her; but that when she
+waked she clutched them close. There was no possibility of making any
+mistake about this, for in the long hours that followed, she had many
+spells of sleeping and waking and repeated both actions many times.
+
+At six o'clock Van Helsing came to relieve me. Arthur had then fallen
+into a doze, and he mercifully let him sleep on. When he saw Lucy's face
+I could hear the sissing indraw of his breath, and he said to me in a
+sharp whisper: "Draw up the blind; I want light!" Then he bent down,
+and, with his face almost touching Lucy's, examined her carefully. He
+removed the flowers and lifted the silk handkerchief from her throat. As
+he did so he started back, and I could hear his ejaculation, "Mein
+Gott!" as it was smothered in his throat. I bent over and looked, too,
+and as I noticed some queer chill came over me.
+
+The wounds on the throat had absolutely disappeared.
+
+For fully five minutes Van Helsing stood looking at her, with his face
+at its sternest. Then he turned to me and said calmly:--
+
+"She is dying. It will not be long now. It will be much difference, mark
+me, whether she dies conscious or in her sleep. Wake that poor boy, and
+let him come and see the last; he trusts us, and we have promised him."
+
+I went to the dining-room and waked him. He was dazed for a moment, but
+when he saw the sunlight streaming in through the edges of the shutters
+he thought he was late, and expressed his fear. I assured him that Lucy
+was still asleep, but told him as gently as I could that both Van
+Helsing and I feared that the end was near. He covered his face with his
+hands, and slid down on his knees by the sofa, where he remained,
+perhaps a minute, with his head buried, praying, whilst his shoulders
+shook with grief. I took him by the hand and raised him up. "Come," I
+said, "my dear old fellow, summon all your fortitude: it will be best
+and easiest for her."
+
+When we came into Lucy's room I could see that Van Helsing had, with
+his usual forethought, been putting matters straight and making
+everything look as pleasing as possible. He had even brushed Lucy's
+hair, so that it lay on the pillow in its usual sunny ripples. When we
+came into the room she opened her eyes, and seeing him, whispered
+softly:--
+
+"Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come!" He was stooping to
+kiss her, when Van Helsing motioned him back. "No," he whispered, "not
+yet! Hold her hand; it will comfort her more."
+
+So Arthur took her hand and knelt beside her, and she looked her best,
+with all the soft lines matching the angelic beauty of her eyes. Then
+gradually her eyes closed, and she sank to sleep. For a little bit her
+breast heaved softly, and her breath came and went like a tired child's.
+
+And then insensibly there came the strange change which I had noticed in
+the night. Her breathing grew stertorous, the mouth opened, and the pale
+gums, drawn back, made the teeth look longer and sharper than ever. In a
+sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened her eyes, which
+were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft, voluptuous voice,
+such as I had never heard from her lips:--
+
+"Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss me!" Arthur bent
+eagerly over to kiss her; but at that instant Van Helsing, who, like me,
+had been startled by her voice, swooped upon him, and catching him by
+the neck with both hands, dragged him back with a fury of strength which
+I never thought he could have possessed, and actually hurled him almost
+across the room.
+
+"Not for your life!" he said; "not for your living soul and hers!" And
+he stood between them like a lion at bay.
+
+Arthur was so taken aback that he did not for a moment know what to do
+or say; and before any impulse of violence could seize him he realised
+the place and the occasion, and stood silent, waiting.
+
+I kept my eyes fixed on Lucy, as did Van Helsing, and we saw a spasm as
+of rage flit like a shadow over her face; the sharp teeth champed
+together. Then her eyes closed, and she breathed heavily.
+
+Very shortly after she opened her eyes in all their softness, and
+putting out her poor, pale, thin hand, took Van Helsing's great brown
+one; drawing it to her, she kissed it. "My true friend," she said, in a
+faint voice, but with untellable pathos, "My true friend, and his! Oh,
+guard him, and give me peace!"
+
+"I swear it!" he said solemnly, kneeling beside her and holding up his
+hand, as one who registers an oath. Then he turned to Arthur, and said
+to him: "Come, my child, take her hand in yours, and kiss her on the
+forehead, and only once."
+
+Their eyes met instead of their lips; and so they parted.
+
+Lucy's eyes closed; and Van Helsing, who had been watching closely, took
+Arthur's arm, and drew him away.
+
+And then Lucy's breathing became stertorous again, and all at once it
+ceased.
+
+"It is all over," said Van Helsing. "She is dead!"
+
+I took Arthur by the arm, and led him away to the drawing-room, where he
+sat down, and covered his face with his hands, sobbing in a way that
+nearly broke me down to see.
+
+I went back to the room, and found Van Helsing looking at poor Lucy, and
+his face was sterner than ever. Some change had come over her body.
+Death had given back part of her beauty, for her brow and cheeks had
+recovered some of their flowing lines; even the lips had lost their
+deadly pallor. It was as if the blood, no longer needed for the working
+of the heart, had gone to make the harshness of death as little rude as
+might be.
+
+ "We thought her dying whilst she slept,
+ And sleeping when she died."
+
+I stood beside Van Helsing, and said:--
+
+"Ah, well, poor girl, there is peace for her at last. It is the end!"
+
+He turned to me, and said with grave solemnity:--
+
+"Not so; alas! not so. It is only the beginning!"
+
+When I asked him what he meant, he only shook his head and answered:--
+
+"We can do nothing as yet. Wait and see."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY--_continued_.
+
+
+The funeral was arranged for the next succeeding day, so that Lucy and
+her mother might be buried together. I attended to all the ghastly
+formalities, and the urbane undertaker proved that his staff were
+afflicted--or blessed--with something of his own obsequious suavity.
+Even the woman who performed the last offices for the dead remarked to
+me, in a confidential, brother-professional way, when she had come out
+from the death-chamber:--
+
+"She makes a very beautiful corpse, sir. It's quite a privilege to
+attend on her. It's not too much to say that she will do credit to our
+establishment!"
+
+I noticed that Van Helsing never kept far away. This was possible from
+the disordered state of things in the household. There were no relatives
+at hand; and as Arthur had to be back the next day to attend at his
+father's funeral, we were unable to notify any one who should have been
+bidden. Under the circumstances, Van Helsing and I took it upon
+ourselves to examine papers, etc. He insisted upon looking over Lucy's
+papers himself. I asked him why, for I feared that he, being a
+foreigner, might not be quite aware of English legal requirements, and
+so might in ignorance make some unnecessary trouble. He answered me:--
+
+"I know; I know. You forget that I am a lawyer as well as a doctor. But
+this is not altogether for the law. You knew that, when you avoided the
+coroner. I have more than him to avoid. There may be papers more--such
+as this."
+
+As he spoke he took from his pocket-book the memorandum which had been
+in Lucy's breast, and which she had torn in her sleep.
+
+"When you find anything of the solicitor who is for the late Mrs.
+Westenra, seal all her papers, and write him to-night. For me, I watch
+here in the room and in Miss Lucy's old room all night, and I myself
+search for what may be. It is not well that her very thoughts go into
+the hands of strangers."
+
+I went on with my part of the work, and in another half hour had found
+the name and address of Mrs. Westenra's solicitor and had written to
+him. All the poor lady's papers were in order; explicit directions
+regarding the place of burial were given. I had hardly sealed the
+letter, when, to my surprise, Van Helsing walked into the room,
+saying:--
+
+"Can I help you, friend John? I am free, and if I may, my service is to
+you."
+
+"Have you got what you looked for?" I asked, to which he replied:--
+
+"I did not look for any specific thing. I only hoped to find, and find I
+have, all that there was--only some letters and a few memoranda, and a
+diary new begun. But I have them here, and we shall for the present say
+nothing of them. I shall see that poor lad to-morrow evening, and, with
+his sanction, I shall use some."
+
+When we had finished the work in hand, he said to me:--
+
+"And now, friend John, I think we may to bed. We want sleep, both you
+and I, and rest to recuperate. To-morrow we shall have much to do, but
+for the to-night there is no need of us. Alas!"
+
+Before turning in we went to look at poor Lucy. The undertaker had
+certainly done his work well, for the room was turned into a small
+_chapelle ardente_. There was a wilderness of beautiful white flowers,
+and death was made as little repulsive as might be. The end of the
+winding-sheet was laid over the face; when the Professor bent over and
+turned it gently back, we both started at the beauty before us, the tall
+wax candles showing a sufficient light to note it well. All Lucy's
+loveliness had come back to her in death, and the hours that had passed,
+instead of leaving traces of "decay's effacing fingers," had but
+restored the beauty of life, till positively I could not believe my eyes
+that I was looking at a corpse.
+
+The Professor looked sternly grave. He had not loved her as I had, and
+there was no need for tears in his eyes. He said to me: "Remain till I
+return," and left the room. He came back with a handful of wild garlic
+from the box waiting in the hall, but which had not been opened, and
+placed the flowers amongst the others on and around the bed. Then he
+took from his neck, inside his collar, a little gold crucifix, and
+placed it over the mouth. He restored the sheet to its place, and we
+came away.
+
+I was undressing in my own room, when, with a premonitory tap at the
+door, he entered, and at once began to speak:--
+
+"To-morrow I want you to bring me, before night, a set of post-mortem
+knives."
+
+"Must we make an autopsy?" I asked.
+
+"Yes and no. I want to operate, but not as you think. Let me tell you
+now, but not a word to another. I want to cut off her head and take out
+her heart. Ah! you a surgeon, and so shocked! You, whom I have seen with
+no tremble of hand or heart, do operations of life and death that make
+the rest shudder. Oh, but I must not forget, my dear friend John, that
+you loved her; and I have not forgotten it, for it is I that shall
+operate, and you must only help. I would like to do it to-night, but for
+Arthur I must not; he will be free after his father's funeral to-morrow,
+and he will want to see her--to see _it_. Then, when she is coffined
+ready for the next day, you and I shall come when all sleep. We shall
+unscrew the coffin-lid, and shall do our operation: and then replace
+all, so that none know, save we alone."
+
+"But why do it at all? The girl is dead. Why mutilate her poor body
+without need? And if there is no necessity for a post-mortem and nothing
+to gain by it--no good to her, to us, to science, to human
+knowledge--why do it? Without such it is monstrous."
+
+For answer he put his hand on my shoulder, and said, with infinite
+tenderness:--
+
+"Friend John, I pity your poor bleeding heart; and I love you the more
+because it does so bleed. If I could, I would take on myself the burden
+that you do bear. But there are things that you know not, but that you
+shall know, and bless me for knowing, though they are not pleasant
+things. John, my child, you have been my friend now many years, and yet
+did you ever know me to do any without good cause? I may err--I am but
+man; but I believe in all I do. Was it not for these causes that you
+send for me when the great trouble came? Yes! Were you not amazed, nay
+horrified, when I would not let Arthur kiss his love--though she was
+dying--and snatched him away by all my strength? Yes! And yet you saw
+how she thanked me, with her so beautiful dying eyes, her voice, too, so
+weak, and she kiss my rough old hand and bless me? Yes! And did you not
+hear me swear promise to her, that so she closed her eyes grateful? Yes!
+
+"Well, I have good reason now for all I want to do. You have for many
+years trust me; you have believe me weeks past, when there be things so
+strange that you might have well doubt. Believe me yet a little, friend
+John. If you trust me not, then I must tell what I think; and that is
+not perhaps well. And if I work--as work I shall, no matter trust or no
+trust--without my friend trust in me, I work with heavy heart and feel,
+oh! so lonely when I want all help and courage that may be!" He paused a
+moment and went on solemnly: "Friend John, there are strange and
+terrible days before us. Let us not be two, but one, that so we work to
+a good end. Will you not have faith in me?"
+
+I took his hand, and promised him. I held my door open as he went away,
+and watched him go into his room and close the door. As I stood without
+moving, I saw one of the maids pass silently along the passage--she had
+her back towards me, so did not see me--and go into the room where Lucy
+lay. The sight touched me. Devotion is so rare, and we are so grateful
+to those who show it unasked to those we love. Here was a poor girl
+putting aside the terrors which she naturally had of death to go watch
+alone by the bier of the mistress whom she loved, so that the poor clay
+might not be lonely till laid to eternal rest....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I must have slept long and soundly, for it was broad daylight when Van
+Helsing waked me by coming into my room. He came over to my bedside and
+said:--
+
+"You need not trouble about the knives; we shall not do it."
+
+"Why not?" I asked. For his solemnity of the night before had greatly
+impressed me.
+
+"Because," he said sternly, "it is too late--or too early. See!" Here he
+held up the little golden crucifix. "This was stolen in the night."
+
+"How, stolen," I asked in wonder, "since you have it now?"
+
+"Because I get it back from the worthless wretch who stole it, from the
+woman who robbed the dead and the living. Her punishment will surely
+come, but not through me; she knew not altogether what she did and thus
+unknowing, she only stole. Now we must wait."
+
+He went away on the word, leaving me with a new mystery to think of, a
+new puzzle to grapple with.
+
+The forenoon was a dreary time, but at noon the solicitor came: Mr.
+Marquand, of Wholeman, Sons, Marquand & Lidderdale. He was very genial
+and very appreciative of what we had done, and took off our hands all
+cares as to details. During lunch he told us that Mrs. Westenra had for
+some time expected sudden death from her heart, and had put her affairs
+in absolute order; he informed us that, with the exception of a certain
+entailed property of Lucy's father's which now, in default of direct
+issue, went back to a distant branch of the family, the whole estate,
+real and personal, was left absolutely to Arthur Holmwood. When he had
+told us so much he went on:--
+
+"Frankly we did our best to prevent such a testamentary disposition, and
+pointed out certain contingencies that might leave her daughter either
+penniless or not so free as she should be to act regarding a matrimonial
+alliance. Indeed, we pressed the matter so far that we almost came into
+collision, for she asked us if we were or were not prepared to carry out
+her wishes. Of course, we had then no alternative but to accept. We were
+right in principle, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred we should
+have proved, by the logic of events, the accuracy of our judgment.
+Frankly, however, I must admit that in this case any other form of
+disposition would have rendered impossible the carrying out of her
+wishes. For by her predeceasing her daughter the latter would have come
+into possession of the property, and, even had she only survived her
+mother by five minutes, her property would, in case there were no
+will--and a will was a practical impossibility in such a case--have been
+treated at her decease as under intestacy. In which case Lord Godalming,
+though so dear a friend, would have had no claim in the world; and the
+inheritors, being remote, would not be likely to abandon their just
+rights, for sentimental reasons regarding an entire stranger. I assure
+you, my dear sirs, I am rejoiced at the result, perfectly rejoiced."
+
+He was a good fellow, but his rejoicing at the one little part--in which
+he was officially interested--of so great a tragedy, was an
+object-lesson in the limitations of sympathetic understanding.
+
+He did not remain long, but said he would look in later in the day and
+see Lord Godalming. His coming, however, had been a certain comfort to
+us, since it assured us that we should not have to dread hostile
+criticism as to any of our acts. Arthur was expected at five o'clock, so
+a little before that time we visited the death-chamber. It was so in
+very truth, for now both mother and daughter lay in it. The undertaker,
+true to his craft, had made the best display he could of his goods, and
+there was a mortuary air about the place that lowered our spirits at
+once. Van Helsing ordered the former arrangement to be adhered to,
+explaining that, as Lord Godalming was coming very soon, it would be
+less harrowing to his feelings to see all that was left of his _fiancée_
+quite alone. The undertaker seemed shocked at his own stupidity and
+exerted himself to restore things to the condition in which we left them
+the night before, so that when Arthur came such shocks to his feelings
+as we could avoid were saved.
+
+Poor fellow! He looked desperately sad and broken; even his stalwart
+manhood seemed to have shrunk somewhat under the strain of his
+much-tried emotions. He had, I knew, been very genuinely and devotedly
+attached to his father; and to lose him, and at such a time, was a
+bitter blow to him. With me he was warm as ever, and to Van Helsing he
+was sweetly courteous; but I could not help seeing that there was some
+constraint with him. The Professor noticed it, too, and motioned me to
+bring him upstairs. I did so, and left him at the door of the room, as I
+felt he would like to be quite alone with her, but he took my arm and
+led me in, saying huskily:--
+
+"You loved her too, old fellow; she told me all about it, and there was
+no friend had a closer place in her heart than you. I don't know how to
+thank you for all you have done for her. I can't think yet...."
+
+Here he suddenly broke down, and threw his arms round my shoulders and
+laid his head on my breast, crying:--
+
+"Oh, Jack! Jack! What shall I do! The whole of life seems gone from me
+all at once, and there is nothing in the wide world for me to live for."
+
+I comforted him as well as I could. In such cases men do not need much
+expression. A grip of the hand, the tightening of an arm over the
+shoulder, a sob in unison, are expressions of sympathy dear to a man's
+heart. I stood still and silent till his sobs died away, and then I said
+softly to him:--
+
+"Come and look at her."
+
+Together we moved over to the bed, and I lifted the lawn from her face.
+God! how beautiful she was. Every hour seemed to be enhancing her
+loveliness. It frightened and amazed me somewhat; and as for Arthur, he
+fell a-trembling, and finally was shaken with doubt as with an ague. At
+last, after a long pause, he said to me in a faint whisper:--
+
+"Jack, is she really dead?"
+
+I assured him sadly that it was so, and went on to suggest--for I felt
+that such a horrible doubt should not have life for a moment longer than
+I could help--that it often happened that after death faces became
+softened and even resolved into their youthful beauty; that this was
+especially so when death had been preceded by any acute or prolonged
+suffering. It seemed to quite do away with any doubt, and, after
+kneeling beside the couch for a while and looking at her lovingly and
+long, he turned aside. I told him that that must be good-bye, as the
+coffin had to be prepared; so he went back and took her dead hand in his
+and kissed it, and bent over and kissed her forehead. He came away,
+fondly looking back over his shoulder at her as he came.
+
+I left him in the drawing-room, and told Van Helsing that he had said
+good-bye; so the latter went to the kitchen to tell the undertaker's men
+to proceed with the preparations and to screw up the coffin. When he
+came out of the room again I told him of Arthur's question, and he
+replied:--
+
+"I am not surprised. Just now I doubted for a moment myself!"
+
+We all dined together, and I could see that poor Art was trying to make
+the best of things. Van Helsing had been silent all dinner-time; but
+when we had lit our cigars he said--
+
+"Lord----"; but Arthur interrupted him:--
+
+"No, no, not that, for God's sake! not yet at any rate. Forgive me, sir:
+I did not mean to speak offensively; it is only because my loss is so
+recent."
+
+The Professor answered very sweetly:--
+
+"I only used that name because I was in doubt. I must not call you
+'Mr.,' and I have grown to love you--yes, my dear boy, to love you--as
+Arthur."
+
+Arthur held out his hand, and took the old man's warmly.
+
+"Call me what you will," he said. "I hope I may always have the title of
+a friend. And let me say that I am at a loss for words to thank you for
+your goodness to my poor dear." He paused a moment, and went on: "I know
+that she understood your goodness even better than I do; and if I was
+rude or in any way wanting at that time you acted so--you remember"--the
+Professor nodded--"you must forgive me."
+
+He answered with a grave kindness:--
+
+"I know it was hard for you to quite trust me then, for to trust such
+violence needs to understand; and I take it that you do not--that you
+cannot--trust me now, for you do not yet understand. And there may be
+more times when I shall want you to trust when you cannot--and may
+not--and must not yet understand. But the time will come when your trust
+shall be whole and complete in me, and when you shall understand as
+though the sunlight himself shone through. Then you shall bless me from
+first to last for your own sake, and for the sake of others and for her
+dear sake to whom I swore to protect."
+
+"And, indeed, indeed, sir," said Arthur warmly, "I shall in all ways
+trust you. I know and believe you have a very noble heart, and you are
+Jack's friend, and you were hers. You shall do what you like."
+
+The Professor cleared his throat a couple of times, as though about to
+speak, and finally said:--
+
+"May I ask you something now?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"You know that Mrs. Westenra left you all her property?"
+
+"No, poor dear; I never thought of it."
+
+"And as it is all yours, you have a right to deal with it as you will. I
+want you to give me permission to read all Miss Lucy's papers and
+letters. Believe me, it is no idle curiosity. I have a motive of which,
+be sure, she would have approved. I have them all here. I took them
+before we knew that all was yours, so that no strange hand might touch
+them--no strange eye look through words into her soul. I shall keep
+them, if I may; even you may not see them yet, but I shall keep them
+safe. No word shall be lost; and in the good time I shall give them back
+to you. It's a hard thing I ask, but you will do it, will you not, for
+Lucy's sake?"
+
+Arthur spoke out heartily, like his old self:--
+
+"Dr. Van Helsing, you may do what you will. I feel that in saying this I
+am doing what my dear one would have approved. I shall not trouble you
+with questions till the time comes."
+
+The old Professor stood up as he said solemnly:--
+
+"And you are right. There will be pain for us all; but it will not be
+all pain, nor will this pain be the last. We and you too--you most of
+all, my dear boy--will have to pass through the bitter water before we
+reach the sweet. But we must be brave of heart and unselfish, and do our
+duty, and all will be well!"
+
+I slept on a sofa in Arthur's room that night. Van Helsing did not go to
+bed at all. He went to and fro, as if patrolling the house, and was
+never out of sight of the room where Lucy lay in her coffin, strewn with
+the wild garlic flowers, which sent, through the odour of lily and rose,
+a heavy, overpowering smell into the night.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_22 September._--In the train to Exeter. Jonathan sleeping.
+
+It seems only yesterday that the last entry was made, and yet how much
+between then, in Whitby and all the world before me, Jonathan away and
+no news of him; and now, married to Jonathan, Jonathan a solicitor, a
+partner, rich, master of his business, Mr. Hawkins dead and buried, and
+Jonathan with another attack that may harm him. Some day he may ask me
+about it. Down it all goes. I am rusty in my shorthand--see what
+unexpected prosperity does for us--so it may be as well to freshen it up
+again with an exercise anyhow....
+
+The service was very simple and very solemn. There were only ourselves
+and the servants there, one or two old friends of his from Exeter, his
+London agent, and a gentleman representing Sir John Paxton, the
+President of the Incorporated Law Society. Jonathan and I stood hand in
+hand, and we felt that our best and dearest friend was gone from us....
+
+We came back to town quietly, taking a 'bus to Hyde Park Corner.
+Jonathan thought it would interest me to go into the Row for a while, so
+we sat down; but there were very few people there, and it was
+sad-looking and desolate to see so many empty chairs. It made us think
+of the empty chair at home; so we got up and walked down Piccadilly.
+Jonathan was holding me by the arm, the way he used to in old days
+before I went to school. I felt it very improper, for you can't go on
+for some years teaching etiquette and decorum to other girls without the
+pedantry of it biting into yourself a bit; but it was Jonathan, and he
+was my husband, and we didn't know anybody who saw us--and we didn't
+care if they did--so on we walked. I was looking at a very beautiful
+girl, in a big cart-wheel hat, sitting in a victoria outside Guiliano's,
+when I felt Jonathan clutch my arm so tight that he hurt me, and he said
+under his breath: "My God!" I am always anxious about Jonathan, for I
+fear that some nervous fit may upset him again; so I turned to him
+quickly, and asked him what it was that disturbed him.
+
+He was very pale, and his eyes seemed bulging out as, half in terror and
+half in amazement, he gazed at a tall, thin man, with a beaky nose and
+black moustache and pointed beard, who was also observing the pretty
+girl. He was looking at her so hard that he did not see either of us,
+and so I had a good view of him. His face was not a good face; it was
+hard, and cruel, and sensual, and his big white teeth, that looked all
+the whiter because his lips were so red, were pointed like an animal's.
+Jonathan kept staring at him, till I was afraid he would notice. I
+feared he might take it ill, he looked so fierce and nasty. I asked
+Jonathan why he was disturbed, and he answered, evidently thinking that
+I knew as much about it as he did: "Do you see who it is?"
+
+"No, dear," I said; "I don't know him; who is it?" His answer seemed to
+shock and thrill me, for it was said as if he did not know that it was
+to me, Mina, to whom he was speaking:--
+
+"It is the man himself!"
+
+The poor dear was evidently terrified at something--very greatly
+terrified; I do believe that if he had not had me to lean on and to
+support him he would have sunk down. He kept staring; a man came out of
+the shop with a small parcel, and gave it to the lady, who then drove
+off. The dark man kept his eyes fixed on her, and when the carriage
+moved up Piccadilly he followed in the same direction, and hailed a
+hansom. Jonathan kept looking after him, and said, as if to himself:--
+
+"I believe it is the Count, but he has grown young. My God, if this be
+so! Oh, my God! my God! If I only knew! if I only knew!" He was
+distressing himself so much that I feared to keep his mind on the
+subject by asking him any questions, so I remained silent. I drew him
+away quietly, and he, holding my arm, came easily. We walked a little
+further, and then went in and sat for a while in the Green Park. It was
+a hot day for autumn, and there was a comfortable seat in a shady place.
+After a few minutes' staring at nothing, Jonathan's eyes closed, and he
+went quietly into a sleep, with his head on my shoulder. I thought it
+was the best thing for him, so did not disturb him. In about twenty
+minutes he woke up, and said to me quite cheerfully:--
+
+"Why, Mina, have I been asleep! Oh, do forgive me for being so rude.
+Come, and we'll have a cup of tea somewhere." He had evidently forgotten
+all about the dark stranger, as in his illness he had forgotten all that
+this episode had reminded him of. I don't like this lapsing into
+forgetfulness; it may make or continue some injury to the brain. I must
+not ask him, for fear I shall do more harm than good; but I must somehow
+learn the facts of his journey abroad. The time is come, I fear, when I
+must open that parcel, and know what is written. Oh, Jonathan, you will,
+I know, forgive me if I do wrong, but it is for your own dear sake.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--A sad home-coming in every way--the house empty of the dear
+soul who was so good to us; Jonathan still pale and dizzy under a slight
+relapse of his malady; and now a telegram from Van Helsing, whoever he
+may be:--
+
+"You will be grieved to hear that Mrs. Westenra died five days ago, and
+that Lucy died the day before yesterday. They were both buried to-day."
+
+Oh, what a wealth of sorrow in a few words! Poor Mrs. Westenra! poor
+Lucy! Gone, gone, never to return to us! And poor, poor Arthur, to have
+lost such sweetness out of his life! God help us all to bear our
+troubles.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_22 September._--It is all over. Arthur has gone back to Ring, and has
+taken Quincey Morris with him. What a fine fellow is Quincey! I believe
+in my heart of hearts that he suffered as much about Lucy's death as any
+of us; but he bore himself through it like a moral Viking. If America
+can go on breeding men like that, she will be a power in the world
+indeed. Van Helsing is lying down, having a rest preparatory to his
+journey. He goes over to Amsterdam to-night, but says he returns
+to-morrow night; that he only wants to make some arrangements which can
+only be made personally. He is to stop with me then, if he can; he says
+he has work to do in London which may take him some time. Poor old
+fellow! I fear that the strain of the past week has broken down even his
+iron strength. All the time of the burial he was, I could see, putting
+some terrible restraint on himself. When it was all over, we were
+standing beside Arthur, who, poor fellow, was speaking of his part in
+the operation where his blood had been transfused to his Lucy's veins; I
+could see Van Helsing's face grow white and purple by turns. Arthur was
+saying that he felt since then as if they two had been really married
+and that she was his wife in the sight of God. None of us said a word of
+the other operations, and none of us ever shall. Arthur and Quincey went
+away together to the station, and Van Helsing and I came on here. The
+moment we were alone in the carriage he gave way to a regular fit of
+hysterics. He has denied to me since that it was hysterics, and insisted
+that it was only his sense of humour asserting itself under very
+terrible conditions. He laughed till he cried, and I had to draw down
+the blinds lest any one should see us and misjudge; and then he cried,
+till he laughed again; and laughed and cried together, just as a woman
+does. I tried to be stern with him, as one is to a woman under the
+circumstances; but it had no effect. Men and women are so different in
+manifestations of nervous strength or weakness! Then when his face grew
+grave and stern again I asked him why his mirth, and why at such a time.
+His reply was in a way characteristic of him, for it was logical and
+forceful and mysterious. He said:--
+
+"Ah, you don't comprehend, friend John. Do not think that I am not sad,
+though I laugh. See, I have cried even when the laugh did choke me. But
+no more think that I am all sorry when I cry, for the laugh he come
+just the same. Keep it always with you that laughter who knock at your
+door and say, 'May I come in?' is not the true laughter. No! he is a
+king, and he come when and how he like. He ask no person; he choose no
+time of suitability. He say, 'I am here.' Behold, in example I grieve my
+heart out for that so sweet young girl; I give my blood for her, though
+I am old and worn; I give my time, my skill, my sleep; I let my other
+sufferers want that so she may have all. And yet I can laugh at her very
+grave--laugh when the clay from the spade of the sexton drop upon her
+coffin and say 'Thud! thud!' to my heart, till it send back the blood
+from my cheek. My heart bleed for that poor boy--that dear boy, so of
+the age of mine own boy had I been so blessed that he live, and with his
+hair and eyes the same. There, you know now why I love him so. And yet
+when he say things that touch my husband-heart to the quick, and make my
+father-heart yearn to him as to no other man--not even to you, friend
+John, for we are more level in experiences than father and son--yet even
+at such moment King Laugh he come to me and shout and bellow in my ear,
+'Here I am! here I am!' till the blood come dance back and bring some of
+the sunshine that he carry with him to my cheek. Oh, friend John, it is
+a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and
+troubles; and yet when King Laugh come he make them all dance to the
+tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and
+tears that burn as they fall--all dance together to the music that he
+make with that smileless mouth of him. And believe me, friend John, that
+he is good to come, and kind. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn
+tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come; and,
+like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain
+become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he come like the
+sunshine, and he ease off the strain again; and we bear to go on with
+our labour, what it may be."
+
+I did not like to wound him by pretending not to see his idea; but, as I
+did not yet understand the cause of his laughter, I asked him. As he
+answered me his face grew stern, and he said in quite a different
+tone:--
+
+"Oh, it was the grim irony of it all--this so lovely lady garlanded with
+flowers, that looked so fair as life, till one by one we wondered if she
+were truly dead; she laid in that so fine marble house in that lonely
+churchyard, where rest so many of her kin, laid there with the mother
+who loved her, and whom she loved; and that sacred bell going 'Toll!
+toll! toll!' so sad and slow; and those holy men, with the white
+garments of the angel, pretending to read books, and yet all the time
+their eyes never on the page; and all of us with the bowed head. And all
+for what? She is dead; so! Is it not?"
+
+"Well, for the life of me, Professor," I said, "I can't see anything to
+laugh at in all that. Why, your explanation makes it a harder puzzle
+than before. But even if the burial service was comic, what about poor
+Art and his trouble? Why, his heart was simply breaking."
+
+"Just so. Said he not that the transfusion of his blood to her veins had
+made her truly his bride?"
+
+"Yes, and it was a sweet and comforting idea for him."
+
+"Quite so. But there was a difficulty, friend John. If so that, then
+what about the others? Ho, ho! Then this so sweet maid is a polyandrist,
+and me, with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church's law, though
+no wits, all gone--even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife,
+am bigamist."
+
+"I don't see where the joke comes in there either!" I said; and I did
+not feel particularly pleased with him for saying such things. He laid
+his hand on my arm, and said:--
+
+"Friend John, forgive me if I pain. I showed not my feeling to others
+when it would wound, but only to you, my old friend, whom I can trust.
+If you could have looked into my very heart then when I want to laugh;
+if you could have done so when the laugh arrived; if you could do so
+now, when King Laugh have pack up his crown, and all that is to him--for
+he go far, far away from me, and for a long, long time--maybe you would
+perhaps pity me the most of all."
+
+I was touched by the tenderness of his tone, and asked why.
+
+"Because I know!"
+
+And now we are all scattered; and for many a long day loneliness will
+sit over our roofs with brooding wings. Lucy lies in the tomb of her
+kin, a lordly death-house in a lonely churchyard, away from teeming
+London; where the air is fresh, and the sun rises over Hampstead Hill,
+and where wild flowers grow of their own accord.
+
+So I can finish this diary; and God only knows if I shall ever begin
+another. If I do, or if I even open this again, it will be to deal with
+different people and different themes; for here at the end, where the
+romance of my life is told, ere I go back to take up the thread of my
+life-work, I say sadly and without hope,
+
+ "FINIS."
+
+
+_"The Westminster Gazette," 25 September._
+
+ A HAMPSTEAD MYSTERY.
+
+
+The neighbourhood of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a
+series of events which seem to run on lines parallel to those of what
+was known to the writers of headlines as "The Kensington Horror," or
+"The Stabbing Woman," or "The Woman in Black." During the past two or
+three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from
+home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath. In all
+these cases the children were too young to give any properly
+intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses
+is that they had been with a "bloofer lady." It has always been late in
+the evening when they have been missed, and on two occasions the
+children have not been found until early in the following morning. It is
+generally supposed in the neighbourhood that, as the first child missed
+gave as his reason for being away that a "bloofer lady" had asked him to
+come for a walk, the others had picked up the phrase and used it as
+occasion served. This is the more natural as the favourite game of the
+little ones at present is luring each other away by wiles. A
+correspondent writes us that to see some of the tiny tots pretending to
+be the "bloofer lady" is supremely funny. Some of our caricaturists
+might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the
+reality and the picture. It is only in accordance with general
+principles of human nature that the "bloofer lady" should be the popular
+rôle at these _al fresco_ performances. Our correspondent naïvely says
+that even Ellen Terry could not be so winningly attractive as some of
+these grubby-faced little children pretend--and even imagine
+themselves--to be.
+
+There is, however, possibly a serious side to the question, for some of
+the children, indeed all who have been missed at night, have been
+slightly torn or wounded in the throat. The wounds seem such as might be
+made by a rat or a small dog, and although of not much importance
+individually, would tend to show that whatever animal inflicts them has
+a system or method of its own. The police of the division have been
+instructed to keep a sharp look-out for straying children, especially
+when very young, in and around Hampstead Heath, and for any stray dog
+which may be about.
+
+
+ _"The Westminster Gazette," 25 September._
+
+ _Extra Special._
+
+ THE HAMPSTEAD HORROR.
+
+ ANOTHER CHILD INJURED.
+
+ _The "Bloofer Lady."_
+
+We have just received intelligence that another child, missed last
+night, was only discovered late in the morning under a furze bush at the
+Shooter's Hill side of Hampstead Heath, which is, perhaps, less
+frequented than the other parts. It has the same tiny wound in the
+throat as has been noticed in other cases. It was terribly weak, and
+looked quite emaciated. It too, when partially restored, had the common
+story to tell of being lured away by the "bloofer lady."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+MINA HARKER'S JOURNAL
+
+
+_23 September_.--Jonathan is better after a bad night. I am so glad that
+he has plenty of work to do, for that keeps his mind off the terrible
+things; and oh, I am rejoiced that he is not now weighed down with the
+responsibility of his new position. I knew he would be true to himself,
+and now how proud I am to see my Jonathan rising to the height of his
+advancement and keeping pace in all ways with the duties that come upon
+him. He will be away all day till late, for he said he could not lunch
+at home. My household work is done, so I shall take his foreign journal,
+and lock myself up in my room and read it....
+
+
+_24 September_.--I hadn't the heart to write last night; that terrible
+record of Jonathan's upset me so. Poor dear! How he must have suffered,
+whether it be true or only imagination. I wonder if there is any truth
+in it at all. Did he get his brain fever, and then write all those
+terrible things, or had he some cause for it all? I suppose I shall
+never know, for I dare not open the subject to him.... And yet that man
+we saw yesterday! He seemed quite certain of him.... Poor fellow! I
+suppose it was the funeral upset him and sent his mind back on some
+train of thought.... He believes it all himself. I remember how on our
+wedding-day he said: "Unless some solemn duty come upon me to go back to
+the bitter hours, asleep or awake, mad or sane." There seems to be
+through it all some thread of continuity.... That fearful Count was
+coming to London.... If it should be, and he came to London, with his
+teeming millions.... There may be a solemn duty; and if it come we must
+not shrink from it.... I shall be prepared. I shall get my typewriter
+this very hour and begin transcribing. Then we shall be ready for other
+eyes if required. And if it be wanted; then, perhaps, if I am ready,
+poor Jonathan may not be upset, for I can speak for him and never let
+him be troubled or worried with it at all. If ever Jonathan quite gets
+over the nervousness he may want to tell me of it all, and I can ask him
+questions and find out things, and see how I may comfort him.
+
+
+_Letter, Van Helsing to Mrs. Harker._
+
+"_24 September._
+
+(_Confidence_)
+
+"Dear Madam,--
+
+"I pray you to pardon my writing, in that I am so far friend as that I
+sent to you sad news of Miss Lucy Westenra's death. By the kindness of
+Lord Godalming, I am empowered to read her letters and papers, for I am
+deeply concerned about certain matters vitally important. In them I find
+some letters from you, which show how great friends you were and how you
+love her. Oh, Madam Mina, by that love, I implore you, help me. It is
+for others' good that I ask--to redress great wrong, and to lift much
+and terrible troubles--that may be more great than you can know. May it
+be that I see you? You can trust me. I am friend of Dr. John Seward and
+of Lord Godalming (that was Arthur of Miss Lucy). I must keep it private
+for the present from all. I should come to Exeter to see you at once if
+you tell me I am privilege to come, and where and when. I implore your
+pardon, madam. I have read your letters to poor Lucy, and know how good
+you are and how your husband suffer; so I pray you, if it may be,
+enlighten him not, lest it may harm. Again your pardon, and forgive me.
+
+"VAN HELSING."
+
+
+_Telegram, Mrs. Harker to Van Helsing._
+
+"_25 September._--Come to-day by quarter-past ten train if you can catch
+it. Can see you any time you call.
+
+"WILHELMINA HARKER."
+
+MINA HARKER'S JOURNAL.
+
+_25 September._--I cannot help feeling terribly excited as the time
+draws near for the visit of Dr. Van Helsing, for somehow I expect that
+it will throw some light upon Jonathan's sad experience; and as he
+attended poor dear Lucy in her last illness, he can tell me all about
+her. That is the reason of his coming; it is concerning Lucy and her
+sleep-walking, and not about Jonathan. Then I shall never know the real
+truth now! How silly I am. That awful journal gets hold of my
+imagination and tinges everything with something of its own colour. Of
+course it is about Lucy. That habit came back to the poor dear, and that
+awful night on the cliff must have made her ill. I had almost forgotten
+in my own affairs how ill she was afterwards. She must have told him
+of her sleep-walking adventure on the cliff, and that I knew all about
+it; and now he wants me to tell him what she knows, so that he may
+understand. I hope I did right in not saying anything of it to Mrs.
+Westenra; I should never forgive myself if any act of mine, were it even
+a negative one, brought harm on poor dear Lucy. I hope, too, Dr. Van
+Helsing will not blame me; I have had so much trouble and anxiety of
+late that I feel I cannot bear more just at present.
+
+I suppose a cry does us all good at times--clears the air as other rain
+does. Perhaps it was reading the journal yesterday that upset me, and
+then Jonathan went away this morning to stay away from me a whole day
+and night, the first time we have been parted since our marriage. I do
+hope the dear fellow will take care of himself, and that nothing will
+occur to upset him. It is two o'clock, and the doctor will be here soon
+now. I shall say nothing of Jonathan's journal unless he asks me. I am
+so glad I have type-written out my own journal, so that, in case he asks
+about Lucy, I can hand it to him; it will save much questioning.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--He has come and gone. Oh, what a strange meeting, and how it
+all makes my head whirl round! I feel like one in a dream. Can it be all
+possible, or even a part of it? If I had not read Jonathan's journal
+first, I should never have accepted even a possibility. Poor, poor, dear
+Jonathan! How he must have suffered. Please the good God, all this may
+not upset him again. I shall try to save him from it; but it may be even
+a consolation and a help to him--terrible though it be and awful in its
+consequences--to know for certain that his eyes and ears and brain did
+not deceive him, and that it is all true. It may be that it is the doubt
+which haunts him; that when the doubt is removed, no matter
+which--waking or dreaming--may prove the truth, he will be more
+satisfied and better able to bear the shock. Dr. Van Helsing must be a
+good man as well as a clever one if he is Arthur's friend and Dr.
+Seward's, and if they brought him all the way from Holland to look after
+Lucy. I feel from having seen him that he _is_ good and kind and of a
+noble nature. When he comes to-morrow I shall ask him about Jonathan;
+and then, please God, all this sorrow and anxiety may lead to a good
+end. I used to think I would like to practise interviewing; Jonathan's
+friend on "The Exeter News" told him that memory was everything in such
+work--that you must be able to put down exactly almost every word
+spoken, even if you had to refine some of it afterwards. Here was a rare
+interview; I shall try to record it _verbatim_.
+
+It was half-past two o'clock when the knock came. I took my courage _à
+deux mains_ and waited. In a few minutes Mary opened the door, and
+announced "Dr. Van Helsing."
+
+I rose and bowed, and he came towards me; a man of medium weight,
+strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and
+a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise
+of the head strikes one at once as indicative of thought and power; the
+head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face,
+clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large, resolute, mobile
+mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive
+nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big, bushy brows come down and the
+mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost
+straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart;
+such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it,
+but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set
+widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moods. He
+said to me:--
+
+"Mrs. Harker, is it not?" I bowed assent.
+
+"That was Miss Mina Murray?" Again I assented.
+
+"It is Mina Murray that I came to see that was friend of that poor dear
+child Lucy Westenra. Madam Mina, it is on account of the dead I come."
+
+"Sir," I said, "you could have no better claim on me than that you were
+a friend and helper of Lucy Westenra." And I held out my hand. He took
+it and said tenderly:--
+
+"Oh, Madam Mina, I knew that the friend of that poor lily girl must be
+good, but I had yet to learn----" He finished his speech with a courtly
+bow. I asked him what it was that he wanted to see me about, so he at
+once began:--
+
+"I have read your letters to Miss Lucy. Forgive me, but I had to begin
+to inquire somewhere, and there was none to ask. I know that you were
+with her at Whitby. She sometimes kept a diary--you need not look
+surprised, Madam Mina; it was begun after you had left, and was in
+imitation of you--and in that diary she traces by inference certain
+things to a sleep-walking in which she puts down that you saved her. In
+great perplexity then I come to you, and ask you out of your so much
+kindness to tell me all of it that you can remember."
+
+"I can tell you, I think, Dr. Van Helsing, all about it."
+
+"Ah, then you have good memory for facts, for details? It is not always
+so with young ladies."
+
+"No, doctor, but I wrote it all down at the time. I can show it to you
+if you like."
+
+"Oh, Madam Mina, I will be grateful; you will do me much favour." I
+could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit--I suppose it is
+some of the taste of the original apple that remains still in our
+mouths--so I handed him the shorthand diary. He took it with a grateful
+bow, and said:--
+
+"May I read it?"
+
+"If you wish," I answered as demurely as I could. He opened it, and for
+an instant his face fell. Then he stood up and bowed.
+
+"Oh, you so clever woman!" he said. "I knew long that Mr. Jonathan was a
+man of much thankfulness; but see, his wife have all the good things.
+And will you not so much honour me and so help me as to read it for me?
+Alas! I know not the shorthand." By this time my little joke was over,
+and I was almost ashamed; so I took the typewritten copy from my
+workbasket and handed it to him.
+
+"Forgive me," I said: "I could not help it; but I had been thinking that
+it was of dear Lucy that you wished to ask, and so that you might not
+have time to wait--not on my account, but because I know your time must
+be precious--I have written it out on the typewriter for you."
+
+He took it and his eyes glistened. "You are so good," he said. "And may
+I read it now? I may want to ask you some things when I have read."
+
+"By all means," I said, "read it over whilst I order lunch; and then you
+can ask me questions whilst we eat." He bowed and settled himself in a
+chair with his back to the light, and became absorbed in the papers,
+whilst I went to see after lunch chiefly in order that he might not be
+disturbed. When I came back, I found him walking hurriedly up and down
+the room, his face all ablaze with excitement. He rushed up to me and
+took me by both hands.
+
+"Oh, Madam Mina," he said, "how can I say what I owe to you? This paper
+is as sunshine. It opens the gate to me. I am daze, I am dazzle, with so
+much light, and yet clouds roll in behind the light every time. But that
+you do not, cannot, comprehend. Oh, but I am grateful to you, you so
+clever woman. Madam"--he said this very solemnly--"if ever Abraham Van
+Helsing can do anything for you or yours, I trust you will let me know.
+It will be pleasure and delight if I may serve you as a friend; as a
+friend, but all I have ever learned, all I can ever do, shall be for you
+and those you love. There are darknesses in life, and there are lights;
+you are one of the lights. You will have happy life and good life, and
+your husband will be blessed in you."
+
+"But, doctor, you praise me too much, and--and you do not know me."
+
+"Not know you--I, who am old, and who have studied all my life men and
+women; I, who have made my specialty the brain and all that belongs to
+him and all that follow from him! And I have read your diary that you
+have so goodly written for me, and which breathes out truth in every
+line. I, who have read your so sweet letter to poor Lucy of your
+marriage and your trust, not know you! Oh, Madam Mina, good women tell
+all their lives, and by day and by hour and by minute, such things that
+angels can read; and we men who wish to know have in us something of
+angels' eyes. Your husband is noble nature, and you are noble too, for
+you trust, and trust cannot be where there is mean nature. And your
+husband--tell me of him. Is he quite well? Is all that fever gone, and
+is he strong and hearty?" I saw here an opening to ask him about
+Jonathan, so I said:--
+
+"He was almost recovered, but he has been greatly upset by Mr. Hawkins's
+death." He interrupted:--
+
+"Oh, yes, I know, I know. I have read your last two letters." I went
+on:--
+
+"I suppose this upset him, for when we were in town on Thursday last he
+had a sort of shock."
+
+"A shock, and after brain fever so soon! That was not good. What kind of
+a shock was it?"
+
+"He thought he saw some one who recalled something terrible, something
+which led to his brain fever." And here the whole thing seemed to
+overwhelm me in a rush. The pity for Jonathan, the horror which he
+experienced, the whole fearful mystery of his diary, and the fear that
+has been brooding over me ever since, all came in a tumult. I suppose I
+was hysterical, for I threw myself on my knees and held up my hands to
+him, and implored him to make my husband well again. He took my hands
+and raised me up, and made me sit on the sofa, and sat by me; he held my
+hand in his, and said to me with, oh, such infinite sweetness:--
+
+"My life is a barren and lonely one, and so full of work that I have not
+had much time for friendships; but since I have been summoned to here by
+my friend John Seward I have known so many good people and seen such
+nobility that I feel more than ever--and it has grown with my advancing
+years--the loneliness of my life. Believe, me, then, that I come here
+full of respect for you, and you have given me hope--hope, not in what I
+am seeking of, but that there are good women still left to make life
+happy--good women, whose lives and whose truths may make good lesson for
+the children that are to be. I am glad, glad, that I may here be of some
+use to you; for if your husband suffer, he suffer within the range of my
+study and experience. I promise you that I will gladly do _all_ for him
+that I can--all to make his life strong and manly, and your life a happy
+one. Now you must eat. You are overwrought and perhaps over-anxious.
+Husband Jonathan would not like to see you so pale; and what he like not
+where he love, is not to his good. Therefore for his sake you must eat
+and smile. You have told me all about Lucy, and so now we shall not
+speak of it, lest it distress. I shall stay in Exeter to-night, for I
+want to think much over what you have told me, and when I have thought I
+will ask you questions, if I may. And then, too, you will tell me of
+husband Jonathan's trouble so far as you can, but not yet. You must eat
+now; afterwards you shall tell me all."
+
+After lunch, when we went back to the drawing-room, he said to me:--
+
+"And now tell me all about him." When it came to speaking to this great
+learned man, I began to fear that he would think me a weak fool, and
+Jonathan a madman--that journal is all so strange--and I hesitated to go
+on. But he was so sweet and kind, and he had promised to help, and I
+trusted him, so I said:--
+
+"Dr. Van Helsing, what I have to tell you is so queer that you must not
+laugh at me or at my husband. I have been since yesterday in a sort of
+fever of doubt; you must be kind to me, and not think me foolish that I
+have even half believed some very strange things." He reassured me by
+his manner as well as his words when he said:--
+
+"Oh, my dear, if you only know how strange is the matter regarding which
+I am here, it is you who would laugh. I have learned not to think little
+of any one's belief, no matter how strange it be. I have tried to keep
+an open mind; and it is not the ordinary things of life that could close
+it, but the strange things, the extraordinary things, the things that
+make one doubt if they be mad or sane."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, a thousand times! You have taken a weight off my
+mind. If you will let me, I shall give you a paper to read. It is long,
+but I have typewritten it out. It will tell you my trouble and
+Jonathan's. It is the copy of his journal when abroad, and all that
+happened. I dare not say anything of it; you will read for yourself and
+judge. And then when I see you, perhaps, you will be very kind and tell
+me what you think."
+
+"I promise," he said as I gave him the papers; "I shall in the morning,
+so soon as I can, come to see you and your husband, if I may."
+
+"Jonathan will be here at half-past eleven, and you must come to lunch
+with us and see him then; you could catch the quick 3:34 train, which
+will leave you at Paddington before eight." He was surprised at my
+knowledge of the trains off-hand, but he does not know that I have made
+up all the trains to and from Exeter, so that I may help Jonathan in
+case he is in a hurry.
+
+So he took the papers with him and went away, and I sit here
+thinking--thinking I don't know what.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Letter (by hand), Van Helsing to Mrs. Harker._
+
+"_25 September, 6 o'clock._
+
+"Dear Madam Mina,--
+
+"I have read your husband's so wonderful diary. You may sleep without
+doubt. Strange and terrible as it is, it is _true_! I will pledge my
+life on it. It may be worse for others; but for him and you there is no
+dread. He is a noble fellow; and let me tell you from experience of men,
+that one who would do as he did in going down that wall and to that
+room--ay, and going a second time--is not one to be injured in
+permanence by a shock. His brain and his heart are all right; this I
+swear, before I have even seen him; so be at rest. I shall have much to
+ask him of other things. I am blessed that to-day I come to see you, for
+I have learn all at once so much that again I am dazzle--dazzle more
+than ever, and I must think.
+
+"Yours the most faithful,
+
+"ABRAHAM VAN HELSING."
+
+
+_Letter, Mrs. Harker to Van Helsing._
+
+"_25 September, 6:30 p. m._
+
+"My dear Dr. Van Helsing,--
+
+"A thousand thanks for your kind letter, which has taken a great weight
+off my mind. And yet, if it be true, what terrible things there are in
+the world, and what an awful thing if that man, that monster, be really
+in London! I fear to think. I have this moment, whilst writing, had a
+wire from Jonathan, saying that he leaves by the 6:25 to-night from
+Launceston and will be here at 10:18, so that I shall have no fear
+to-night. Will you, therefore, instead of lunching with us, please come
+to breakfast at eight o'clock, if this be not too early for you? You can
+get away, if you are in a hurry, by the 10:30 train, which will bring
+you to Paddington by 2:35. Do not answer this, as I shall take it that,
+if I do not hear, you will come to breakfast.
+
+"Believe me,
+
+"Your faithful and grateful friend,
+
+"MINA HARKER."
+
+
+_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
+
+_26 September._--I thought never to write in this diary again, but the
+time has come. When I got home last night Mina had supper ready, and
+when we had supped she told me of Van Helsing's visit, and of her having
+given him the two diaries copied out, and of how anxious she has been
+about me. She showed me in the doctor's letter that all I wrote down was
+true. It seems to have made a new man of me. It was the doubt as to the
+reality of the whole thing that knocked me over. I felt impotent, and in
+the dark, and distrustful. But, now that I _know_, I am not afraid, even
+of the Count. He has succeeded after all, then, in his design in getting
+to London, and it was he I saw. He has got younger, and how? Van Helsing
+is the man to unmask him and hunt him out, if he is anything like what
+Mina says. We sat late, and talked it all over. Mina is dressing, and I
+shall call at the hotel in a few minutes and bring him over....
+
+He was, I think, surprised to see me. When I came into the room where he
+was, and introduced myself, he took me by the shoulder, and turned my
+face round to the light, and said, after a sharp scrutiny:--
+
+"But Madam Mina told me you were ill, that you had had a shock." It was
+so funny to hear my wife called "Madam Mina" by this kindly,
+strong-faced old man. I smiled, and said:--
+
+"I _was_ ill, I _have_ had a shock; but you have cured me already."
+
+"And how?"
+
+"By your letter to Mina last night. I was in doubt, and then everything
+took a hue of unreality, and I did not know what to trust, even the
+evidence of my own senses. Not knowing what to trust, I did not know
+what to do; and so had only to keep on working in what had hitherto been
+the groove of my life. The groove ceased to avail me, and I mistrusted
+myself. Doctor, you don't know what it is to doubt everything, even
+yourself. No, you don't; you couldn't with eyebrows like yours." He
+seemed pleased, and laughed as he said:--
+
+"So! You are physiognomist. I learn more here with each hour. I am with
+so much pleasure coming to you to breakfast; and, oh, sir, you will
+pardon praise from an old man, but you are blessed in your wife." I
+would listen to him go on praising Mina for a day, so I simply nodded
+and stood silent.
+
+"She is one of God's women, fashioned by His own hand to show us men and
+other women that there is a heaven where we can enter, and that its
+light can be here on earth. So true, so sweet, so noble, so little an
+egoist--and that, let me tell you, is much in this age, so sceptical and
+selfish. And you, sir--I have read all the letters to poor Miss Lucy,
+and some of them speak of you, so I know you since some days from the
+knowing of others; but I have seen your true self since last night. You
+will give me your hand, will you not? And let us be friends for all our
+lives."
+
+We shook hands, and he was so earnest and so kind that it made me quite
+choky.
+
+"And now," he said, "may I ask you for some more help? I have a great
+task to do, and at the beginning it is to know. You can help me here.
+Can you tell me what went before your going to Transylvania? Later on I
+may ask more help, and of a different kind; but at first this will do."
+
+"Look here, sir," I said, "does what you have to do concern the Count?"
+
+"It does," he said solemnly.
+
+"Then I am with you heart and soul. As you go by the 10:30 train, you
+will not have time to read them; but I shall get the bundle of papers.
+You can take them with you and read them in the train."
+
+After breakfast I saw him to the station. When we were parting he
+said:--
+
+"Perhaps you will come to town if I send to you, and take Madam Mina
+too."
+
+"We shall both come when you will," I said.
+
+I had got him the morning papers and the London papers of the previous
+night, and while we were talking at the carriage window, waiting for the
+train to start, he was turning them over. His eyes suddenly seemed to
+catch something in one of them, "The Westminster Gazette"--I knew it by
+the colour--and he grew quite white. He read something intently,
+groaning to himself: "Mein Gott! Mein Gott! So soon! so soon!" I do not
+think he remembered me at the moment. Just then the whistle blew, and
+the train moved off. This recalled him to himself, and he leaned out of
+the window and waved his hand, calling out: "Love to Madam Mina; I shall
+write so soon as ever I can."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_26 September._--Truly there is no such thing as finality. Not a week
+since I said "Finis," and yet here I am starting fresh again, or rather
+going on with the same record. Until this afternoon I had no cause to
+think of what is done. Renfield had become, to all intents, as sane as
+he ever was. He was already well ahead with his fly business; and he had
+just started in the spider line also; so he had not been of any trouble
+to me. I had a letter from Arthur, written on Sunday, and from it I
+gather that he is bearing up wonderfully well. Quincey Morris is with
+him, and that is much of a help, for he himself is a bubbling well of
+good spirits. Quincey wrote me a line too, and from him I hear that
+Arthur is beginning to recover something of his old buoyancy; so as to
+them all my mind is at rest. As for myself, I was settling down to my
+work with the enthusiasm which I used to have for it, so that I might
+fairly have said that the wound which poor Lucy left on me was becoming
+cicatrised. Everything is, however, now reopened; and what is to be the
+end God only knows. I have an idea that Van Helsing thinks he knows,
+too, but he will only let out enough at a time to whet curiosity. He
+went to Exeter yesterday, and stayed there all night. To-day he came
+back, and almost bounded into the room at about half-past five o'clock,
+and thrust last night's "Westminster Gazette" into my hand.
+
+"What do you think of that?" he asked as he stood back and folded his
+arms.
+
+I looked over the paper, for I really did not know what he meant; but he
+took it from me and pointed out a paragraph about children being decoyed
+away at Hampstead. It did not convey much to me, until I reached a
+passage where it described small punctured wounds on their throats. An
+idea struck me, and I looked up. "Well?" he said.
+
+"It is like poor Lucy's."
+
+"And what do you make of it?"
+
+"Simply that there is some cause in common. Whatever it was that injured
+her has injured them." I did not quite understand his answer:--
+
+"That is true indirectly, but not directly."
+
+"How do you mean, Professor?" I asked. I was a little inclined to take
+his seriousness lightly--for, after all, four days of rest and freedom
+from burning, harrowing anxiety does help to restore one's spirits--but
+when I saw his face, it sobered me. Never, even in the midst of our
+despair about poor Lucy, had he looked more stern.
+
+"Tell me!" I said. "I can hazard no opinion. I do not know what to
+think, and I have no data on which to found a conjecture."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me, friend John, that you have no suspicion as to
+what poor Lucy died of; not after all the hints given, not only by
+events, but by me?"
+
+"Of nervous prostration following on great loss or waste of blood."
+
+"And how the blood lost or waste?" I shook my head. He stepped over and
+sat down beside me, and went on:--
+
+"You are clever man, friend John; you reason well, and your wit is bold;
+but you are too prejudiced. You do not let your eyes see nor your ears
+hear, and that which is outside your daily life is not of account to
+you. Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand,
+and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? But
+there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men's
+eyes, because they know--or think they know--some things which other men
+have told them. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to
+explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to
+explain. But yet we see around us every day the growth of new beliefs,
+which think themselves new; and which are yet but the old, which pretend
+to be young--like the fine ladies at the opera. I suppose now you do not
+believe in corporeal transference. No? Nor in materialisation. No? Nor
+in astral bodies. No? Nor in the reading of thought. No? Nor in
+hypnotism----"
+
+"Yes," I said. "Charcot has proved that pretty well." He smiled as he
+went on: "Then you are satisfied as to it. Yes? And of course then you
+understand how it act, and can follow the mind of the great
+Charcot--alas that he is no more!--into the very soul of the patient
+that he influence. No? Then, friend John, am I to take it that you
+simply accept fact, and are satisfied to let from premise to conclusion
+be a blank? No? Then tell me--for I am student of the brain--how you
+accept the hypnotism and reject the thought reading. Let me tell you, my
+friend, that there are things done to-day in electrical science which
+would have been deemed unholy by the very men who discovered
+electricity--who would themselves not so long before have been burned
+as wizards. There are always mysteries in life. Why was it that
+Methuselah lived nine hundred years, and 'Old Parr' one hundred and
+sixty-nine, and yet that poor Lucy, with four men's blood in her poor
+veins, could not live even one day? For, had she live one more day, we
+could have save her. Do you know all the mystery of life and death? Do
+you know the altogether of comparative anatomy and can say wherefore the
+qualities of brutes are in some men, and not in others? Can you tell me
+why, when other spiders die small and soon, that one great spider lived
+for centuries in the tower of the old Spanish church and grew and grew,
+till, on descending, he could drink the oil of all the church lamps? Can
+you tell me why in the Pampas, ay and elsewhere, there are bats that
+come at night and open the veins of cattle and horses and suck dry their
+veins; how in some islands of the Western seas there are bats which hang
+on the trees all day, and those who have seen describe as like giant
+nuts or pods, and that when the sailors sleep on the deck, because that
+it is hot, flit down on them, and then--and then in the morning are
+found dead men, white as even Miss Lucy was?"
+
+"Good God, Professor!" I said, starting up. "Do you mean to tell me that
+Lucy was bitten by such a bat; and that such a thing is here in London
+in the nineteenth century?" He waved his hand for silence, and went
+on:--
+
+"Can you tell me why the tortoise lives more long than generations of
+men; why the elephant goes on and on till he have seen dynasties; and
+why the parrot never die only of bite of cat or dog or other complaint?
+Can you tell me why men believe in all ages and places that there are
+some few who live on always if they be permit; that there are men and
+women who cannot die? We all know--because science has vouched for the
+fact--that there have been toads shut up in rocks for thousands of
+years, shut in one so small hole that only hold him since the youth of
+the world. Can you tell me how the Indian fakir can make himself to die
+and have been buried, and his grave sealed and corn sowed on it, and the
+corn reaped and be cut and sown and reaped and cut again, and then men
+come and take away the unbroken seal and that there lie the Indian
+fakir, not dead, but that rise up and walk amongst them as before?" Here
+I interrupted him. I was getting bewildered; he so crowded on my mind
+his list of nature's eccentricities and possible impossibilities that my
+imagination was getting fired. I had a dim idea that he was teaching me
+some lesson, as long ago he used to do in his study at Amsterdam; but
+he used then to tell me the thing, so that I could have the object of
+thought in mind all the time. But now I was without this help, yet I
+wanted to follow him, so I said:--
+
+"Professor, let me be your pet student again. Tell me the thesis, so
+that I may apply your knowledge as you go on. At present I am going in
+my mind from point to point as a mad man, and not a sane one, follows an
+idea. I feel like a novice lumbering through a bog in a mist, jumping
+from one tussock to another in the mere blind effort to move on without
+knowing where I am going."
+
+"That is good image," he said. "Well, I shall tell you. My thesis is
+this: I want you to believe."
+
+"To believe what?"
+
+"To believe in things that you cannot. Let me illustrate. I heard once
+of an American who so defined faith: 'that faculty which enables us to
+believe things which we know to be untrue.' For one, I follow that man.
+He meant that we shall have an open mind, and not let a little bit of
+truth check the rush of a big truth, like a small rock does a railway
+truck. We get the small truth first. Good! We keep him, and we value
+him; but all the same we must not let him think himself all the truth in
+the universe."
+
+"Then you want me not to let some previous conviction injure the
+receptivity of my mind with regard to some strange matter. Do I read
+your lesson aright?"
+
+"Ah, you are my favourite pupil still. It is worth to teach you. Now
+that you are willing to understand, you have taken the first step to
+understand. You think then that those so small holes in the children's
+throats were made by the same that made the hole in Miss Lucy?"
+
+"I suppose so." He stood up and said solemnly:--
+
+"Then you are wrong. Oh, would it were so! but alas! no. It is worse,
+far, far worse."
+
+"In God's name, Professor Van Helsing, what do you mean?" I cried.
+
+He threw himself with a despairing gesture into a chair, and placed his
+elbows on the table, covering his face with his hands as he spoke:--
+
+"They were made by Miss Lucy!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY--_continued_.
+
+
+For a while sheer anger mastered me; it was as if he had during her life
+struck Lucy on the face. I smote the table hard and rose up as I said to
+him:--
+
+"Dr. Van Helsing, are you mad?" He raised his head and looked at me, and
+somehow the tenderness of his face calmed me at once. "Would I were!" he
+said. "Madness were easy to bear compared with truth like this. Oh, my
+friend, why, think you, did I go so far round, why take so long to tell
+you so simple a thing? Was it because I hate you and have hated you all
+my life? Was it because I wished to give you pain? Was it that I wanted,
+now so late, revenge for that time when you saved my life, and from a
+fearful death? Ah no!"
+
+"Forgive me," said I. He went on:--
+
+"My friend, it was because I wished to be gentle in the breaking to you,
+for I know you have loved that so sweet lady. But even yet I do not
+expect you to believe. It is so hard to accept at once any abstract
+truth, that we may doubt such to be possible when we have always
+believed the 'no' of it; it is more hard still to accept so sad a
+concrete truth, and of such a one as Miss Lucy. To-night I go to prove
+it. Dare you come with me?"
+
+This staggered me. A man does not like to prove such a truth; Byron
+excepted from the category, jealousy.
+
+ "And prove the very truth he most abhorred."
+
+He saw my hesitation, and spoke:--
+
+"The logic is simple, no madman's logic this time, jumping from tussock
+to tussock in a misty bog. If it be not true, then proof will be relief;
+at worst it will not harm. If it be true! Ah, there is the dread; yet
+very dread should help my cause, for in it is some need of belief. Come,
+I tell you what I propose: first, that we go off now and see that child
+in the hospital. Dr. Vincent, of the North Hospital, where the papers
+say the child is, is friend of mine, and I think of yours since you were
+in class at Amsterdam. He will let two scientists see his case, if he
+will not let two friends. We shall tell him nothing, but only that we
+wish to learn. And then----"
+
+"And then?" He took a key from his pocket and held it up. "And then we
+spend the night, you and I, in the churchyard where Lucy lies. This is
+the key that lock the tomb. I had it from the coffin-man to give to
+Arthur." My heart sank within me, for I felt that there was some fearful
+ordeal before us. I could do nothing, however, so I plucked up what
+heart I could and said that we had better hasten, as the afternoon was
+passing....
+
+We found the child awake. It had had a sleep and taken some food, and
+altogether was going on well. Dr. Vincent took the bandage from its
+throat, and showed us the punctures. There was no mistaking the
+similarity to those which had been on Lucy's throat. They were smaller,
+and the edges looked fresher; that was all. We asked Vincent to what he
+attributed them, and he replied that it must have been a bite of some
+animal, perhaps a rat; but, for his own part, he was inclined to think
+that it was one of the bats which are so numerous on the northern
+heights of London. "Out of so many harmless ones," he said, "there may
+be some wild specimen from the South of a more malignant species. Some
+sailor may have brought one home, and it managed to escape; or even from
+the Zoölogical Gardens a young one may have got loose, or one be bred
+there from a vampire. These things do occur, you know. Only ten days ago
+a wolf got out, and was, I believe, traced up in this direction. For a
+week after, the children were playing nothing but Red Riding Hood on the
+Heath and in every alley in the place until this 'bloofer lady' scare
+came along, since when it has been quite a gala-time with them. Even
+this poor little mite, when he woke up to-day, asked the nurse if he
+might go away. When she asked him why he wanted to go, he said he wanted
+to play with the 'bloofer lady.'"
+
+"I hope," said Van Helsing, "that when you are sending the child home
+you will caution its parents to keep strict watch over it. These fancies
+to stray are most dangerous; and if the child were to remain out another
+night, it would probably be fatal. But in any case I suppose you will
+not let it away for some days?"
+
+"Certainly not, not for a week at least; longer if the wound is not
+healed."
+
+Our visit to the hospital took more time than we had reckoned on, and
+the sun had dipped before we came out. When Van Helsing saw how dark it
+was, he said:--
+
+"There is no hurry. It is more late than I thought. Come, let us seek
+somewhere that we may eat, and then we shall go on our way."
+
+We dined at "Jack Straw's Castle" along with a little crowd of
+bicyclists and others who were genially noisy. About ten o'clock we
+started from the inn. It was then very dark, and the scattered lamps
+made the darkness greater when we were once outside their individual
+radius. The Professor had evidently noted the road we were to go, for he
+went on unhesitatingly; but, as for me, I was in quite a mixup as to
+locality. As we went further, we met fewer and fewer people, till at
+last we were somewhat surprised when we met even the patrol of horse
+police going their usual suburban round. At last we reached the wall of
+the churchyard, which we climbed over. With some little difficulty--for
+it was very dark, and the whole place seemed so strange to us--we found
+the Westenra tomb. The Professor took the key, opened the creaky door,
+and standing back, politely, but quite unconsciously, motioned me to
+precede him. There was a delicious irony in the offer, in the
+courtliness of giving preference on such a ghastly occasion. My
+companion followed me quickly, and cautiously drew the door to, after
+carefully ascertaining that the lock was a falling, and not a spring,
+one. In the latter case we should have been in a bad plight. Then he
+fumbled in his bag, and taking out a matchbox and a piece of candle,
+proceeded to make a light. The tomb in the day-time, and when wreathed
+with fresh flowers, had looked grim and gruesome enough; but now, some
+days afterwards, when the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites
+turning to rust and their greens to browns; when the spider and the
+beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance; when time-discoloured
+stone, and dust-encrusted mortar, and rusty, dank iron, and tarnished
+brass, and clouded silver-plating gave back the feeble glimmer of a
+candle, the effect was more miserable and sordid than could have been
+imagined. It conveyed irresistibly the idea that life--animal life--was
+not the only thing which could pass away.
+
+Van Helsing went about his work systematically. Holding his candle so
+that he could read the coffin plates, and so holding it that the sperm
+dropped in white patches which congealed as they touched the metal, he
+made assurance of Lucy's coffin. Another search in his bag, and he took
+out a turnscrew.
+
+"What are you going to do?" I asked.
+
+"To open the coffin. You shall yet be convinced." Straightway he began
+taking out the screws, and finally lifted off the lid, showing the
+casing of lead beneath. The sight was almost too much for me. It seemed
+to be as much an affront to the dead as it would have been to have
+stripped off her clothing in her sleep whilst living; I actually took
+hold of his hand to stop him. He only said: "You shall see," and again
+fumbling in his bag, took out a tiny fret-saw. Striking the turnscrew
+through the lead with a swift downward stab, which made me wince, he
+made a small hole, which was, however, big enough to admit the point of
+the saw. I had expected a rush of gas from the week-old corpse. We
+doctors, who have had to study our dangers, have to become accustomed to
+such things, and I drew back towards the door. But the Professor never
+stopped for a moment; he sawed down a couple of feet along one side of
+the lead coffin, and then across, and down the other side. Taking the
+edge of the loose flange, he bent it back towards the foot of the
+coffin, and holding up the candle into the aperture, motioned to me to
+look.
+
+I drew near and looked. The coffin was empty.
+
+It was certainly a surprise to me, and gave me a considerable shock, but
+Van Helsing was unmoved. He was now more sure than ever of his ground,
+and so emboldened to proceed in his task. "Are you satisfied now, friend
+John?" he asked.
+
+I felt all the dogged argumentativeness of my nature awake within me as
+I answered him:--
+
+"I am satisfied that Lucy's body is not in that coffin; but that only
+proves one thing."
+
+"And what is that, friend John?"
+
+"That it is not there."
+
+"That is good logic," he said, "so far as it goes. But how do you--how
+can you--account for it not being there?"
+
+"Perhaps a body-snatcher," I suggested. "Some of the undertaker's people
+may have stolen it." I felt that I was speaking folly, and yet it was
+the only real cause which I could suggest. The Professor sighed. "Ah
+well!" he said, "we must have more proof. Come with me."
+
+He put on the coffin-lid again, gathered up all his things and placed
+them in the bag, blew out the light, and placed the candle also in the
+bag. We opened the door, and went out. Behind us he closed the door and
+locked it. He handed me the key, saying: "Will you keep it? You had
+better be assured." I laughed--it was not a very cheerful laugh, I am
+bound to say--as I motioned him to keep it. "A key is nothing," I said;
+"there may be duplicates; and anyhow it is not difficult to pick a lock
+of that kind." He said nothing, but put the key in his pocket. Then he
+told me to watch at one side of the churchyard whilst he would watch at
+the other. I took up my place behind a yew-tree, and I saw his dark
+figure move until the intervening headstones and trees hid it from my
+sight.
+
+It was a lonely vigil. Just after I had taken my place I heard a distant
+clock strike twelve, and in time came one and two. I was chilled and
+unnerved, and angry with the Professor for taking me on such an errand
+and with myself for coming. I was too cold and too sleepy to be keenly
+observant, and not sleepy enough to betray my trust so altogether I had
+a dreary, miserable time.
+
+Suddenly, as I turned round, I thought I saw something like a white
+streak, moving between two dark yew-trees at the side of the churchyard
+farthest from the tomb; at the same time a dark mass moved from the
+Professor's side of the ground, and hurriedly went towards it. Then I
+too moved; but I had to go round headstones and railed-off tombs, and I
+stumbled over graves. The sky was overcast, and somewhere far off an
+early cock crew. A little way off, beyond a line of scattered
+juniper-trees, which marked the pathway to the church, a white, dim
+figure flitted in the direction of the tomb. The tomb itself was hidden
+by trees, and I could not see where the figure disappeared. I heard the
+rustle of actual movement where I had first seen the white figure, and
+coming over, found the Professor holding in his arms a tiny child. When
+he saw me he held it out to me, and said:--
+
+"Are you satisfied now?"
+
+"No," I said, in a way that I felt was aggressive.
+
+"Do you not see the child?"
+
+"Yes, it is a child, but who brought it here? And is it wounded?" I
+asked.
+
+"We shall see," said the Professor, and with one impulse we took our way
+out of the churchyard, he carrying the sleeping child.
+
+When we had got some little distance away, we went into a clump of
+trees, and struck a match, and looked at the child's throat. It was
+without a scratch or scar of any kind.
+
+"Was I right?" I asked triumphantly.
+
+"We were just in time," said the Professor thankfully.
+
+We had now to decide what we were to do with the child, and so consulted
+about it. If we were to take it to a police-station we should have to
+give some account of our movements during the night; at least, we should
+have had to make some statement as to how we had come to find the child.
+So finally we decided that we would take it to the Heath, and when we
+heard a policeman coming, would leave it where he could not fail to find
+it; we would then seek our way home as quickly as we could. All fell out
+well. At the edge of Hampstead Heath we heard a policeman's heavy
+tramp, and laying the child on the pathway, we waited and watched until
+he saw it as he flashed his lantern to and fro. We heard his exclamation
+of astonishment, and then we went away silently. By good chance we got a
+cab near the "Spaniards," and drove to town.
+
+I cannot sleep, so I make this entry. But I must try to get a few hours'
+sleep, as Van Helsing is to call for me at noon. He insists that I shall
+go with him on another expedition.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_27 September._--It was two o'clock before we found a suitable
+opportunity for our attempt. The funeral held at noon was all completed,
+and the last stragglers of the mourners had taken themselves lazily
+away, when, looking carefully from behind a clump of alder-trees, we saw
+the sexton lock the gate after him. We knew then that we were safe till
+morning did we desire it; but the Professor told me that we should not
+want more than an hour at most. Again I felt that horrid sense of the
+reality of things, in which any effort of imagination seemed out of
+place; and I realised distinctly the perils of the law which we were
+incurring in our unhallowed work. Besides, I felt it was all so useless.
+Outrageous as it was to open a leaden coffin, to see if a woman dead
+nearly a week were really dead, it now seemed the height of folly to
+open the tomb again, when we knew, from the evidence of our own
+eyesight, that the coffin was empty. I shrugged my shoulders, however,
+and rested silent, for Van Helsing had a way of going on his own road,
+no matter who remonstrated. He took the key, opened the vault, and again
+courteously motioned me to precede. The place was not so gruesome as
+last night, but oh, how unutterably mean-looking when the sunshine
+streamed in. Van Helsing walked over to Lucy's coffin, and I followed.
+He bent over and again forced back the leaden flange; and then a shock
+of surprise and dismay shot through me.
+
+There lay Lucy, seemingly just as we had seen her the night before her
+funeral. She was, if possible, more radiantly beautiful than ever; and I
+could not believe that she was dead. The lips were red, nay redder than
+before; and on the cheeks was a delicate bloom.
+
+"Is this a juggle?" I said to him.
+
+"Are you convinced now?" said the Professor in response, and as he spoke
+he put over his hand, and in a way that made me shudder, pulled back the
+dead lips and showed the white teeth.
+
+"See," he went on, "see, they are even sharper than before. With this
+and this"--and he touched one of the canine teeth and that below
+it--"the little children can be bitten. Are you of belief now, friend
+John?" Once more, argumentative hostility woke within me. I _could_ not
+accept such an overwhelming idea as he suggested; so, with an attempt to
+argue of which I was even at the moment ashamed, I said:--
+
+"She may have been placed here since last night."
+
+"Indeed? That is so, and by whom?"
+
+"I do not know. Some one has done it."
+
+"And yet she has been dead one week. Most peoples in that time would not
+look so." I had no answer for this, so was silent. Van Helsing did not
+seem to notice my silence; at any rate, he showed neither chagrin nor
+triumph. He was looking intently at the face of the dead woman, raising
+the eyelids and looking at the eyes, and once more opening the lips and
+examining the teeth. Then he turned to me and said:--
+
+"Here, there is one thing which is different from all recorded; here is
+some dual life that is not as the common. She was bitten by the vampire
+when she was in a trance, sleep-walking--oh, you start; you do not know
+that, friend John, but you shall know it all later--and in trance could
+he best come to take more blood. In trance she died, and in trance she
+is Un-Dead, too. So it is that she differ from all other. Usually when
+the Un-Dead sleep at home"--as he spoke he made a comprehensive sweep of
+his arm to designate what to a vampire was "home"--"their face show what
+they are, but this so sweet that was when she not Un-Dead she go back to
+the nothings of the common dead. There is no malign there, see, and so
+it make hard that I must kill her in her sleep." This turned my blood
+cold, and it began to dawn upon me that I was accepting Van Helsing's
+theories; but if she were really dead, what was there of terror in the
+idea of killing her? He looked up at me, and evidently saw the change in
+my face, for he said almost joyously:--
+
+"Ah, you believe now?"
+
+I answered: "Do not press me too hard all at once. I am willing to
+accept. How will you do this bloody work?"
+
+"I shall cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic, and I shall
+drive a stake through her body." It made me shudder to think of so
+mutilating the body of the woman whom I had loved. And yet the feeling
+was not so strong as I had expected. I was, in fact, beginning to
+shudder at the presence of this being, this Un-Dead, as Van Helsing
+called it, and to loathe it. Is it possible that love is all subjective,
+or all objective?
+
+I waited a considerable time for Van Helsing to begin, but he stood as
+if wrapped in thought. Presently he closed the catch of his bag with a
+snap, and said:--
+
+"I have been thinking, and have made up my mind as to what is best. If I
+did simply follow my inclining I would do now, at this moment, what is
+to be done; but there are other things to follow, and things that are
+thousand times more difficult in that them we do not know. This is
+simple. She have yet no life taken, though that is of time; and to act
+now would be to take danger from her for ever. But then we may have to
+want Arthur, and how shall we tell him of this? If you, who saw the
+wounds on Lucy's throat, and saw the wounds so similar on the child's at
+the hospital; if you, who saw the coffin empty last night and full
+to-day with a woman who have not change only to be more rose and more
+beautiful in a whole week, after she die--if you know of this and know
+of the white figure last night that brought the child to the churchyard,
+and yet of your own senses you did not believe, how, then, can I expect
+Arthur, who know none of those things, to believe? He doubted me when I
+took him from her kiss when she was dying. I know he has forgiven me
+because in some mistaken idea I have done things that prevent him say
+good-bye as he ought; and he may think that in some more mistaken idea
+this woman was buried alive; and that in most mistake of all we have
+killed her. He will then argue back that it is we, mistaken ones, that
+have killed her by our ideas; and so he will be much unhappy always. Yet
+he never can be sure; and that is the worst of all. And he will
+sometimes think that she he loved was buried alive, and that will paint
+his dreams with horrors of what she must have suffered; and again, he
+will think that we may be right, and that his so beloved was, after all,
+an Un-Dead. No! I told him once, and since then I learn much. Now, since
+I know it is all true, a hundred thousand times more do I know that he
+must pass through the bitter waters to reach the sweet. He, poor fellow,
+must have one hour that will make the very face of heaven grow black to
+him; then we can act for good all round and send him peace. My mind is
+made up. Let us go. You return home for to-night to your asylum, and see
+that all be well. As for me, I shall spend the night here in this
+churchyard in my own way. To-morrow night you will come to me to the
+Berkeley Hotel at ten of the clock. I shall send for Arthur to come too,
+and also that so fine young man of America that gave his blood. Later we
+shall all have work to do. I come with you so far as Piccadilly and
+there dine, for I must be back here before the sun set."
+
+So we locked the tomb and came away, and got over the wall of the
+churchyard, which was not much of a task, and drove back to Piccadilly.
+
+
+_Note left by Van Helsing in his portmanteau, Berkeley Hotel directed to
+John Seward, M. D._
+
+(Not delivered.)
+
+"_27 September._
+
+"Friend John,--
+
+"I write this in case anything should happen. I go alone to watch in
+that churchyard. It pleases me that the Un-Dead, Miss Lucy, shall not
+leave to-night, that so on the morrow night she may be more eager.
+Therefore I shall fix some things she like not--garlic and a
+crucifix--and so seal up the door of the tomb. She is young as Un-Dead,
+and will heed. Moreover, these are only to prevent her coming out; they
+may not prevail on her wanting to get in; for then the Un-Dead is
+desperate, and must find the line of least resistance, whatsoever it may
+be. I shall be at hand all the night from sunset till after the sunrise,
+and if there be aught that may be learned I shall learn it. For Miss
+Lucy or from her, I have no fear; but that other to whom is there that
+she is Un-Dead, he have now the power to seek her tomb and find shelter.
+He is cunning, as I know from Mr. Jonathan and from the way that all
+along he have fooled us when he played with us for Miss Lucy's life, and
+we lost; and in many ways the Un-Dead are strong. He have always the
+strength in his hand of twenty men; even we four who gave our strength
+to Miss Lucy it also is all to him. Besides, he can summon his wolf and
+I know not what. So if it be that he come thither on this night he shall
+find me; but none other shall--until it be too late. But it may be that
+he will not attempt the place. There is no reason why he should; his
+hunting ground is more full of game than the churchyard where the
+Un-Dead woman sleep, and the one old man watch.
+
+"Therefore I write this in case.... Take the papers that are with this,
+the diaries of Harker and the rest, and read them, and then find this
+great Un-Dead, and cut off his head and burn his heart or drive a stake
+through it, so that the world may rest from him.
+
+"If it be so, farewell.
+
+"VAN HELSING."
+
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_28 September._--It is wonderful what a good night's sleep will do for
+one. Yesterday I was almost willing to accept Van Helsing's monstrous
+ideas; but now they seem to start out lurid before me as outrages on
+common sense. I have no doubt that he believes it all. I wonder if his
+mind can have become in any way unhinged. Surely there must be _some_
+rational explanation of all these mysterious things. Is it possible that
+the Professor can have done it himself? He is so abnormally clever that
+if he went off his head he would carry out his intent with regard to
+some fixed idea in a wonderful way. I am loath to think it, and indeed
+it would be almost as great a marvel as the other to find that Van
+Helsing was mad; but anyhow I shall watch him carefully. I may get some
+light on the mystery.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_29 September, morning._.... Last night, at a little before ten o'clock,
+Arthur and Quincey came into Van Helsing's room; he told us all that he
+wanted us to do, but especially addressing himself to Arthur, as if all
+our wills were centred in his. He began by saying that he hoped we would
+all come with him too, "for," he said, "there is a grave duty to be done
+there. You were doubtless surprised at my letter?" This query was
+directly addressed to Lord Godalming.
+
+"I was. It rather upset me for a bit. There has been so much trouble
+around my house of late that I could do without any more. I have been
+curious, too, as to what you mean. Quincey and I talked it over; but the
+more we talked, the more puzzled we got, till now I can say for myself
+that I'm about up a tree as to any meaning about anything."
+
+"Me too," said Quincey Morris laconically.
+
+"Oh," said the Professor, "then you are nearer the beginning, both of
+you, than friend John here, who has to go a long way back before he can
+even get so far as to begin."
+
+It was evident that he recognised my return to my old doubting frame of
+mind without my saying a word. Then, turning to the other two, he said
+with intense gravity:--
+
+"I want your permission to do what I think good this night. It is, I
+know, much to ask; and when you know what it is I propose to do you will
+know, and only then, how much. Therefore may I ask that you promise me
+in the dark, so that afterwards, though you may be angry with me for a
+time--I must not disguise from myself the possibility that such may
+be--you shall not blame yourselves for anything."
+
+"That's frank anyhow," broke in Quincey. "I'll answer for the Professor.
+I don't quite see his drift, but I swear he's honest; and that's good
+enough for me."
+
+"I thank you, sir," said Van Helsing proudly. "I have done myself the
+honour of counting you one trusting friend, and such endorsement is dear
+to me." He held out a hand, which Quincey took.
+
+Then Arthur spoke out:--
+
+"Dr. Van Helsing, I don't quite like to 'buy a pig in a poke,' as they
+say in Scotland, and if it be anything in which my honour as a gentleman
+or my faith as a Christian is concerned, I cannot make such a promise.
+If you can assure me that what you intend does not violate either of
+these two, then I give my consent at once; though for the life of me, I
+cannot understand what you are driving at."
+
+"I accept your limitation," said Van Helsing, "and all I ask of you is
+that if you feel it necessary to condemn any act of mine, you will first
+consider it well and be satisfied that it does not violate your
+reservations."
+
+"Agreed!" said Arthur; "that is only fair. And now that the
+_pourparlers_ are over, may I ask what it is we are to do?"
+
+"I want you to come with me, and to come in secret, to the churchyard at
+Kingstead."
+
+Arthur's face fell as he said in an amazed sort of way:--
+
+"Where poor Lucy is buried?" The Professor bowed. Arthur went on: "And
+when there?"
+
+"To enter the tomb!" Arthur stood up.
+
+"Professor, are you in earnest; or it is some monstrous joke? Pardon me,
+I see that you are in earnest." He sat down again, but I could see that
+he sat firmly and proudly, as one who is on his dignity. There was
+silence until he asked again:--
+
+"And when in the tomb?"
+
+"To open the coffin."
+
+"This is too much!" he said, angrily rising again. "I am willing to be
+patient in all things that are reasonable; but in this--this desecration
+of the grave--of one who----" He fairly choked with indignation. The
+Professor looked pityingly at him.
+
+"If I could spare you one pang, my poor friend," he said, "God knows I
+would. But this night our feet must tread in thorny paths; or later, and
+for ever, the feet you love must walk in paths of flame!"
+
+Arthur looked up with set white face and said:--
+
+"Take care, sir, take care!"
+
+"Would it not be well to hear what I have to say?" said Van Helsing.
+"And then you will at least know the limit of my purpose. Shall I go
+on?"
+
+"That's fair enough," broke in Morris.
+
+After a pause Van Helsing went on, evidently with an effort:--
+
+"Miss Lucy is dead; is it not so? Yes! Then there can be no wrong to
+her. But if she be not dead----"
+
+Arthur jumped to his feet.
+
+"Good God!" he cried. "What do you mean? Has there been any mistake; has
+she been buried alive?" He groaned in anguish that not even hope could
+soften.
+
+"I did not say she was alive, my child; I did not think it. I go no
+further than to say that she might be Un-Dead."
+
+"Un-Dead! Not alive! What do you mean? Is this all a nightmare, or what
+is it?"
+
+"There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age they
+may solve only in part. Believe me, we are now on the verge of one. But
+I have not done. May I cut off the head of dead Miss Lucy?"
+
+"Heavens and earth, no!" cried Arthur in a storm of passion. "Not for
+the wide world will I consent to any mutilation of her dead body. Dr.
+Van Helsing, you try me too far. What have I done to you that you should
+torture me so? What did that poor, sweet girl do that you should want to
+cast such dishonour on her grave? Are you mad that speak such things, or
+am I mad to listen to them? Don't dare to think more of such a
+desecration; I shall not give my consent to anything you do. I have a
+duty to do in protecting her grave from outrage; and, by God, I shall do
+it!"
+
+Van Helsing rose up from where he had all the time been seated, and
+said, gravely and sternly:--
+
+"My Lord Godalming, I, too, have a duty to do, a duty to others, a duty
+to you, a duty to the dead; and, by God, I shall do it! All I ask you
+now is that you come with me, that you look and listen; and if when
+later I make the same request you do not be more eager for its
+fulfilment even than I am, then--then I shall do my duty, whatever it
+may seem to me. And then, to follow of your Lordship's wishes I shall
+hold myself at your disposal to render an account to you, when and where
+you will." His voice broke a little, and he went on with a voice full of
+pity:--
+
+"But, I beseech you, do not go forth in anger with me. In a long life of
+acts which were often not pleasant to do, and which sometimes did wring
+my heart, I have never had so heavy a task as now. Believe me that if
+the time comes for you to change your mind towards me, one look from
+you will wipe away all this so sad hour, for I would do what a man can
+to save you from sorrow. Just think. For why should I give myself so
+much of labour and so much of sorrow? I have come here from my own land
+to do what I can of good; at the first to please my friend John, and
+then to help a sweet young lady, whom, too, I came to love. For her--I
+am ashamed to say so much, but I say it in kindness--I gave what you
+gave; the blood of my veins; I gave it, I, who was not, like you, her
+lover, but only her physician and her friend. I gave to her my nights
+and days--before death, after death; and if my death can do her good
+even now, when she is the dead Un-Dead, she shall have it freely." He
+said this with a very grave, sweet pride, and Arthur was much affected
+by it. He took the old man's hand and said in a broken voice:--
+
+"Oh, it is hard to think of it, and I cannot understand; but at least I
+shall go with you and wait."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY--_continued_
+
+
+It was just a quarter before twelve o'clock when we got into the
+churchyard over the low wall. The night was dark with occasional gleams
+of moonlight between the rents of the heavy clouds that scudded across
+the sky. We all kept somehow close together, with Van Helsing slightly
+in front as he led the way. When we had come close to the tomb I looked
+well at Arthur, for I feared that the proximity to a place laden with so
+sorrowful a memory would upset him; but he bore himself well. I took it
+that the very mystery of the proceeding was in some way a counteractant
+to his grief. The Professor unlocked the door, and seeing a natural
+hesitation amongst us for various reasons, solved the difficulty by
+entering first himself. The rest of us followed, and he closed the door.
+He then lit a dark lantern and pointed to the coffin. Arthur stepped
+forward hesitatingly; Van Helsing said to me:--
+
+"You were with me here yesterday. Was the body of Miss Lucy in that
+coffin?"
+
+"It was." The Professor turned to the rest saying:--
+
+"You hear; and yet there is no one who does not believe with me." He
+took his screwdriver and again took off the lid of the coffin. Arthur
+looked on, very pale but silent; when the lid was removed he stepped
+forward. He evidently did not know that there was a leaden coffin, or,
+at any rate, had not thought of it. When he saw the rent in the lead,
+the blood rushed to his face for an instant, but as quickly fell away
+again, so that he remained of a ghastly whiteness; he was still silent.
+Van Helsing forced back the leaden flange, and we all looked in and
+recoiled.
+
+The coffin was empty!
+
+For several minutes no one spoke a word. The silence was broken by
+Quincey Morris:--
+
+"Professor, I answered for you. Your word is all I want. I wouldn't ask
+such a thing ordinarily--I wouldn't so dishonour you as to imply a
+doubt; but this is a mystery that goes beyond any honour or dishonour.
+Is this your doing?"
+
+"I swear to you by all that I hold sacred that I have not removed nor
+touched her. What happened was this: Two nights ago my friend Seward and
+I came here--with good purpose, believe me. I opened that coffin, which
+was then sealed up, and we found it, as now, empty. We then waited, and
+saw something white come through the trees. The next day we came here in
+day-time, and she lay there. Did she not, friend John?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That night we were just in time. One more so small child was missing,
+and we find it, thank God, unharmed amongst the graves. Yesterday I came
+here before sundown, for at sundown the Un-Dead can move. I waited here
+all the night till the sun rose, but I saw nothing. It was most probable
+that it was because I had laid over the clamps of those doors garlic,
+which the Un-Dead cannot bear, and other things which they shun. Last
+night there was no exodus, so to-night before the sundown I took away my
+garlic and other things. And so it is we find this coffin empty. But
+bear with me. So far there is much that is strange. Wait you with me
+outside, unseen and unheard, and things much stranger are yet to be.
+So"--here he shut the dark slide of his lantern--"now to the outside."
+He opened the door, and we filed out, he coming last and locking the
+door behind him.
+
+Oh! but it seemed fresh and pure in the night air after the terror of
+that vault. How sweet it was to see the clouds race by, and the passing
+gleams of the moonlight between the scudding clouds crossing and
+passing--like the gladness and sorrow of a man's life; how sweet it was
+to breathe the fresh air, that had no taint of death and decay; how
+humanising to see the red lighting of the sky beyond the hill, and to
+hear far away the muffled roar that marks the life of a great city. Each
+in his own way was solemn and overcome. Arthur was silent, and was, I
+could see, striving to grasp the purpose and the inner meaning of the
+mystery. I was myself tolerably patient, and half inclined again to
+throw aside doubt and to accept Van Helsing's conclusions. Quincey
+Morris was phlegmatic in the way of a man who accepts all things, and
+accepts them in the spirit of cool bravery, with hazard of all he has to
+stake. Not being able to smoke, he cut himself a good-sized plug of
+tobacco and began to chew. As to Van Helsing, he was employed in a
+definite way. First he took from his bag a mass of what looked like
+thin, wafer-like biscuit, which was carefully rolled up in a white
+napkin; next he took out a double-handful of some whitish stuff, like
+dough or putty. He crumbled the wafer up fine and worked it into the
+mass between his hands. This he then took, and rolling it into thin
+strips, began to lay them into the crevices between the door and its
+setting in the tomb. I was somewhat puzzled at this, and being close,
+asked him what it was that he was doing. Arthur and Quincey drew near
+also, as they too were curious. He answered:--
+
+"I am closing the tomb, so that the Un-Dead may not enter."
+
+"And is that stuff you have put there going to do it?" asked Quincey.
+"Great Scott! Is this a game?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"What is that which you are using?" This time the question was by
+Arthur. Van Helsing reverently lifted his hat as he answered:--
+
+"The Host. I brought it from Amsterdam. I have an Indulgence." It was an
+answer that appalled the most sceptical of us, and we felt individually
+that in the presence of such earnest purpose as the Professor's, a
+purpose which could thus use the to him most sacred of things, it was
+impossible to distrust. In respectful silence we took the places
+assigned to us close round the tomb, but hidden from the sight of any
+one approaching. I pitied the others, especially Arthur. I had myself
+been apprenticed by my former visits to this watching horror; and yet I,
+who had up to an hour ago repudiated the proofs, felt my heart sink
+within me. Never did tombs look so ghastly white; never did cypress, or
+yew, or juniper so seem the embodiment of funereal gloom; never did tree
+or grass wave or rustle so ominously; never did bough creak so
+mysteriously; and never did the far-away howling of dogs send such a
+woeful presage through the night.
+
+There was a long spell of silence, a big, aching void, and then from the
+Professor a keen "S-s-s-s!" He pointed; and far down the avenue of yews
+we saw a white figure advance--a dim white figure, which held something
+dark at its breast. The figure stopped, and at the moment a ray of
+moonlight fell upon the masses of driving clouds and showed in startling
+prominence a dark-haired woman, dressed in the cerements of the grave.
+We could not see the face, for it was bent down over what we saw to be a
+fair-haired child. There was a pause and a sharp little cry, such as a
+child gives in sleep, or a dog as it lies before the fire and dreams. We
+were starting forward, but the Professor's warning hand, seen by us as
+he stood behind a yew-tree, kept us back; and then as we looked the
+white figure moved forwards again. It was now near enough for us to see
+clearly, and the moonlight still held. My own heart grew cold as ice,
+and I could hear the gasp of Arthur, as we recognised the features of
+Lucy Westenra. Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was
+turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous
+wantonness. Van Helsing stepped out, and, obedient to his gesture, we
+all advanced too; the four of us ranged in a line before the door of the
+tomb. Van Helsing raised his lantern and drew the slide; by the
+concentrated light that fell on Lucy's face we could see that the lips
+were crimson with fresh blood, and that the stream had trickled over her
+chin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe.
+
+We shuddered with horror. I could see by the tremulous light that even
+Van Helsing's iron nerve had failed. Arthur was next to me, and if I had
+not seized his arm and held him up, he would have fallen.
+
+When Lucy--I call the thing that was before us Lucy because it bore her
+shape--saw us she drew back with an angry snarl, such as a cat gives
+when taken unawares; then her eyes ranged over us. Lucy's eyes in form
+and colour; but Lucy's eyes unclean and full of hell-fire, instead of
+the pure, gentle orbs we knew. At that moment the remnant of my love
+passed into hate and loathing; had she then to be killed, I could have
+done it with savage delight. As she looked, her eyes blazed with unholy
+light, and the face became wreathed with a voluptuous smile. Oh, God,
+how it made me shudder to see it! With a careless motion, she flung to
+the ground, callous as a devil, the child that up to now she had
+clutched strenuously to her breast, growling over it as a dog growls
+over a bone. The child gave a sharp cry, and lay there moaning. There
+was a cold-bloodedness in the act which wrung a groan from Arthur; when
+she advanced to him with outstretched arms and a wanton smile he fell
+back and hid his face in his hands.
+
+She still advanced, however, and with a languorous, voluptuous grace,
+said:--
+
+"Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are
+hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!"
+
+There was something diabolically sweet in her tones--something of the
+tingling of glass when struck--which rang through the brains even of us
+who heard the words addressed to another. As for Arthur, he seemed under
+a spell; moving his hands from his face, he opened wide his arms. She
+was leaping for them, when Van Helsing sprang forward and held between
+them his little golden crucifix. She recoiled from it, and, with a
+suddenly distorted face, full of rage, dashed past him as if to enter
+the tomb.
+
+When within a foot or two of the door, however, she stopped, as if
+arrested by some irresistible force. Then she turned, and her face was
+shown in the clear burst of moonlight and by the lamp, which had now no
+quiver from Van Helsing's iron nerves. Never did I see such baffled
+malice on a face; and never, I trust, shall such ever be seen again by
+mortal eyes. The beautiful colour became livid, the eyes seemed to throw
+out sparks of hell-fire, the brows were wrinkled as though the folds of
+the flesh were the coils of Medusa's snakes, and the lovely,
+blood-stained mouth grew to an open square, as in the passion masks of
+the Greeks and Japanese. If ever a face meant death--if looks could
+kill--we saw it at that moment.
+
+And so for full half a minute, which seemed an eternity, she remained
+between the lifted crucifix and the sacred closing of her means of
+entry. Van Helsing broke the silence by asking Arthur:--
+
+"Answer me, oh my friend! Am I to proceed in my work?"
+
+Arthur threw himself on his knees, and hid his face in his hands, as he
+answered:--
+
+"Do as you will, friend; do as you will. There can be no horror like
+this ever any more;" and he groaned in spirit. Quincey and I
+simultaneously moved towards him, and took his arms. We could hear the
+click of the closing lantern as Van Helsing held it down; coming close
+to the tomb, he began to remove from the chinks some of the sacred
+emblem which he had placed there. We all looked on in horrified
+amazement as we saw, when he stood back, the woman, with a corporeal
+body as real at that moment as our own, pass in through the interstice
+where scarce a knife-blade could have gone. We all felt a glad sense of
+relief when we saw the Professor calmly restoring the strings of putty
+to the edges of the door.
+
+When this was done, he lifted the child and said:
+
+"Come now, my friends; we can do no more till to-morrow. There is a
+funeral at noon, so here we shall all come before long after that. The
+friends of the dead will all be gone by two, and when the sexton lock
+the gate we shall remain. Then there is more to do; but not like this of
+to-night. As for this little one, he is not much harm, and by to-morrow
+night he shall be well. We shall leave him where the police will find
+him, as on the other night; and then to home." Coming close to Arthur,
+he said:--
+
+"My friend Arthur, you have had a sore trial; but after, when you look
+back, you will see how it was necessary. You are now in the bitter
+waters, my child. By this time to-morrow you will, please God, have
+passed them, and have drunk of the sweet waters; so do not mourn
+overmuch. Till then I shall not ask you to forgive me."
+
+Arthur and Quincey came home with me, and we tried to cheer each other
+on the way. We had left the child in safety, and were tired; so we all
+slept with more or less reality of sleep.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_29 September, night._--A little before twelve o'clock we three--Arthur,
+Quincey Morris, and myself--called for the Professor. It was odd to
+notice that by common consent we had all put on black clothes. Of
+course, Arthur wore black, for he was in deep mourning, but the rest of
+us wore it by instinct. We got to the churchyard by half-past one, and
+strolled about, keeping out of official observation, so that when the
+gravediggers had completed their task and the sexton under the belief
+that every one had gone, had locked the gate, we had the place all to
+ourselves. Van Helsing, instead of his little black bag, had with him a
+long leather one, something like a cricketing bag; it was manifestly of
+fair weight.
+
+When we were alone and had heard the last of the footsteps die out up
+the road, we silently, and as if by ordered intention, followed the
+Professor to the tomb. He unlocked the door, and we entered, closing it
+behind us. Then he took from his bag the lantern, which he lit, and also
+two wax candles, which, when lighted, he stuck, by melting their own
+ends, on other coffins, so that they might give light sufficient to work
+by. When he again lifted the lid off Lucy's coffin we all looked--Arthur
+trembling like an aspen--and saw that the body lay there in all its
+death-beauty. But there was no love in my own heart, nothing but
+loathing for the foul Thing which had taken Lucy's shape without her
+soul. I could see even Arthur's face grow hard as he looked. Presently
+he said to Van Helsing:--
+
+"Is this really Lucy's body, or only a demon in her shape?"
+
+"It is her body, and yet not it. But wait a while, and you all see her
+as she was, and is."
+
+She seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth,
+the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth--which it made one shudder to
+see--the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like a
+devilish mockery of Lucy's sweet purity. Van Helsing, with his usual
+methodicalness, began taking the various contents from his bag and
+placing them ready for use. First he took out a soldering iron and some
+plumbing solder, and then a small oil-lamp, which gave out, when lit in
+a corner of the tomb, gas which burned at fierce heat with a blue
+flame; then his operating knives, which he placed to hand; and last a
+round wooden stake, some two and a half or three inches thick and about
+three feet long. One end of it was hardened by charring in the fire, and
+was sharpened to a fine point. With this stake came a heavy hammer, such
+as in households is used in the coal-cellar for breaking the lumps. To
+me, a doctor's preparations for work of any kind are stimulating and
+bracing, but the effect of these things on both Arthur and Quincey was
+to cause them a sort of consternation. They both, however, kept their
+courage, and remained silent and quiet.
+
+When all was ready, Van Helsing said:--
+
+"Before we do anything, let me tell you this; it is out of the lore and
+experience of the ancients and of all those who have studied the powers
+of the Un-Dead. When they become such, there comes with the change the
+curse of immortality; they cannot die, but must go on age after age
+adding new victims and multiplying the evils of the world; for all that
+die from the preying of the Un-Dead becomes themselves Un-Dead, and prey
+on their kind. And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the
+ripples from a stone thrown in the water. Friend Arthur, if you had met
+that kiss which you know of before poor Lucy die; or again, last night
+when you open your arms to her, you would in time, when you had died,
+have become _nosferatu_, as they call it in Eastern Europe, and would
+all time make more of those Un-Deads that so have fill us with horror.
+The career of this so unhappy dear lady is but just begun. Those
+children whose blood she suck are not as yet so much the worse; but if
+she live on, Un-Dead, more and more they lose their blood and by her
+power over them they come to her; and so she draw their blood with that
+so wicked mouth. But if she die in truth, then all cease; the tiny
+wounds of the throats disappear, and they go back to their plays
+unknowing ever of what has been. But of the most blessed of all, when
+this now Un-Dead be made to rest as true dead, then the soul of the poor
+lady whom we love shall again be free. Instead of working wickedness by
+night and growing more debased in the assimilating of it by day, she
+shall take her place with the other Angels. So that, my friend, it will
+be a blessed hand for her that shall strike the blow that sets her free.
+To this I am willing; but is there none amongst us who has a better
+right? Will it be no joy to think of hereafter in the silence of the
+night when sleep is not: 'It was my hand that sent her to the stars; it
+was the hand of him that loved her best; the hand that of all she would
+herself have chosen, had it been to her to choose?' Tell me if there be
+such a one amongst us?"
+
+We all looked at Arthur. He saw, too, what we all did, the infinite
+kindness which suggested that his should be the hand which would restore
+Lucy to us as a holy, and not an unholy, memory; he stepped forward and
+said bravely, though his hand trembled, and his face was as pale as
+snow:--
+
+"My true friend, from the bottom of my broken heart I thank you. Tell me
+what I am to do, and I shall not falter!" Van Helsing laid a hand on his
+shoulder, and said:--
+
+"Brave lad! A moment's courage, and it is done. This stake must be
+driven through her. It will be a fearful ordeal--be not deceived in
+that--but it will be only a short time, and you will then rejoice more
+than your pain was great; from this grim tomb you will emerge as though
+you tread on air. But you must not falter when once you have begun. Only
+think that we, your true friends, are round you, and that we pray for
+you all the time."
+
+"Go on," said Arthur hoarsely. "Tell me what I am to do."
+
+"Take this stake in your left hand, ready to place the point over the
+heart, and the hammer in your right. Then when we begin our prayer for
+the dead--I shall read him, I have here the book, and the others shall
+follow--strike in God's name, that so all may be well with the dead that
+we love and that the Un-Dead pass away."
+
+Arthur took the stake and the hammer, and when once his mind was set on
+action his hands never trembled nor even quivered. Van Helsing opened
+his missal and began to read, and Quincey and I followed as well as we
+could. Arthur placed the point over the heart, and as I looked I could
+see its dint in the white flesh. Then he struck with all his might.
+
+The Thing in the coffin writhed; and a hideous, blood-curdling screech
+came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted
+in wild contortions; the sharp white teeth champed together till the
+lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam. But Arthur
+never faltered. He looked like a figure of Thor as his untrembling arm
+rose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake, whilst
+the blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it. His
+face was set, and high duty seemed to shine through it; the sight of it
+gave us courage so that our voices seemed to ring through the little
+vault.
+
+And then the writhing and quivering of the body became less, and the
+teeth seemed to champ, and the face to quiver. Finally it lay still. The
+terrible task was over.
+
+The hammer fell from Arthur's hand. He reeled and would have fallen had
+we not caught him. The great drops of sweat sprang from his forehead,
+and his breath came in broken gasps. It had indeed been an awful strain
+on him; and had he not been forced to his task by more than human
+considerations he could never have gone through with it. For a few
+minutes we were so taken up with him that we did not look towards the
+coffin. When we did, however, a murmur of startled surprise ran from one
+to the other of us. We gazed so eagerly that Arthur rose, for he had
+been seated on the ground, and came and looked too; and then a glad,
+strange light broke over his face and dispelled altogether the gloom of
+horror that lay upon it.
+
+There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we had so dreaded
+and grown to hate that the work of her destruction was yielded as a
+privilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her in
+her life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity. True that
+there were there, as we had seen them in life, the traces of care and
+pain and waste; but these were all dear to us, for they marked her truth
+to what we knew. One and all we felt that the holy calm that lay like
+sunshine over the wasted face and form was only an earthly token and
+symbol of the calm that was to reign for ever.
+
+Van Helsing came and laid his hand on Arthur's shoulder, and said to
+him:--
+
+"And now, Arthur my friend, dear lad, am I not forgiven?"
+
+The reaction of the terrible strain came as he took the old man's hand
+in his, and raising it to his lips, pressed it, and said:--
+
+"Forgiven! God bless you that you have given my dear one her soul again,
+and me peace." He put his hands on the Professor's shoulder, and laying
+his head on his breast, cried for a while silently, whilst we stood
+unmoving. When he raised his head Van Helsing said to him:--
+
+"And now, my child, you may kiss her. Kiss her dead lips if you will, as
+she would have you to, if for her to choose. For she is not a grinning
+devil now--not any more a foul Thing for all eternity. No longer she is
+the devil's Un-Dead. She is God's true dead, whose soul is with Him!"
+
+Arthur bent and kissed her, and then we sent him and Quincey out of the
+tomb; the Professor and I sawed the top off the stake, leaving the point
+of it in the body. Then we cut off the head and filled the mouth with
+garlic. We soldered up the leaden coffin, screwed on the coffin-lid,
+and gathering up our belongings, came away. When the Professor locked
+the door he gave the key to Arthur.
+
+Outside the air was sweet, the sun shone, and the birds sang, and it
+seemed as if all nature were tuned to a different pitch. There was
+gladness and mirth and peace everywhere, for we were at rest ourselves
+on one account, and we were glad, though it was with a tempered joy.
+
+Before we moved away Van Helsing said:--
+
+"Now, my friends, one step of our work is done, one the most harrowing
+to ourselves. But there remains a greater task: to find out the author
+of all this our sorrow and to stamp him out. I have clues which we can
+follow; but it is a long task, and a difficult, and there is danger in
+it, and pain. Shall you not all help me? We have learned to believe, all
+of us--is it not so? And since so, do we not see our duty? Yes! And do
+we not promise to go on to the bitter end?"
+
+Each in turn, we took his hand, and the promise was made. Then said the
+Professor as we moved off:--
+
+"Two nights hence you shall meet with me and dine together at seven of
+the clock with friend John. I shall entreat two others, two that you
+know not as yet; and I shall be ready to all our work show and our plans
+unfold. Friend John, you come with me home, for I have much to consult
+about, and you can help me. To-night I leave for Amsterdam, but shall
+return to-morrow night. And then begins our great quest. But first I
+shall have much to say, so that you may know what is to do and to dread.
+Then our promise shall be made to each other anew; for there is a
+terrible task before us, and once our feet are on the ploughshare we
+must not draw back."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY--_continued_
+
+
+When we arrived at the Berkeley Hotel, Van Helsing found a telegram
+waiting for him:--
+
+ "Am coming up by train. Jonathan at Whitby. Important news.--MINA
+ HARKER."
+
+The Professor was delighted. "Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina," he said,
+"pearl among women! She arrive, but I cannot stay. She must go to your
+house, friend John. You must meet her at the station. Telegraph her _en
+route_, so that she may be prepared."
+
+When the wire was despatched he had a cup of tea; over it he told me of
+a diary kept by Jonathan Harker when abroad, and gave me a typewritten
+copy of it, as also of Mrs. Harker's diary at Whitby. "Take these," he
+said, "and study them well. When I have returned you will be master of
+all the facts, and we can then better enter on our inquisition. Keep
+them safe, for there is in them much of treasure. You will need all your
+faith, even you who have had such an experience as that of to-day. What
+is here told," he laid his hand heavily and gravely on the packet of
+papers as he spoke, "may be the beginning of the end to you and me and
+many another; or it may sound the knell of the Un-Dead who walk the
+earth. Read all, I pray you, with the open mind; and if you can add in
+any way to the story here told do so, for it is all-important. You have
+kept diary of all these so strange things; is it not so? Yes! Then we
+shall go through all these together when we meet." He then made ready
+for his departure, and shortly after drove off to Liverpool Street. I
+took my way to Paddington, where I arrived about fifteen minutes before
+the train came in.
+
+The crowd melted away, after the bustling fashion common to arrival
+platforms; and I was beginning to feel uneasy, lest I might miss my
+guest, when a sweet-faced, dainty-looking girl stepped up to me, and,
+after a quick glance, said: "Dr. Seward, is it not?"
+
+"And you are Mrs. Harker!" I answered at once; whereupon she held out
+her hand.
+
+"I knew you from the description of poor dear Lucy; but----" She stopped
+suddenly, and a quick blush overspread her face.
+
+The blush that rose to my own cheeks somehow set us both at ease, for it
+was a tacit answer to her own. I got her luggage, which included a
+typewriter, and we took the Underground to Fenchurch Street, after I had
+sent a wire to my housekeeper to have a sitting-room and bedroom
+prepared at once for Mrs. Harker.
+
+In due time we arrived. She knew, of course, that the place was a
+lunatic asylum, but I could see that she was unable to repress a shudder
+when we entered.
+
+She told me that, if she might, she would come presently to my study, as
+she had much to say. So here I am finishing my entry in my phonograph
+diary whilst I await her. As yet I have not had the chance of looking at
+the papers which Van Helsing left with me, though they lie open before
+me. I must get her interested in something, so that I may have an
+opportunity of reading them. She does not know how precious time is, or
+what a task we have in hand. I must be careful not to frighten her. Here
+she is!
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_29 September._--After I had tidied myself, I went down to Dr. Seward's
+study. At the door I paused a moment, for I thought I heard him talking
+with some one. As, however, he had pressed me to be quick, I knocked at
+the door, and on his calling out, "Come in," I entered.
+
+To my intense surprise, there was no one with him. He was quite alone,
+and on the table opposite him was what I knew at once from the
+description to be a phonograph. I had never seen one, and was much
+interested.
+
+"I hope I did not keep you waiting," I said; "but I stayed at the door
+as I heard you talking, and thought there was some one with you."
+
+"Oh," he replied with a smile, "I was only entering my diary."
+
+"Your diary?" I asked him in surprise.
+
+"Yes," he answered. "I keep it in this." As he spoke he laid his hand on
+the phonograph. I felt quite excited over it, and blurted out:--
+
+"Why, this beats even shorthand! May I hear it say something?"
+
+"Certainly," he replied with alacrity, and stood up to put it in train
+for speaking. Then he paused, and a troubled look overspread his face.
+
+"The fact is," he began awkwardly, "I only keep my diary in it; and as
+it is entirely--almost entirely--about my cases, it may be awkward--that
+is, I mean----" He stopped, and I tried to help him out of his
+embarrassment:--
+
+"You helped to attend dear Lucy at the end. Let me hear how she died;
+for all that I know of her, I shall be very grateful. She was very, very
+dear to me."
+
+To my surprise, he answered, with a horrorstruck look in his face:--
+
+"Tell you of her death? Not for the wide world!"
+
+"Why not?" I asked, for some grave, terrible feeling was coming over me.
+Again he paused, and I could see that he was trying to invent an excuse.
+At length he stammered out:--
+
+"You see, I do not know how to pick out any particular part of the
+diary." Even while he was speaking an idea dawned upon him, and he said
+with unconscious simplicity, in a different voice, and with the naïveté
+of a child: "That's quite true, upon my honour. Honest Indian!" I could
+not but smile, at which he grimaced. "I gave myself away that time!" he
+said. "But do you know that, although I have kept the diary for months
+past, it never once struck me how I was going to find any particular
+part of it in case I wanted to look it up?" By this time my mind was
+made up that the diary of a doctor who attended Lucy might have
+something to add to the sum of our knowledge of that terrible Being, and
+I said boldly:--
+
+"Then, Dr. Seward, you had better let me copy it out for you on my
+typewriter." He grew to a positively deathly pallor as he said:--
+
+"No! no! no! For all the world, I wouldn't let you know that terrible
+story!"
+
+Then it was terrible; my intuition was right! For a moment I thought,
+and as my eyes ranged the room, unconsciously looking for something or
+some opportunity to aid me, they lit on a great batch of typewriting on
+the table. His eyes caught the look in mine, and, without his thinking,
+followed their direction. As they saw the parcel he realised my meaning.
+
+"You do not know me," I said. "When you have read those papers--my own
+diary and my husband's also, which I have typed--you will know me
+better. I have not faltered in giving every thought of my own heart in
+this cause; but, of course, you do not know me--yet; and I must not
+expect you to trust me so far."
+
+He is certainly a man of noble nature; poor dear Lucy was right about
+him. He stood up and opened a large drawer, in which were arranged in
+order a number of hollow cylinders of metal covered with dark wax, and
+said:--
+
+"You are quite right. I did not trust you because I did not know you.
+But I know you now; and let me say that I should have known you long
+ago. I know that Lucy told you of me; she told me of you too. May I make
+the only atonement in my power? Take the cylinders and hear them--the
+first half-dozen of them are personal to me, and they will not horrify
+you; then you will know me better. Dinner will by then be ready. In the
+meantime I shall read over some of these documents, and shall be better
+able to understand certain things." He carried the phonograph himself up
+to my sitting-room and adjusted it for me. Now I shall learn something
+pleasant, I am sure; for it will tell me the other side of a true love
+episode of which I know one side already....
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_29 September._--I was so absorbed in that wonderful diary of Jonathan
+Harker and that other of his wife that I let the time run on without
+thinking. Mrs. Harker was not down when the maid came to announce
+dinner, so I said: "She is possibly tired; let dinner wait an hour," and
+I went on with my work. I had just finished Mrs. Harker's diary, when
+she came in. She looked sweetly pretty, but very sad, and her eyes were
+flushed with crying. This somehow moved me much. Of late I have had
+cause for tears, God knows! but the relief of them was denied me; and
+now the sight of those sweet eyes, brightened with recent tears, went
+straight to my heart. So I said as gently as I could:--
+
+"I greatly fear I have distressed you."
+
+"Oh, no, not distressed me," she replied, "but I have been more touched
+than I can say by your grief. That is a wonderful machine, but it is
+cruelly true. It told me, in its very tones, the anguish of your heart.
+It was like a soul crying out to Almighty God. No one must hear them
+spoken ever again! See, I have tried to be useful. I have copied out the
+words on my typewriter, and none other need now hear your heart beat, as
+I did."
+
+"No one need ever know, shall ever know," I said in a low voice. She
+laid her hand on mine and said very gravely:--
+
+"Ah, but they must!"
+
+"Must! But why?" I asked.
+
+"Because it is a part of the terrible story, a part of poor dear Lucy's
+death and all that led to it; because in the struggle which we have
+before us to rid the earth of this terrible monster we must have all
+the knowledge and all the help which we can get. I think that the
+cylinders which you gave me contained more than you intended me to know;
+but I can see that there are in your record many lights to this dark
+mystery. You will let me help, will you not? I know all up to a certain
+point; and I see already, though your diary only took me to 7 September,
+how poor Lucy was beset, and how her terrible doom was being wrought
+out. Jonathan and I have been working day and night since Professor Van
+Helsing saw us. He is gone to Whitby to get more information, and he
+will be here to-morrow to help us. We need have no secrets amongst us;
+working together and with absolute trust, we can surely be stronger than
+if some of us were in the dark." She looked at me so appealingly, and at
+the same time manifested such courage and resolution in her bearing,
+that I gave in at once to her wishes. "You shall," I said, "do as you
+like in the matter. God forgive me if I do wrong! There are terrible
+things yet to learn of; but if you have so far travelled on the road to
+poor Lucy's death, you will not be content, I know, to remain in the
+dark. Nay, the end--the very end--may give you a gleam of peace. Come,
+there is dinner. We must keep one another strong for what is before us;
+we have a cruel and dreadful task. When you have eaten you shall learn
+the rest, and I shall answer any questions you ask--if there be anything
+which you do not understand, though it was apparent to us who were
+present."
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_29 September._--After dinner I came with Dr. Seward to his study. He
+brought back the phonograph from my room, and I took my typewriter. He
+placed me in a comfortable chair, and arranged the phonograph so that I
+could touch it without getting up, and showed me how to stop it in case
+I should want to pause. Then he very thoughtfully took a chair, with his
+back to me, so that I might be as free as possible, and began to read. I
+put the forked metal to my ears and listened.
+
+When the terrible story of Lucy's death, and--and all that followed, was
+done, I lay back in my chair powerless. Fortunately I am not of a
+fainting disposition. When Dr. Seward saw me he jumped up with a
+horrified exclamation, and hurriedly taking a case-bottle from a
+cupboard, gave me some brandy, which in a few minutes somewhat restored
+me. My brain was all in a whirl, and only that there came through all
+the multitude of horrors, the holy ray of light that my dear, dear Lucy
+was at last at peace, I do not think I could have borne it without
+making a scene. It is all so wild, and mysterious, and strange that if I
+had not known Jonathan's experience in Transylvania I could not have
+believed. As it was, I didn't know what to believe, and so got out of my
+difficulty by attending to something else. I took the cover off my
+typewriter, and said to Dr. Seward:--
+
+"Let me write this all out now. We must be ready for Dr. Van Helsing
+when he comes. I have sent a telegram to Jonathan to come on here when
+he arrives in London from Whitby. In this matter dates are everything,
+and I think that if we get all our material ready, and have every item
+put in chronological order, we shall have done much. You tell me that
+Lord Godalming and Mr. Morris are coming too. Let us be able to tell him
+when they come." He accordingly set the phonograph at a slow pace, and I
+began to typewrite from the beginning of the seventh cylinder. I used
+manifold, and so took three copies of the diary, just as I had done with
+all the rest. It was late when I got through, but Dr. Seward went about
+his work of going his round of the patients; when he had finished he
+came back and sat near me, reading, so that I did not feel too lonely
+whilst I worked. How good and thoughtful he is; the world seems full of
+good men--even if there _are_ monsters in it. Before I left him I
+remembered what Jonathan put in his diary of the Professor's
+perturbation at reading something in an evening paper at the station at
+Exeter; so, seeing that Dr. Seward keeps his newspapers, I borrowed the
+files of "The Westminster Gazette" and "The Pall Mall Gazette," and took
+them to my room. I remember how much "The Dailygraph" and "The Whitby
+Gazette," of which I had made cuttings, helped us to understand the
+terrible events at Whitby when Count Dracula landed, so I shall look
+through the evening papers since then, and perhaps I shall get some new
+light. I am not sleepy, and the work will help to keep me quiet.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_30 September._--Mr. Harker arrived at nine o'clock. He had got his
+wife's wire just before starting. He is uncommonly clever, if one can
+judge from his face, and full of energy. If this journal be true--and
+judging by one's own wonderful experiences, it must be--he is also a man
+of great nerve. That going down to the vault a second time was a
+remarkable piece of daring. After reading his account of it I was
+prepared to meet a good specimen of manhood, but hardly the quiet,
+business-like gentleman who came here to-day.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--After lunch Harker and his wife went back to their own room,
+and as I passed a while ago I heard the click of the typewriter. They
+are hard at it. Mrs. Harker says that they are knitting together in
+chronological order every scrap of evidence they have. Harker has got
+the letters between the consignee of the boxes at Whitby and the
+carriers in London who took charge of them. He is now reading his wife's
+typescript of my diary. I wonder what they make out of it. Here it
+is....
+
+ Strange that it never struck me that the very next house might be
+ the Count's hiding-place! Goodness knows that we had enough clues
+ from the conduct of the patient Renfield! The bundle of letters
+ relating to the purchase of the house were with the typescript. Oh,
+ if we had only had them earlier we might have saved poor Lucy!
+ Stop; that way madness lies! Harker has gone back, and is again
+ collating his material. He says that by dinner-time they will be
+ able to show a whole connected narrative. He thinks that in the
+ meantime I should see Renfield, as hitherto he has been a sort of
+ index to the coming and going of the Count. I hardly see this yet,
+ but when I get at the dates I suppose I shall. What a good thing
+ that Mrs. Harker put my cylinders into type! We never could have
+ found the dates otherwise....
+
+ I found Renfield sitting placidly in his room with his hands
+ folded, smiling benignly. At the moment he seemed as sane as any
+ one I ever saw. I sat down and talked with him on a lot of
+ subjects, all of which he treated naturally. He then, of his own
+ accord, spoke of going home, a subject he has never mentioned to my
+ knowledge during his sojourn here. In fact, he spoke quite
+ confidently of getting his discharge at once. I believe that, had I
+ not had the chat with Harker and read the letters and the dates of
+ his outbursts, I should have been prepared to sign for him after a
+ brief time of observation. As it is, I am darkly suspicious. All
+ those outbreaks were in some way linked with the proximity of the
+ Count. What then does this absolute content mean? Can it be that
+ his instinct is satisfied as to the vampire's ultimate triumph?
+ Stay; he is himself zoöphagous, and in his wild ravings outside the
+ chapel door of the deserted house he always spoke of "master." This
+ all seems confirmation of our idea. However, after a while I came
+ away; my friend is just a little too sane at present to make it
+ safe to probe him too deep with questions. He might begin to think,
+ and then--! So I came away. I mistrust these quiet moods of his; so
+ I have given the attendant a hint to look closely after him, and to
+ have a strait-waistcoat ready in case of need.
+
+
+_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
+
+_29 September, in train to London._--When I received Mr. Billington's
+courteous message that he would give me any information in his power I
+thought it best to go down to Whitby and make, on the spot, such
+inquiries as I wanted. It was now my object to trace that horrid cargo
+of the Count's to its place in London. Later, we may be able to deal
+with it. Billington junior, a nice lad, met me at the station, and
+brought me to his father's house, where they had decided that I must
+stay the night. They are hospitable, with true Yorkshire hospitality:
+give a guest everything, and leave him free to do as he likes. They all
+knew that I was busy, and that my stay was short, and Mr. Billington had
+ready in his office all the papers concerning the consignment of boxes.
+It gave me almost a turn to see again one of the letters which I had
+seen on the Count's table before I knew of his diabolical plans.
+Everything had been carefully thought out, and done systematically and
+with precision. He seemed to have been prepared for every obstacle which
+might be placed by accident in the way of his intentions being carried
+out. To use an Americanism, he had "taken no chances," and the absolute
+accuracy with which his instructions were fulfilled, was simply the
+logical result of his care. I saw the invoice, and took note of it:
+"Fifty cases of common earth, to be used for experimental purposes."
+Also the copy of letter to Carter Paterson, and their reply; of both of
+these I got copies. This was all the information Mr. Billington could
+give me, so I went down to the port and saw the coastguards, the Customs
+officers and the harbour-master. They had all something to say of the
+strange entry of the ship, which is already taking its place in local
+tradition; but no one could add to the simple description "Fifty cases
+of common earth." I then saw the station-master, who kindly put me in
+communication with the men who had actually received the boxes. Their
+tally was exact with the list, and they had nothing to add except that
+the boxes were "main and mortal heavy," and that shifting them was dry
+work. One of them added that it was hard lines that there wasn't any
+gentleman "such-like as yourself, squire," to show some sort of
+appreciation of their efforts in a liquid form; another put in a rider
+that the thirst then generated was such that even the time which had
+elapsed had not completely allayed it. Needless to add, I took care
+before leaving to lift, for ever and adequately, this source of
+reproach.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_30 September._--The station-master was good enough to give me a line to
+his old companion the station-master at King's Cross, so that when I
+arrived there in the morning I was able to ask him about the arrival of
+the boxes. He, too, put me at once in communication with the proper
+officials, and I saw that their tally was correct with the original
+invoice. The opportunities of acquiring an abnormal thirst had been here
+limited; a noble use of them had, however, been made, and again I was
+compelled to deal with the result in an _ex post facto_ manner.
+
+From thence I went on to Carter Paterson's central office, where I met
+with the utmost courtesy. They looked up the transaction in their
+day-book and letter-book, and at once telephoned to their King's Cross
+office for more details. By good fortune, the men who did the teaming
+were waiting for work, and the official at once sent them over, sending
+also by one of them the way-bill and all the papers connected with the
+delivery of the boxes at Carfax. Here again I found the tally agreeing
+exactly; the carriers' men were able to supplement the paucity of the
+written words with a few details. These were, I shortly found, connected
+almost solely with the dusty nature of the job, and of the consequent
+thirst engendered in the operators. On my affording an opportunity,
+through the medium of the currency of the realm, of the allaying, at a
+later period, this beneficial evil, one of the men remarked:--
+
+"That 'ere 'ouse, guv'nor, is the rummiest I ever was in. Blyme! but it
+ain't been touched sence a hundred years. There was dust that thick in
+the place that you might have slep' on it without 'urtin' of yer bones;
+an' the place was that neglected that yer might 'ave smelled ole
+Jerusalem in it. But the ole chapel--that took the cike, that did! Me
+and my mate, we thort we wouldn't never git out quick enough. Lor', I
+wouldn't take less nor a quid a moment to stay there arter dark."
+
+Having been in the house, I could well believe him; but if he knew what
+I know, he would, I think, have raised his terms.
+
+Of one thing I am now satisfied: that _all_ the boxes which arrived at
+Whitby from Varna in the _Demeter_ were safely deposited in the old
+chapel at Carfax. There should be fifty of them there, unless any have
+since been removed--as from Dr. Seward's diary I fear.
+
+I shall try to see the carter who took away the boxes from Carfax when
+Renfield attacked them. By following up this clue we may learn a good
+deal.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Mina and I have worked all day, and we have put all the papers
+into order.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal_
+
+_30 September._--I am so glad that I hardly know how to contain myself.
+It is, I suppose, the reaction from the haunting fear which I have had:
+that this terrible affair and the reopening of his old wound might act
+detrimentally on Jonathan. I saw him leave for Whitby with as brave a
+face as I could, but I was sick with apprehension. The effort has,
+however, done him good. He was never so resolute, never so strong, never
+so full of volcanic energy, as at present. It is just as that dear, good
+Professor Van Helsing said: he is true grit, and he improves under
+strain that would kill a weaker nature. He came back full of life and
+hope and determination; we have got everything in order for to-night. I
+feel myself quite wild with excitement. I suppose one ought to pity any
+thing so hunted as is the Count. That is just it: this Thing is not
+human--not even beast. To read Dr. Seward's account of poor Lucy's
+death, and what followed, is enough to dry up the springs of pity in
+one's heart.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Lord Godalming and Mr. Morris arrived earlier than we
+expected. Dr. Seward was out on business, and had taken Jonathan with
+him, so I had to see them. It was to me a painful meeting, for it
+brought back all poor dear Lucy's hopes of only a few months ago. Of
+course they had heard Lucy speak of me, and it seemed that Dr. Van
+Helsing, too, has been quite "blowing my trumpet," as Mr. Morris
+expressed it. Poor fellows, neither of them is aware that I know all
+about the proposals they made to Lucy. They did not quite know what to
+say or do, as they were ignorant of the amount of my knowledge; so they
+had to keep on neutral subjects. However, I thought the matter over, and
+came to the conclusion that the best thing I could do would be to post
+them in affairs right up to date. I knew from Dr. Seward's diary that
+they had been at Lucy's death--her real death--and that I need not fear
+to betray any secret before the time. So I told them, as well as I
+could, that I had read all the papers and diaries, and that my husband
+and I, having typewritten them, had just finished putting them in order.
+I gave them each a copy to read in the library. When Lord Godalming got
+his and turned it over--it does make a pretty good pile--he said:--
+
+"Did you write all this, Mrs. Harker?"
+
+I nodded, and he went on:--
+
+"I don't quite see the drift of it; but you people are all so good and
+kind, and have been working so earnestly and so energetically, that all
+I can do is to accept your ideas blindfold and try to help you. I have
+had one lesson already in accepting facts that should make a man humble
+to the last hour of his life. Besides, I know you loved my poor Lucy--"
+Here he turned away and covered his face with his hands. I could hear
+the tears in his voice. Mr. Morris, with instinctive delicacy, just laid
+a hand for a moment on his shoulder, and then walked quietly out of the
+room. I suppose there is something in woman's nature that makes a man
+free to break down before her and express his feelings on the tender or
+emotional side without feeling it derogatory to his manhood; for when
+Lord Godalming found himself alone with me he sat down on the sofa and
+gave way utterly and openly. I sat down beside him and took his hand. I
+hope he didn't think it forward of me, and that if he ever thinks of it
+afterwards he never will have such a thought. There I wrong him; I
+_know_ he never will--he is too true a gentleman. I said to him, for I
+could see that his heart was breaking:--
+
+"I loved dear Lucy, and I know what she was to you, and what you were to
+her. She and I were like sisters; and now she is gone, will you not let
+me be like a sister to you in your trouble? I know what sorrows you have
+had, though I cannot measure the depth of them. If sympathy and pity can
+help in your affliction, won't you let me be of some little service--for
+Lucy's sake?"
+
+In an instant the poor dear fellow was overwhelmed with grief. It seemed
+to me that all that he had of late been suffering in silence found a
+vent at once. He grew quite hysterical, and raising his open hands, beat
+his palms together in a perfect agony of grief. He stood up and then sat
+down again, and the tears rained down his cheeks. I felt an infinite
+pity for him, and opened my arms unthinkingly. With a sob he laid his
+head on my shoulder and cried like a wearied child, whilst he shook with
+emotion.
+
+We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above
+smaller matters when the mother-spirit is invoked; I felt this big
+sorrowing man's head resting on me, as though it were that of the baby
+that some day may lie on my bosom, and I stroked his hair as though he
+were my own child. I never thought at the time how strange it all was.
+
+After a little bit his sobs ceased, and he raised himself with an
+apology, though he made no disguise of his emotion. He told me that for
+days and nights past--weary days and sleepless nights--he had been
+unable to speak with any one, as a man must speak in his time of
+sorrow. There was no woman whose sympathy could be given to him, or with
+whom, owing to the terrible circumstance with which his sorrow was
+surrounded, he could speak freely. "I know now how I suffered," he said,
+as he dried his eyes, "but I do not know even yet--and none other can
+ever know--how much your sweet sympathy has been to me to-day. I shall
+know better in time; and believe me that, though I am not ungrateful
+now, my gratitude will grow with my understanding. You will let me be
+like a brother, will you not, for all our lives--for dear Lucy's sake?"
+
+"For dear Lucy's sake," I said as we clasped hands. "Ay, and for your
+own sake," he added, "for if a man's esteem and gratitude are ever worth
+the winning, you have won mine to-day. If ever the future should bring
+to you a time when you need a man's help, believe me, you will not call
+in vain. God grant that no such time may ever come to you to break the
+sunshine of your life; but if it should ever come, promise me that you
+will let me know." He was so earnest, and his sorrow was so fresh, that
+I felt it would comfort him, so I said:--
+
+"I promise."
+
+As I came along the corridor I saw Mr. Morris looking out of a window.
+He turned as he heard my footsteps. "How is Art?" he said. Then noticing
+my red eyes, he went on: "Ah, I see you have been comforting him. Poor
+old fellow! he needs it. No one but a woman can help a man when he is in
+trouble of the heart; and he had no one to comfort him."
+
+He bore his own trouble so bravely that my heart bled for him. I saw the
+manuscript in his hand, and I knew that when he read it he would realise
+how much I knew; so I said to him:--
+
+"I wish I could comfort all who suffer from the heart. Will you let me
+be your friend, and will you come to me for comfort if you need it? You
+will know, later on, why I speak." He saw that I was in earnest, and
+stooping, took my hand, and raising it to his lips, kissed it. It seemed
+but poor comfort to so brave and unselfish a soul, and impulsively I
+bent over and kissed him. The tears rose in his eyes, and there was a
+momentary choking in his throat; he said quite calmly:--
+
+"Little girl, you will never regret that true-hearted kindness, so long
+as ever you live!" Then he went into the study to his friend.
+
+"Little girl!"--the very words he had used to Lucy, and oh, but he
+proved himself a friend!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
+
+
+_30 September._--I got home at five o'clock, and found that Godalming
+and Morris had not only arrived, but had already studied the transcript
+of the various diaries and letters which Harker and his wonderful wife
+had made and arranged. Harker had not yet returned from his visit to the
+carriers' men, of whom Dr. Hennessey had written to me. Mrs. Harker gave
+us a cup of tea, and I can honestly say that, for the first time since I
+have lived in it, this old house seemed like _home_. When we had
+finished, Mrs. Harker said:--
+
+"Dr. Seward, may I ask a favour? I want to see your patient, Mr.
+Renfield. Do let me see him. What you have said of him in your diary
+interests me so much!" She looked so appealing and so pretty that I
+could not refuse her, and there was no possible reason why I should; so
+I took her with me. When I went into the room, I told the man that a
+lady would like to see him; to which he simply answered: "Why?"
+
+"She is going through the house, and wants to see every one in it," I
+answered. "Oh, very well," he said; "let her come in, by all means; but
+just wait a minute till I tidy up the place." His method of tidying was
+peculiar: he simply swallowed all the flies and spiders in the boxes
+before I could stop him. It was quite evident that he feared, or was
+jealous of, some interference. When he had got through his disgusting
+task, he said cheerfully: "Let the lady come in," and sat down on the
+edge of his bed with his head down, but with his eyelids raised so that
+he could see her as she entered. For a moment I thought that he might
+have some homicidal intent; I remembered how quiet he had been just
+before he attacked me in my own study, and I took care to stand where I
+could seize him at once if he attempted to make a spring at her. She
+came into the room with an easy gracefulness which would at once command
+the respect of any lunatic--for easiness is one of the qualities mad
+people most respect. She walked over to him, smiling pleasantly, and
+held out her hand.
+
+"Good-evening, Mr. Renfield," said she. "You see, I know you, for Dr.
+Seward has told me of you." He made no immediate reply, but eyed her all
+over intently with a set frown on his face. This look gave way to one
+of wonder, which merged in doubt; then, to my intense astonishment, he
+said:--
+
+"You're not the girl the doctor wanted to marry, are you? You can't be,
+you know, for she's dead." Mrs. Harker smiled sweetly as she replied:--
+
+"Oh no! I have a husband of my own, to whom I was married before I ever
+saw Dr. Seward, or he me. I am Mrs. Harker."
+
+"Then what are you doing here?"
+
+"My husband and I are staying on a visit with Dr. Seward."
+
+"Then don't stay."
+
+"But why not?" I thought that this style of conversation might not be
+pleasant to Mrs. Harker, any more than it was to me, so I joined in:--
+
+"How did you know I wanted to marry any one?" His reply was simply
+contemptuous, given in a pause in which he turned his eyes from Mrs.
+Harker to me, instantly turning them back again:--
+
+"What an asinine question!"
+
+"I don't see that at all, Mr. Renfield," said Mrs. Harker, at once
+championing me. He replied to her with as much courtesy and respect as
+he had shown contempt to me:--
+
+"You will, of course, understand, Mrs. Harker, that when a man is so
+loved and honoured as our host is, everything regarding him is of
+interest in our little community. Dr. Seward is loved not only by his
+household and his friends, but even by his patients, who, being some of
+them hardly in mental equilibrium, are apt to distort causes and
+effects. Since I myself have been an inmate of a lunatic asylum, I
+cannot but notice that the sophistic tendencies of some of its inmates
+lean towards the errors of _non causa_ and _ignoratio elenchi_." I
+positively opened my eyes at this new development. Here was my own pet
+lunatic--the most pronounced of his type that I had ever met
+with--talking elemental philosophy, and with the manner of a polished
+gentleman. I wonder if it was Mrs. Harker's presence which had touched
+some chord in his memory. If this new phase was spontaneous, or in any
+way due to her unconscious influence, she must have some rare gift or
+power.
+
+We continued to talk for some time; and, seeing that he was seemingly
+quite reasonable, she ventured, looking at me questioningly as she
+began, to lead him to his favourite topic. I was again astonished, for
+he addressed himself to the question with the impartiality of the
+completest sanity; he even took himself as an example when he mentioned
+certain things.
+
+"Why, I myself am an instance of a man who had a strange belief. Indeed,
+it was no wonder that my friends were alarmed, and insisted on my being
+put under control. I used to fancy that life was a positive and
+perpetual entity, and that by consuming a multitude of live things, no
+matter how low in the scale of creation, one might indefinitely prolong
+life. At times I held the belief so strongly that I actually tried to
+take human life. The doctor here will bear me out that on one occasion I
+tried to kill him for the purpose of strengthening my vital powers by
+the assimilation with my own body of his life through the medium of his
+blood--relying, of course, upon the Scriptural phrase, 'For the blood is
+the life.' Though, indeed, the vendor of a certain nostrum has
+vulgarised the truism to the very point of contempt. Isn't that true,
+doctor?" I nodded assent, for I was so amazed that I hardly knew what to
+either think or say; it was hard to imagine that I had seen him eat up
+his spiders and flies not five minutes before. Looking at my watch, I
+saw that I should go to the station to meet Van Helsing, so I told Mrs.
+Harker that it was time to leave. She came at once, after saying
+pleasantly to Mr. Renfield: "Good-bye, and I hope I may see you often,
+under auspices pleasanter to yourself," to which, to my astonishment, he
+replied:--
+
+"Good-bye, my dear. I pray God I may never see your sweet face again.
+May He bless and keep you!"
+
+When I went to the station to meet Van Helsing I left the boys behind
+me. Poor Art seemed more cheerful than he has been since Lucy first took
+ill, and Quincey is more like his own bright self than he has been for
+many a long day.
+
+Van Helsing stepped from the carriage with the eager nimbleness of a
+boy. He saw me at once, and rushed up to me, saying:--
+
+"Ah, friend John, how goes all? Well? So! I have been busy, for I come
+here to stay if need be. All affairs are settled with me, and I have
+much to tell. Madam Mina is with you? Yes. And her so fine husband? And
+Arthur and my friend Quincey, they are with you, too? Good!"
+
+As I drove to the house I told him of what had passed, and of how my own
+diary had come to be of some use through Mrs. Harker's suggestion; at
+which the Professor interrupted me:--
+
+"Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man's brain--a brain that a man
+should have were he much gifted--and a woman's heart. The good God
+fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good
+combination. Friend John, up to now fortune has made that woman of help
+to us; after to-night she must not have to do with this so terrible
+affair. It is not good that she run a risk so great. We men are
+determined--nay, are we not pledged?--to destroy this monster; but it is
+no part for a woman. Even if she be not harmed, her heart may fail her
+in so much and so many horrors; and hereafter she may suffer--both in
+waking, from her nerves, and in sleep, from her dreams. And, besides,
+she is young woman and not so long married; there may be other things to
+think of some time, if not now. You tell me she has wrote all, then she
+must consult with us; but to-morrow she say good-bye to this work, and
+we go alone." I agreed heartily with him, and then I told him what we
+had found in his absence: that the house which Dracula had bought was
+the very next one to my own. He was amazed, and a great concern seemed
+to come on him. "Oh that we had known it before!" he said, "for then we
+might have reached him in time to save poor Lucy. However, 'the milk
+that is spilt cries not out afterwards,' as you say. We shall not think
+of that, but go on our way to the end." Then he fell into a silence that
+lasted till we entered my own gateway. Before we went to prepare for
+dinner he said to Mrs. Harker:--
+
+"I am told, Madam Mina, by my friend John that you and your husband have
+put up in exact order all things that have been, up to this moment."
+
+"Not up to this moment, Professor," she said impulsively, "but up to
+this morning."
+
+"But why not up to now? We have seen hitherto how good light all the
+little things have made. We have told our secrets, and yet no one who
+has told is the worse for it."
+
+Mrs. Harker began to blush, and taking a paper from her pockets, she
+said:--
+
+"Dr. Van Helsing, will you read this, and tell me if it must go in. It
+is my record of to-day. I too have seen the need of putting down at
+present everything, however trivial; but there is little in this except
+what is personal. Must it go in?" The Professor read it over gravely,
+and handed it back, saying:--
+
+"It need not go in if you do not wish it; but I pray that it may. It can
+but make your husband love you the more, and all us, your friends, more
+honour you--as well as more esteem and love." She took it back with
+another blush and a bright smile.
+
+And so now, up to this very hour, all the records we have are complete
+and in order. The Professor took away one copy to study after dinner,
+and before our meeting, which is fixed for nine o'clock. The rest of us
+have already read everything; so when we meet in the study we shall all
+be informed as to facts, and can arrange our plan of battle with this
+terrible and mysterious enemy.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_30 September._--When we met in Dr. Seward's study two hours after
+dinner, which had been at six o'clock, we unconsciously formed a sort of
+board or committee. Professor Van Helsing took the head of the table, to
+which Dr. Seward motioned him as he came into the room. He made me sit
+next to him on his right, and asked me to act as secretary; Jonathan sat
+next to me. Opposite us were Lord Godalming, Dr. Seward, and Mr.
+Morris--Lord Godalming being next the Professor, and Dr. Seward in the
+centre. The Professor said:--
+
+"I may, I suppose, take it that we are all acquainted with the facts
+that are in these papers." We all expressed assent, and he went on:--
+
+"Then it were, I think good that I tell you something of the kind of
+enemy with which we have to deal. I shall then make known to you
+something of the history of this man, which has been ascertained for me.
+So we then can discuss how we shall act, and can take our measure
+according.
+
+"There are such beings as vampires; some of us have evidence that they
+exist. Even had we not the proof of our own unhappy experience, the
+teachings and the records of the past give proof enough for sane
+peoples. I admit that at the first I was sceptic. Were it not that
+through long years I have train myself to keep an open mind, I could not
+have believe until such time as that fact thunder on my ear. 'See! see!
+I prove; I prove.' Alas! Had I known at the first what now I know--nay,
+had I even guess at him--one so precious life had been spared to many of
+us who did love her. But that is gone; and we must so work, that other
+poor souls perish not, whilst we can save. The _nosferatu_ do not die
+like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger; and being
+stronger, have yet more power to work evil. This vampire which is
+amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men; he is of
+cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages; he have
+still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the
+divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are
+for him at command; he is brute, and more than brute; he is devil in
+callous, and the heart of him is not; he can, within limitations, appear
+at will when, and where, and in any of the forms that are to him; he
+can, within his range, direct the elements; the storm, the fog, the
+thunder; he can command all the meaner things: the rat, and the owl, and
+the bat--the moth, and the fox, and the wolf; he can grow and become
+small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown. How then are we to
+begin our strike to destroy him? How shall we find his where; and having
+found it, how can we destroy? My friends, this is much; it is a terrible
+task that we undertake, and there may be consequence to make the brave
+shudder. For if we fail in this our fight he must surely win; and then
+where end we? Life is nothings; I heed him not. But to fail here, is not
+mere life or death. It is that we become as him; that we henceforward
+become foul things of the night like him--without heart or conscience,
+preying on the bodies and the souls of those we love best. To us for
+ever are the gates of heaven shut; for who shall open them to us again?
+We go on for all time abhorred by all; a blot on the face of God's
+sunshine; an arrow in the side of Him who died for man. But we are face
+to face with duty; and in such case must we shrink? For me, I say, no;
+but then I am old, and life, with his sunshine, his fair places, his
+song of birds, his music and his love, lie far behind. You others are
+young. Some have seen sorrow; but there are fair days yet in store. What
+say you?"
+
+Whilst he was speaking, Jonathan had taken my hand. I feared, oh so
+much, that the appalling nature of our danger was overcoming him when I
+saw his hand stretch out; but it was life to me to feel its touch--so
+strong, so self-reliant, so resolute. A brave man's hand can speak for
+itself; it does not even need a woman's love to hear its music.
+
+When the Professor had done speaking my husband looked in my eyes, and I
+in his; there was no need for speaking between us.
+
+"I answer for Mina and myself," he said.
+
+"Count me in, Professor," said Mr. Quincey Morris, laconically as usual.
+
+"I am with you," said Lord Godalming, "for Lucy's sake, if for no other
+reason."
+
+Dr. Seward simply nodded. The Professor stood up and, after laying his
+golden crucifix on the table, held out his hand on either side. I took
+his right hand, and Lord Godalming his left; Jonathan held my right with
+his left and stretched across to Mr. Morris. So as we all took hands our
+solemn compact was made. I felt my heart icy cold, but it did not even
+occur to me to draw back. We resumed our places, and Dr. Van Helsing
+went on with a sort of cheerfulness which showed that the serious work
+had begun. It was to be taken as gravely, and in as businesslike a way,
+as any other transaction of life:--
+
+"Well, you know what we have to contend against; but we, too, are not
+without strength. We have on our side power of combination--a power
+denied to the vampire kind; we have sources of science; we are free to
+act and think; and the hours of the day and the night are ours equally.
+In fact, so far as our powers extend, they are unfettered, and we are
+free to use them. We have self-devotion in a cause, and an end to
+achieve which is not a selfish one. These things are much.
+
+"Now let us see how far the general powers arrayed against us are
+restrict, and how the individual cannot. In fine, let us consider the
+limitations of the vampire in general, and of this one in particular.
+
+"All we have to go upon are traditions and superstitions. These do not
+at the first appear much, when the matter is one of life and death--nay
+of more than either life or death. Yet must we be satisfied; in the
+first place because we have to be--no other means is at our control--and
+secondly, because, after all, these things--tradition and
+superstition--are everything. Does not the belief in vampires rest for
+others--though not, alas! for us--on them? A year ago which of us would
+have received such a possibility, in the midst of our scientific,
+sceptical, matter-of-fact nineteenth century? We even scouted a belief
+that we saw justified under our very eyes. Take it, then, that the
+vampire, and the belief in his limitations and his cure, rest for the
+moment on the same base. For, let me tell you, he is known everywhere
+that men have been. In old Greece, in old Rome; he flourish in Germany
+all over, in France, in India, even in the Chernosese; and in China, so
+far from us in all ways, there even is he, and the peoples fear him at
+this day. He have follow the wake of the berserker Icelander, the
+devil-begotten Hun, the Slav, the Saxon, the Magyar. So far, then, we
+have all we may act upon; and let me tell you that very much of the
+beliefs are justified by what we have seen in our own so unhappy
+experience. The vampire live on, and cannot die by mere passing of the
+time; he can flourish when that he can fatten on the blood of the
+living. Even more, we have seen amongst us that he can even grow
+younger; that his vital faculties grow strenuous, and seem as though
+they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty. But he
+cannot flourish without this diet; he eat not as others. Even friend
+Jonathan, who lived with him for weeks, did never see him to eat, never!
+He throws no shadow; he make in the mirror no reflect, as again
+Jonathan observe. He has the strength of many of his hand--witness again
+Jonathan when he shut the door against the wolfs, and when he help him
+from the diligence too. He can transform himself to wolf, as we gather
+from the ship arrival in Whitby, when he tear open the dog; he can be as
+bat, as Madam Mina saw him on the window at Whitby, and as friend John
+saw him fly from this so near house, and as my friend Quincey saw him at
+the window of Miss Lucy. He can come in mist which he create--that noble
+ship's captain proved him of this; but, from what we know, the distance
+he can make this mist is limited, and it can only be round himself. He
+come on moonlight rays as elemental dust--as again Jonathan saw those
+sisters in the castle of Dracula. He become so small--we ourselves saw
+Miss Lucy, ere she was at peace, slip through a hairbreadth space at the
+tomb door. He can, when once he find his way, come out from anything or
+into anything, no matter how close it be bound or even fused up with
+fire--solder you call it. He can see in the dark--no small power this,
+in a world which is one half shut from the light. Ah, but hear me
+through. He can do all these things, yet he is not free. Nay; he is even
+more prisoner than the slave of the galley, than the madman in his cell.
+He cannot go where he lists; he who is not of nature has yet to obey
+some of nature's laws--why we know not. He may not enter anywhere at the
+first, unless there be some one of the household who bid him to come;
+though afterwards he can come as he please. His power ceases, as does
+that of all evil things, at the coming of the day. Only at certain times
+can he have limited freedom. If he be not at the place whither he is
+bound, he can only change himself at noon or at exact sunrise or sunset.
+These things are we told, and in this record of ours we have proof by
+inference. Thus, whereas he can do as he will within his limit, when he
+have his earth-home, his coffin-home, his hell-home, the place
+unhallowed, as we saw when he went to the grave of the suicide at
+Whitby; still at other time he can only change when the time come. It is
+said, too, that he can only pass running water at the slack or the flood
+of the tide. Then there are things which so afflict him that he has no
+power, as the garlic that we know of; and as for things sacred, as this
+symbol, my crucifix, that was amongst us even now when we resolve, to
+them he is nothing, but in their presence he take his place far off and
+silent with respect. There are others, too, which I shall tell you of,
+lest in our seeking we may need them. The branch of wild rose on his
+coffin keep him that he move not from it; a sacred bullet fired into the
+coffin kill him so that he be true dead; and as for the stake through
+him, we know already of its peace; or the cut-off head that giveth rest.
+We have seen it with our eyes.
+
+"Thus when we find the habitation of this man-that-was, we can confine
+him to his coffin and destroy him, if we obey what we know. But he is
+clever. I have asked my friend Arminius, of Buda-Pesth University, to
+make his record; and, from all the means that are, he tell me of what he
+has been. He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his
+name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of
+Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man; for in that time,
+and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most
+cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the 'land beyond the
+forest.' That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his
+grave, and are even now arrayed against us. The Draculas were, says
+Arminius, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who
+were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They
+learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake
+Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due. In the
+records are such words as 'stregoica'--witch, 'ordog,' and
+'pokol'--Satan and hell; and in one manuscript this very Dracula is
+spoken of as 'wampyr,' which we all understand too well. There have been
+from the loins of this very one great men and good women, and their
+graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell. For it
+is not the least of its terrors that this evil thing is rooted deep in
+all good; in soil barren of holy memories it cannot rest."
+
+Whilst they were talking Mr. Morris was looking steadily at the window,
+and he now got up quietly, and went out of the room. There was a little
+pause, and then the Professor went on:--
+
+"And now we must settle what we do. We have here much data, and we must
+proceed to lay out our campaign. We know from the inquiry of Jonathan
+that from the castle to Whitby came fifty boxes of earth, all of which
+were delivered at Carfax; we also know that at least some of these boxes
+have been removed. It seems to me, that our first step should be to
+ascertain whether all the rest remain in the house beyond that wall
+where we look to-day; or whether any more have been removed. If the
+latter, we must trace----"
+
+Here we were interrupted in a very startling way. Outside the house came
+the sound of a pistol-shot; the glass of the window was shattered with a
+bullet, which, ricochetting from the top of the embrasure, struck the
+far wall of the room. I am afraid I am at heart a coward, for I shrieked
+out. The men all jumped to their feet; Lord Godalming flew over to the
+window and threw up the sash. As he did so we heard Mr. Morris's voice
+without:--
+
+"Sorry! I fear I have alarmed you. I shall come in and tell you about
+it." A minute later he came in and said:--
+
+"It was an idiotic thing of me to do, and I ask your pardon, Mrs.
+Harker, most sincerely; I fear I must have frightened you terribly. But
+the fact is that whilst the Professor was talking there came a big bat
+and sat on the window-sill. I have got such a horror of the damned
+brutes from recent events that I cannot stand them, and I went out to
+have a shot, as I have been doing of late of evenings, whenever I have
+seen one. You used to laugh at me for it then, Art."
+
+"Did you hit it?" asked Dr. Van Helsing.
+
+"I don't know; I fancy not, for it flew away into the wood." Without
+saying any more he took his seat, and the Professor began to resume his
+statement:--
+
+"We must trace each of these boxes; and when we are ready, we must
+either capture or kill this monster in his lair; or we must, so to
+speak, sterilise the earth, so that no more he can seek safety in it.
+Thus in the end we may find him in his form of man between the hours of
+noon and sunset, and so engage with him when he is at his most weak.
+
+"And now for you, Madam Mina, this night is the end until all be well.
+You are too precious to us to have such risk. When we part to-night, you
+no more must question. We shall tell you all in good time. We are men
+and are able to bear; but you must be our star and our hope, and we
+shall act all the more free that you are not in the danger, such as we
+are."
+
+All the men, even Jonathan, seemed relieved; but it did not seem to me
+good that they should brave danger and, perhaps, lessen their
+safety--strength being the best safety--through care of me; but their
+minds were made up, and, though it was a bitter pill for me to swallow,
+I could say nothing, save to accept their chivalrous care of me.
+
+Mr. Morris resumed the discussion:--
+
+"As there is no time to lose, I vote we have a look at his house right
+now. Time is everything with him; and swift action on our part may save
+another victim."
+
+I own that my heart began to fail me when the time for action came so
+close, but I did not say anything, for I had a greater fear that if I
+appeared as a drag or a hindrance to their work, they might even leave
+me out of their counsels altogether. They have now gone off to Carfax,
+with means to get into the house.
+
+Manlike, they had told me to go to bed and sleep; as if a woman can
+sleep when those she loves are in danger! I shall lie down and pretend
+to sleep, lest Jonathan have added anxiety about me when he returns.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_1 October, 4 a. m._--Just as we were about to leave the house, an
+urgent message was brought to me from Renfield to know if I would see
+him at once, as he had something of the utmost importance to say to me.
+I told the messenger to say that I would attend to his wishes in the
+morning; I was busy just at the moment. The attendant added:--
+
+"He seems very importunate, sir. I have never seen him so eager. I don't
+know but what, if you don't see him soon, he will have one of his
+violent fits." I knew the man would not have said this without some
+cause, so I said: "All right; I'll go now"; and I asked the others to
+wait a few minutes for me, as I had to go and see my "patient."
+
+"Take me with you, friend John," said the Professor. "His case in your
+diary interest me much, and it had bearing, too, now and again on _our_
+case. I should much like to see him, and especial when his mind is
+disturbed."
+
+"May I come also?" asked Lord Godalming.
+
+"Me too?" said Quincey Morris. "May I come?" said Harker. I nodded, and
+we all went down the passage together.
+
+We found him in a state of considerable excitement, but far more
+rational in his speech and manner than I had ever seen him. There was an
+unusual understanding of himself, which was unlike anything I had ever
+met with in a lunatic; and he took it for granted that his reasons would
+prevail with others entirely sane. We all four went into the room, but
+none of the others at first said anything. His request was that I would
+at once release him from the asylum and send him home. This he backed up
+with arguments regarding his complete recovery, and adduced his own
+existing sanity. "I appeal to your friends," he said, "they will,
+perhaps, not mind sitting in judgment on my case. By the way, you have
+not introduced me." I was so much astonished, that the oddness of
+introducing a madman in an asylum did not strike me at the moment; and,
+besides, there was a certain dignity in the man's manner, so much of
+the habit of equality, that I at once made the introduction: "Lord
+Godalming; Professor Van Helsing; Mr. Quincey Morris, of Texas; Mr.
+Renfield." He shook hands with each of them, saying in turn:--
+
+"Lord Godalming, I had the honour of seconding your father at the
+Windham; I grieve to know, by your holding the title, that he is no
+more. He was a man loved and honoured by all who knew him; and in his
+youth was, I have heard, the inventor of a burnt rum punch, much
+patronised on Derby night. Mr. Morris, you should be proud of your great
+state. Its reception into the Union was a precedent which may have
+far-reaching effects hereafter, when the Pole and the Tropics may hold
+alliance to the Stars and Stripes. The power of Treaty may yet prove a
+vast engine of enlargement, when the Monroe doctrine takes its true
+place as a political fable. What shall any man say of his pleasure at
+meeting Van Helsing? Sir, I make no apology for dropping all forms of
+conventional prefix. When an individual has revolutionised therapeutics
+by his discovery of the continuous evolution of brain-matter,
+conventional forms are unfitting, since they would seem to limit him to
+one of a class. You, gentlemen, who by nationality, by heredity, or by
+the possession of natural gifts, are fitted to hold your respective
+places in the moving world, I take to witness that I am as sane as at
+least the majority of men who are in full possession of their liberties.
+And I am sure that you, Dr. Seward, humanitarian and medico-jurist as
+well as scientist, will deem it a moral duty to deal with me as one to
+be considered as under exceptional circumstances." He made this last
+appeal with a courtly air of conviction which was not without its own
+charm.
+
+I think we were all staggered. For my own part, I was under the
+conviction, despite my knowledge of the man's character and history,
+that his reason had been restored; and I felt under a strong impulse to
+tell him that I was satisfied as to his sanity, and would see about the
+necessary formalities for his release in the morning. I thought it
+better to wait, however, before making so grave a statement, for of old
+I knew the sudden changes to which this particular patient was liable.
+So I contented myself with making a general statement that he appeared
+to be improving very rapidly; that I would have a longer chat with him
+in the morning, and would then see what I could do in the direction of
+meeting his wishes. This did not at all satisfy him, for he said
+quickly:--
+
+"But I fear, Dr. Seward, that you hardly apprehend my wish. I desire to
+go at once--here--now--this very hour--this very moment, if I may. Time
+presses, and in our implied agreement with the old scytheman it is of
+the essence of the contract. I am sure it is only necessary to put
+before so admirable a practitioner as Dr. Seward so simple, yet so
+momentous a wish, to ensure its fulfilment." He looked at me keenly, and
+seeing the negative in my face, turned to the others, and scrutinised
+them closely. Not meeting any sufficient response, he went on:--
+
+"Is it possible that I have erred in my supposition?"
+
+"You have," I said frankly, but at the same time, as I felt, brutally.
+There was a considerable pause, and then he said slowly:--
+
+"Then I suppose I must only shift my ground of request. Let me ask for
+this concession--boon, privilege, what you will. I am content to implore
+in such a case, not on personal grounds, but for the sake of others. I
+am not at liberty to give you the whole of my reasons; but you may, I
+assure you, take it from me that they are good ones, sound and
+unselfish, and spring from the highest sense of duty. Could you look,
+sir, into my heart, you would approve to the full the sentiments which
+animate me. Nay, more, you would count me amongst the best and truest of
+your friends." Again he looked at us all keenly. I had a growing
+conviction that this sudden change of his entire intellectual method was
+but yet another form or phase of his madness, and so determined to let
+him go on a little longer, knowing from experience that he would, like
+all lunatics, give himself away in the end. Van Helsing was gazing at
+him with a look of utmost intensity, his bushy eyebrows almost meeting
+with the fixed concentration of his look. He said to Renfield in a tone
+which did not surprise me at the time, but only when I thought of it
+afterwards--for it was as of one addressing an equal:--
+
+"Can you not tell frankly your real reason for wishing to be free
+to-night? I will undertake that if you will satisfy even me--a stranger,
+without prejudice, and with the habit of keeping an open mind--Dr.
+Seward will give you, at his own risk and on his own responsibility, the
+privilege you seek." He shook his head sadly, and with a look of
+poignant regret on his face. The Professor went on:--
+
+"Come, sir, bethink yourself. You claim the privilege of reason in the
+highest degree, since you seek to impress us with your complete
+reasonableness. You do this, whose sanity we have reason to doubt, since
+you are not yet released from medical treatment for this very defect. If
+you will not help us in our effort to choose the wisest course, how can
+we perform the duty which you yourself put upon us? Be wise, and help
+us; and if we can we shall aid you to achieve your wish." He still shook
+his head as he said:--
+
+"Dr. Van Helsing, I have nothing to say. Your argument is complete, and
+if I were free to speak I should not hesitate a moment; but I am not my
+own master in the matter. I can only ask you to trust me. If I am
+refused, the responsibility does not rest with me." I thought it was now
+time to end the scene, which was becoming too comically grave, so I went
+towards the door, simply saying:--
+
+"Come, my friends, we have work to do. Good-night."
+
+As, however, I got near the door, a new change came over the patient. He
+moved towards me so quickly that for the moment I feared that he was
+about to make another homicidal attack. My fears, however, were
+groundless, for he held up his two hands imploringly, and made his
+petition in a moving manner. As he saw that the very excess of his
+emotion was militating against him, by restoring us more to our old
+relations, he became still more demonstrative. I glanced at Van Helsing,
+and saw my conviction reflected in his eyes; so I became a little more
+fixed in my manner, if not more stern, and motioned to him that his
+efforts were unavailing. I had previously seen something of the same
+constantly growing excitement in him when he had to make some request of
+which at the time he had thought much, such, for instance, as when he
+wanted a cat; and I was prepared to see the collapse into the same
+sullen acquiescence on this occasion. My expectation was not realised,
+for, when he found that his appeal would not be successful, he got into
+quite a frantic condition. He threw himself on his knees, and held up
+his hands, wringing them in plaintive supplication, and poured forth a
+torrent of entreaty, with the tears rolling down his cheeks, and his
+whole face and form expressive of the deepest emotion:--
+
+"Let me entreat you, Dr. Seward, oh, let me implore you, to let me out
+of this house at once. Send me away how you will and where you will;
+send keepers with me with whips and chains; let them take me in a
+strait-waistcoat, manacled and leg-ironed, even to a gaol; but let me go
+out of this. You don't know what you do by keeping me here. I am
+speaking from the depths of my heart--of my very soul. You don't know
+whom you wrong, or how; and I may not tell. Woe is me! I may not tell.
+By all you hold sacred--by all you hold dear--by your love that is
+lost--by your hope that lives--for the sake of the Almighty, take me out
+of this and save my soul from guilt! Can't you hear me, man? Can't you
+understand? Will you never learn? Don't you know that I am sane and
+earnest now; that I am no lunatic in a mad fit, but a sane man fighting
+for his soul? Oh, hear me! hear me! Let me go! let me go! let me go!"
+
+I thought that the longer this went on the wilder he would get, and so
+would bring on a fit; so I took him by the hand and raised him up.
+
+"Come," I said sternly, "no more of this; we have had quite enough
+already. Get to your bed and try to behave more discreetly."
+
+He suddenly stopped and looked at me intently for several moments. Then,
+without a word, he rose and moving over, sat down on the side of the
+bed. The collapse had come, as on former occasion, just as I had
+expected.
+
+When I was leaving the room, last of our party, he said to me in a
+quiet, well-bred voice:--
+
+"You will, I trust, Dr. Seward, do me the justice to bear in mind, later
+on, that I did what I could to convince you to-night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL
+
+
+_1 October, 5 a. m._--I went with the party to the search with an easy
+mind, for I think I never saw Mina so absolutely strong and well. I am
+so glad that she consented to hold back and let us men do the work.
+Somehow, it was a dread to me that she was in this fearful business at
+all; but now that her work is done, and that it is due to her energy and
+brains and foresight that the whole story is put together in such a way
+that every point tells, she may well feel that her part is finished, and
+that she can henceforth leave the rest to us. We were, I think, all a
+little upset by the scene with Mr. Renfield. When we came away from his
+room we were silent till we got back to the study. Then Mr. Morris said
+to Dr. Seward:--
+
+"Say, Jack, if that man wasn't attempting a bluff, he is about the
+sanest lunatic I ever saw. I'm not sure, but I believe that he had some
+serious purpose, and if he had, it was pretty rough on him not to get a
+chance." Lord Godalming and I were silent, but Dr. Van Helsing added:--
+
+"Friend John, you know more of lunatics than I do, and I'm glad of it,
+for I fear that if it had been to me to decide I would before that last
+hysterical outburst have given him free. But we live and learn, and in
+our present task we must take no chance, as my friend Quincey would say.
+All is best as they are." Dr. Seward seemed to answer them both in a
+dreamy kind of way:--
+
+"I don't know but that I agree with you. If that man had been an
+ordinary lunatic I would have taken my chance of trusting him; but he
+seems so mixed up with the Count in an indexy kind of way that I am
+afraid of doing anything wrong by helping his fads. I can't forget how
+he prayed with almost equal fervour for a cat, and then tried to tear my
+throat out with his teeth. Besides, he called the Count 'lord and
+master,' and he may want to get out to help him in some diabolical way.
+That horrid thing has the wolves and the rats and his own kind to help
+him, so I suppose he isn't above trying to use a respectable lunatic. He
+certainly did seem earnest, though. I only hope we have done what is
+best. These things, in conjunction with the wild work we have in hand,
+help to unnerve a man." The Professor stepped over, and laying his hand
+on his shoulder, said in his grave, kindly way:--
+
+"Friend John, have no fear. We are trying to do our duty in a very sad
+and terrible case; we can only do as we deem best. What else have we to
+hope for, except the pity of the good God?" Lord Godalming had slipped
+away for a few minutes, but now he returned. He held up a little silver
+whistle, as he remarked:--
+
+"That old place may be full of rats, and if so, I've got an antidote on
+call." Having passed the wall, we took our way to the house, taking care
+to keep in the shadows of the trees on the lawn when the moonlight shone
+out. When we got to the porch the Professor opened his bag and took out
+a lot of things, which he laid on the step, sorting them into four
+little groups, evidently one for each. Then he spoke:--
+
+"My friends, we are going into a terrible danger, and we need arms of
+many kinds. Our enemy is not merely spiritual. Remember that he has the
+strength of twenty men, and that, though our necks or our windpipes are
+of the common kind--and therefore breakable or crushable--his are not
+amenable to mere strength. A stronger man, or a body of men more strong
+in all than him, can at certain times hold him; but they cannot hurt him
+as we can be hurt by him. We must, therefore, guard ourselves from his
+touch. Keep this near your heart"--as he spoke he lifted a little silver
+crucifix and held it out to me, I being nearest to him--"put these
+flowers round your neck"--here he handed to me a wreath of withered
+garlic blossoms--"for other enemies more mundane, this revolver and this
+knife; and for aid in all, these so small electric lamps, which you can
+fasten to your breast; and for all, and above all at the last, this,
+which we must not desecrate needless." This was a portion of Sacred
+Wafer, which he put in an envelope and handed to me. Each of the others
+was similarly equipped. "Now," he said, "friend John, where are the
+skeleton keys? If so that we can open the door, we need not break house
+by the window, as before at Miss Lucy's."
+
+Dr. Seward tried one or two skeleton keys, his mechanical dexterity as a
+surgeon standing him in good stead. Presently he got one to suit; after
+a little play back and forward the bolt yielded, and, with a rusty
+clang, shot back. We pressed on the door, the rusty hinges creaked, and
+it slowly opened. It was startlingly like the image conveyed to me in
+Dr. Seward's diary of the opening of Miss Westenra's tomb; I fancy that
+the same idea seemed to strike the others, for with one accord they
+shrank back. The Professor was the first to move forward, and stepped
+into the open door.
+
+"_In manus tuas, Domine!_" he said, crossing himself as he passed over
+the threshold. We closed the door behind us, lest when we should have
+lit our lamps we should possibly attract attention from the road. The
+Professor carefully tried the lock, lest we might not be able to open it
+from within should we be in a hurry making our exit. Then we all lit our
+lamps and proceeded on our search.
+
+The light from the tiny lamps fell in all sorts of odd forms, as the
+rays crossed each other, or the opacity of our bodies threw great
+shadows. I could not for my life get away from the feeling that there
+was some one else amongst us. I suppose it was the recollection, so
+powerfully brought home to me by the grim surroundings, of that terrible
+experience in Transylvania. I think the feeling was common to us all,
+for I noticed that the others kept looking over their shoulders at every
+sound and every new shadow, just as I felt myself doing.
+
+The whole place was thick with dust. The floor was seemingly inches
+deep, except where there were recent footsteps, in which on holding down
+my lamp I could see marks of hobnails where the dust was cracked. The
+walls were fluffy and heavy with dust, and in the corners were masses of
+spider's webs, whereon the dust had gathered till they looked like old
+tattered rags as the weight had torn them partly down. On a table in the
+hall was a great bunch of keys, with a time-yellowed label on each. They
+had been used several times, for on the table were several similar rents
+in the blanket of dust, similar to that exposed when the Professor
+lifted them. He turned to me and said:--
+
+"You know this place, Jonathan. You have copied maps of it, and you know
+it at least more than we do. Which is the way to the chapel?" I had an
+idea of its direction, though on my former visit I had not been able to
+get admission to it; so I led the way, and after a few wrong turnings
+found myself opposite a low, arched oaken door, ribbed with iron bands.
+"This is the spot," said the Professor as he turned his lamp on a small
+map of the house, copied from the file of my original correspondence
+regarding the purchase. With a little trouble we found the key on the
+bunch and opened the door. We were prepared for some unpleasantness, for
+as we were opening the door a faint, malodorous air seemed to exhale
+through the gaps, but none of us ever expected such an odour as we
+encountered. None of the others had met the Count at all at close
+quarters, and when I had seen him he was either in the fasting stage of
+his existence in his rooms or, when he was gloated with fresh blood, in
+a ruined building open to the air; but here the place was small and
+close, and the long disuse had made the air stagnant and foul. There was
+an earthy smell, as of some dry miasma, which came through the fouler
+air. But as to the odour itself, how shall I describe it? It was not
+alone that it was composed of all the ills of mortality and with the
+pungent, acrid smell of blood, but it seemed as though corruption had
+become itself corrupt. Faugh! it sickens me to think of it. Every breath
+exhaled by that monster seemed to have clung to the place and
+intensified its loathsomeness.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances such a stench would have brought our
+enterprise to an end; but this was no ordinary case, and the high and
+terrible purpose in which we were involved gave us a strength which rose
+above merely physical considerations. After the involuntary shrinking
+consequent on the first nauseous whiff, we one and all set about our
+work as though that loathsome place were a garden of roses.
+
+We made an accurate examination of the place, the Professor saying as we
+began:--
+
+"The first thing is to see how many of the boxes are left; we must then
+examine every hole and corner and cranny and see if we cannot get some
+clue as to what has become of the rest." A glance was sufficient to show
+how many remained, for the great earth chests were bulky, and there was
+no mistaking them.
+
+There were only twenty-nine left out of the fifty! Once I got a fright,
+for, seeing Lord Godalming suddenly turn and look out of the vaulted
+door into the dark passage beyond, I looked too, and for an instant my
+heart stood still. Somewhere, looking out from the shadow, I seemed to
+see the high lights of the Count's evil face, the ridge of the nose, the
+red eyes, the red lips, the awful pallor. It was only for a moment, for,
+as Lord Godalming said, "I thought I saw a face, but it was only the
+shadows," and resumed his inquiry, I turned my lamp in the direction,
+and stepped into the passage. There was no sign of any one; and as there
+were no corners, no doors, no aperture of any kind, but only the solid
+walls of the passage, there could be no hiding-place even for _him_. I
+took it that fear had helped imagination, and said nothing.
+
+A few minutes later I saw Morris step suddenly back from a corner, which
+he was examining. We all followed his movements with our eyes, for
+undoubtedly some nervousness was growing on us, and we saw a whole mass
+of phosphorescence, which twinkled like stars. We all instinctively drew
+back. The whole place was becoming alive with rats.
+
+For a moment or two we stood appalled, all save Lord Godalming, who was
+seemingly prepared for such an emergency. Rushing over to the great
+iron-bound oaken door, which Dr. Seward had described from the outside,
+and which I had seen myself, he turned the key in the lock, drew the
+huge bolts, and swung the door open. Then, taking his little silver
+whistle from his pocket, he blew a low, shrill call. It was answered
+from behind Dr. Seward's house by the yelping of dogs, and after about a
+minute three terriers came dashing round the corner of the house.
+Unconsciously we had all moved towards the door, and as we moved I
+noticed that the dust had been much disturbed: the boxes which had been
+taken out had been brought this way. But even in the minute that had
+elapsed the number of the rats had vastly increased. They seemed to
+swarm over the place all at once, till the lamplight, shining on their
+moving dark bodies and glittering, baleful eyes, made the place look
+like a bank of earth set with fireflies. The dogs dashed on, but at the
+threshold suddenly stopped and snarled, and then, simultaneously lifting
+their noses, began to howl in most lugubrious fashion. The rats were
+multiplying in thousands, and we moved out.
+
+Lord Godalming lifted one of the dogs, and carrying him in, placed him
+on the floor. The instant his feet touched the ground he seemed to
+recover his courage, and rushed at his natural enemies. They fled before
+him so fast that before he had shaken the life out of a score, the other
+dogs, who had by now been lifted in the same manner, had but small prey
+ere the whole mass had vanished.
+
+With their going it seemed as if some evil presence had departed, for
+the dogs frisked about and barked merrily as they made sudden darts at
+their prostrate foes, and turned them over and over and tossed them in
+the air with vicious shakes. We all seemed to find our spirits rise.
+Whether it was the purifying of the deadly atmosphere by the opening of
+the chapel door, or the relief which we experienced by finding ourselves
+in the open I know not; but most certainly the shadow of dread seemed to
+slip from us like a robe, and the occasion of our coming lost something
+of its grim significance, though we did not slacken a whit in our
+resolution. We closed the outer door and barred and locked it, and
+bringing the dogs with us, began our search of the house. We found
+nothing throughout except dust in extraordinary proportions, and all
+untouched save for my own footsteps when I had made my first visit.
+Never once did the dogs exhibit any symptom of uneasiness, and even when
+we returned to the chapel they frisked about as though they had been
+rabbit-hunting in a summer wood.
+
+The morning was quickening in the east when we emerged from the front.
+Dr. Van Helsing had taken the key of the hall-door from the bunch, and
+locked the door in orthodox fashion, putting the key into his pocket
+when he had done.
+
+"So far," he said, "our night has been eminently successful. No harm has
+come to us such as I feared might be and yet we have ascertained how
+many boxes are missing. More than all do I rejoice that this, our
+first--and perhaps our most difficult and dangerous--step has been
+accomplished without the bringing thereinto our most sweet Madam Mina or
+troubling her waking or sleeping thoughts with sights and sounds and
+smells of horror which she might never forget. One lesson, too, we have
+learned, if it be allowable to argue _a particulari_: that the brute
+beasts which are to the Count's command are yet themselves not amenable
+to his spiritual power; for look, these rats that would come to his
+call, just as from his castle top he summon the wolves to your going and
+to that poor mother's cry, though they come to him, they run pell-mell
+from the so little dogs of my friend Arthur. We have other matters
+before us, other dangers, other fears; and that monster--he has not used
+his power over the brute world for the only or the last time to-night.
+So be it that he has gone elsewhere. Good! It has given us opportunity
+to cry 'check' in some ways in this chess game, which we play for the
+stake of human souls. And now let us go home. The dawn is close at hand,
+and we have reason to be content with our first night's work. It may be
+ordained that we have many nights and days to follow, if full of peril;
+but we must go on, and from no danger shall we shrink."
+
+The house was silent when we got back, save for some poor creature who
+was screaming away in one of the distant wards, and a low, moaning sound
+from Renfield's room. The poor wretch was doubtless torturing himself,
+after the manner of the insane, with needless thoughts of pain.
+
+I came tiptoe into our own room, and found Mina asleep, breathing so
+softly that I had to put my ear down to hear it. She looks paler than
+usual. I hope the meeting to-night has not upset her. I am truly
+thankful that she is to be left out of our future work, and even of our
+deliberations. It is too great a strain for a woman to bear. I did not
+think so at first, but I know better now. Therefore I am glad that it is
+settled. There may be things which would frighten her to hear; and yet
+to conceal them from her might be worse than to tell her if once she
+suspected that there was any concealment. Henceforth our work is to be a
+sealed book to her, till at least such time as we can tell her that all
+is finished, and the earth free from a monster of the nether world. I
+daresay it will be difficult to begin to keep silence after such
+confidence as ours; but I must be resolute, and to-morrow I shall keep
+dark over to-night's doings, and shall refuse to speak of anything that
+has happened. I rest on the sofa, so as not to disturb her.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_1 October, later._--I suppose it was natural that we should have all
+overslept ourselves, for the day was a busy one, and the night had no
+rest at all. Even Mina must have felt its exhaustion, for though I slept
+till the sun was high, I was awake before her, and had to call two or
+three times before she awoke. Indeed, she was so sound asleep that for a
+few seconds she did not recognize me, but looked at me with a sort of
+blank terror, as one looks who has been waked out of a bad dream. She
+complained a little of being tired, and I let her rest till later in the
+day. We now know of twenty-one boxes having been removed, and if it be
+that several were taken in any of these removals we may be able to trace
+them all. Such will, of course, immensely simplify our labour, and the
+sooner the matter is attended to the better. I shall look up Thomas
+Snelling to-day.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_1 October._--It was towards noon when I was awakened by the Professor
+walking into my room. He was more jolly and cheerful than usual, and it
+is quite evident that last night's work has helped to take some of the
+brooding weight off his mind. After going over the adventure of the
+night he suddenly said:--
+
+"Your patient interests me much. May it be that with you I visit him
+this morning? Or if that you are too occupy, I can go alone if it may
+be. It is a new experience to me to find a lunatic who talk philosophy,
+and reason so sound." I had some work to do which pressed, so I told him
+that if he would go alone I would be glad, as then I should not have to
+keep him waiting; so I called an attendant and gave him the necessary
+instructions. Before the Professor left the room I cautioned him against
+getting any false impression from my patient. "But," he answered, "I
+want him to talk of himself and of his delusion as to consuming live
+things. He said to Madam Mina, as I see in your diary of yesterday, that
+he had once had such a belief. Why do you smile, friend John?"
+
+"Excuse me," I said, "but the answer is here." I laid my hand on the
+type-written matter. "When our sane and learned lunatic made that very
+statement of how he _used_ to consume life, his mouth was actually
+nauseous with the flies and spiders which he had eaten just before Mrs.
+Harker entered the room." Van Helsing smiled in turn. "Good!" he said.
+"Your memory is true, friend John. I should have remembered. And yet it
+is this very obliquity of thought and memory which makes mental disease
+such a fascinating study. Perhaps I may gain more knowledge out of the
+folly of this madman than I shall from the teaching of the most wise.
+Who knows?" I went on with my work, and before long was through that in
+hand. It seemed that the time had been very short indeed, but there was
+Van Helsing back in the study. "Do I interrupt?" he asked politely as he
+stood at the door.
+
+"Not at all," I answered. "Come in. My work is finished, and I am free.
+I can go with you now, if you like.
+
+"It is needless; I have seen him!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I fear that he does not appraise me at much. Our interview was short.
+When I entered his room he was sitting on a stool in the centre, with
+his elbows on his knees, and his face was the picture of sullen
+discontent. I spoke to him as cheerfully as I could, and with such a
+measure of respect as I could assume. He made no reply whatever. "Don't
+you know me?" I asked. His answer was not reassuring: "I know you well
+enough; you are the old fool Van Helsing. I wish you would take yourself
+and your idiotic brain theories somewhere else. Damn all thick-headed
+Dutchmen!" Not a word more would he say, but sat in his implacable
+sullenness as indifferent to me as though I had not been in the room at
+all. Thus departed for this time my chance of much learning from this so
+clever lunatic; so I shall go, if I may, and cheer myself with a few
+happy words with that sweet soul Madam Mina. Friend John, it does
+rejoice me unspeakable that she is no more to be pained, no more to be
+worried with our terrible things. Though we shall much miss her help, it
+is better so."
+
+"I agree with you with all my heart," I answered earnestly, for I did
+not want him to weaken in this matter. "Mrs. Harker is better out of it.
+Things are quite bad enough for us, all men of the world, and who have
+been in many tight places in our time; but it is no place for a woman,
+and if she had remained in touch with the affair, it would in time
+infallibly have wrecked her."
+
+So Van Helsing has gone to confer with Mrs. Harker and Harker; Quincey
+and Art are all out following up the clues as to the earth-boxes. I
+shall finish my round of work and we shall meet to-night.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_1 October._--It is strange to me to be kept in the dark as I am to-day;
+after Jonathan's full confidence for so many years, to see him
+manifestly avoid certain matters, and those the most vital of all. This
+morning I slept late after the fatigues of yesterday, and though
+Jonathan was late too, he was the earlier. He spoke to me before he went
+out, never more sweetly or tenderly, but he never mentioned a word of
+what had happened in the visit to the Count's house. And yet he must
+have known how terribly anxious I was. Poor dear fellow! I suppose it
+must have distressed him even more than it did me. They all agreed that
+it was best that I should not be drawn further into this awful work, and
+I acquiesced. But to think that he keeps anything from me! And now I am
+crying like a silly fool, when I _know_ it comes from my husband's great
+love and from the good, good wishes of those other strong men.
+
+That has done me good. Well, some day Jonathan will tell me all; and
+lest it should ever be that he should think for a moment that I kept
+anything from him, I still keep my journal as usual. Then if he has
+feared of my trust I shall show it to him, with every thought of my
+heart put down for his dear eyes to read. I feel strangely sad and
+low-spirited to-day. I suppose it is the reaction from the terrible
+excitement.
+
+Last night I went to bed when the men had gone, simply because they told
+me to. I didn't feel sleepy, and I did feel full of devouring anxiety. I
+kept thinking over everything that has been ever since Jonathan came to
+see me in London, and it all seems like a horrible tragedy, with fate
+pressing on relentlessly to some destined end. Everything that one does
+seems, no matter how right it may be, to bring on the very thing which
+is most to be deplored. If I hadn't gone to Whitby, perhaps poor dear
+Lucy would be with us now. She hadn't taken to visiting the churchyard
+till I came, and if she hadn't come there in the day-time with me she
+wouldn't have walked there in her sleep; and if she hadn't gone there at
+night and asleep, that monster couldn't have destroyed her as he did.
+Oh, why did I ever go to Whitby? There now, crying again! I wonder what
+has come over me to-day. I must hide it from Jonathan, for if he knew
+that I had been crying twice in one morning--I, who never cried on my
+own account, and whom he has never caused to shed a tear--the dear
+fellow would fret his heart out. I shall put a bold face on, and if I do
+feel weepy, he shall never see it. I suppose it is one of the lessons
+that we poor women have to learn....
+
+I can't quite remember how I fell asleep last night. I remember hearing
+the sudden barking of the dogs and a lot of queer sounds, like praying
+on a very tumultuous scale, from Mr. Renfield's room, which is somewhere
+under this. And then there was silence over everything, silence so
+profound that it startled me, and I got up and looked out of the window.
+All was dark and silent, the black shadows thrown by the moonlight
+seeming full of a silent mystery of their own. Not a thing seemed to be
+stirring, but all to be grim and fixed as death or fate; so that a thin
+streak of white mist, that crept with almost imperceptible slowness
+across the grass towards the house, seemed to have a sentience and a
+vitality of its own. I think that the digression of my thoughts must
+have done me good, for when I got back to bed I found a lethargy
+creeping over me. I lay a while, but could not quite sleep, so I got out
+and looked out of the window again. The mist was spreading, and was now
+close up to the house, so that I could see it lying thick against the
+wall, as though it were stealing up to the windows. The poor man was
+more loud than ever, and though I could not distinguish a word he said,
+I could in some way recognise in his tones some passionate entreaty on
+his part. Then there was the sound of a struggle, and I knew that the
+attendants were dealing with him. I was so frightened that I crept into
+bed, and pulled the clothes over my head, putting my fingers in my ears.
+I was not then a bit sleepy, at least so I thought; but I must have
+fallen asleep, for, except dreams, I do not remember anything until the
+morning, when Jonathan woke me. I think that it took me an effort and a
+little time to realise where I was, and that it was Jonathan who was
+bending over me. My dream was very peculiar, and was almost typical of
+the way that waking thoughts become merged in, or continued in, dreams.
+
+I thought that I was asleep, and waiting for Jonathan to come back. I
+was very anxious about him, and I was powerless to act; my feet, and my
+hands, and my brain were weighted, so that nothing could proceed at the
+usual pace. And so I slept uneasily and thought. Then it began to dawn
+upon me that the air was heavy, and dank, and cold. I put back the
+clothes from my face, and found, to my surprise, that all was dim
+around. The gaslight which I had left lit for Jonathan, but turned down,
+came only like a tiny red spark through the fog, which had evidently
+grown thicker and poured into the room. Then it occurred to me that I
+had shut the window before I had come to bed. I would have got out to
+make certain on the point, but some leaden lethargy seemed to chain my
+limbs and even my will. I lay still and endured; that was all. I closed
+my eyes, but could still see through my eyelids. (It is wonderful what
+tricks our dreams play us, and how conveniently we can imagine.) The
+mist grew thicker and thicker and I could see now how it came in, for I
+could see it like smoke--or with the white energy of boiling
+water--pouring in, not through the window, but through the joinings of
+the door. It got thicker and thicker, till it seemed as if it became
+concentrated into a sort of pillar of cloud in the room, through the top
+of which I could see the light of the gas shining like a red eye. Things
+began to whirl through my brain just as the cloudy column was now
+whirling in the room, and through it all came the scriptural words "a
+pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night." Was it indeed some such
+spiritual guidance that was coming to me in my sleep? But the pillar was
+composed of both the day and the night-guiding, for the fire was in the
+red eye, which at the thought got a new fascination for me; till, as I
+looked, the fire divided, and seemed to shine on me through the fog like
+two red eyes, such as Lucy told me of in her momentary mental wandering
+when, on the cliff, the dying sunlight struck the windows of St. Mary's
+Church. Suddenly the horror burst upon me that it was thus that Jonathan
+had seen those awful women growing into reality through the whirling mist
+in the moonlight, and in my dream I must have fainted, for all became
+black darkness. The last conscious effort which imagination made was to
+show me a livid white face bending over me out of the mist. I must be
+careful of such dreams, for they would unseat one's reason if there were
+too much of them. I would get Dr. Van Helsing or Dr. Seward to prescribe
+something for me which would make me sleep, only that I fear to alarm
+them. Such a dream at the present time would become woven into their
+fears for me. To-night I shall strive hard to sleep naturally. If I do
+not, I shall to-morrow night get them to give me a dose of chloral; that
+cannot hurt me for once, and it will give me a good night's sleep. Last
+night tired me more than if I had not slept at all.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_2 October 10 p. m._--Last night I slept, but did not dream. I must have
+slept soundly, for I was not waked by Jonathan coming to bed; but the
+sleep has not refreshed me, for to-day I feel terribly weak and
+spiritless. I spent all yesterday trying to read, or lying down dozing.
+In the afternoon Mr. Renfield asked if he might see me. Poor man, he was
+very gentle, and when I came away he kissed my hand and bade God bless
+me. Some way it affected me much; I am crying when I think of him. This
+is a new weakness, of which I must be careful. Jonathan would be
+miserable if he knew I had been crying. He and the others were out till
+dinner-time, and they all came in tired. I did what I could to brighten
+them up, and I suppose that the effort did me good, for I forgot how
+tired I was. After dinner they sent me to bed, and all went off to smoke
+together, as they said, but I knew that they wanted to tell each other
+of what had occurred to each during the day; I could see from Jonathan's
+manner that he had something important to communicate. I was not so
+sleepy as I should have been; so before they went I asked Dr. Seward to
+give me a little opiate of some kind, as I had not slept well the night
+before. He very kindly made me up a sleeping draught, which he gave to
+me, telling me that it would do me no harm, as it was very mild.... I
+have taken it, and am waiting for sleep, which still keeps aloof. I hope
+I have not done wrong, for as sleep begins to flirt with me, a new fear
+comes: that I may have been foolish in thus depriving myself of the
+power of waking. I might want it. Here comes sleep. Good-night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL
+
+
+_1 October, evening._--I found Thomas Snelling in his house at Bethnal
+Green, but unhappily he was not in a condition to remember anything. The
+very prospect of beer which my expected coming had opened to him had
+proved too much, and he had begun too early on his expected debauch. I
+learned, however, from his wife, who seemed a decent, poor soul, that he
+was only the assistant to Smollet, who of the two mates was the
+responsible person. So off I drove to Walworth, and found Mr. Joseph
+Smollet at home and in his shirtsleeves, taking a late tea out of a
+saucer. He is a decent, intelligent fellow, distinctly a good, reliable
+type of workman, and with a headpiece of his own. He remembered all
+about the incident of the boxes, and from a wonderful dog's-eared
+notebook, which he produced from some mysterious receptacle about the
+seat of his trousers, and which had hieroglyphical entries in thick,
+half-obliterated pencil, he gave me the destinations of the boxes. There
+were, he said, six in the cartload which he took from Carfax and left at
+197, Chicksand Street, Mile End New Town, and another six which he
+deposited at Jamaica Lane, Bermondsey. If then the Count meant to
+scatter these ghastly refuges of his over London, these places were
+chosen as the first of delivery, so that later he might distribute more
+fully. The systematic manner in which this was done made me think that
+he could not mean to confine himself to two sides of London. He was now
+fixed on the far east of the northern shore, on the east of the southern
+shore, and on the south. The north and west were surely never meant to
+be left out of his diabolical scheme--let alone the City itself and the
+very heart of fashionable London in the south-west and west. I went back
+to Smollet, and asked him if he could tell us if any other boxes had
+been taken from Carfax.
+
+He replied:--
+
+"Well, guv'nor, you've treated me wery 'an'some"--I had given him half a
+sovereign--"an' I'll tell yer all I know. I heard a man by the name of
+Bloxam say four nights ago in the 'Are an' 'Ounds, in Pincher's Alley,
+as 'ow he an' his mate 'ad 'ad a rare dusty job in a old 'ouse at
+Purfect. There ain't a-many such jobs as this 'ere, an' I'm thinkin'
+that maybe Sam Bloxam could tell ye summut." I asked if he could tell me
+where to find him. I told him that if he could get me the address it
+would be worth another half-sovereign to him. So he gulped down the rest
+of his tea and stood up, saying that he was going to begin the search
+then and there. At the door he stopped, and said:--
+
+"Look 'ere, guv'nor, there ain't no sense in me a-keepin' you 'ere. I
+may find Sam soon, or I mayn't; but anyhow he ain't like to be in a way
+to tell ye much to-night. Sam is a rare one when he starts on the booze.
+If you can give me a envelope with a stamp on it, and put yer address on
+it, I'll find out where Sam is to be found and post it ye to-night. But
+ye'd better be up arter 'im soon in the mornin', or maybe ye won't ketch
+'im; for Sam gets off main early, never mind the booze the night afore."
+
+This was all practical, so one of the children went off with a penny to
+buy an envelope and a sheet of paper, and to keep the change. When she
+came back, I addressed the envelope and stamped it, and when Smollet had
+again faithfully promised to post the address when found, I took my way
+to home. We're on the track anyhow. I am tired to-night, and want sleep.
+Mina is fast asleep, and looks a little too pale; her eyes look as
+though she had been crying. Poor dear, I've no doubt it frets her to be
+kept in the dark, and it may make her doubly anxious about me and the
+others. But it is best as it is. It is better to be disappointed and
+worried in such a way now than to have her nerve broken. The doctors
+were quite right to insist on her being kept out of this dreadful
+business. I must be firm, for on me this particular burden of silence
+must rest. I shall not ever enter on the subject with her under any
+circumstances. Indeed, it may not be a hard task, after all, for she
+herself has become reticent on the subject, and has not spoken of the
+Count or his doings ever since we told her of our decision.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_2 October, evening._--A long and trying and exciting day. By the first
+post I got my directed envelope with a dirty scrap of paper enclosed, on
+which was written with a carpenter's pencil in a sprawling hand:--
+
+"Sam Bloxam, Korkrans, 4, Poters Cort, Bartel Street, Walworth. Arsk for
+the depite."
+
+I got the letter in bed, and rose without waking Mina. She looked heavy
+and sleepy and pale, and far from well. I determined not to wake her,
+but that, when I should return from this new search, I would arrange for
+her going back to Exeter. I think she would be happier in our own home,
+with her daily tasks to interest her, than in being here amongst us and
+in ignorance. I only saw Dr. Seward for a moment, and told him where I
+was off to, promising to come back and tell the rest so soon as I should
+have found out anything. I drove to Walworth and found, with some
+difficulty, Potter's Court. Mr. Smollet's spelling misled me, as I asked
+for Poter's Court instead of Potter's Court. However, when I had found
+the court, I had no difficulty in discovering Corcoran's lodging-house.
+When I asked the man who came to the door for the "depite," he shook his
+head, and said: "I dunno 'im. There ain't no such a person 'ere; I never
+'eard of 'im in all my bloomin' days. Don't believe there ain't nobody
+of that kind livin' ere or anywheres." I took out Smollet's letter, and
+as I read it it seemed to me that the lesson of the spelling of the name
+of the court might guide me. "What are you?" I asked.
+
+"I'm the depity," he answered. I saw at once that I was on the right
+track; phonetic spelling had again misled me. A half-crown tip put the
+deputy's knowledge at my disposal, and I learned that Mr. Bloxam, who
+had slept off the remains of his beer on the previous night at
+Corcoran's, had left for his work at Poplar at five o'clock that
+morning. He could not tell me where the place of work was situated, but
+he had a vague idea that it was some kind of a "new-fangled ware'us";
+and with this slender clue I had to start for Poplar. It was twelve
+o'clock before I got any satisfactory hint of such a building, and this
+I got at a coffee-shop, where some workmen were having their dinner. One
+of these suggested that there was being erected at Cross Angel Street a
+new "cold storage" building; and as this suited the condition of a
+"new-fangled ware'us," I at once drove to it. An interview with a surly
+gatekeeper and a surlier foreman, both of whom were appeased with the
+coin of the realm, put me on the track of Bloxam; he was sent for on my
+suggesting that I was willing to pay his day's wages to his foreman for
+the privilege of asking him a few questions on a private matter. He was
+a smart enough fellow, though rough of speech and bearing. When I had
+promised to pay for his information and given him an earnest, he told me
+that he had made two journeys between Carfax and a house in Piccadilly,
+and had taken from this house to the latter nine great boxes--"main
+heavy ones"--with a horse and cart hired by him for this purpose. I
+asked him if he could tell me the number of the house in Piccadilly, to
+which he replied:--
+
+"Well, guv'nor, I forgits the number, but it was only a few doors from a
+big white church or somethink of the kind, not long built. It was a
+dusty old 'ouse, too, though nothin' to the dustiness of the 'ouse we
+tooked the bloomin' boxes from."
+
+"How did you get into the houses if they were both empty?"
+
+"There was the old party what engaged me a-waitin' in the 'ouse at
+Purfleet. He 'elped me to lift the boxes and put them in the dray. Curse
+me, but he was the strongest chap I ever struck, an' him a old feller,
+with a white moustache, one that thin you would think he couldn't throw
+a shadder."
+
+How this phrase thrilled through me!
+
+"Why, 'e took up 'is end o' the boxes like they was pounds of tea, and
+me a-puffin' an' a-blowin' afore I could up-end mine anyhow--an' I'm no
+chicken, neither."
+
+"How did you get into the house in Piccadilly?" I asked.
+
+"He was there too. He must 'a' started off and got there afore me, for
+when I rung of the bell he kem an' opened the door 'isself an' 'elped me
+to carry the boxes into the 'all."
+
+"The whole nine?" I asked.
+
+"Yus; there was five in the first load an' four in the second. It was
+main dry work, an' I don't so well remember 'ow I got 'ome." I
+interrupted him:--
+
+"Were the boxes left in the hall?"
+
+"Yus; it was a big 'all, an' there was nothin' else in it." I made one
+more attempt to further matters:--
+
+"You didn't have any key?"
+
+"Never used no key nor nothink. The old gent, he opened the door 'isself
+an' shut it again when I druv off. I don't remember the last time--but
+that was the beer."
+
+"And you can't remember the number of the house?"
+
+"No, sir. But ye needn't have no difficulty about that. It's a 'igh 'un
+with a stone front with a bow on it, an' 'igh steps up to the door. I
+know them steps, 'avin' 'ad to carry the boxes up with three loafers
+what come round to earn a copper. The old gent give them shillin's, an'
+they seein' they got so much, they wanted more; but 'e took one of them
+by the shoulder and was like to throw 'im down the steps, till the lot
+of them went away cussin'." I thought that with this description I could
+find the house, so, having paid my friend for his information, I started
+off for Piccadilly. I had gained a new painful experience; the Count
+could, it was evident, handle the earth-boxes himself. If so, time was
+precious; for, now that he had achieved a certain amount of
+distribution, he could, by choosing his own time, complete the task
+unobserved. At Piccadilly Circus I discharged my cab, and walked
+westward; beyond the Junior Constitutional I came across the house
+described, and was satisfied that this was the next of the lairs
+arranged by Dracula. The house looked as though it had been long
+untenanted. The windows were encrusted with dust, and the shutters were
+up. All the framework was black with time, and from the iron the paint
+had mostly scaled away. It was evident that up to lately there had been
+a large notice-board in front of the balcony; it had, however, been
+roughly torn away, the uprights which had supported it still remaining.
+Behind the rails of the balcony I saw there were some loose boards,
+whose raw edges looked white. I would have given a good deal to have
+been able to see the notice-board intact, as it would, perhaps, have
+given some clue to the ownership of the house. I remembered my
+experience of the investigation and purchase of Carfax, and I could not
+but feel that if I could find the former owner there might be some means
+discovered of gaining access to the house.
+
+There was at present nothing to be learned from the Piccadilly side, and
+nothing could be done; so I went round to the back to see if anything
+could be gathered from this quarter. The mews were active, the
+Piccadilly houses being mostly in occupation. I asked one or two of the
+grooms and helpers whom I saw around if they could tell me anything
+about the empty house. One of them said that he heard it had lately been
+taken, but he couldn't say from whom. He told me, however, that up to
+very lately there had been a notice-board of "For Sale" up, and that
+perhaps Mitchell, Sons, & Candy, the house agents, could tell me
+something, as he thought he remembered seeing the name of that firm on
+the board. I did not wish to seem too eager, or to let my informant know
+or guess too much, so, thanking him in the usual manner, I strolled
+away. It was now growing dusk, and the autumn night was closing in, so I
+did not lose any time. Having learned the address of Mitchell, Sons, &
+Candy from a directory at the Berkeley, I was soon at their office in
+Sackville Street.
+
+The gentleman who saw me was particularly suave in manner, but
+uncommunicative in equal proportion. Having once told me that the
+Piccadilly house--which throughout our interview he called a
+"mansion"--was sold, he considered my business as concluded. When I
+asked who had purchased it, he opened his eyes a thought wider, and
+paused a few seconds before replying:--
+
+"It is sold, sir."
+
+"Pardon me," I said, with equal politeness, "but I have a special reason
+for wishing to know who purchased it."
+
+Again he paused longer, and raised his eyebrows still more. "It is sold,
+sir," was again his laconic reply.
+
+"Surely," I said, "you do not mind letting me know so much."
+
+"But I do mind," he answered. "The affairs of their clients are
+absolutely safe in the hands of Mitchell, Sons, & Candy." This was
+manifestly a prig of the first water, and there was no use arguing with
+him. I thought I had best meet him on his own ground, so I said:--
+
+"Your clients, sir, are happy in having so resolute a guardian of their
+confidence. I am myself a professional man." Here I handed him my card.
+"In this instance I am not prompted by curiosity; I act on the part of
+Lord Godalming, who wishes to know something of the property which was,
+he understood, lately for sale." These words put a different complexion
+on affairs. He said:--
+
+"I would like to oblige you if I could, Mr. Harker, and especially would
+I like to oblige his lordship. We once carried out a small matter of
+renting some chambers for him when he was the Honourable Arthur
+Holmwood. If you will let me have his lordship's address I will consult
+the House on the subject, and will, in any case, communicate with his
+lordship by to-night's post. It will be a pleasure if we can so far
+deviate from our rules as to give the required information to his
+lordship."
+
+I wanted to secure a friend, and not to make an enemy, so I thanked him,
+gave the address at Dr. Seward's and came away. It was now dark, and I
+was tired and hungry. I got a cup of tea at the Aërated Bread Company
+and came down to Purfleet by the next train.
+
+I found all the others at home. Mina was looking tired and pale, but she
+made a gallant effort to be bright and cheerful, it wrung my heart to
+think that I had had to keep anything from her and so caused her
+inquietude. Thank God, this will be the last night of her looking on at
+our conferences, and feeling the sting of our not showing our
+confidence. It took all my courage to hold to the wise resolution of
+keeping her out of our grim task. She seems somehow more reconciled; or
+else the very subject seems to have become repugnant to her, for when
+any accidental allusion is made she actually shudders. I am glad we
+made our resolution in time, as with such a feeling as this, our growing
+knowledge would be torture to her.
+
+I could not tell the others of the day's discovery till we were alone;
+so after dinner--followed by a little music to save appearances even
+amongst ourselves--I took Mina to her room and left her to go to bed.
+The dear girl was more affectionate with me than ever, and clung to me
+as though she would detain me; but there was much to be talked of and I
+came away. Thank God, the ceasing of telling things has made no
+difference between us.
+
+When I came down again I found the others all gathered round the fire in
+the study. In the train I had written my diary so far, and simply read
+it off to them as the best means of letting them get abreast of my own
+information; when I had finished Van Helsing said:--
+
+"This has been a great day's work, friend Jonathan. Doubtless we are on
+the track of the missing boxes. If we find them all in that house, then
+our work is near the end. But if there be some missing, we must search
+until we find them. Then shall we make our final _coup_, and hunt the
+wretch to his real death." We all sat silent awhile and all at once Mr.
+Morris spoke:--
+
+"Say! how are we going to get into that house?"
+
+"We got into the other," answered Lord Godalming quickly.
+
+"But, Art, this is different. We broke house at Carfax, but we had night
+and a walled park to protect us. It will be a mighty different thing to
+commit burglary in Piccadilly, either by day or night. I confess I don't
+see how we are going to get in unless that agency duck can find us a key
+of some sort; perhaps we shall know when you get his letter in the
+morning." Lord Godalming's brows contracted, and he stood up and walked
+about the room. By-and-by he stopped and said, turning from one to
+another of us:--
+
+"Quincey's head is level. This burglary business is getting serious; we
+got off once all right; but we have now a rare job on hand--unless we
+can find the Count's key basket."
+
+As nothing could well be done before morning, and as it would be at
+least advisable to wait till Lord Godalming should hear from Mitchell's,
+we decided not to take any active step before breakfast time. For a good
+while we sat and smoked, discussing the matter in its various lights and
+bearings; I took the opportunity of bringing this diary right up to the
+moment. I am very sleepy and shall go to bed....
+
+Just a line. Mina sleeps soundly and her breathing is regular. Her
+forehead is puckered up into little wrinkles, as though she thinks even
+in her sleep. She is still too pale, but does not look so haggard as she
+did this morning. To-morrow will, I hope, mend all this; she will be
+herself at home in Exeter. Oh, but I am sleepy!
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_1 October._--I am puzzled afresh about Renfield. His moods change so
+rapidly that I find it difficult to keep touch of them, and as they
+always mean something more than his own well-being, they form a more
+than interesting study. This morning, when I went to see him after his
+repulse of Van Helsing, his manner was that of a man commanding destiny.
+He was, in fact, commanding destiny--subjectively. He did not really
+care for any of the things of mere earth; he was in the clouds and
+looked down on all the weaknesses and wants of us poor mortals. I
+thought I would improve the occasion and learn something, so I asked
+him:--
+
+"What about the flies these times?" He smiled on me in quite a superior
+sort of way--such a smile as would have become the face of Malvolio--as
+he answered me:--
+
+"The fly, my dear sir, has one striking feature; its wings are typical
+of the aërial powers of the psychic faculties. The ancients did well
+when they typified the soul as a butterfly!"
+
+I thought I would push his analogy to its utmost logically, so I said
+quickly:--
+
+"Oh, it is a soul you are after now, is it?" His madness foiled his
+reason, and a puzzled look spread over his face as, shaking his head
+with a decision which I had but seldom seen in him, he said:--
+
+"Oh, no, oh no! I want no souls. Life is all I want." Here he brightened
+up; "I am pretty indifferent about it at present. Life is all right; I
+have all I want. You must get a new patient, doctor, if you wish to
+study zoöphagy!"
+
+This puzzled me a little, so I drew him on:--
+
+"Then you command life; you are a god, I suppose?" He smiled with an
+ineffably benign superiority.
+
+"Oh no! Far be it from me to arrogate to myself the attributes of the
+Deity. I am not even concerned in His especially spiritual doings. If I
+may state my intellectual position I am, so far as concerns things
+purely terrestrial, somewhat in the position which Enoch occupied
+spiritually!" This was a poser to me. I could not at the moment recall
+Enoch's appositeness; so I had to ask a simple question, though I felt
+that by so doing I was lowering myself in the eyes of the lunatic:--
+
+"And why with Enoch?"
+
+"Because he walked with God." I could not see the analogy, but did not
+like to admit it; so I harked back to what he had denied:--
+
+"So you don't care about life and you don't want souls. Why not?" I put
+my question quickly and somewhat sternly, on purpose to disconcert him.
+The effort succeeded; for an instant he unconsciously relapsed into his
+old servile manner, bent low before me, and actually fawned upon me as
+he replied:--
+
+"I don't want any souls, indeed, indeed! I don't. I couldn't use them if
+I had them; they would be no manner of use to me. I couldn't eat them
+or----" He suddenly stopped and the old cunning look spread over his
+face, like a wind-sweep on the surface of the water. "And doctor, as to
+life, what is it after all? When you've got all you require, and you
+know that you will never want, that is all. I have friends--good
+friends--like you, Dr. Seward"; this was said with a leer of
+inexpressible cunning. "I know that I shall never lack the means of
+life!"
+
+I think that through the cloudiness of his insanity he saw some
+antagonism in me, for he at once fell back on the last refuge of such as
+he--a dogged silence. After a short time I saw that for the present it
+was useless to speak to him. He was sulky, and so I came away.
+
+Later in the day he sent for me. Ordinarily I would not have come
+without special reason, but just at present I am so interested in him
+that I would gladly make an effort. Besides, I am glad to have anything
+to help to pass the time. Harker is out, following up clues; and so are
+Lord Godalming and Quincey. Van Helsing sits in my study poring over the
+record prepared by the Harkers; he seems to think that by accurate
+knowledge of all details he will light upon some clue. He does not wish
+to be disturbed in the work, without cause. I would have taken him with
+me to see the patient, only I thought that after his last repulse he
+might not care to go again. There was also another reason: Renfield
+might not speak so freely before a third person as when he and I were
+alone.
+
+I found him sitting out in the middle of the floor on his stool, a pose
+which is generally indicative of some mental energy on his part. When I
+came in, he said at once, as though the question had been waiting on his
+lips:--
+
+"What about souls?" It was evident then that my surmise had been
+correct. Unconscious cerebration was doing its work, even with the
+lunatic. I determined to have the matter out. "What about them
+yourself?" I asked. He did not reply for a moment but looked all round
+him, and up and down, as though he expected to find some inspiration for
+an answer.
+
+"I don't want any souls!" he said in a feeble, apologetic way. The
+matter seemed preying on his mind, and so I determined to use it--to "be
+cruel only to be kind." So I said:--
+
+"You like life, and you want life?"
+
+"Oh yes! but that is all right; you needn't worry about that!"
+
+"But," I asked, "how are we to get the life without getting the soul
+also?" This seemed to puzzle him, so I followed it up:--
+
+"A nice time you'll have some time when you're flying out there, with
+the souls of thousands of flies and spiders and birds and cats buzzing
+and twittering and miauing all round you. You've got their lives, you
+know, and you must put up with their souls!" Something seemed to affect
+his imagination, for he put his fingers to his ears and shut his eyes,
+screwing them up tightly just as a small boy does when his face is being
+soaped. There was something pathetic in it that touched me; it also gave
+me a lesson, for it seemed that before me was a child--only a child,
+though the features were worn, and the stubble on the jaws was white. It
+was evident that he was undergoing some process of mental disturbance,
+and, knowing how his past moods had interpreted things seemingly foreign
+to himself, I thought I would enter into his mind as well as I could and
+go with him. The first step was to restore confidence, so I asked him,
+speaking pretty loud so that he would hear me through his closed ears:--
+
+"Would you like some sugar to get your flies round again?" He seemed to
+wake up all at once, and shook his head. With a laugh he replied:--
+
+"Not much! flies are poor things, after all!" After a pause he added,
+"But I don't want their souls buzzing round me, all the same."
+
+"Or spiders?" I went on.
+
+"Blow spiders! What's the use of spiders? There isn't anything in them
+to eat or"--he stopped suddenly, as though reminded of a forbidden
+topic.
+
+"So, so!" I thought to myself, "this is the second time he has suddenly
+stopped at the word 'drink'; what does it mean?" Renfield seemed himself
+aware of having made a lapse, for he hurried on, as though to distract
+my attention from it:--
+
+"I don't take any stock at all in such matters. 'Rats and mice and such
+small deer,' as Shakespeare has it, 'chicken-feed of the larder' they
+might be called. I'm past all that sort of nonsense. You might as well
+ask a man to eat molecules with a pair of chop-sticks, as to try to
+interest me about the lesser carnivora, when I know of what is before
+me."
+
+"I see," I said. "You want big things that you can make your teeth meet
+in? How would you like to breakfast on elephant?"
+
+"What ridiculous nonsense you are talking!" He was getting too wide
+awake, so I thought I would press him hard. "I wonder," I said
+reflectively, "what an elephant's soul is like!"
+
+The effect I desired was obtained, for he at once fell from his
+high-horse and became a child again.
+
+"I don't want an elephant's soul, or any soul at all!" he said. For a
+few moments he sat despondently. Suddenly he jumped to his feet, with
+his eyes blazing and all the signs of intense cerebral excitement. "To
+hell with you and your souls!" he shouted. "Why do you plague me about
+souls? Haven't I got enough to worry, and pain, and distract me already,
+without thinking of souls!" He looked so hostile that I thought he was
+in for another homicidal fit, so I blew my whistle. The instant,
+however, that I did so he became calm, and said apologetically:--
+
+"Forgive me, Doctor; I forgot myself. You do not need any help. I am so
+worried in my mind that I am apt to be irritable. If you only knew the
+problem I have to face, and that I am working out, you would pity, and
+tolerate, and pardon me. Pray do not put me in a strait-waistcoat. I
+want to think and I cannot think freely when my body is confined. I am
+sure you will understand!" He had evidently self-control; so when the
+attendants came I told them not to mind, and they withdrew. Renfield
+watched them go; when the door was closed he said, with considerable
+dignity and sweetness:--
+
+"Dr. Seward, you have been very considerate towards me. Believe me that
+I am very, very grateful to you!" I thought it well to leave him in this
+mood, and so I came away. There is certainly something to ponder over in
+this man's state. Several points seem to make what the American
+interviewer calls "a story," if one could only get them in proper order.
+Here they are:--
+
+Will not mention "drinking."
+
+Fears the thought of being burdened with the "soul" of anything.
+
+Has no dread of wanting "life" in the future.
+
+Despises the meaner forms of life altogether, though he dreads being
+haunted by their souls.
+
+Logically all these things point one way! he has assurance of some kind
+that he will acquire some higher life. He dreads the consequence--the
+burden of a soul. Then it is a human life he looks to!
+
+And the assurance--?
+
+Merciful God! the Count has been to him, and there is some new scheme of
+terror afoot!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--I went after my round to Van Helsing and told him my
+suspicion. He grew very grave; and, after thinking the matter over for a
+while asked me to take him to Renfield. I did so. As we came to the door
+we heard the lunatic within singing gaily, as he used to do in the time
+which now seems so long ago. When we entered we saw with amazement that
+he had spread out his sugar as of old; the flies, lethargic with the
+autumn, were beginning to buzz into the room. We tried to make him talk
+of the subject of our previous conversation, but he would not attend. He
+went on with his singing, just as though we had not been present. He had
+got a scrap of paper and was folding it into a note-book. We had to come
+away as ignorant as we went in.
+
+His is a curious case indeed; we must watch him to-night.
+
+
+_Letter, Mitchell, Sons and Candy to Lord Godalming._
+
+_"1 October._
+
+"My Lord,
+
+"We are at all times only too happy to meet your wishes. We beg, with
+regard to the desire of your Lordship, expressed by Mr. Harker on your
+behalf, to supply the following information concerning the sale and
+purchase of No. 347, Piccadilly. The original vendors are the executors
+of the late Mr. Archibald Winter-Suffield. The purchaser is a foreign
+nobleman, Count de Ville, who effected the purchase himself paying the
+purchase money in notes 'over the counter,' if your Lordship will pardon
+us using so vulgar an expression. Beyond this we know nothing whatever
+of him.
+
+"We are, my Lord,
+
+"Your Lordship's humble servants,
+
+"MITCHELL, SONS & CANDY."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_2 October._--I placed a man in the corridor last night, and told him to
+make an accurate note of any sound he might hear from Renfield's room,
+and gave him instructions that if there should be anything strange he
+was to call me. After dinner, when we had all gathered round the fire
+in the study--Mrs. Harker having gone to bed--we discussed the attempts
+and discoveries of the day. Harker was the only one who had any result,
+and we are in great hopes that his clue may be an important one.
+
+Before going to bed I went round to the patient's room and looked in
+through the observation trap. He was sleeping soundly, and his heart
+rose and fell with regular respiration.
+
+This morning the man on duty reported to me that a little after midnight
+he was restless and kept saying his prayers somewhat loudly. I asked him
+if that was all; he replied that it was all he heard. There was
+something about his manner so suspicious that I asked him point blank if
+he had been asleep. He denied sleep, but admitted to having "dozed" for
+a while. It is too bad that men cannot be trusted unless they are
+watched.
+
+To-day Harker is out following up his clue, and Art and Quincey are
+looking after horses. Godalming thinks that it will be well to have
+horses always in readiness, for when we get the information which we
+seek there will be no time to lose. We must sterilise all the imported
+earth between sunrise and sunset; we shall thus catch the Count at his
+weakest, and without a refuge to fly to. Van Helsing is off to the
+British Museum looking up some authorities on ancient medicine. The old
+physicians took account of things which their followers do not accept,
+and the Professor is searching for witch and demon cures which may be
+useful to us later.
+
+I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in
+strait-waistcoats.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--We have met again. We seem at last to be on the track, and our
+work of to-morrow may be the beginning of the end. I wonder if
+Renfield's quiet has anything to do with this. His moods have so
+followed the doings of the Count, that the coming destruction of the
+monster may be carried to him in some subtle way. If we could only get
+some hint as to what passed in his mind, between the time of my argument
+with him to-day and his resumption of fly-catching, it might afford us a
+valuable clue. He is now seemingly quiet for a spell.... Is he?---- That
+wild yell seemed to come from his room....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The attendant came bursting into my room and told me that Renfield had
+somehow met with some accident. He had heard him yell; and when he went
+to him found him lying on his face on the floor, all covered with blood.
+I must go at once....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
+
+
+_3 October._--Let me put down with exactness all that happened, as well
+as I can remember it, since last I made an entry. Not a detail that I
+can recall must be forgotten; in all calmness I must proceed.
+
+When I came to Renfield's room I found him lying on the floor on his
+left side in a glittering pool of blood. When I went to move him, it
+became at once apparent that he had received some terrible injuries;
+there seemed none of that unity of purpose between the parts of the body
+which marks even lethargic sanity. As the face was exposed I could see
+that it was horribly bruised, as though it had been beaten against the
+floor--indeed it was from the face wounds that the pool of blood
+originated. The attendant who was kneeling beside the body said to me as
+we turned him over:--
+
+"I think, sir, his back is broken. See, both his right arm and leg and
+the whole side of his face are paralysed." How such a thing could have
+happened puzzled the attendant beyond measure. He seemed quite
+bewildered, and his brows were gathered in as he said:--
+
+"I can't understand the two things. He could mark his face like that by
+beating his own head on the floor. I saw a young woman do it once at the
+Eversfield Asylum before anyone could lay hands on her. And I suppose he
+might have broke his neck by falling out of bed, if he got in an awkward
+kink. But for the life of me I can't imagine how the two things
+occurred. If his back was broke, he couldn't beat his head; and if his
+face was like that before the fall out of bed, there would be marks of
+it." I said to him:--
+
+"Go to Dr. Van Helsing, and ask him to kindly come here at once. I want
+him without an instant's delay." The man ran off, and within a few
+minutes the Professor, in his dressing gown and slippers, appeared. When
+he saw Renfield on the ground, he looked keenly at him a moment, and
+then turned to me. I think he recognised my thought in my eyes, for he
+said very quietly, manifestly for the ears of the attendant:--
+
+"Ah, a sad accident! He will need very careful watching, and much
+attention. I shall stay with you myself; but I shall first dress myself.
+If you will remain I shall in a few minutes join you."
+
+The patient was now breathing stertorously and it was easy to see that
+he had suffered some terrible injury. Van Helsing returned with
+extraordinary celerity, bearing with him a surgical case. He had
+evidently been thinking and had his mind made up; for, almost before he
+looked at the patient, he whispered to me:--
+
+"Send the attendant away. We must be alone with him when he becomes
+conscious, after the operation." So I said:--
+
+"I think that will do now, Simmons. We have done all that we can at
+present. You had better go your round, and Dr. Van Helsing will operate.
+Let me know instantly if there be anything unusual anywhere."
+
+The man withdrew, and we went into a strict examination of the patient.
+The wounds of the face was superficial; the real injury was a depressed
+fracture of the skull, extending right up through the motor area. The
+Professor thought a moment and said:--
+
+"We must reduce the pressure and get back to normal conditions, as far
+as can be; the rapidity of the suffusion shows the terrible nature of
+his injury. The whole motor area seems affected. The suffusion of the
+brain will increase quickly, so we must trephine at once or it may be
+too late." As he was speaking there was a soft tapping at the door. I
+went over and opened it and found in the corridor without, Arthur and
+Quincey in pajamas and slippers: the former spoke:--
+
+"I heard your man call up Dr. Van Helsing and tell him of an accident.
+So I woke Quincey or rather called for him as he was not asleep. Things
+are moving too quickly and too strangely for sound sleep for any of us
+these times. I've been thinking that to-morrow night will not see things
+as they have been. We'll have to look back--and forward a little more
+than we have done. May we come in?" I nodded, and held the door open
+till they had entered; then I closed it again. When Quincey saw the
+attitude and state of the patient, and noted the horrible pool on the
+floor, he said softly:--
+
+"My God! what has happened to him? Poor, poor devil!" I told him
+briefly, and added that we expected he would recover consciousness after
+the operation--for a short time, at all events. He went at once and sat
+down on the edge of the bed, with Godalming beside him; we all watched
+in patience.
+
+"We shall wait," said Van Helsing, "just long enough to fix the best
+spot for trephining, so that we may most quickly and perfectly remove
+the blood clot; for it is evident that the hæmorrhage is increasing."
+
+The minutes during which we waited passed with fearful slowness. I had a
+horrible sinking in my heart, and from Van Helsing's face I gathered
+that he felt some fear or apprehension as to what was to come. I dreaded
+the words that Renfield might speak. I was positively afraid to think;
+but the conviction of what was coming was on me, as I have read of men
+who have heard the death-watch. The poor man's breathing came in
+uncertain gasps. Each instant he seemed as though he would open his eyes
+and speak; but then would follow a prolonged stertorous breath, and he
+would relapse into a more fixed insensibility. Inured as I was to sick
+beds and death, this suspense grew, and grew upon me. I could almost
+hear the beating of my own heart; and the blood surging through my
+temples sounded like blows from a hammer. The silence finally became
+agonising. I looked at my companions, one after another, and saw from
+their flushed faces and damp brows that they were enduring equal
+torture. There was a nervous suspense over us all, as though overhead
+some dread bell would peal out powerfully when we should least expect
+it.
+
+At last there came a time when it was evident that the patient was
+sinking fast; he might die at any moment. I looked up at the Professor
+and caught his eyes fixed on mine. His face was sternly set as he
+spoke:--
+
+"There is no time to lose. His words may be worth many lives; I have
+been thinking so, as I stood here. It may be there is a soul at stake!
+We shall operate just above the ear."
+
+Without another word he made the operation. For a few moments the
+breathing continued to be stertorous. Then there came a breath so
+prolonged that it seemed as though it would tear open his chest.
+Suddenly his eyes opened, and became fixed in a wild, helpless stare.
+This was continued for a few moments; then it softened into a glad
+surprise, and from the lips came a sigh of relief. He moved
+convulsively, and as he did so, said:--
+
+"I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait-waistcoat. I
+have had a terrible dream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot
+move. What's wrong with my face? it feels all swollen, and it smarts
+dreadfully." He tried to turn his head; but even with the effort his
+eyes seemed to grow glassy again so I gently put it back. Then Van
+Helsing said in a quiet grave tone:--
+
+"Tell us your dream, Mr. Renfield." As he heard the voice his face
+brightened, through its mutilation, and he said:--
+
+"That is Dr. Van Helsing. How good it is of you to be here. Give me some
+water, my lips are dry; and I shall try to tell you. I dreamed"--he
+stopped and seemed fainting, I called quietly to Quincey--"The
+brandy--it is in my study--quick!" He flew and returned with a glass,
+the decanter of brandy and a carafe of water. We moistened the parched
+lips, and the patient quickly revived. It seemed, however, that his poor
+injured brain had been working in the interval, for, when he was quite
+conscious, he looked at me piercingly with an agonised confusion which I
+shall never forget, and said:--
+
+"I must not deceive myself; it was no dream, but all a grim reality."
+Then his eyes roved round the room; as they caught sight of the two
+figures sitting patiently on the edge of the bed he went on:--
+
+"If I were not sure already, I would know from them." For an instant his
+eyes closed--not with pain or sleep but voluntarily, as though he were
+bringing all his faculties to bear; when he opened them he said,
+hurriedly, and with more energy than he had yet displayed:--
+
+"Quick, Doctor, quick. I am dying! I feel that I have but a few minutes;
+and then I must go back to death--or worse! Wet my lips with brandy
+again. I have something that I must say before I die; or before my poor
+crushed brain dies anyhow. Thank you! It was that night after you left
+me, when I implored you to let me go away. I couldn't speak then, for I
+felt my tongue was tied; but I was as sane then, except in that way, as
+I am now. I was in an agony of despair for a long time after you left
+me; it seemed hours. Then there came a sudden peace to me. My brain
+seemed to become cool again, and I realised where I was. I heard the
+dogs bark behind our house, but not where He was!" As he spoke, Van
+Helsing's eyes never blinked, but his hand came out and met mine and
+gripped it hard. He did not, however, betray himself; he nodded slightly
+and said: "Go on," in a low voice. Renfield proceeded:--
+
+"He came up to the window in the mist, as I had seen him often before;
+but he was solid then--not a ghost, and his eyes were fierce like a
+man's when angry. He was laughing with his red mouth; the sharp white
+teeth glinted in the moonlight when he turned to look back over the belt
+of trees, to where the dogs were barking. I wouldn't ask him to come in
+at first, though I knew he wanted to--just as he had wanted all along.
+Then he began promising me things--not in words but by doing them." He
+was interrupted by a word from the Professor:--
+
+"How?"
+
+"By making them happen; just as he used to send in the flies when the
+sun was shining. Great big fat ones with steel and sapphire on their
+wings; and big moths, in the night, with skull and cross-bones on their
+backs." Van Helsing nodded to him as he whispered to me unconsciously:--
+
+"The _Acherontia Aitetropos of the Sphinges_--what you call the
+'Death's-head Moth'?" The patient went on without stopping.
+
+"Then he began to whisper: 'Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands,
+millions of them, and every one a life; and dogs to eat them, and cats
+too. All lives! all red blood, with years of life in it; and not merely
+buzzing flies!' I laughed at him, for I wanted to see what he could do.
+Then the dogs howled, away beyond the dark trees in His house. He
+beckoned me to the window. I got up and looked out, and He raised his
+hands, and seemed to call out without using any words. A dark mass
+spread over the grass, coming on like the shape of a flame of fire; and
+then He moved the mist to the right and left, and I could see that there
+were thousands of rats with their eyes blazing red--like His, only
+smaller. He held up his hand, and they all stopped; and I thought he
+seemed to be saying: 'All these lives will I give you, ay, and many more
+and greater, through countless ages, if you will fall down and worship
+me!' And then a red cloud, like the colour of blood, seemed to close
+over my eyes; and before I knew what I was doing, I found myself opening
+the sash and saying to Him: 'Come in, Lord and Master!' The rats were
+all gone, but He slid into the room through the sash, though it was only
+open an inch wide--just as the Moon herself has often come in through
+the tiniest crack and has stood before me in all her size and
+splendour."
+
+His voice was weaker, so I moistened his lips with the brandy again, and
+he continued; but it seemed as though his memory had gone on working in
+the interval for his story was further advanced. I was about to call him
+back to the point, but Van Helsing whispered to me: "Let him go on. Do
+not interrupt him; he cannot go back, and maybe could not proceed at all
+if once he lost the thread of his thought." He proceeded:--
+
+"All day I waited to hear from him, but he did not send me anything, not
+even a blow-fly, and when the moon got up I was pretty angry with him.
+When he slid in through the window, though it was shut, and did not even
+knock, I got mad with him. He sneered at me, and his white face looked
+out of the mist with his red eyes gleaming, and he went on as though he
+owned the whole place, and I was no one. He didn't even smell the same
+as he went by me. I couldn't hold him. I thought that, somehow, Mrs.
+Harker had come into the room."
+
+The two men sitting on the bed stood up and came over, standing behind
+him so that he could not see them, but where they could hear better.
+They were both silent, but the Professor started and quivered; his face,
+however, grew grimmer and sterner still. Renfield went on without
+noticing:--
+
+"When Mrs. Harker came in to see me this afternoon she wasn't the same;
+it was like tea after the teapot had been watered." Here we all moved,
+but no one said a word; he went on:--
+
+"I didn't know that she was here till she spoke; and she didn't look the
+same. I don't care for the pale people; I like them with lots of blood
+in them, and hers had all seemed to have run out. I didn't think of it
+at the time; but when she went away I began to think, and it made me mad
+to know that He had been taking the life out of her." I could feel that
+the rest quivered, as I did, but we remained otherwise still. "So when
+He came to-night I was ready for Him. I saw the mist stealing in, and I
+grabbed it tight. I had heard that madmen have unnatural strength; and
+as I knew I was a madman--at times anyhow--I resolved to use my power.
+Ay, and He felt it too, for He had to come out of the mist to struggle
+with me. I held tight; and I thought I was going to win, for I didn't
+mean Him to take any more of her life, till I saw His eyes. They burned
+into me, and my strength became like water. He slipped through it, and
+when I tried to cling to Him, He raised me up and flung me down. There
+was a red cloud before me, and a noise like thunder, and the mist seemed
+to steal away under the door." His voice was becoming fainter and his
+breath more stertorous. Van Helsing stood up instinctively.
+
+"We know the worst now," he said. "He is here, and we know his purpose.
+It may not be too late. Let us be armed--the same as we were the other
+night, but lose no time; there is not an instant to spare." There was no
+need to put our fear, nay our conviction, into words--we shared them in
+common. We all hurried and took from our rooms the same things that we
+had when we entered the Count's house. The Professor had his ready, and
+as we met in the corridor he pointed to them significantly as he said:--
+
+"They never leave me; and they shall not till this unhappy business is
+over. Be wise also, my friends. It is no common enemy that we deal with.
+Alas! alas! that that dear Madam Mina should suffer!" He stopped; his
+voice was breaking, and I do not know if rage or terror predominated in
+my own heart.
+
+Outside the Harkers' door we paused. Art and Quincey held back, and the
+latter said:--
+
+"Should we disturb her?"
+
+"We must," said Van Helsing grimly. "If the door be locked, I shall
+break it in."
+
+"May it not frighten her terribly? It is unusual to break into a lady's
+room!"
+
+Van Helsing said solemnly, "You are always right; but this is life and
+death. All chambers are alike to the doctor; and even were they not they
+are all as one to me to-night. Friend John, when I turn the handle, if
+the door does not open, do you put your shoulder down and shove; and you
+too, my friends. Now!"
+
+He turned the handle as he spoke, but the door did not yield. We threw
+ourselves against it; with a crash it burst open, and we almost fell
+headlong into the room. The Professor did actually fall, and I saw
+across him as he gathered himself up from hands and knees. What I saw
+appalled me. I felt my hair rise like bristles on the back of my neck,
+and my heart seemed to stand still.
+
+The moonlight was so bright that through the thick yellow blind the room
+was light enough to see. On the bed beside the window lay Jonathan
+Harker, his face flushed and breathing heavily as though in a stupor.
+Kneeling on the near edge of the bed facing outwards was the white-clad
+figure of his wife. By her side stood a tall, thin man, clad in black.
+His face was turned from us, but the instant we saw we all recognised
+the Count--in every way, even to the scar on his forehead. With his left
+hand he held both Mrs. Harker's hands, keeping them away with her arms
+at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck,
+forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared
+with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare breast which
+was shown by his torn-open dress. The attitude of the two had a terrible
+resemblance to a child forcing a kitten's nose into a saucer of milk to
+compel it to drink. As we burst into the room, the Count turned his
+face, and the hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap
+into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish passion; the great nostrils
+of the white aquiline nose opened wide and quivered at the edge; and the
+white sharp teeth, behind the full lips of the blood-dripping mouth,
+champed together like those of a wild beast. With a wrench, which threw
+his victim back upon the bed as though hurled from a height, he turned
+and sprang at us. But by this time the Professor had gained his feet,
+and was holding towards him the envelope which contained the Sacred
+Wafer. The Count suddenly stopped, just as poor Lucy had done outside
+the tomb, and cowered back. Further and further back he cowered, as we,
+lifting our crucifixes, advanced. The moonlight suddenly failed, as a
+great black cloud sailed across the sky; and when the gaslight sprang up
+under Quincey's match, we saw nothing but a faint vapour. This, as we
+looked, trailed under the door, which with the recoil from its bursting
+open, had swung back to its old position. Van Helsing, Art, and I moved
+forward to Mrs. Harker, who by this time had drawn her breath and with
+it had given a scream so wild, so ear-piercing, so despairing that it
+seems to me now that it will ring in my ears till my dying day. For a
+few seconds she lay in her helpless attitude and disarray. Her face was
+ghastly, with a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared
+her lips and cheeks and chin; from her throat trickled a thin stream of
+blood; her eyes were mad with terror. Then she put before her face her
+poor crushed hands, which bore on their whiteness the red mark of the
+Count's terrible grip, and from behind them came a low desolate wail
+which made the terrible scream seem only the quick expression of an
+endless grief. Van Helsing stepped forward and drew the coverlet gently
+over her body, whilst Art, after looking at her face for an instant
+despairingly, ran out of the room. Van Helsing whispered to me:--
+
+"Jonathan is in a stupor such as we know the Vampire can produce. We can
+do nothing with poor Madam Mina for a few moments till she recovers
+herself; I must wake him!" He dipped the end of a towel in cold water
+and with it began to flick him on the face, his wife all the while
+holding her face between her hands and sobbing in a way that was
+heart-breaking to hear. I raised the blind, and looked out of the
+window. There was much moonshine; and as I looked I could see Quincey
+Morris run across the lawn and hide himself in the shadow of a great
+yew-tree. It puzzled me to think why he was doing this; but at the
+instant I heard Harker's quick exclamation as he woke to partial
+consciousness, and turned to the bed. On his face, as there might well
+be, was a look of wild amazement. He seemed dazed for a few seconds, and
+then full consciousness seemed to burst upon him all at once, and he
+started up. His wife was aroused by the quick movement, and turned to
+him with her arms stretched out, as though to embrace him; instantly,
+however, she drew them in again, and putting her elbows together, held
+her hands before her face, and shuddered till the bed beneath her shook.
+
+"In God's name what does this mean?" Harker cried out. "Dr. Seward, Dr.
+Van Helsing, what is it? What has happened? What is wrong? Mina, dear,
+what is it? What does that blood mean? My God, my God! has it come to
+this!" and, raising himself to his knees, he beat his hands wildly
+together. "Good God help us! help her! oh, help her!" With a quick
+movement he jumped from bed, and began to pull on his clothes,--all the
+man in him awake at the need for instant exertion. "What has happened?
+Tell me all about it!" he cried without pausing. "Dr. Van Helsing, you
+love Mina, I know. Oh, do something to save her. It cannot have gone too
+far yet. Guard her while I look for _him_!" His wife, through her terror
+and horror and distress, saw some sure danger to him: instantly
+forgetting her own grief, she seized hold of him and cried out:--
+
+"No! no! Jonathan, you must not leave me. I have suffered enough
+to-night, God knows, without the dread of his harming you. You must stay
+with me. Stay with these friends who will watch over you!" Her
+expression became frantic as she spoke; and, he yielding to her, she
+pulled him down sitting on the bed side, and clung to him fiercely.
+
+Van Helsing and I tried to calm them both. The Professor held up his
+little golden crucifix, and said with wonderful calmness:--
+
+"Do not fear, my dear. We are here; and whilst this is close to you no
+foul thing can approach. You are safe for to-night; and we must be calm
+and take counsel together." She shuddered and was silent, holding down
+her head on her husband's breast. When she raised it, his white
+night-robe was stained with blood where her lips had touched, and where
+the thin open wound in her neck had sent forth drops. The instant she
+saw it she drew back, with a low wail, and whispered, amidst choking
+sobs:--
+
+"Unclean, unclean! I must touch him or kiss him no more. Oh, that it
+should be that it is I who am now his worst enemy, and whom he may have
+most cause to fear." To this he spoke out resolutely:--
+
+"Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame to me to hear such a word. I would not
+hear it of you; and I shall not hear it from you. May God judge me by my
+deserts, and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour,
+if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!" He put out
+his arms and folded her to his breast; and for a while she lay there
+sobbing. He looked at us over her bowed head, with eyes that blinked
+damply above his quivering nostrils; his mouth was set as steel. After a
+while her sobs became less frequent and more faint, and then he said to
+me, speaking with a studied calmness which I felt tried his nervous
+power to the utmost:--
+
+"And now, Dr. Seward, tell me all about it. Too well I know the broad
+fact; tell me all that has been." I told him exactly what had happened,
+and he listened with seeming impassiveness; but his nostrils twitched
+and his eyes blazed as I told how the ruthless hands of the Count had
+held his wife in that terrible and horrid position, with her mouth to
+the open wound in his breast. It interested me, even at that moment, to
+see, that, whilst the face of white set passion worked convulsively over
+the bowed head, the hands tenderly and lovingly stroked the ruffled
+hair. Just as I had finished, Quincey and Godalming knocked at the door.
+They entered in obedience to our summons. Van Helsing looked at me
+questioningly. I understood him to mean if we were to take advantage of
+their coming to divert if possible the thoughts of the unhappy husband
+and wife from each other and from themselves; so on nodding acquiescence
+to him he asked them what they had seen or done. To which Lord Godalming
+answered:--
+
+"I could not see him anywhere in the passage, or in any of our rooms. I
+looked in the study but, though he had been there, he had gone. He had,
+however----" He stopped suddenly, looking at the poor drooping figure on
+the bed. Van Helsing said gravely:--
+
+"Go on, friend Arthur. We want here no more concealments. Our hope now
+is in knowing all. Tell freely!" So Art went on:--
+
+"He had been there, and though it could only have been for a few
+seconds, he made rare hay of the place. All the manuscript had been
+burned, and the blue flames were flickering amongst the white ashes; the
+cylinders of your phonograph too were thrown on the fire, and the wax
+had helped the flames." Here I interrupted. "Thank God there is the
+other copy in the safe!" His face lit for a moment, but fell again as he
+went on: "I ran downstairs then, but could see no sign of him. I looked
+into Renfield's room; but there was no trace there except----!" Again he
+paused. "Go on," said Harker hoarsely; so he bowed his head and
+moistening his lips with his tongue, added: "except that the poor fellow
+is dead." Mrs. Harker raised her head, looking from one to the other of
+us she said solemnly:--
+
+"God's will be done!" I could not but feel that Art was keeping back
+something; but, as I took it that it was with a purpose, I said nothing.
+Van Helsing turned to Morris and asked:--
+
+"And you, friend Quincey, have you any to tell?"
+
+"A little," he answered. "It may be much eventually, but at present I
+can't say. I thought it well to know if possible where the Count would
+go when he left the house. I did not see him; but I saw a bat rise from
+Renfield's window, and flap westward. I expected to see him in some
+shape go back to Carfax; but he evidently sought some other lair. He
+will not be back to-night; for the sky is reddening in the east, and the
+dawn is close. We must work to-morrow!"
+
+He said the latter words through his shut teeth. For a space of perhaps
+a couple of minutes there was silence, and I could fancy that I could
+hear the sound of our hearts beating; then Van Helsing said, placing his
+hand very tenderly on Mrs. Harker's head:--
+
+"And now, Madam Mina--poor, dear, dear Madam Mina--tell us exactly what
+happened. God knows that I do not want that you be pained; but it is
+need that we know all. For now more than ever has all work to be done
+quick and sharp, and in deadly earnest. The day is close to us that must
+end all, if it may be so; and now is the chance that we may live and
+learn."
+
+The poor, dear lady shivered, and I could see the tension of her nerves
+as she clasped her husband closer to her and bent her head lower and
+lower still on his breast. Then she raised her head proudly, and held
+out one hand to Van Helsing who took it in his, and, after stooping and
+kissing it reverently, held it fast. The other hand was locked in that
+of her husband, who held his other arm thrown round her protectingly.
+After a pause in which she was evidently ordering her thoughts, she
+began:--
+
+"I took the sleeping draught which you had so kindly given me, but for a
+long time it did not act. I seemed to become more wakeful, and myriads
+of horrible fancies began to crowd in upon my mind--all of them
+connected with death, and vampires; with blood, and pain, and trouble."
+Her husband involuntarily groaned as she turned to him and said
+lovingly: "Do not fret, dear. You must be brave and strong, and help me
+through the horrible task. If you only knew what an effort it is to me
+to tell of this fearful thing at all, you would understand how much I
+need your help. Well, I saw I must try to help the medicine to its work
+with my will, if it was to do me any good, so I resolutely set myself to
+sleep. Sure enough sleep must soon have come to me, for I remember no
+more. Jonathan coming in had not waked me, for he lay by my side when
+next I remember. There was in the room the same thin white mist that I
+had before noticed. But I forget now if you know of this; you will find
+it in my diary which I shall show you later. I felt the same vague
+terror which had come to me before and the same sense of some presence.
+I turned to wake Jonathan, but found that he slept so soundly that it
+seemed as if it was he who had taken the sleeping draught, and not I. I
+tried, but I could not wake him. This caused me a great fear, and I
+looked around terrified. Then indeed, my heart sank within me: beside
+the bed, as if he had stepped out of the mist--or rather as if the mist
+had turned into his figure, for it had entirely disappeared--stood a
+tall, thin man, all in black. I knew him at once from the description of
+the others. The waxen face; the high aquiline nose, on which the light
+fell in a thin white line; the parted red lips, with the sharp white
+teeth showing between; and the red eyes that I had seemed to see in the
+sunset on the windows of St. Mary's Church at Whitby. I knew, too, the
+red scar on his forehead where Jonathan had struck him. For an instant
+my heart stood still, and I would have screamed out, only that I was
+paralysed. In the pause he spoke in a sort of keen, cutting whisper,
+pointing as he spoke to Jonathan:--
+
+"'Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his brains out
+before your very eyes.' I was appalled and was too bewildered to do or
+say anything. With a mocking smile, he placed one hand upon my shoulder
+and, holding me tight, bared my throat with the other, saying as he did
+so, 'First, a little refreshment to reward my exertions. You may as well
+be quiet; it is not the first time, or the second, that your veins have
+appeased my thirst!' I was bewildered, and, strangely enough, I did not
+want to hinder him. I suppose it is a part of the horrible curse that
+such is, when his touch is on his victim. And oh, my God, my God, pity
+me! He placed his reeking lips upon my throat!" Her husband groaned
+again. She clasped his hand harder, and looked at him pityingly, as if
+he were the injured one, and went on:--
+
+"I felt my strength fading away, and I was in a half swoon. How long
+this horrible thing lasted I know not; but it seemed that a long time
+must have passed before he took his foul, awful, sneering mouth away. I
+saw it drip with the fresh blood!" The remembrance seemed for a while to
+overpower her, and she drooped and would have sunk down but for her
+husband's sustaining arm. With a great effort she recovered herself and
+went on:--
+
+"Then he spoke to me mockingly, 'And so you, like the others, would play
+your brains against mine. You would help these men to hunt me and
+frustrate me in my designs! You know now, and they know in part already,
+and will know in full before long, what it is to cross my path. They
+should have kept their energies for use closer to home. Whilst they
+played wits against me--against me who commanded nations, and intrigued
+for them, and fought for them, hundreds of years before they were
+born--I was countermining them. And you, their best beloved one, are now
+to me, flesh of my flesh; blood of my blood; kin of my kin; my bountiful
+wine-press for a while; and shall be later on my companion and my
+helper. You shall be avenged in turn; for not one of them but shall
+minister to your needs. But as yet you are to be punished for what you
+have done. You have aided in thwarting me; now you shall come to my
+call. When my brain says "Come!" to you, you shall cross land or sea to
+do my bidding; and to that end this!' With that he pulled open his
+shirt, and with his long sharp nails opened a vein in his breast. When
+the blood began to spurt out, he took my hands in one of his, holding
+them tight, and with the other seized my neck and pressed my mouth to
+the wound, so that I must either suffocate or swallow some of the---- Oh
+my God! my God! what have I done? What have I done to deserve such a
+fate, I who have tried to walk in meekness and righteousness all my
+days. God pity me! Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril;
+and in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!" Then she began to rub her
+lips as though to cleanse them from pollution.
+
+As she was telling her terrible story, the eastern sky began to quicken,
+and everything became more and more clear. Harker was still and quiet;
+but over his face, as the awful narrative went on, came a grey look
+which deepened and deepened in the morning light, till when the first
+red streak of the coming dawn shot up, the flesh stood darkly out
+against the whitening hair.
+
+We have arranged that one of us is to stay within call of the unhappy
+pair till we can meet together and arrange about taking action.
+
+Of this I am sure: the sun rises to-day on no more miserable house in
+all the great round of its daily course.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL
+
+
+_3 October._--As I must do something or go mad, I write this diary. It
+is now six o'clock, and we are to meet in the study in half an hour and
+take something to eat; for Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward are agreed
+that if we do not eat we cannot work our best. Our best will be, God
+knows, required to-day. I must keep writing at every chance, for I dare
+not stop to think. All, big and little, must go down; perhaps at the end
+the little things may teach us most. The teaching, big or little, could
+not have landed Mina or me anywhere worse than we are to-day. However,
+we must trust and hope. Poor Mina told me just now, with the tears
+running down her dear cheeks, that it is in trouble and trial that our
+faith is tested--that we must keep on trusting; and that God will aid us
+up to the end. The end! oh my God! what end?... To work! To work!
+
+When Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward had come back from seeing poor
+Renfield, we went gravely into what was to be done. First, Dr. Seward
+told us that when he and Dr. Van Helsing had gone down to the room below
+they had found Renfield lying on the floor, all in a heap. His face was
+all bruised and crushed in, and the bones of the neck were broken.
+
+Dr. Seward asked the attendant who was on duty in the passage if he had
+heard anything. He said that he had been sitting down--he confessed to
+half dozing--when he heard loud voices in the room, and then Renfield
+had called out loudly several times, "God! God! God!" after that there
+was a sound of falling, and when he entered the room he found him lying
+on the floor, face down, just as the doctors had seen him. Van Helsing
+asked if he had heard "voices" or "a voice," and he said he could not
+say; that at first it had seemed to him as if there were two, but as
+there was no one in the room it could have been only one. He could swear
+to it, if required, that the word "God" was spoken by the patient. Dr.
+Seward said to us, when we were alone, that he did not wish to go into
+the matter; the question of an inquest had to be considered, and it
+would never do to put forward the truth, as no one would believe it. As
+it was, he thought that on the attendant's evidence he could give a
+certificate of death by misadventure in falling from bed. In case the
+coroner should demand it, there would be a formal inquest, necessarily
+to the same result.
+
+When the question began to be discussed as to what should be our next
+step, the very first thing we decided was that Mina should be in full
+confidence; that nothing of any sort--no matter how painful--should be
+kept from her. She herself agreed as to its wisdom, and it was pitiful
+to see her so brave and yet so sorrowful, and in such a depth of
+despair. "There must be no concealment," she said, "Alas! we have had
+too much already. And besides there is nothing in all the world that can
+give me more pain than I have already endured--than I suffer now!
+Whatever may happen, it must be of new hope or of new courage to me!"
+Van Helsing was looking at her fixedly as she spoke, and said, suddenly
+but quietly:--
+
+"But dear Madam Mina, are you not afraid; not for yourself, but for
+others from yourself, after what has happened?" Her face grew set in its
+lines, but her eyes shone with the devotion of a martyr as she
+answered:--
+
+"Ah no! for my mind is made up!"
+
+"To what?" he asked gently, whilst we were all very still; for each in
+our own way we had a sort of vague idea of what she meant. Her answer
+came with direct simplicity, as though she were simply stating a fact:--
+
+"Because if I find in myself--and I shall watch keenly for it--a sign of
+harm to any that I love, I shall die!"
+
+"You would not kill yourself?" he asked, hoarsely.
+
+"I would; if there were no friend who loved me, who would save me such a
+pain, and so desperate an effort!" She looked at him meaningly as she
+spoke. He was sitting down; but now he rose and came close to her and
+put his hand on her head as he said solemnly:
+
+"My child, there is such an one if it were for your good. For myself I
+could hold it in my account with God to find such an euthanasia for you,
+even at this moment if it were best. Nay, were it safe! But my
+child----" For a moment he seemed choked, and a great sob rose in his
+throat; he gulped it down and went on:--
+
+"There are here some who would stand between you and death. You must not
+die. You must not die by any hand; but least of all by your own. Until
+the other, who has fouled your sweet life, is true dead you must not
+die; for if he is still with the quick Un-Dead, your death would make
+you even as he is. No, you must live! You must struggle and strive to
+live, though death would seem a boon unspeakable. You must fight Death
+himself, though he come to you in pain or in joy; by the day, or the
+night; in safety or in peril! On your living soul I charge you that you
+do not die--nay, nor think of death--till this great evil be past." The
+poor dear grew white as death, and shock and shivered, as I have seen a
+quicksand shake and shiver at the incoming of the tide. We were all
+silent; we could do nothing. At length she grew more calm and turning to
+him said, sweetly, but oh! so sorrowfully, as she held out her hand:--
+
+"I promise you, my dear friend, that if God will let me live, I shall
+strive to do so; till, if it may be in His good time, this horror may
+have passed away from me." She was so good and brave that we all felt
+that our hearts were strengthened to work and endure for her, and we
+began to discuss what we were to do. I told her that she was to have all
+the papers in the safe, and all the papers or diaries and phonographs we
+might hereafter use; and was to keep the record as she had done before.
+She was pleased with the prospect of anything to do--if "pleased" could
+be used in connection with so grim an interest.
+
+As usual Van Helsing had thought ahead of everyone else, and was
+prepared with an exact ordering of our work.
+
+"It is perhaps well," he said, "that at our meeting after our visit to
+Carfax we decided not to do anything with the earth-boxes that lay
+there. Had we done so, the Count must have guessed our purpose, and
+would doubtless have taken measures in advance to frustrate such an
+effort with regard to the others; but now he does not know our
+intentions. Nay, more, in all probability, he does not know that such a
+power exists to us as can sterilise his lairs, so that he cannot use
+them as of old. We are now so much further advanced in our knowledge as
+to their disposition that, when we have examined the house in
+Piccadilly, we may track the very last of them. To-day, then, is ours;
+and in it rests our hope. The sun that rose on our sorrow this morning
+guards us in its course. Until it sets to-night, that monster must
+retain whatever form he now has. He is confined within the limitations
+of his earthly envelope. He cannot melt into thin air nor disappear
+through cracks or chinks or crannies. If he go through a doorway, he
+must open the door like a mortal. And so we have this day to hunt out
+all his lairs and sterilise them. So we shall, if we have not yet catch
+him and destroy him, drive him to bay in some place where the catching
+and the destroying shall be, in time, sure." Here I started up for I
+could not contain myself at the thought that the minutes and seconds so
+preciously laden with Mina's life and happiness were flying from us,
+since whilst we talked action was impossible. But Van Helsing held up
+his hand warningly. "Nay, friend Jonathan," he said, "in this, the
+quickest way home is the longest way, so your proverb say. We shall all
+act and act with desperate quick, when the time has come. But think, in
+all probable the key of the situation is in that house in Piccadilly.
+The Count may have many houses which he has bought. Of them he will have
+deeds of purchase, keys and other things. He will have paper that he
+write on; he will have his book of cheques. There are many belongings
+that he must have somewhere; why not in this place so central, so quiet,
+where he come and go by the front or the back at all hour, when in the
+very vast of the traffic there is none to notice. We shall go there and
+search that house; and when we learn what it holds, then we do what our
+friend Arthur call, in his phrases of hunt 'stop the earths' and so we
+run down our old fox--so? is it not?"
+
+"Then let us come at once," I cried, "we are wasting the precious,
+precious time!" The Professor did not move, but simply said:--
+
+"And how are we to get into that house in Piccadilly?"
+
+"Any way!" I cried. "We shall break in if need be."
+
+"And your police; where will they be, and what will they say?"
+
+I was staggered; but I knew that if he wished to delay he had a good
+reason for it. So I said, as quietly as I could:--
+
+"Don't wait more than need be; you know, I am sure, what torture I am
+in."
+
+"Ah, my child, that I do; and indeed there is no wish of me to add to
+your anguish. But just think, what can we do, until all the world be at
+movement. Then will come our time. I have thought and thought, and it
+seems to me that the simplest way is the best of all. Now we wish to get
+into the house, but we have no key; is it not so?" I nodded.
+
+"Now suppose that you were, in truth, the owner of that house, and could
+not still get it; and think there was to you no conscience of the
+housebreaker, what would you do?"
+
+"I should get a respectable locksmith, and set him to work to pick the
+lock for me."
+
+"And your police, they would interfere, would they not?"
+
+"Oh, no! not if they knew the man was properly employed."
+
+"Then," he looked at me as keenly as he spoke, "all that is in doubt is
+the conscience of the employer, and the belief of your policemen as to
+whether or no that employer has a good conscience or a bad one. Your
+police must indeed be zealous men and clever--oh, so clever!--in reading
+the heart, that they trouble themselves in such matter. No, no, my
+friend Jonathan, you go take the lock off a hundred empty house in this
+your London, or of any city in the world; and if you do it as such
+things are rightly done, and at the time such things are rightly done,
+no one will interfere. I have read of a gentleman who owned a so fine
+house in London, and when he went for months of summer to Switzerland
+and lock up his house, some burglar came and broke window at back and
+got in. Then he went and made open the shutters in front and walk out
+and in through the door, before the very eyes of the police. Then he
+have an auction in that house, and advertise it, and put up big notice;
+and when the day come he sell off by a great auctioneer all the goods of
+that other man who own them. Then he go to a builder, and he sell him
+that house, making an agreement that he pull it down and take all away
+within a certain time. And your police and other authority help him all
+they can. And when that owner come back from his holiday in Switzerland
+he find only an empty hole where his house had been. This was all done
+_en règle_; and in our work we shall be _en règle_ too. We shall not go
+so early that the policemen who have then little to think of, shall deem
+it strange; but we shall go after ten o'clock, when there are many
+about, and such things would be done were we indeed owners of the
+house."
+
+I could not but see how right he was and the terrible despair of Mina's
+face became relaxed a thought; there was hope in such good counsel. Van
+Helsing went on:--
+
+"When once within that house we may find more clues; at any rate some of
+us can remain there whilst the rest find the other places where there be
+more earth-boxes--at Bermondsey and Mile End."
+
+Lord Godalming stood up. "I can be of some use here," he said. "I shall
+wire to my people to have horses and carriages where they will be most
+convenient."
+
+"Look here, old fellow," said Morris, "it is a capital idea to have all
+ready in case we want to go horsebacking; but don't you think that one
+of your snappy carriages with its heraldic adornments in a byway of
+Walworth or Mile End would attract too much attention for our purposes?
+It seems to me that we ought to take cabs when we go south or east; and
+even leave them somewhere near the neighbourhood we are going to."
+
+"Friend Quincey is right!" said the Professor. "His head is what you
+call in plane with the horizon. It is a difficult thing that we go to
+do, and we do not want no peoples to watch us if so it may."
+
+Mina took a growing interest in everything and I was rejoiced to see
+that the exigency of affairs was helping her to forget for a time the
+terrible experience of the night. She was very, very pale--almost
+ghastly, and so thin that her lips were drawn away, showing her teeth in
+somewhat of prominence. I did not mention this last, lest it should give
+her needless pain; but it made my blood run cold in my veins to think of
+what had occurred with poor Lucy when the Count had sucked her blood. As
+yet there was no sign of the teeth growing sharper; but the time as yet
+was short, and there was time for fear.
+
+When we came to the discussion of the sequence of our efforts and of the
+disposition of our forces, there were new sources of doubt. It was
+finally agreed that before starting for Piccadilly we should destroy the
+Count's lair close at hand. In case he should find it out too soon, we
+should thus be still ahead of him in our work of destruction; and his
+presence in his purely material shape, and at his weakest, might give us
+some new clue.
+
+As to the disposal of forces, it was suggested by the Professor that,
+after our visit to Carfax, we should all enter the house in Piccadilly;
+that the two doctors and I should remain there, whilst Lord Godalming
+and Quincey found the lairs at Walworth and Mile End and destroyed them.
+It was possible, if not likely, the Professor urged, that the Count
+might appear in Piccadilly during the day, and that if so we might be
+able to cope with him then and there. At any rate, we might be able to
+follow him in force. To this plan I strenuously objected, and so far as
+my going was concerned, for I said that I intended to stay and protect
+Mina, I thought that my mind was made up on the subject; but Mina would
+not listen to my objection. She said that there might be some law matter
+in which I could be useful; that amongst the Count's papers might be
+some clue which I could understand out of my experience in Transylvania;
+and that, as it was, all the strength we could muster was required to
+cope with the Count's extraordinary power. I had to give in, for Mina's
+resolution was fixed; she said that it was the last hope for _her_ that
+we should all work together. "As for me," she said, "I have no fear.
+Things have been as bad as they can be; and whatever may happen must
+have in it some element of hope or comfort. Go, my husband! God can, if
+He wishes it, guard me as well alone as with any one present." So I
+started up crying out: "Then in God's name let us come at once, for we
+are losing time. The Count may come to Piccadilly earlier than we
+think."
+
+"Not so!" said Van Helsing, holding up his hand.
+
+"But why?" I asked.
+
+"Do you forget," he said, with actually a smile, "that last night he
+banqueted heavily, and will sleep late?"
+
+Did I forget! shall I ever--can I ever! Can any of us ever forget that
+terrible scene! Mina struggled hard to keep her brave countenance; but
+the pain overmastered her and she put her hands before her face, and
+shuddered whilst she moaned. Van Helsing had not intended to recall her
+frightful experience. He had simply lost sight of her and her part in
+the affair in his intellectual effort. When it struck him what he said,
+he was horrified at his thoughtlessness and tried to comfort her. "Oh,
+Madam Mina," he said, "dear, dear Madam Mina, alas! that I of all who so
+reverence you should have said anything so forgetful. These stupid old
+lips of mine and this stupid old head do not deserve so; but you will
+forget it, will you not?" He bent low beside her as he spoke; she took
+his hand, and looking at him through her tears, said hoarsely:--
+
+"No, I shall not forget, for it is well that I remember; and with it I
+have so much in memory of you that is sweet, that I take it all
+together. Now, you must all be going soon. Breakfast is ready, and we
+must all eat that we may be strong."
+
+Breakfast was a strange meal to us all. We tried to be cheerful and
+encourage each other, and Mina was the brightest and most cheerful of
+us. When it was over, Van Helsing stood up and said:--
+
+"Now, my dear friends, we go forth to our terrible enterprise. Are we
+all armed, as we were on that night when first we visited our enemy's
+lair; armed against ghostly as well as carnal attack?" We all assured
+him. "Then it is well. Now, Madam Mina, you are in any case _quite_ safe
+here until the sunset; and before then we shall return--if---- We shall
+return! But before we go let me see you armed against personal attack. I
+have myself, since you came down, prepared your chamber by the placing
+of things of which we know, so that He may not enter. Now let me guard
+yourself. On your forehead I touch this piece of Sacred Wafer in the
+name of the Father, the Son, and----"
+
+There was a fearful scream which almost froze our hearts to hear. As he
+had placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had seared it--had burned
+into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal. My poor
+darling's brain had told her the significance of the fact as quickly as
+her nerves received the pain of it; and the two so overwhelmed her that
+her overwrought nature had its voice in that dreadful scream. But the
+words to her thought came quickly; the echo of the scream had not ceased
+to ring on the air when there came the reaction, and she sank on her
+knees on the floor in an agony of abasement. Pulling her beautiful hair
+over her face, as the leper of old his mantle, she wailed out:--
+
+"Unclean! Unclean! Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh! I must
+bear this mark of shame upon my forehead until the Judgment Day." They
+all paused. I had thrown myself beside her in an agony of helpless
+grief, and putting my arms around held her tight. For a few minutes our
+sorrowful hearts beat together, whilst the friends around us turned away
+their eyes that ran tears silently. Then Van Helsing turned and said
+gravely; so gravely that I could not help feeling that he was in some
+way inspired, and was stating things outside himself:--
+
+"It may be that you may have to bear that mark till God himself see fit,
+as He most surely shall, on the Judgment Day, to redress all wrongs of
+the earth and of His children that He has placed thereon. And oh, Madam
+Mina, my dear, my dear, may we who love you be there to see, when that
+red scar, the sign of God's knowledge of what has been, shall pass away,
+and leave your forehead as pure as the heart we know. For so surely as
+we live, that scar shall pass away when God sees right to lift the
+burden that is hard upon us. Till then we bear our Cross, as His Son did
+in obedience to His Will. It may be that we are chosen instruments of
+His good pleasure, and that we ascend to His bidding as that other
+through stripes and shame; through tears and blood; through doubts and
+fears, and all that makes the difference between God and man."
+
+There was hope in his words, and comfort; and they made for resignation.
+Mina and I both felt so, and simultaneously we each took one of the old
+man's hands and bent over and kissed it. Then without a word we all
+knelt down together, and, all holding hands, swore to be true to each
+other. We men pledged ourselves to raise the veil of sorrow from the
+head of her whom, each in his own way, we loved; and we prayed for help
+and guidance in the terrible task which lay before us.
+
+It was then time to start. So I said farewell to Mina, a parting which
+neither of us shall forget to our dying day; and we set out.
+
+To one thing I have made up my mind: if we find out that Mina must be a
+vampire in the end, then she shall not go into that unknown and terrible
+land alone. I suppose it is thus that in old times one vampire meant
+many; just as their hideous bodies could only rest in sacred earth, so
+the holiest love was the recruiting sergeant for their ghastly ranks.
+
+We entered Carfax without trouble and found all things the same as on
+the first occasion. It was hard to believe that amongst so prosaic
+surroundings of neglect and dust and decay there was any ground for such
+fear as already we knew. Had not our minds been made up, and had there
+not been terrible memories to spur us on, we could hardly have proceeded
+with our task. We found no papers, or any sign of use in the house; and
+in the old chapel the great boxes looked just as we had seen them last.
+Dr. Van Helsing said to us solemnly as we stood before them:--
+
+"And now, my friends, we have a duty here to do. We must sterilise this
+earth, so sacred of holy memories, that he has brought from a far
+distant land for such fell use. He has chosen this earth because it has
+been holy. Thus we defeat him with his own weapon, for we make it more
+holy still. It was sanctified to such use of man, now we sanctify it to
+God." As he spoke he took from his bag a screwdriver and a wrench, and
+very soon the top of one of the cases was thrown open. The earth smelled
+musty and close; but we did not somehow seem to mind, for our attention
+was concentrated on the Professor. Taking from his box a piece of the
+Sacred Wafer he laid it reverently on the earth, and then shutting down
+the lid began to screw it home, we aiding him as he worked.
+
+One by one we treated in the same way each of the great boxes, and left
+them as we had found them to all appearance; but in each was a portion
+of the Host.
+
+When we closed the door behind us, the Professor said solemnly:--
+
+"So much is already done. If it may be that with all the others we can
+be so successful, then the sunset of this evening may shine on Madam
+Mina's forehead all white as ivory and with no stain!"
+
+As we passed across the lawn on our way to the station to catch our
+train we could see the front of the asylum. I looked eagerly, and in the
+window of my own room saw Mina. I waved my hand to her, and nodded to
+tell that our work there was successfully accomplished. She nodded in
+reply to show that she understood. The last I saw, she was waving her
+hand in farewell. It was with a heavy heart that we sought the station
+and just caught the train, which was steaming in as we reached the
+platform.
+
+I have written this in the train.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Piccadilly, 12:30 o'clock._--Just before we reached Fenchurch Street
+Lord Godalming said to me:--
+
+"Quincey and I will find a locksmith. You had better not come with us in
+case there should be any difficulty; for under the circumstances it
+wouldn't seem so bad for us to break into an empty house. But you are a
+solicitor and the Incorporated Law Society might tell you that you
+should have known better." I demurred as to my not sharing any danger
+even of odium, but he went on: "Besides, it will attract less attention
+if there are not too many of us. My title will make it all right with
+the locksmith, and with any policeman that may come along. You had
+better go with Jack and the Professor and stay in the Green Park,
+somewhere in sight of the house; and when you see the door opened and
+the smith has gone away, do you all come across. We shall be on the
+lookout for you, and shall let you in."
+
+"The advice is good!" said Van Helsing, so we said no more. Godalming
+and Morris hurried off in a cab, we following in another. At the corner
+of Arlington Street our contingent got out and strolled into the Green
+Park. My heart beat as I saw the house on which so much of our hope was
+centred, looming up grim and silent in its deserted condition amongst
+its more lively and spruce-looking neighbours. We sat down on a bench
+within good view, and began to smoke cigars so as to attract as little
+attention as possible. The minutes seemed to pass with leaden feet as we
+waited for the coming of the others.
+
+At length we saw a four-wheeler drive up. Out of it, in leisurely
+fashion, got Lord Godalming and Morris; and down from the box descended
+a thick-set working man with his rush-woven basket of tools. Morris paid
+the cabman, who touched his hat and drove away. Together the two
+ascended the steps, and Lord Godalming pointed out what he wanted done.
+The workman took off his coat leisurely and hung it on one of the spikes
+of the rail, saying something to a policeman who just then sauntered
+along. The policeman nodded acquiescence, and the man kneeling down
+placed his bag beside him. After searching through it, he took out a
+selection of tools which he produced to lay beside him in orderly
+fashion. Then he stood up, looked into the keyhole, blew into it, and
+turning to his employers, made some remark. Lord Godalming smiled, and
+the man lifted a good-sized bunch of keys; selecting one of them, he
+began to probe the lock, as if feeling his way with it. After fumbling
+about for a bit he tried a second, and then a third. All at once the
+door opened under a slight push from him, and he and the two others
+entered the hall. We sat still; my own cigar burnt furiously, but Van
+Helsing's went cold altogether. We waited patiently as we saw the
+workman come out and bring in his bag. Then he held the door partly
+open, steadying it with his knees, whilst he fitted a key to the lock.
+This he finally handed to Lord Godalming, who took out his purse and
+gave him something. The man touched his hat, took his bag, put on his
+coat and departed; not a soul took the slightest notice of the whole
+transaction.
+
+When the man had fairly gone, we three crossed the street and knocked at
+the door. It was immediately opened by Quincey Morris, beside whom stood
+Lord Godalming lighting a cigar.
+
+"The place smells so vilely," said the latter as we came in. It did
+indeed smell vilely--like the old chapel at Carfax--and with our
+previous experience it was plain to us that the Count had been using the
+place pretty freely. We moved to explore the house, all keeping together
+in case of attack; for we knew we had a strong and wily enemy to deal
+with, and as yet we did not know whether the Count might not be in the
+house. In the dining-room, which lay at the back of the hall, we found
+eight boxes of earth. Eight boxes only out of the nine, which we sought!
+Our work was not over, and would never be until we should have found the
+missing box. First we opened the shutters of the window which looked out
+across a narrow stone-flagged yard at the blank face of a stable,
+pointed to look like the front of a miniature house. There were no
+windows in it, so we were not afraid of being over-looked. We did not
+lose any time in examining the chests. With the tools which we had
+brought with us we opened them, one by one, and treated them as we had
+treated those others in the old chapel. It was evident to us that the
+Count was not at present in the house, and we proceeded to search for
+any of his effects.
+
+After a cursory glance at the rest of the rooms, from basement to attic,
+we came to the conclusion that the dining-room contained any effects
+which might belong to the Count; and so we proceeded to minutely examine
+them. They lay in a sort of orderly disorder on the great dining-room
+table. There were title deeds of the Piccadilly house in a great bundle;
+deeds of the purchase of the houses at Mile End and Bermondsey;
+note-paper, envelopes, and pens and ink. All were covered up in thin
+wrapping paper to keep them from the dust. There were also a clothes
+brush, a brush and comb, and a jug and basin--the latter containing
+dirty water which was reddened as if with blood. Last of all was a
+little heap of keys of all sorts and sizes, probably those belonging to
+the other houses. When we had examined this last find, Lord Godalming
+and Quincey Morris taking accurate notes of the various addresses of the
+houses in the East and the South, took with them the keys in a great
+bunch, and set out to destroy the boxes in these places. The rest of us
+are, with what patience we can, waiting their return--or the coming of
+the Count.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
+
+
+_3 October._--The time seemed terrible long whilst we were waiting for
+the coming of Godalming and Quincey Morris. The Professor tried to keep
+our minds active by using them all the time. I could see his beneficent
+purpose, by the side glances which he threw from time to time at Harker.
+The poor fellow is overwhelmed in a misery that is appalling to see.
+Last night he was a frank, happy-looking man, with strong, youthful
+face, full of energy, and with dark brown hair. To-day he is a drawn,
+haggard old man, whose white hair matches well with the hollow burning
+eyes and grief-written lines of his face. His energy is still intact; in
+fact, he is like a living flame. This may yet be his salvation, for, if
+all go well, it will tide him over the despairing period; he will then,
+in a kind of way, wake again to the realities of life. Poor fellow, I
+thought my own trouble was bad enough, but his----! The Professor knows
+this well enough, and is doing his best to keep his mind active. What he
+has been saying was, under the circumstances, of absorbing interest. So
+well as I can remember, here it is:--
+
+"I have studied, over and over again since they came into my hands, all
+the papers relating to this monster; and the more I have studied, the
+greater seems the necessity to utterly stamp him out. All through there
+are signs of his advance; not only of his power, but of his knowledge of
+it. As I learned from the researches of my friend Arminus of Buda-Pesth,
+he was in life a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and
+alchemist--which latter was the highest development of the
+science-knowledge of his time. He had a mighty brain, a learning beyond
+compare, and a heart that knew no fear and no remorse. He dared even to
+attend the Scholomance, and there was no branch of knowledge of his time
+that he did not essay. Well, in him the brain powers survived the
+physical death; though it would seem that memory was not all complete.
+In some faculties of mind he has been, and is, only a child; but he is
+growing, and some things that were childish at the first are now of
+man's stature. He is experimenting, and doing it well; and if it had not
+been that we have crossed his path he would be yet--he may be yet if we
+fail--the father or furtherer of a new order of beings, whose road must
+lead through Death, not Life."
+
+Harker groaned and said, "And this is all arrayed against my darling!
+But how is he experimenting? The knowledge may help us to defeat him!"
+
+"He has all along, since his coming, been trying his power, slowly but
+surely; that big child-brain of his is working. Well for us, it is, as
+yet, a child-brain; for had he dared, at the first, to attempt certain
+things he would long ago have been beyond our power. However, he means
+to succeed, and a man who has centuries before him can afford to wait
+and to go slow. _Festina lente_ may well be his motto."
+
+"I fail to understand," said Harker wearily. "Oh, do be more plain to
+me! Perhaps grief and trouble are dulling my brain."
+
+The Professor laid his hand tenderly on his shoulder as he spoke:--
+
+"Ah, my child, I will be plain. Do you not see how, of late, this
+monster has been creeping into knowledge experimentally. How he has been
+making use of the zoöphagous patient to effect his entry into friend
+John's home; for your Vampire, though in all afterwards he can come when
+and how he will, must at the first make entry only when asked thereto by
+an inmate. But these are not his most important experiments. Do we not
+see how at the first all these so great boxes were moved by others. He
+knew not then but that must be so. But all the time that so great
+child-brain of his was growing, and he began to consider whether he
+might not himself move the box. So he began to help; and then, when he
+found that this be all-right, he try to move them all alone. And so he
+progress, and he scatter these graves of him; and none but he know where
+they are hidden. He may have intend to bury them deep in the ground. So
+that he only use them in the night, or at such time as he can change his
+form, they do him equal well; and none may know these are his
+hiding-place! But, my child, do not despair; this knowledge come to him
+just too late! Already all of his lairs but one be sterilise as for him;
+and before the sunset this shall be so. Then he have no place where he
+can move and hide. I delayed this morning that so we might be sure. Is
+there not more at stake for us than for him? Then why we not be even
+more careful than him? By my clock it is one hour and already, if all be
+well, friend Arthur and Quincey are on their way to us. To-day is our
+day, and we must go sure, if slow, and lose no chance. See! there are
+five of us when those absent ones return."
+
+Whilst he was speaking we were startled by a knock at the hall door, the
+double postman's knock of the telegraph boy. We all moved out to the
+hall with one impulse, and Van Helsing, holding up his hand to us to
+keep silence, stepped to the door and opened it. The boy handed in a
+despatch. The Professor closed the door again, and, after looking at the
+direction, opened it and read aloud.
+
+"Look out for D. He has just now, 12:45, come from Carfax hurriedly and
+hastened towards the South. He seems to be going the round and may want
+to see you: Mina."
+
+There was a pause, broken by Jonathan Harker's voice:--
+
+"Now, God be thanked, we shall soon meet!" Van Helsing turned to him
+quickly and said:--
+
+"God will act in His own way and time. Do not fear, and do not rejoice
+as yet; for what we wish for at the moment may be our undoings."
+
+"I care for nothing now," he answered hotly, "except to wipe out this
+brute from the face of creation. I would sell my soul to do it!"
+
+"Oh, hush, hush, my child!" said Van Helsing. "God does not purchase
+souls in this wise; and the Devil, though he may purchase, does not keep
+faith. But God is merciful and just, and knows your pain and your
+devotion to that dear Madam Mina. Think you, how her pain would be
+doubled, did she but hear your wild words. Do not fear any of us, we are
+all devoted to this cause, and to-day shall see the end. The time is
+coming for action; to-day this Vampire is limit to the powers of man,
+and till sunset he may not change. It will take him time to arrive
+here--see, it is twenty minutes past one--and there are yet some times
+before he can hither come, be he never so quick. What we must hope for
+is that my Lord Arthur and Quincey arrive first."
+
+About half an hour after we had received Mrs. Harker's telegram, there
+came a quiet, resolute knock at the hall door. It was just an ordinary
+knock, such as is given hourly by thousands of gentlemen, but it made
+the Professor's heart and mine beat loudly. We looked at each other, and
+together moved out into the hall; we each held ready to use our various
+armaments--the spiritual in the left hand, the mortal in the right. Van
+Helsing pulled back the latch, and, holding the door half open, stood
+back, having both hands ready for action. The gladness of our hearts
+must have shown upon our faces when on the step, close to the door, we
+saw Lord Godalming and Quincey Morris. They came quickly in and closed
+the door behind them, the former saying, as they moved along the
+hall:--
+
+"It is all right. We found both places; six boxes in each and we
+destroyed them all!"
+
+"Destroyed?" asked the Professor.
+
+"For him!" We were silent for a minute, and then Quincey said:--
+
+"There's nothing to do but to wait here. If, however, he doesn't turn up
+by five o'clock, we must start off; for it won't do to leave Mrs. Harker
+alone after sunset."
+
+"He will be here before long now," said Van Helsing, who had been
+consulting his pocket-book. "_Nota bene_, in Madam's telegram he went
+south from Carfax, that means he went to cross the river, and he could
+only do so at slack of tide, which should be something before one
+o'clock. That he went south has a meaning for us. He is as yet only
+suspicious; and he went from Carfax first to the place where he would
+suspect interference least. You must have been at Bermondsey only a
+short time before him. That he is not here already shows that he went to
+Mile End next. This took him some time; for he would then have to be
+carried over the river in some way. Believe me, my friends, we shall not
+have long to wait now. We should have ready some plan of attack, so that
+we may throw away no chance. Hush, there is no time now. Have all your
+arms! Be ready!" He held up a warning hand as he spoke, for we all could
+hear a key softly inserted in the lock of the hall door.
+
+I could not but admire, even at such a moment, the way in which a
+dominant spirit asserted itself. In all our hunting parties and
+adventures in different parts of the world, Quincey Morris had always
+been the one to arrange the plan of action, and Arthur and I had been
+accustomed to obey him implicitly. Now, the old habit seemed to be
+renewed instinctively. With a swift glance around the room, he at once
+laid out our plan of attack, and, without speaking a word, with a
+gesture, placed us each in position. Van Helsing, Harker, and I were
+just behind the door, so that when it was opened the Professor could
+guard it whilst we two stepped between the incomer and the door.
+Godalming behind and Quincey in front stood just out of sight ready to
+move in front of the window. We waited in a suspense that made the
+seconds pass with nightmare slowness. The slow, careful steps came along
+the hall; the Count was evidently prepared for some surprise--at least
+he feared it.
+
+Suddenly with a single bound he leaped into the room, winning a way past
+us before any of us could raise a hand to stay him. There was something
+so panther-like in the movement--something so unhuman, that it seemed
+to sober us all from the shock of his coming. The first to act was
+Harker, who, with a quick movement, threw himself before the door
+leading into the room in the front of the house. As the Count saw us, a
+horrible sort of snarl passed over his face, showing the eye-teeth long
+and pointed; but the evil smile as quickly passed into a cold stare of
+lion-like disdain. His expression again changed as, with a single
+impulse, we all advanced upon him. It was a pity that we had not some
+better organised plan of attack, for even at the moment I wondered what
+we were to do. I did not myself know whether our lethal weapons would
+avail us anything. Harker evidently meant to try the matter, for he had
+ready his great Kukri knife and made a fierce and sudden cut at him. The
+blow was a powerful one; only the diabolical quickness of the Count's
+leap back saved him. A second less and the trenchant blade had shorne
+through his heart. As it was, the point just cut the cloth of his coat,
+making a wide gap whence a bundle of bank-notes and a stream of gold
+fell out. The expression of the Count's face was so hellish, that for a
+moment I feared for Harker, though I saw him throw the terrible knife
+aloft again for another stroke. Instinctively I moved forward with a
+protective impulse, holding the Crucifix and Wafer in my left hand. I
+felt a mighty power fly along my arm; and it was without surprise that I
+saw the monster cower back before a similar movement made spontaneously
+by each one of us. It would be impossible to describe the expression of
+hate and baffled malignity--of anger and hellish rage--which came over
+the Count's face. His waxen hue became greenish-yellow by the contrast
+of his burning eyes, and the red scar on the forehead showed on the
+pallid skin like a palpitating wound. The next instant, with a sinuous
+dive he swept under Harker's arm, ere his blow could fall, and, grasping
+a handful of the money from the floor, dashed across the room, threw
+himself at the window. Amid the crash and glitter of the falling glass,
+he tumbled into the flagged area below. Through the sound of the
+shivering glass I could hear the "ting" of the gold, as some of the
+sovereigns fell on the flagging.
+
+We ran over and saw him spring unhurt from the ground. He, rushing up
+the steps, crossed the flagged yard, and pushed open the stable door.
+There he turned and spoke to us:--
+
+"You think to baffle me, you--with your pale faces all in a row, like
+sheep in a butcher's. You shall be sorry yet, each one of you! You think
+you have left me without a place to rest; but I have more. My revenge is
+just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side. Your
+girls that you all love are mine already; and through them you and
+others shall yet be mine--my creatures, to do my bidding and to be my
+jackals when I want to feed. Bah!" With a contemptuous sneer, he passed
+quickly through the door, and we heard the rusty bolt creak as he
+fastened it behind him. A door beyond opened and shut. The first of us
+to speak was the Professor, as, realising the difficulty of following
+him through the stable, we moved toward the hall.
+
+"We have learnt something--much! Notwithstanding his brave words, he
+fears us; he fear time, he fear want! For if not, why he hurry so? His
+very tone betray him, or my ears deceive. Why take that money? You
+follow quick. You are hunters of wild beast, and understand it so. For
+me, I make sure that nothing here may be of use to him, if so that he
+return." As he spoke he put the money remaining into his pocket; took
+the title-deeds in the bundle as Harker had left them, and swept the
+remaining things into the open fireplace, where he set fire to them with
+a match.
+
+Godalming and Morris had rushed out into the yard, and Harker had
+lowered himself from the window to follow the Count. He had, however,
+bolted the stable door; and by the time they had forced it open there
+was no sign of him. Van Helsing and I tried to make inquiry at the back
+of the house; but the mews was deserted and no one had seen him depart.
+
+It was now late in the afternoon, and sunset was not far off. We had to
+recognise that our game was up; with heavy hearts we agreed with the
+Professor when he said:--
+
+"Let us go back to Madam Mina--poor, poor dear Madam Mina. All we can do
+just now is done; and we can there, at least, protect her. But we need
+not despair. There is but one more earth-box, and we must try to find
+it; when that is done all may yet be well." I could see that he spoke as
+bravely as he could to comfort Harker. The poor fellow was quite broken
+down; now and again he gave a low groan which he could not suppress--he
+was thinking of his wife.
+
+With sad hearts we came back to my house, where we found Mrs. Harker
+waiting us, with an appearance of cheerfulness which did honour to her
+bravery and unselfishness. When she saw our faces, her own became as
+pale as death: for a second or two her eyes were closed as if she were
+in secret prayer; and then she said cheerfully:--
+
+"I can never thank you all enough. Oh, my poor darling!" As she spoke,
+she took her husband's grey head in her hands and kissed it--"Lay your
+poor head here and rest it. All will yet be well, dear! God will protect
+us if He so will it in His good intent." The poor fellow groaned. There
+was no place for words in his sublime misery.
+
+We had a sort of perfunctory supper together, and I think it cheered us
+all up somewhat. It was, perhaps, the mere animal heat of food to hungry
+people--for none of us had eaten anything since breakfast--or the sense
+of companionship may have helped us; but anyhow we were all less
+miserable, and saw the morrow as not altogether without hope. True to
+our promise, we told Mrs. Harker everything which had passed; and
+although she grew snowy white at times when danger had seemed to
+threaten her husband, and red at others when his devotion to her was
+manifested, she listened bravely and with calmness. When we came to the
+part where Harker had rushed at the Count so recklessly, she clung to
+her husband's arm, and held it tight as though her clinging could
+protect him from any harm that might come. She said nothing, however,
+till the narration was all done, and matters had been brought right up
+to the present time. Then without letting go her husband's hand she
+stood up amongst us and spoke. Oh, that I could give any idea of the
+scene; of that sweet, sweet, good, good woman in all the radiant beauty
+of her youth and animation, with the red scar on her forehead, of which
+she was conscious, and which we saw with grinding of our
+teeth--remembering whence and how it came; her loving kindness against
+our grim hate; her tender faith against all our fears and doubting; and
+we, knowing that so far as symbols went, she with all her goodness and
+purity and faith, was outcast from God.
+
+"Jonathan," she said, and the word sounded like music on her lips it was
+so full of love and tenderness, "Jonathan dear, and you all my true,
+true friends, I want you to bear something in mind through all this
+dreadful time. I know that you must fight--that you must destroy even as
+you destroyed the false Lucy so that the true Lucy might live hereafter;
+but it is not a work of hate. That poor soul who has wrought all this
+misery is the saddest case of all. Just think what will be his joy when
+he, too, is destroyed in his worser part that his better part may have
+spiritual immortality. You must be pitiful to him, too, though it may
+not hold your hands from his destruction."
+
+As she spoke I could see her husband's face darken and draw together, as
+though the passion in him were shrivelling his being to its core.
+Instinctively the clasp on his wife's hand grew closer, till his
+knuckles looked white. She did not flinch from the pain which I knew she
+must have suffered, but looked at him with eyes that were more appealing
+than ever. As she stopped speaking he leaped to his feet, almost tearing
+his hand from hers as he spoke:--
+
+"May God give him into my hand just for long enough to destroy that
+earthly life of him which we are aiming at. If beyond it I could send
+his soul for ever and ever to burning hell I would do it!"
+
+"Oh, hush! oh, hush! in the name of the good God. Don't say such things,
+Jonathan, my husband; or you will crush me with fear and horror. Just
+think, my dear--I have been thinking all this long, long day of it--that
+... perhaps ... some day ... I, too, may need such pity; and that some
+other like you--and with equal cause for anger--may deny it to me! Oh,
+my husband! my husband, indeed I would have spared you such a thought
+had there been another way; but I pray that God may not have treasured
+your wild words, except as the heart-broken wail of a very loving and
+sorely stricken man. Oh, God, let these poor white hairs go in evidence
+of what he has suffered, who all his life has done no wrong, and on whom
+so many sorrows have come."
+
+We men were all in tears now. There was no resisting them, and we wept
+openly. She wept, too, to see that her sweeter counsels had prevailed.
+Her husband flung himself on his knees beside her, and putting his arms
+round her, hid his face in the folds of her dress. Van Helsing beckoned
+to us and we stole out of the room, leaving the two loving hearts alone
+with their God.
+
+Before they retired the Professor fixed up the room against any coming
+of the Vampire, and assured Mrs. Harker that she might rest in peace.
+She tried to school herself to the belief, and, manifestly for her
+husband's sake, tried to seem content. It was a brave struggle; and was,
+I think and believe, not without its reward. Van Helsing had placed at
+hand a bell which either of them was to sound in case of any emergency.
+When they had retired, Quincey, Godalming, and I arranged that we should
+sit up, dividing the night between us, and watch over the safety of the
+poor stricken lady. The first watch falls to Quincey, so the rest of us
+shall be off to bed as soon as we can. Godalming has already turned in,
+for his is the second watch. Now that my work is done I, too, shall go
+to bed.
+
+
+_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
+
+_3-4 October, close to midnight._--I thought yesterday would never end.
+There was over me a yearning for sleep, in some sort of blind belief
+that to wake would be to find things changed, and that any change must
+now be for the better. Before we parted, we discussed what our next step
+was to be, but we could arrive at no result. All we knew was that one
+earth-box remained, and that the Count alone knew where it was. If he
+chooses to lie hidden, he may baffle us for years; and in the
+meantime!--the thought is too horrible, I dare not think of it even now.
+This I know: that if ever there was a woman who was all perfection, that
+one is my poor wronged darling. I love her a thousand times more for her
+sweet pity of last night, a pity that made my own hate of the monster
+seem despicable. Surely God will not permit the world to be the poorer
+by the loss of such a creature. This is hope to me. We are all drifting
+reefwards now, and faith is our only anchor. Thank God! Mina is
+sleeping, and sleeping without dreams. I fear what her dreams might be
+like, with such terrible memories to ground them in. She has not been so
+calm, within my seeing, since the sunset. Then, for a while, there came
+over her face a repose which was like spring after the blasts of March.
+I thought at the time that it was the softness of the red sunset on her
+face, but somehow now I think it has a deeper meaning. I am not sleepy
+myself, though I am weary--weary to death. However, I must try to sleep;
+for there is to-morrow to think of, and there is no rest for me
+until....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--I must have fallen asleep, for I was awaked by Mina, who was
+sitting up in bed, with a startled look on her face. I could see easily,
+for we did not leave the room in darkness; she had placed a warning hand
+over my mouth, and now she whispered in my ear:--
+
+"Hush! there is someone in the corridor!" I got up softly, and crossing
+the room, gently opened the door.
+
+Just outside, stretched on a mattress, lay Mr. Morris, wide awake. He
+raised a warning hand for silence as he whispered to me:--
+
+"Hush! go back to bed; it is all right. One of us will be here all
+night. We don't mean to take any chances!"
+
+His look and gesture forbade discussion, so I came back and told Mina.
+She sighed and positively a shadow of a smile stole over her poor, pale
+face as she put her arms round me and said softly:--
+
+"Oh, thank God for good brave men!" With a sigh she sank back again to
+sleep. I write this now as I am not sleepy, though I must try again.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_4 October, morning._--Once again during the night I was wakened by
+Mina. This time we had all had a good sleep, for the grey of the coming
+dawn was making the windows into sharp oblongs, and the gas flame was
+like a speck rather than a disc of light. She said to me hurriedly:--
+
+"Go, call the Professor. I want to see him at once."
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"I have an idea. I suppose it must have come in the night, and matured
+without my knowing it. He must hypnotise me before the dawn, and then I
+shall be able to speak. Go quick, dearest; the time is getting close." I
+went to the door. Dr. Seward was resting on the mattress, and, seeing
+me, he sprang to his feet.
+
+"Is anything wrong?" he asked, in alarm.
+
+"No," I replied; "but Mina wants to see Dr. Van Helsing at once."
+
+"I will go," he said, and hurried into the Professor's room.
+
+In two or three minutes later Van Helsing was in the room in his
+dressing-gown, and Mr. Morris and Lord Godalming were with Dr. Seward at
+the door asking questions. When the Professor saw Mina a smile--a
+positive smile ousted the anxiety of his face; he rubbed his hands as he
+said:--
+
+"Oh, my dear Madam Mina, this is indeed a change. See! friend Jonathan,
+we have got our dear Madam Mina, as of old, back to us to-day!" Then
+turning to her, he said, cheerfully: "And what am I do for you? For at
+this hour you do not want me for nothings."
+
+"I want you to hypnotise me!" she said. "Do it before the dawn, for I
+feel that then I can speak, and speak freely. Be quick, for the time is
+short!" Without a word he motioned her to sit up in bed.
+
+Looking fixedly at her, he commenced to make passes in front of her,
+from over the top of her head downward, with each hand in turn. Mina
+gazed at him fixedly for a few minutes, during which my own heart beat
+like a trip hammer, for I felt that some crisis was at hand. Gradually
+her eyes closed, and she sat, stock still; only by the gentle heaving of
+her bosom could one know that she was alive. The Professor made a few
+more passes and then stopped, and I could see that his forehead was
+covered with great beads of perspiration. Mina opened her eyes; but she
+did not seem the same woman. There was a far-away look in her eyes, and
+her voice had a sad dreaminess which was new to me. Raising his hand to
+impose silence, the Professor motioned to me to bring the others in.
+They came on tip-toe, closing the door behind them, and stood at the
+foot of the bed, looking on. Mina appeared not to see them. The
+stillness was broken by Van Helsing's voice speaking in a low level tone
+which would not break the current of her thoughts:--
+
+"Where are you?" The answer came in a neutral way:--
+
+"I do not know. Sleep has no place it can call its own." For several
+minutes there was silence. Mina sat rigid, and the Professor stood
+staring at her fixedly; the rest of us hardly dared to breathe. The room
+was growing lighter; without taking his eyes from Mina's face, Dr. Van
+Helsing motioned me to pull up the blind. I did so, and the day seemed
+just upon us. A red streak shot up, and a rosy light seemed to diffuse
+itself through the room. On the instant the Professor spoke again:--
+
+"Where are you now?" The answer came dreamily, but with intention; it
+were as though she were interpreting something. I have heard her use the
+same tone when reading her shorthand notes.
+
+"I do not know. It is all strange to me!"
+
+"What do you see?"
+
+"I can see nothing; it is all dark."
+
+"What do you hear?" I could detect the strain in the Professor's patient
+voice.
+
+"The lapping of water. It is gurgling by, and little waves leap. I can
+hear them on the outside."
+
+"Then you are on a ship?" We all looked at each other, trying to glean
+something each from the other. We were afraid to think. The answer came
+quick:--
+
+"Oh, yes!"
+
+"What else do you hear?"
+
+"The sound of men stamping overhead as they run about. There is the
+creaking of a chain, and the loud tinkle as the check of the capstan
+falls into the rachet."
+
+"What are you doing?"
+
+"I am still--oh, so still. It is like death!" The voice faded away into
+a deep breath as of one sleeping, and the open eyes closed again.
+
+By this time the sun had risen, and we were all in the full light of
+day. Dr. Van Helsing placed his hands on Mina's shoulders, and laid her
+head down softly on her pillow. She lay like a sleeping child for a few
+moments, and then, with a long sigh, awoke and stared in wonder to see
+us all around her. "Have I been talking in my sleep?" was all she said.
+She seemed, however, to know the situation without telling, though she
+was eager to know what she had told. The Professor repeated the
+conversation, and she said:--
+
+"Then there is not a moment to lose: it may not be yet too late!" Mr.
+Morris and Lord Godalming started for the door but the Professor's calm
+voice called them back:--
+
+"Stay, my friends. That ship, wherever it was, was weighing anchor
+whilst she spoke. There are many ships weighing anchor at the moment in
+your so great Port of London. Which of them is it that you seek? God be
+thanked that we have once again a clue, though whither it may lead us we
+know not. We have been blind somewhat; blind after the manner of men,
+since when we can look back we see what we might have seen looking
+forward if we had been able to see what we might have seen! Alas, but
+that sentence is a puddle; is it not? We can know now what was in the
+Count's mind, when he seize that money, though Jonathan's so fierce
+knife put him in the danger that even he dread. He meant escape. Hear
+me, ESCAPE! He saw that with but one earth-box left, and a pack of men
+following like dogs after a fox, this London was no place for him. He
+have take his last earth-box on board a ship, and he leave the land. He
+think to escape, but no! we follow him. Tally Ho! as friend Arthur would
+say when he put on his red frock! Our old fox is wily; oh! so wily, and
+we must follow with wile. I, too, am wily and I think his mind in a
+little while. In meantime we may rest and in peace, for there are waters
+between us which he do not want to pass, and which he could not if he
+would--unless the ship were to touch the land, and then only at full or
+slack tide. See, and the sun is just rose, and all day to sunset is to
+us. Let us take bath, and dress, and have breakfast which we all need,
+and which we can eat comfortably since he be not in the same land with
+us." Mina looked at him appealingly as she asked:--
+
+"But why need we seek him further, when he is gone away from us?" He
+took her hand and patted it as he replied:--
+
+"Ask me nothings as yet. When we have breakfast, then I answer all
+questions." He would say no more, and we separated to dress.
+
+After breakfast Mina repeated her question. He looked at her gravely for
+a minute and then said sorrowfully:--
+
+"Because my dear, dear Madam Mina, now more than ever must we find him
+even if we have to follow him to the jaws of Hell!" She grew paler as
+she asked faintly:--
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because," he answered solemnly, "he can live for centuries, and you are
+but mortal woman. Time is now to be dreaded--since once he put that mark
+upon your throat."
+
+I was just in time to catch her as she fell forward in a faint.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+DR. SEWARD'S PHONOGRAPH DIARY, SPOKEN BY VAN HELSING
+
+
+This to Jonathan Harker.
+
+You are to stay with your dear Madam Mina. We shall go to make our
+search--if I can call it so, for it is not search but knowing, and we
+seek confirmation only. But do you stay and take care of her to-day.
+This is your best and most holiest office. This day nothing can find him
+here. Let me tell you that so you will know what we four know already,
+for I have tell them. He, our enemy, have gone away; he have gone back
+to his Castle in Transylvania. I know it so well, as if a great hand of
+fire wrote it on the wall. He have prepare for this in some way, and
+that last earth-box was ready to ship somewheres. For this he took the
+money; for this he hurry at the last, lest we catch him before the sun
+go down. It was his last hope, save that he might hide in the tomb that
+he think poor Miss Lucy, being as he thought like him, keep open to him.
+But there was not of time. When that fail he make straight for his last
+resource--his last earth-work I might say did I wish _double entente_.
+He is clever, oh, so clever! he know that his game here was finish; and
+so he decide he go back home. He find ship going by the route he came,
+and he go in it. We go off now to find what ship, and whither bound;
+when we have discover that, we come back and tell you all. Then we will
+comfort you and poor dear Madam Mina with new hope. For it will be hope
+when you think it over: that all is not lost. This very creature that we
+pursue, he take hundreds of years to get so far as London; and yet in
+one day, when we know of the disposal of him we drive him out. He is
+finite, though he is powerful to do much harm and suffers not as we do.
+But we are strong, each in our purpose; and we are all more strong
+together. Take heart afresh, dear husband of Madam Mina. This battle is
+but begun, and in the end we shall win--so sure as that God sits on high
+to watch over His children. Therefore be of much comfort till we return.
+
+VAN HELSING.
+
+
+_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
+
+_4 October._--When I read to Mina, Van Helsing's message in the
+phonograph, the poor girl brightened up considerably. Already the
+certainty that the Count is out of the country has given her comfort;
+and comfort is strength to her. For my own part, now that his horrible
+danger is not face to face with us, it seems almost impossible to
+believe in it. Even my own terrible experiences in Castle Dracula seem
+like a long-forgotten dream. Here in the crisp autumn air in the bright
+sunlight----
+
+Alas! how can I disbelieve! In the midst of my thought my eye fell on
+the red scar on my poor darling's white forehead. Whilst that lasts,
+there can be no disbelief. And afterwards the very memory of it will
+keep faith crystal clear. Mina and I fear to be idle, so we have been
+over all the diaries again and again. Somehow, although the reality
+seems greater each time, the pain and the fear seem less. There is
+something of a guiding purpose manifest throughout, which is comforting.
+Mina says that perhaps we are the instruments of ultimate good. It may
+be! I shall try to think as she does. We have never spoken to each other
+yet of the future. It is better to wait till we see the Professor and
+the others after their investigations.
+
+The day is running by more quickly than I ever thought a day could run
+for me again. It is now three o'clock.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_5 October, 5 p. m._--Our meeting for report. Present: Professor Van
+Helsing, Lord Godalming, Dr. Seward, Mr. Quincey Morris, Jonathan
+Harker, Mina Harker.
+
+Dr. Van Helsing described what steps were taken during the day to
+discover on what boat and whither bound Count Dracula made his escape:--
+
+"As I knew that he wanted to get back to Transylvania, I felt sure that
+he must go by the Danube mouth; or by somewhere in the Black Sea, since
+by that way he come. It was a dreary blank that was before us. _Omne
+ignotum pro magnifico_; and so with heavy hearts we start to find what
+ships leave for the Black Sea last night. He was in sailing ship, since
+Madam Mina tell of sails being set. These not so important as to go in
+your list of the shipping in the _Times_, and so we go, by suggestion of
+Lord Godalming, to your Lloyd's, where are note of all ships that sail,
+however so small. There we find that only one Black-Sea-bound ship go
+out with the tide. She is the _Czarina Catherine_, and she sail from
+Doolittle's Wharf for Varna, and thence on to other parts and up the
+Danube. 'Soh!' said I, 'this is the ship whereon is the Count.' So off
+we go to Doolittle's Wharf, and there we find a man in an office of wood
+so small that the man look bigger than the office. From him we inquire
+of the goings of the _Czarina Catherine_. He swear much, and he red face
+and loud of voice, but he good fellow all the same; and when Quincey
+give him something from his pocket which crackle as he roll it up, and
+put it in a so small bag which he have hid deep in his clothing, he
+still better fellow and humble servant to us. He come with us, and ask
+many men who are rough and hot; these be better fellows too when they
+have been no more thirsty. They say much of blood and bloom, and of
+others which I comprehend not, though I guess what they mean; but
+nevertheless they tell us all things which we want to know.
+
+"They make known to us among them, how last afternoon at about five
+o'clock comes a man so hurry. A tall man, thin and pale, with high nose
+and teeth so white, and eyes that seem to be burning. That he be all in
+black, except that he have a hat of straw which suit not him or the
+time. That he scatter his money in making quick inquiry as to what ship
+sails for the Black Sea and for where. Some took him to the office and
+then to the ship, where he will not go aboard but halt at shore end of
+gang-plank, and ask that the captain come to him. The captain come, when
+told that he will be pay well; and though he swear much at the first he
+agree to term. Then the thin man go and some one tell him where horse
+and cart can be hired. He go there and soon he come again, himself
+driving cart on which a great box; this he himself lift down, though it
+take several to put it on truck for the ship. He give much talk to
+captain as to how and where his box is to be place; but the captain like
+it not and swear at him in many tongues, and tell him that if he like he
+can come and see where it shall be. But he say 'no'; that he come not
+yet, for that he have much to do. Whereupon the captain tell him that he
+had better be quick--with blood--for that his ship will leave the
+place--of blood--before the turn of the tide--with blood. Then the thin
+man smile and say that of course he must go when he think fit; but he
+will be surprise if he go quite so soon. The captain swear again,
+polyglot, and the thin man make him bow, and thank him, and say that he
+will so far intrude on his kindness as to come aboard before the
+sailing. Final the captain, more red than ever, and in more tongues tell
+him that he doesn't want no Frenchmen--with bloom upon them and also
+with blood--in his ship--with blood on her also. And so, after asking
+where there might be close at hand a ship where he might purchase ship
+forms, he departed.
+
+"No one knew where he went 'or bloomin' well cared,' as they said, for
+they had something else to think of--well with blood again; for it soon
+became apparent to all that the _Czarina Catherine_ would not sail as
+was expected. A thin mist began to creep up from the river, and it grew,
+and grew; till soon a dense fog enveloped the ship and all around her.
+The captain swore polyglot--very polyglot--polyglot with bloom and
+blood; but he could do nothing. The water rose and rose; and he began to
+fear that he would lose the tide altogether. He was in no friendly mood,
+when just at full tide, the thin man came up the gang-plank again and
+asked to see where his box had been stowed. Then the captain replied
+that he wished that he and his box--old and with much bloom and
+blood--were in hell. But the thin man did not be offend, and went down
+with the mate and saw where it was place, and came up and stood awhile
+on deck in fog. He must have come off by himself, for none notice him.
+Indeed they thought not of him; for soon the fog begin to melt away, and
+all was clear again. My friends of the thirst and the language that was
+of bloom and blood laughed, as they told how the captain's swears
+exceeded even his usual polyglot, and was more than ever full of
+picturesque, when on questioning other mariners who were on movement up
+and down on the river that hour, he found that few of them had seen any
+of fog at all, except where it lay round the wharf. However, the ship
+went out on the ebb tide; and was doubtless by morning far down the
+river mouth. She was by then, when they told us, well out to sea.
+
+"And so, my dear Madam Mina, it is that we have to rest for a time, for
+our enemy is on the sea, with the fog at his command, on his way to the
+Danube mouth. To sail a ship takes time, go she never so quick; and when
+we start we go on land more quick, and we meet him there. Our best hope
+is to come on him when in the box between sunrise and sunset; for then
+he can make no struggle, and we may deal with him as we should. There
+are days for us, in which we can make ready our plan. We know all about
+where he go; for we have seen the owner of the ship, who have shown us
+invoices and all papers that can be. The box we seek is to be landed in
+Varna, and to be given to an agent, one Ristics who will there present
+his credentials; and so our merchant friend will have done his part.
+When he ask if there be any wrong, for that so, he can telegraph and
+have inquiry made at Varna, we say 'no'; for what is to be done is not
+for police or of the customs. It must be done by us alone and in our own
+way."
+
+When Dr. Van Helsing had done speaking, I asked him if he were certain
+that the Count had remained on board the ship. He replied: "We have the
+best proof of that: your own evidence, when in the hypnotic trance this
+morning." I asked him again if it were really necessary that they should
+pursue the Count, for oh! I dread Jonathan leaving me, and I know that
+he would surely go if the others went. He answered in growing passion,
+at first quietly. As he went on, however, he grew more angry and more
+forceful, till in the end we could not but see wherein was at least some
+of that personal dominance which made him so long a master amongst
+men:--
+
+"Yes, it is necessary--necessary--necessary! For your sake in the first,
+and then for the sake of humanity. This monster has done much harm
+already, in the narrow scope where he find himself, and in the short
+time when as yet he was only as a body groping his so small measure in
+darkness and not knowing. All this have I told these others; you, my
+dear Madam Mina, will learn it in the phonograph of my friend John, or
+in that of your husband. I have told them how the measure of leaving his
+own barren land--barren of peoples--and coming to a new land where life
+of man teems till they are like the multitude of standing corn, was the
+work of centuries. Were another of the Un-Dead, like him, to try to do
+what he has done, perhaps not all the centuries of the world that have
+been, or that will be, could aid him. With this one, all the forces of
+nature that are occult and deep and strong must have worked together in
+some wondrous way. The very place, where he have been alive, Un-Dead for
+all these centuries, is full of strangeness of the geologic and chemical
+world. There are deep caverns and fissures that reach none know whither.
+There have been volcanoes, some of whose openings still send out waters
+of strange properties, and gases that kill or make to vivify. Doubtless,
+there is something magnetic or electric in some of these combinations of
+occult forces which work for physical life in strange way; and in
+himself were from the first some great qualities. In a hard and warlike
+time he was celebrate that he have more iron nerve, more subtle brain,
+more braver heart, than any man. In him some vital principle have in
+strange way found their utmost; and as his body keep strong and grow and
+thrive, so his brain grow too. All this without that diabolic aid which
+is surely to him; for it have to yield to the powers that come from,
+and are, symbolic of good. And now this is what he is to us. He have
+infect you--oh, forgive me, my dear, that I must say such; but it is for
+good of you that I speak. He infect you in such wise, that even if he do
+no more, you have only to live--to live in your own old, sweet way; and
+so in time, death, which is of man's common lot and with God's sanction,
+shall make you like to him. This must not be! We have sworn together
+that it must not. Thus are we ministers of God's own wish: that the
+world, and men for whom His Son die, will not be given over to monsters,
+whose very existence would defame Him. He have allowed us to redeem one
+soul already, and we go out as the old knights of the Cross to redeem
+more. Like them we shall travel towards the sunrise; and like them, if
+we fall, we fall in good cause." He paused and I said:--
+
+"But will not the Count take his rebuff wisely? Since he has been driven
+from England, will he not avoid it, as a tiger does the village from
+which he has been hunted?"
+
+"Aha!" he said, "your simile of the tiger good, for me, and I shall
+adopt him. Your man-eater, as they of India call the tiger who has once
+tasted blood of the human, care no more for the other prey, but prowl
+unceasing till he get him. This that we hunt from our village is a
+tiger, too, a man-eater, and he never cease to prowl. Nay, in himself he
+is not one to retire and stay afar. In his life, his living life, he go
+over the Turkey frontier and attack his enemy on his own ground; he be
+beaten back, but did he stay? No! He come again, and again, and again.
+Look at his persistence and endurance. With the child-brain that was to
+him he have long since conceive the idea of coming to a great city. What
+does he do? He find out the place of all the world most of promise for
+him. Then he deliberately set himself down to prepare for the task. He
+find in patience just how is his strength, and what are his powers. He
+study new tongues. He learn new social life; new environment of old
+ways, the politic, the law, the finance, the science, the habit of a new
+land and a new people who have come to be since he was. His glimpse that
+he have had, whet his appetite only and enkeen his desire. Nay, it help
+him to grow as to his brain; for it all prove to him how right he was at
+the first in his surmises. He have done this alone; all alone! from a
+ruin tomb in a forgotten land. What more may he not do when the greater
+world of thought is open to him. He that can smile at death, as we know
+him; who can flourish in the midst of diseases that kill off whole
+peoples. Oh, if such an one was to come from God, and not the Devil,
+what a force for good might he not be in this old world of ours. But we
+are pledged to set the world free. Our toil must be in silence, and our
+efforts all in secret; for in this enlightened age, when men believe not
+even what they see, the doubting of wise men would be his greatest
+strength. It would be at once his sheath and his armour, and his weapons
+to destroy us, his enemies, who are willing to peril even our own souls
+for the safety of one we love--for the good of mankind, and for the
+honour and glory of God."
+
+After a general discussion it was determined that for to-night nothing
+be definitely settled; that we should all sleep on the facts, and try to
+think out the proper conclusions. To-morrow, at breakfast, we are to
+meet again, and, after making our conclusions known to one another, we
+shall decide on some definite cause of action.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I feel a wonderful peace and rest to-night. It is as if some haunting
+presence were removed from me. Perhaps ...
+
+My surmise was not finished, could not be; for I caught sight in the
+mirror of the red mark upon my forehead; and I knew that I was still
+unclean.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_5 October._--We all rose early, and I think that sleep did much for
+each and all of us. When we met at early breakfast there was more
+general cheerfulness than any of us had ever expected to experience
+again.
+
+It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let
+any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way--even by
+death--and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment. More
+than once as we sat around the table, my eyes opened in wonder whether
+the whole of the past days had not been a dream. It was only when I
+caught sight of the red blotch on Mrs. Harker's forehead that I was
+brought back to reality. Even now, when I am gravely revolving the
+matter, it is almost impossible to realise that the cause of all our
+trouble is still existent. Even Mrs. Harker seems to lose sight of her
+trouble for whole spells; it is only now and again, when something
+recalls it to her mind, that she thinks of her terrible scar. We are to
+meet here in my study in half an hour and decide on our course of
+action. I see only one immediate difficulty, I know it by instinct
+rather than reason: we shall all have to speak frankly; and yet I fear
+that in some mysterious way poor Mrs. Harker's tongue is tied. I _know_
+that she forms conclusions of her own, and from all that has been I can
+guess how brilliant and how true they must be; but she will not, or
+cannot, give them utterance. I have mentioned this to Van Helsing, and
+he and I are to talk it over when we are alone. I suppose it is some of
+that horrid poison which has got into her veins beginning to work. The
+Count had his own purposes when he gave her what Van Helsing called "the
+Vampire's baptism of blood." Well, there may be a poison that distils
+itself out of good things; in an age when the existence of ptomaines is
+a mystery we should not wonder at anything! One thing I know: that if my
+instinct be true regarding poor Mrs. Harker's silences, then there is a
+terrible difficulty--an unknown danger--in the work before us. The same
+power that compels her silence may compel her speech. I dare not think
+further; for so I should in my thoughts dishonour a noble woman!
+
+Van Helsing is coming to my study a little before the others. I shall
+try to open the subject with him.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--When the Professor came in, we talked over the state of
+things. I could see that he had something on his mind which he wanted to
+say, but felt some hesitancy about broaching the subject. After beating
+about the bush a little, he said suddenly:--
+
+"Friend John, there is something that you and I must talk of alone, just
+at the first at any rate. Later, we may have to take the others into our
+confidence"; then he stopped, so I waited; he went on:--
+
+"Madam Mina, our poor, dear Madam Mina is changing." A cold shiver ran
+through me to find my worst fears thus endorsed. Van Helsing
+continued:--
+
+"With the sad experience of Miss Lucy, we must this time be warned
+before things go too far. Our task is now in reality more difficult than
+ever, and this new trouble makes every hour of the direst importance. I
+can see the characteristics of the vampire coming in her face. It is now
+but very, very slight; but it is to be seen if we have eyes to notice
+without to prejudge. Her teeth are some sharper, and at times her eyes
+are more hard. But these are not all, there is to her the silence now
+often; as so it was with Miss Lucy. She did not speak, even when she
+wrote that which she wished to be known later. Now my fear is this. If
+it be that she can, by our hypnotic trance, tell what the Count see and
+hear, is it not more true that he who have hypnotise her first, and who
+have drink of her very blood and make her drink of his, should, if he
+will, compel her mind to disclose to him that which she know?" I nodded
+acquiescence; he went on:--
+
+"Then, what we must do is to prevent this; we must keep her ignorant of
+our intent, and so she cannot tell what she know not. This is a painful
+task! Oh, so painful that it heart-break me to think of; but it must be.
+When to-day we meet, I must tell her that for reason which we will not
+to speak she must not more be of our council, but be simply guarded by
+us." He wiped his forehead, which had broken out in profuse perspiration
+at the thought of the pain which he might have to inflict upon the poor
+soul already so tortured. I knew that it would be some sort of comfort
+to him if I told him that I also had come to the same conclusion; for at
+any rate it would take away the pain of doubt. I told him, and the
+effect was as I expected.
+
+It is now close to the time of our general gathering. Van Helsing has
+gone away to prepare for the meeting, and his painful part of it. I
+really believe his purpose is to be able to pray alone.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--At the very outset of our meeting a great personal relief was
+experienced by both Van Helsing and myself. Mrs. Harker had sent a
+message by her husband to say that she would not join us at present, as
+she thought it better that we should be free to discuss our movements
+without her presence to embarrass us. The Professor and I looked at each
+other for an instant, and somehow we both seemed relieved. For my own
+part, I thought that if Mrs. Harker realised the danger herself, it was
+much pain as well as much danger averted. Under the circumstances we
+agreed, by a questioning look and answer, with finger on lip, to
+preserve silence in our suspicions, until we should have been able to
+confer alone again. We went at once into our Plan of Campaign. Van
+Helsing roughly put the facts before us first:--
+
+"The _Czarina Catherine_ left the Thames yesterday morning. It will take
+her at the quickest speed she has ever made at least three weeks to
+reach Varna; but we can travel overland to the same place in three days.
+Now, if we allow for two days less for the ship's voyage, owing to such
+weather influences as we know that the Count can bring to bear; and if
+we allow a whole day and night for any delays which may occur to us,
+then we have a margin of nearly two weeks. Thus, in order to be quite
+safe, we must leave here on 17th at latest. Then we shall at any rate
+be in Varna a day before the ship arrives, and able to make such
+preparations as may be necessary. Of course we shall all go armed--armed
+against evil things, spiritual as well as physical." Here Quincey Morris
+added:--
+
+"I understand that the Count comes from a wolf country, and it may be
+that he shall get there before us. I propose that we add Winchesters to
+our armament. I have a kind of belief in a Winchester when there is any
+trouble of that sort around. Do you remember, Art, when we had the pack
+after us at Tobolsk? What wouldn't we have given then for a repeater
+apiece!"
+
+"Good!" said Van Helsing, "Winchesters it shall be. Quincey's head is
+level at all times, but most so when there is to hunt, metaphor be more
+dishonour to science than wolves be of danger to man. In the meantime we
+can do nothing here; and as I think that Varna is not familiar to any of
+us, why not go there more soon? It is as long to wait here as there.
+To-night and to-morrow we can get ready, and then, if all be well, we
+four can set out on our journey."
+
+"We four?" said Harker interrogatively, looking from one to another of
+us.
+
+"Of course!" answered the Professor quickly, "you must remain to take
+care of your so sweet wife!" Harker was silent for awhile and then said
+in a hollow voice:--
+
+"Let us talk of that part of it in the morning. I want to consult with
+Mina." I thought that now was the time for Van Helsing to warn him not
+to disclose our plans to her; but he took no notice. I looked at him
+significantly and coughed. For answer he put his finger on his lips and
+turned away.
+
+
+_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
+
+_5 October, afternoon._--For some time after our meeting this morning I
+could not think. The new phases of things leave my mind in a state of
+wonder which allows no room for active thought. Mina's determination not
+to take any part in the discussion set me thinking; and as I could not
+argue the matter with her, I could only guess. I am as far as ever from
+a solution now. The way the others received it, too, puzzled me; the
+last time we talked of the subject we agreed that there was to be no
+more concealment of anything amongst us. Mina is sleeping now, calmly
+and sweetly like a little child. Her lips are curved and her face beams
+with happiness. Thank God, there are such moments still for her.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--How strange it all is. I sat watching Mina's happy sleep, and
+came as near to being happy myself as I suppose I shall ever be. As the
+evening drew on, and the earth took its shadows from the sun sinking
+lower, the silence of the room grew more and more solemn to me. All at
+once Mina opened her eyes, and looking at me tenderly, said:--
+
+"Jonathan, I want you to promise me something on your word of honour. A
+promise made to me, but made holily in God's hearing, and not to be
+broken though I should go down on my knees and implore you with bitter
+tears. Quick, you must make it to me at once."
+
+"Mina," I said, "a promise like that, I cannot make at once. I may have
+no right to make it."
+
+"But, dear one," she said, with such spiritual intensity that her eyes
+were like pole stars, "it is I who wish it; and it is not for myself.
+You can ask Dr. Van Helsing if I am not right; if he disagrees you may
+do as you will. Nay, more, if you all agree, later, you are absolved
+from the promise."
+
+"I promise!" I said, and for a moment she looked supremely happy; though
+to me all happiness for her was denied by the red scar on her forehead.
+She said:--
+
+"Promise me that you will not tell me anything of the plans formed for
+the campaign against the Count. Not by word, or inference, or
+implication; not at any time whilst this remains to me!" and she
+solemnly pointed to the scar. I saw that she was in earnest, and said
+solemnly:--
+
+"I promise!" and as I said it I felt that from that instant a door had
+been shut between us.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later, midnight._--Mina has been bright and cheerful all the evening.
+So much so that all the rest seemed to take courage, as if infected
+somewhat with her gaiety; as a result even I myself felt as if the pall
+of gloom which weighs us down were somewhat lifted. We all retired
+early. Mina is now sleeping like a little child; it is a wonderful thing
+that her faculty of sleep remains to her in the midst of her terrible
+trouble. Thank God for it, for then at least she can forget her care.
+Perhaps her example may affect me as her gaiety did to-night. I shall
+try it. Oh! for a dreamless sleep.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_6 October, morning._--Another surprise. Mina woke me early, about the
+same time as yesterday, and asked me to bring Dr. Van Helsing. I thought
+that it was another occasion for hypnotism, and without question went
+for the Professor. He had evidently expected some such call, for I found
+him dressed in his room. His door was ajar, so that he could hear the
+opening of the door of our room. He came at once; as he passed into the
+room, he asked Mina if the others might come, too.
+
+"No," she said quite simply, "it will not be necessary. You can tell
+them just as well. I must go with you on your journey."
+
+Dr. Van Helsing was as startled as I was. After a moment's pause he
+asked:--
+
+"But why?"
+
+"You must take me with you. I am safer with you, and you shall be safer,
+too."
+
+"But why, dear Madam Mina? You know that your safety is our solemnest
+duty. We go into danger, to which you are, or may be, more liable than
+any of us from--from circumstances--things that have been." He paused,
+embarrassed.
+
+As she replied, she raised her finger and pointed to her forehead:--
+
+"I know. That is why I must go. I can tell you now, whilst the sun is
+coming up; I may not be able again. I know that when the Count wills me
+I must go. I know that if he tells me to come in secret, I must come by
+wile; by any device to hoodwink--even Jonathan." God saw the look that
+she turned on me as she spoke, and if there be indeed a Recording Angel
+that look is noted to her everlasting honour. I could only clasp her
+hand. I could not speak; my emotion was too great for even the relief of
+tears. She went on:--
+
+"You men are brave and strong. You are strong in your numbers, for you
+can defy that which would break down the human endurance of one who had
+to guard alone. Besides, I may be of service, since you can hypnotise me
+and so learn that which even I myself do not know." Dr. Van Helsing said
+very gravely:--
+
+"Madam Mina, you are, as always, most wise. You shall with us come; and
+together we shall do that which we go forth to achieve." When he had
+spoken, Mina's long spell of silence made me look at her. She had fallen
+back on her pillow asleep; she did not even wake when I had pulled up
+the blind and let in the sunlight which flooded the room. Van Helsing
+motioned to me to come with him quietly. We went to his room, and within
+a minute Lord Godalming, Dr. Seward, and Mr. Morris were with us also.
+He told them what Mina had said, and went on:--
+
+"In the morning we shall leave for Varna. We have now to deal with a
+new factor: Madam Mina. Oh, but her soul is true. It is to her an agony
+to tell us so much as she has done; but it is most right, and we are
+warned in time. There must be no chance lost, and in Varna we must be
+ready to act the instant when that ship arrives."
+
+"What shall we do exactly?" asked Mr. Morris laconically. The Professor
+paused before replying:--
+
+"We shall at the first board that ship; then, when we have identified
+the box, we shall place a branch of the wild rose on it. This we shall
+fasten, for when it is there none can emerge; so at least says the
+superstition. And to superstition must we trust at the first; it was
+man's faith in the early, and it have its root in faith still. Then,
+when we get the opportunity that we seek, when none are near to see, we
+shall open the box, and--and all will be well."
+
+"I shall not wait for any opportunity," said Morris. "When I see the box
+I shall open it and destroy the monster, though there were a thousand
+men looking on, and if I am to be wiped out for it the next moment!" I
+grasped his hand instinctively and found it as firm as a piece of steel.
+I think he understood my look; I hope he did.
+
+"Good boy," said Dr. Van Helsing. "Brave boy. Quincey is all man. God
+bless him for it. My child, believe me none of us shall lag behind or
+pause from any fear. I do but say what we may do--what we must do. But,
+indeed, indeed we cannot say what we shall do. There are so many things
+which may happen, and their ways and their ends are so various that
+until the moment we may not say. We shall all be armed, in all ways; and
+when the time for the end has come, our effort shall not be lack. Now
+let us to-day put all our affairs in order. Let all things which touch
+on others dear to us, and who on us depend, be complete; for none of us
+can tell what, or when, or how, the end may be. As for me, my own
+affairs are regulate; and as I have nothing else to do, I shall go make
+arrangements for the travel. I shall have all tickets and so forth for
+our journey."
+
+There was nothing further to be said, and we parted. I shall now settle
+up all my affairs of earth, and be ready for whatever may come....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--It is all done; my will is made, and all complete. Mina if she
+survive is my sole heir. If it should not be so, then the others who
+have been so good to us shall have remainder.
+
+It is now drawing towards the sunset; Mina's uneasiness calls my
+attention to it. I am sure that there is something on her mind which the
+time of exact sunset will reveal. These occasions are becoming harrowing
+times for us all, for each sunrise and sunset opens up some new
+danger--some new pain, which, however, may in God's will be means to a
+good end. I write all these things in the diary since my darling must
+not hear them now; but if it may be that she can see them again, they
+shall be ready.
+
+She is calling to me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
+
+
+_11 October, Evening._--Jonathan Harker has asked me to note this, as he
+says he is hardly equal to the task, and he wants an exact record kept.
+
+I think that none of us were surprised when we were asked to see Mrs.
+Harker a little before the time of sunset. We have of late come to
+understand that sunrise and sunset are to her times of peculiar freedom;
+when her old self can be manifest without any controlling force subduing
+or restraining her, or inciting her to action. This mood or condition
+begins some half hour or more before actual sunrise or sunset, and lasts
+till either the sun is high, or whilst the clouds are still aglow with
+the rays streaming above the horizon. At first there is a sort of
+negative condition, as if some tie were loosened, and then the absolute
+freedom quickly follows; when, however, the freedom ceases the
+change-back or relapse comes quickly, preceded only by a spell of
+warning silence.
+
+To-night, when we met, she was somewhat constrained, and bore all the
+signs of an internal struggle. I put it down myself to her making a
+violent effort at the earliest instant she could do so. A very few
+minutes, however, gave her complete control of herself; then, motioning
+her husband to sit beside her on the sofa where she was half reclining,
+she made the rest of us bring chairs up close. Taking her husband's hand
+in hers began:--
+
+"We are all here together in freedom, for perhaps the last time! I know,
+dear; I know that you will always be with me to the end." This was to
+her husband whose hand had, as we could see, tightened upon hers. "In
+the morning we go out upon our task, and God alone knows what may be in
+store for any of us. You are going to be so good to me as to take me
+with you. I know that all that brave earnest men can do for a poor weak
+woman, whose soul perhaps is lost--no, no, not yet, but is at any rate
+at stake--you will do. But you must remember that I am not as you are.
+There is a poison in my blood, in my soul, which may destroy me; which
+must destroy me, unless some relief comes to us. Oh, my friends, you
+know as well as I do, that my soul is at stake; and though I know there
+is one way out for me, you must not and I must not take it!" She looked
+appealingly to us all in turn, beginning and ending with her husband.
+
+"What is that way?" asked Van Helsing in a hoarse voice. "What is that
+way, which we must not--may not--take?"
+
+"That I may die now, either by my own hand or that of another, before
+the greater evil is entirely wrought. I know, and you know, that were I
+once dead you could and would set free my immortal spirit, even as you
+did my poor Lucy's. Were death, or the fear of death, the only thing
+that stood in the way I would not shrink to die here, now, amidst the
+friends who love me. But death is not all. I cannot believe that to die
+in such a case, when there is hope before us and a bitter task to be
+done, is God's will. Therefore, I, on my part, give up here the
+certainty of eternal rest, and go out into the dark where may be the
+blackest things that the world or the nether world holds!" We were all
+silent, for we knew instinctively that this was only a prelude. The
+faces of the others were set and Harker's grew ashen grey; perhaps he
+guessed better than any of us what was coming. She continued:--
+
+"This is what I can give into the hotch-pot." I could not but note the
+quaint legal phrase which she used in such a place, and with all
+seriousness. "What will each of you give? Your lives I know," she went
+on quickly, "that is easy for brave men. Your lives are God's, and you
+can give them back to Him; but what will you give to me?" She looked
+again questioningly, but this time avoided her husband's face. Quincey
+seemed to understand; he nodded, and her face lit up. "Then I shall tell
+you plainly what I want, for there must be no doubtful matter in this
+connection between us now. You must promise me, one and all--even you,
+my beloved husband--that, should the time come, you will kill me."
+
+"What is that time?" The voice was Quincey's, but it was low and
+strained.
+
+"When you shall be convinced that I am so changed that it is better that
+I die that I may live. When I am thus dead in the flesh, then you will,
+without a moment's delay, drive a stake through me and cut off my head;
+or do whatever else may be wanting to give me rest!"
+
+Quincey was the first to rise after the pause. He knelt down before her
+and taking her hand in his said solemnly:--
+
+"I'm only a rough fellow, who hasn't, perhaps, lived as a man should to
+win such a distinction, but I swear to you by all that I hold sacred and
+dear that, should the time ever come, I shall not flinch from the duty
+that you have set us. And I promise you, too, that I shall make all
+certain, for if I am only doubtful I shall take it that the time has
+come!"
+
+"My true friend!" was all she could say amid her fast-falling tears, as,
+bending over, she kissed his hand.
+
+"I swear the same, my dear Madam Mina!" said Van Helsing.
+
+"And I!" said Lord Godalming, each of them in turn kneeling to her to
+take the oath. I followed, myself. Then her husband turned to her
+wan-eyed and with a greenish pallor which subdued the snowy whiteness of
+his hair, and asked:--
+
+"And must I, too, make such a promise, oh, my wife?"
+
+"You too, my dearest," she said, with infinite yearning of pity in her
+voice and eyes. "You must not shrink. You are nearest and dearest and
+all the world to me; our souls are knit into one, for all life and all
+time. Think, dear, that there have been times when brave men have killed
+their wives and their womenkind, to keep them from falling into the
+hands of the enemy. Their hands did not falter any the more because
+those that they loved implored them to slay them. It is men's duty
+towards those whom they love, in such times of sore trial! And oh, my
+dear, if it is to be that I must meet death at any hand, let it be at
+the hand of him that loves me best. Dr. Van Helsing, I have not
+forgotten your mercy in poor Lucy's case to him who loved"--she stopped
+with a flying blush, and changed her phrase--"to him who had best right
+to give her peace. If that time shall come again, I look to you to make
+it a happy memory of my husband's life that it was his loving hand which
+set me free from the awful thrall upon me."
+
+"Again I swear!" came the Professor's resonant voice. Mrs. Harker
+smiled, positively smiled, as with a sigh of relief she leaned back and
+said:--
+
+"And now one word of warning, a warning which you must never forget:
+this time, if it ever come, may come quickly and unexpectedly, and in
+such case you must lose no time in using your opportunity. At such a
+time I myself might be--nay! if the time ever comes, _shall be_--leagued
+with your enemy against you."
+
+"One more request;" she became very solemn as she said this, "it is not
+vital and necessary like the other, but I want you to do one thing for
+me, if you will." We all acquiesced, but no one spoke; there was no need
+to speak:--
+
+"I want you to read the Burial Service." She was interrupted by a deep
+groan from her husband; taking his hand in hers, she held it over her
+heart, and continued: "You must read it over me some day. Whatever may
+be the issue of all this fearful state of things, it will be a sweet
+thought to all or some of us. You, my dearest, will I hope read it, for
+then it will be in your voice in my memory for ever--come what may!"
+
+"But oh, my dear one," he pleaded, "death is afar off from you."
+
+"Nay," she said, holding up a warning hand. "I am deeper in death at
+this moment than if the weight of an earthly grave lay heavy upon me!"
+
+"Oh, my wife, must I read it?" he said, before he began.
+
+"It would comfort me, my husband!" was all she said; and he began to
+read when she had got the book ready.
+
+"How can I--how could any one--tell of that strange scene, its
+solemnity, its gloom, its sadness, its horror; and, withal, its
+sweetness. Even a sceptic, who can see nothing but a travesty of bitter
+truth in anything holy or emotional, would have been melted to the heart
+had he seen that little group of loving and devoted friends kneeling
+round that stricken and sorrowing lady; or heard the tender passion of
+her husband's voice, as in tones so broken with emotion that often he
+had to pause, he read the simple and beautiful service from the Burial
+of the Dead. I--I cannot go on--words--and--v-voice--f-fail m-me!"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+She was right in her instinct. Strange as it all was, bizarre as it may
+hereafter seem even to us who felt its potent influence at the time, it
+comforted us much; and the silence, which showed Mrs. Harker's coming
+relapse from her freedom of soul, did not seem so full of despair to any
+of us as we had dreaded.
+
+
+_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
+
+_15 October, Varna._--We left Charing Cross on the morning of the 12th,
+got to Paris the same night, and took the places secured for us in the
+Orient Express. We travelled night and day, arriving here at about five
+o'clock. Lord Godalming went to the Consulate to see if any telegram had
+arrived for him, whilst the rest of us came on to this hotel--"the
+Odessus." The journey may have had incidents; I was, however, too eager
+to get on, to care for them. Until the _Czarina Catherine_ comes into
+port there will be no interest for me in anything in the wide world.
+Thank God! Mina is well, and looks to be getting stronger; her colour is
+coming back. She sleeps a great deal; throughout the journey she slept
+nearly all the time. Before sunrise and sunset, however, she is very
+wakeful and alert; and it has become a habit for Van Helsing to
+hypnotise her at such times. At first, some effort was needed, and he
+had to make many passes; but now, she seems to yield at once, as if by
+habit, and scarcely any action is needed. He seems to have power at
+these particular moments to simply will, and her thoughts obey him. He
+always asks her what she can see and hear. She answers to the first:--
+
+"Nothing; all is dark." And to the second:--
+
+"I can hear the waves lapping against the ship, and the water rushing
+by. Canvas and cordage strain and masts and yards creak. The wind is
+high--I can hear it in the shrouds, and the bow throws back the foam."
+It is evident that the _Czarina Catherine_ is still at sea, hastening on
+her way to Varna. Lord Godalming has just returned. He had four
+telegrams, one each day since we started, and all to the same effect:
+that the _Czarina Catherine_ had not been reported to Lloyd's from
+anywhere. He had arranged before leaving London that his agent should
+send him every day a telegram saying if the ship had been reported. He
+was to have a message even if she were not reported, so that he might be
+sure that there was a watch being kept at the other end of the wire.
+
+We had dinner and went to bed early. To-morrow we are to see the
+Vice-Consul, and to arrange, if we can, about getting on board the ship
+as soon as she arrives. Van Helsing says that our chance will be to get
+on the boat between sunrise and sunset. The Count, even if he takes the
+form of a bat, cannot cross the running water of his own volition, and
+so cannot leave the ship. As he dare not change to man's form without
+suspicion--which he evidently wishes to avoid--he must remain in the
+box. If, then, we can come on board after sunrise, he is at our mercy;
+for we can open the box and make sure of him, as we did of poor Lucy,
+before he wakes. What mercy he shall get from us will not count for
+much. We think that we shall not have much trouble with officials or the
+seamen. Thank God! this is the country where bribery can do anything,
+and we are well supplied with money. We have only to make sure that the
+ship cannot come into port between sunset and sunrise without our being
+warned, and we shall be safe. Judge Moneybag will settle this case, I
+think!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_16 October._--Mina's report still the same: lapping waves and rushing
+water, darkness and favouring winds. We are evidently in good time, and
+when we hear of the _Czarina Catherine_ we shall be ready. As she must
+pass the Dardanelles we are sure to have some report.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_17 October._--Everything is pretty well fixed now, I think, to welcome
+the Count on his return from his tour. Godalming told the shippers that
+he fancied that the box sent aboard might contain something stolen from
+a friend of his, and got a half consent that he might open it at his own
+risk. The owner gave him a paper telling the Captain to give him every
+facility in doing whatever he chose on board the ship, and also a
+similar authorisation to his agent at Varna. We have seen the agent, who
+was much impressed with Godalming's kindly manner to him, and we are all
+satisfied that whatever he can do to aid our wishes will be done. We
+have already arranged what to do in case we get the box open. If the
+Count is there, Van Helsing and Seward will cut off his head at once and
+drive a stake through his heart. Morris and Godalming and I shall
+prevent interference, even if we have to use the arms which we shall
+have ready. The Professor says that if we can so treat the Count's body,
+it will soon after fall into dust. In such case there would be no
+evidence against us, in case any suspicion of murder were aroused. But
+even if it were not, we should stand or fall by our act, and perhaps
+some day this very script may be evidence to come between some of us and
+a rope. For myself, I should take the chance only too thankfully if it
+were to come. We mean to leave no stone unturned to carry out our
+intent. We have arranged with certain officials that the instant the
+_Czarina Catherine_ is seen, we are to be informed by a special
+messenger.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_24 October._--A whole week of waiting. Daily telegrams to Godalming,
+but only the same story: "Not yet reported." Mina's morning and evening
+hypnotic answer is unvaried: lapping waves, rushing water, and creaking
+masts.
+
+_Telegram, October 24th._
+
+_Rufus Smith, Lloyd's, London, to Lord Godalming, care of H. B. M.
+Vice-Consul, Varna._
+
+"_Czarina Catherine_ reported this morning from Dardanelles."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_25 October._--How I miss my phonograph! To write diary with a pen is
+irksome to me; but Van Helsing says I must. We were all wild with
+excitement yesterday when Godalming got his telegram from Lloyd's. I
+know now what men feel in battle when the call to action is heard. Mrs.
+Harker, alone of our party, did not show any signs of emotion. After
+all, it is not strange that she did not; for we took special care not to
+let her know anything about it, and we all tried not to show any
+excitement when we were in her presence. In old days she would, I am
+sure, have noticed, no matter how we might have tried to conceal it; but
+in this way she is greatly changed during the past three weeks. The
+lethargy grows upon her, and though she seems strong and well, and is
+getting back some of her colour, Van Helsing and I are not satisfied. We
+talk of her often; we have not, however, said a word to the others. It
+would break poor Harker's heart--certainly his nerve--if he knew that we
+had even a suspicion on the subject. Van Helsing examines, he tells me,
+her teeth very carefully, whilst she is in the hypnotic condition, for
+he says that so long as they do not begin to sharpen there is no active
+danger of a change in her. If this change should come, it would be
+necessary to take steps!... We both know what those steps would have to
+be, though we do not mention our thoughts to each other. We should
+neither of us shrink from the task--awful though it be to contemplate.
+"Euthanasia" is an excellent and a comforting word! I am grateful to
+whoever invented it.
+
+It is only about 24 hours' sail from the Dardanelles to here, at the
+rate the _Czarina Catherine_ has come from London. She should therefore
+arrive some time in the morning; but as she cannot possibly get in
+before then, we are all about to retire early. We shall get up at one
+o'clock, so as to be ready.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_25 October, Noon_.--No news yet of the ship's arrival. Mrs. Harker's
+hypnotic report this morning was the same as usual, so it is possible
+that we may get news at any moment. We men are all in a fever of
+excitement, except Harker, who is calm; his hands are cold as ice, and
+an hour ago I found him whetting the edge of the great Ghoorka knife
+which he now always carries with him. It will be a bad lookout for the
+Count if the edge of that "Kukri" ever touches his throat, driven by
+that stern, ice-cold hand!
+
+Van Helsing and I were a little alarmed about Mrs. Harker to-day. About
+noon she got into a sort of lethargy which we did not like; although we
+kept silence to the others, we were neither of us happy about it. She
+had been restless all the morning, so that we were at first glad to know
+that she was sleeping. When, however, her husband mentioned casually
+that she was sleeping so soundly that he could not wake her, we went to
+her room to see for ourselves. She was breathing naturally and looked so
+well and peaceful that we agreed that the sleep was better for her than
+anything else. Poor girl, she has so much to forget that it is no wonder
+that sleep, if it brings oblivion to her, does her good.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Our opinion was justified, for when after a refreshing sleep
+of some hours she woke up, she seemed brighter and better than she had
+been for days. At sunset she made the usual hypnotic report. Wherever he
+may be in the Black Sea, the Count is hurrying to his destination. To
+his doom, I trust!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_26 October._--Another day and no tidings of the _Czarina Catherine_.
+She ought to be here by now. That she is still journeying _somewhere_ is
+apparent, for Mrs. Harker's hypnotic report at sunrise was still the
+same. It is possible that the vessel may be lying by, at times, for fog;
+some of the steamers which came in last evening reported patches of fog
+both to north and south of the port. We must continue our watching, as
+the ship may now be signalled any moment.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_27 October, Noon._--Most strange; no news yet of the ship we wait for.
+Mrs. Harker reported last night and this morning as usual: "lapping
+waves and rushing water," though she added that "the waves were very
+faint." The telegrams from London have been the same: "no further
+report." Van Helsing is terribly anxious, and told me just now that he
+fears the Count is escaping us. He added significantly:--
+
+"I did not like that lethargy of Madam Mina's. Souls and memories can do
+strange things during trance." I was about to ask him more, but Harker
+just then came in, and he held up a warning hand. We must try to-night
+at sunset to make her speak more fully when in her hypnotic state.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ _28 October._--Telegram. _Rufus Smith, London, to Lord Godalming,
+ care H. B. M. Vice Consul, Varna._
+
+ "_Czarina Catherine_ reported entering Galatz at one o'clock
+ to-day."
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_28 October._--When the telegram came announcing the arrival in Galatz I
+do not think it was such a shock to any of us as might have been
+expected. True, we did not know whence, or how, or when, the bolt would
+come; but I think we all expected that something strange would happen.
+The delay of arrival at Varna made us individually satisfied that things
+would not be just as we had expected; we only waited to learn where the
+change would occur. None the less, however, was it a surprise. I suppose
+that nature works on such a hopeful basis that we believe against
+ourselves that things will be as they ought to be, not as we should know
+that they will be. Transcendentalism is a beacon to the angels, even if
+it be a will-o'-the-wisp to man. It was an odd experience and we all
+took it differently. Van Helsing raised his hand over his head for a
+moment, as though in remonstrance with the Almighty; but he said not a
+word, and in a few seconds stood up with his face sternly set. Lord
+Godalming grew very pale, and sat breathing heavily. I was myself half
+stunned and looked in wonder at one after another. Quincey Morris
+tightened his belt with that quick movement which I knew so well; in our
+old wandering days it meant "action." Mrs. Harker grew ghastly white, so
+that the scar on her forehead seemed to burn, but she folded her hands
+meekly and looked up in prayer. Harker smiled--actually smiled--the
+dark, bitter smile of one who is without hope; but at the same time his
+action belied his words, for his hands instinctively sought the hilt of
+the great Kukri knife and rested there. "When does the next train start
+for Galatz?" said Van Helsing to us generally.
+
+"At 6:30 to-morrow morning!" We all started, for the answer came from
+Mrs. Harker.
+
+"How on earth do you know?" said Art.
+
+"You forget--or perhaps you do not know, though Jonathan does and so
+does Dr. Van Helsing--that I am the train fiend. At home in Exeter I
+always used to make up the time-tables, so as to be helpful to my
+husband. I found it so useful sometimes, that I always make a study of
+the time-tables now. I knew that if anything were to take us to Castle
+Dracula we should go by Galatz, or at any rate through Bucharest, so I
+learned the times very carefully. Unhappily there are not many to learn,
+as the only train to-morrow leaves as I say."
+
+"Wonderful woman!" murmured the Professor.
+
+"Can't we get a special?" asked Lord Godalming. Van Helsing shook his
+head: "I fear not. This land is very different from yours or mine; even
+if we did have a special, it would probably not arrive as soon as our
+regular train. Moreover, we have something to prepare. We must think.
+Now let us organize. You, friend Arthur, go to the train and get the
+tickets and arrange that all be ready for us to go in the morning. Do
+you, friend Jonathan, go to the agent of the ship and get from him
+letters to the agent in Galatz, with authority to make search the ship
+just as it was here. Morris Quincey, you see the Vice-Consul, and get
+his aid with his fellow in Galatz and all he can do to make our way
+smooth, so that no times be lost when over the Danube. John will stay
+with Madam Mina and me, and we shall consult. For so if time be long you
+may be delayed; and it will not matter when the sun set, since I am here
+with Madam to make report."
+
+"And I," said Mrs. Harker brightly, and more like her old self than she
+had been for many a long day, "shall try to be of use in all ways, and
+shall think and write for you as I used to do. Something is shifting
+from me in some strange way, and I feel freer than I have been of late!"
+The three younger men looked happier at the moment as they seemed to
+realise the significance of her words; but Van Helsing and I, turning to
+each other, met each a grave and troubled glance. We said nothing at the
+time, however.
+
+When the three men had gone out to their tasks Van Helsing asked Mrs.
+Harker to look up the copy of the diaries and find him the part of
+Harker's journal at the Castle. She went away to get it; when the door
+was shut upon her he said to me:--
+
+"We mean the same! speak out!"
+
+"There is some change. It is a hope that makes me sick, for it may
+deceive us."
+
+"Quite so. Do you know why I asked her to get the manuscript?"
+
+"No!" said I, "unless it was to get an opportunity of seeing me alone."
+
+"You are in part right, friend John, but only in part. I want to tell
+you something. And oh, my friend, I am taking a great--a terrible--risk;
+but I believe it is right. In the moment when Madam Mina said those
+words that arrest both our understanding, an inspiration came to me. In
+the trance of three days ago the Count sent her his spirit to read her
+mind; or more like he took her to see him in his earth-box in the ship
+with water rushing, just as it go free at rise and set of sun. He learn
+then that we are here; for she have more to tell in her open life with
+eyes to see and ears to hear than he, shut, as he is, in his coffin-box.
+Now he make his most effort to escape us. At present he want her not.
+
+"He is sure with his so great knowledge that she will come at his call;
+but he cut her off--take her, as he can do, out of his own power, that
+so she come not to him. Ah! there I have hope that our man-brains that
+have been of man so long and that have not lost the grace of God, will
+come higher than his child-brain that lie in his tomb for centuries,
+that grow not yet to our stature, and that do only work selfish and
+therefore small. Here comes Madam Mina; not a word to her of her trance!
+She know it not; and it would overwhelm her and make despair just when
+we want all her hope, all her courage; when most we want all her great
+brain which is trained like man's brain, but is of sweet woman and have
+a special power which the Count give her, and which he may not take away
+altogether--though he think not so. Hush! let me speak, and you shall
+learn. Oh, John, my friend, we are in awful straits. I fear, as I never
+feared before. We can only trust the good God. Silence! here she comes!"
+
+I thought that the Professor was going to break down and have hysterics,
+just as he had when Lucy died, but with a great effort he controlled
+himself and was at perfect nervous poise when Mrs. Harker tripped into
+the room, bright and happy-looking and, in the doing of work, seemingly
+forgetful of her misery. As she came in, she handed a number of sheets
+of typewriting to Van Helsing. He looked over them gravely, his face
+brightening up as he read. Then holding the pages between his finger and
+thumb he said:--
+
+"Friend John, to you with so much of experience already--and you, too,
+dear Madam Mina, that are young--here is a lesson: do not fear ever to
+think. A half-thought has been buzzing often in my brain, but I fear to
+let him loose his wings. Here now, with more knowledge, I go back to
+where that half-thought come from and I find that he be no half-thought
+at all; that be a whole thought, though so young that he is not yet
+strong to use his little wings. Nay, like the "Ugly Duck" of my friend
+Hans Andersen, he be no duck-thought at all, but a big swan-thought that
+sail nobly on big wings, when the time come for him to try them. See I
+read here what Jonathan have written:--
+
+"That other of his race who, in a later age, again and again, brought
+his forces over The Great River into Turkey Land; who, when he was
+beaten back, came again, and again, and again, though he had to come
+alone from the bloody field where his troops were being slaughtered,
+since he knew that he alone could ultimately triumph."
+
+"What does this tell us? Not much? no! The Count's child-thought see
+nothing; therefore he speak so free. Your man-thought see nothing; my
+man-thought see nothing, till just now. No! But there comes another word
+from some one who speak without thought because she, too, know not what
+it mean--what it _might_ mean. Just as there are elements which rest,
+yet when in nature's course they move on their way and they touch--then
+pouf! and there comes a flash of light, heaven wide, that blind and kill
+and destroy some; but that show up all earth below for leagues and
+leagues. Is it not so? Well, I shall explain. To begin, have you ever
+study the philosophy of crime? 'Yes' and 'No.' You, John, yes; for it is
+a study of insanity. You, no, Madam Mina; for crime touch you not--not
+but once. Still, your mind works true, and argues not _a particulari ad
+universale_. There is this peculiarity in criminals. It is so constant,
+in all countries and at all times, that even police, who know not much
+from philosophy, come to know it empirically, that _it is_. That is to
+be empiric. The criminal always work at one crime--that is the true
+criminal who seems predestinate to crime, and who will of none other.
+This criminal has not full man-brain. He is clever and cunning and
+resourceful; but he be not of man-stature as to brain. He be of
+child-brain in much. Now this criminal of ours is predestinate to crime
+also; he, too, have child-brain, and it is of the child to do what he
+have done. The little bird, the little fish, the little animal learn not
+by principle, but empirically; and when he learn to do, then there is to
+him the ground to start from to do more. '_Dos pou sto_,' said
+Archimedes. 'Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world!' To do once,
+is the fulcrum whereby child-brain become man-brain; and until he have
+the purpose to do more, he continue to do the same again every time,
+just as he have done before! Oh, my dear, I see that your eyes are
+opened, and that to you the lightning flash show all the leagues," for
+Mrs. Harker began to clap her hands and her eyes sparkled. He went on:--
+
+"Now you shall speak. Tell us two dry men of science what you see with
+those so bright eyes." He took her hand and held it whilst she spoke.
+His finger and thumb closed on her pulse, as I thought instinctively and
+unconsciously, as she spoke:--
+
+"The Count is a criminal and of criminal type. Nordau and Lombroso would
+so classify him, and _quâ_ criminal he is of imperfectly formed mind.
+Thus, in a difficulty he has to seek resource in habit. His past is a
+clue, and the one page of it that we know--and that from his own
+lips--tells that once before, when in what Mr. Morris would call a
+'tight place,' he went back to his own country from the land he had
+tried to invade, and thence, without losing purpose, prepared himself
+for a new effort. He came again better equipped for his work; and won.
+So he came to London to invade a new land. He was beaten, and when all
+hope of success was lost, and his existence in danger, he fled back over
+the sea to his home; just as formerly he had fled back over the Danube
+from Turkey Land."
+
+"Good, good! oh, you so clever lady!" said Van Helsing,
+enthusiastically, as he stooped and kissed her hand. A moment later he
+said to me, as calmly as though we had been having a sick-room
+consultation:--
+
+"Seventy-two only; and in all this excitement. I have hope." Turning to
+her again, he said with keen expectation:--
+
+"But go on. Go on! there is more to tell if you will. Be not afraid;
+John and I know. I do in any case, and shall tell you if you are right.
+Speak, without fear!"
+
+"I will try to; but you will forgive me if I seem egotistical."
+
+"Nay! fear not, you must be egotist, for it is of you that we think."
+
+"Then, as he is criminal he is selfish; and as his intellect is small
+and his action is based on selfishness, he confines himself to one
+purpose. That purpose is remorseless. As he fled back over the Danube,
+leaving his forces to be cut to pieces, so now he is intent on being
+safe, careless of all. So his own selfishness frees my soul somewhat
+from the terrible power which he acquired over me on that dreadful
+night. I felt it! Oh, I felt it! Thank God, for His great mercy! My soul
+is freer than it has been since that awful hour; and all that haunts me
+is a fear lest in some trance or dream he may have used my knowledge for
+his ends." The Professor stood up:--
+
+"He has so used your mind; and by it he has left us here in Varna,
+whilst the ship that carried him rushed through enveloping fog up to
+Galatz, where, doubtless, he had made preparation for escaping from us.
+But his child-mind only saw so far; and it may be that, as ever is in
+God's Providence, the very thing that the evil-doer most reckoned on for
+his selfish good, turns out to be his chiefest harm. The hunter is taken
+in his own snare, as the great Psalmist says. For now that he think he
+is free from every trace of us all, and that he has escaped us with so
+many hours to him, then his selfish child-brain will whisper him to
+sleep. He think, too, that as he cut himself off from knowing your mind,
+there can be no knowledge of him to you; there is where he fail! That
+terrible baptism of blood which he give you makes you free to go to him
+in spirit, as you have as yet done in your times of freedom, when the
+sun rise and set. At such times you go by my volition and not by his;
+and this power to good of you and others, as you have won from your
+suffering at his hands. This is now all the more precious that he know
+it not, and to guard himself have even cut himself off from his
+knowledge of our where. We, however, are not selfish, and we believe
+that God is with us through all this blackness, and these many dark
+hours. We shall follow him; and we shall not flinch; even if we peril
+ourselves that we become like him. Friend John, this has been a great
+hour; and it have done much to advance us on our way. You must be scribe
+and write him all down, so that when the others return from their work
+you can give it to them; then they shall know as we do."
+
+And so I have written it whilst we wait their return, and Mrs. Harker
+has written with her typewriter all since she brought the MS. to us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
+
+
+_29 October._--This is written in the train from Varna to Galatz. Last
+night we all assembled a little before the time of sunset. Each of us
+had done his work as well as he could; so far as thought, and endeavour,
+and opportunity go, we are prepared for the whole of our journey, and
+for our work when we get to Galatz. When the usual time came round Mrs.
+Harker prepared herself for her hypnotic effort; and after a longer and
+more serious effort on the part of Van Helsing than has been usually
+necessary, she sank into the trance. Usually she speaks on a hint; but
+this time the Professor had to ask her questions, and to ask them pretty
+resolutely, before we could learn anything; at last her answer came:--
+
+"I can see nothing; we are still; there are no waves lapping, but only a
+steady swirl of water softly running against the hawser. I can hear
+men's voices calling, near and far, and the roll and creak of oars in
+the rowlocks. A gun is fired somewhere; the echo of it seems far away.
+There is tramping of feet overhead, and ropes and chains are dragged
+along. What is this? There is a gleam of light; I can feel the air
+blowing upon me."
+
+Here she stopped. She had risen, as if impulsively, from where she lay
+on the sofa, and raised both her hands, palms upwards, as if lifting a
+weight. Van Helsing and I looked at each other with understanding.
+Quincey raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at her intently, whilst
+Harker's hand instinctively closed round the hilt of his Kukri. There
+was a long pause. We all knew that the time when she could speak was
+passing; but we felt that it was useless to say anything. Suddenly she
+sat up, and, as she opened her eyes, said sweetly:--
+
+"Would none of you like a cup of tea? You must all be so tired!" We
+could only make her happy, and so acquiesced. She bustled off to get
+tea; when she had gone Van Helsing said:--
+
+"You see, my friends. _He_ is close to land: he has left his
+earth-chest. But he has yet to get on shore. In the night he may lie
+hidden somewhere; but if he be not carried on shore, or if the ship do
+not touch it, he cannot achieve the land. In such case he can, if it be
+in the night, change his form and can jump or fly on shore, as he did
+at Whitby. But if the day come before he get on shore, then, unless he
+be carried he cannot escape. And if he be carried, then the customs men
+may discover what the box contain. Thus, in fine, if he escape not on
+shore to-night, or before dawn, there will be the whole day lost to him.
+We may then arrive in time; for if he escape not at night we shall come
+on him in daytime, boxed up and at our mercy; for he dare not be his
+true self, awake and visible, lest he be discovered."
+
+There was no more to be said, so we waited in patience until the dawn;
+at which time we might learn more from Mrs. Harker.
+
+Early this morning we listened, with breathless anxiety, for her
+response in her trance. The hypnotic stage was even longer in coming
+than before; and when it came the time remaining until full sunrise was
+so short that we began to despair. Van Helsing seemed to throw his whole
+soul into the effort; at last, in obedience to his will she made
+reply:--
+
+"All is dark. I hear lapping water, level with me, and some creaking as
+of wood on wood." She paused, and the red sun shot up. We must wait till
+to-night.
+
+And so it is that we are travelling towards Galatz in an agony of
+expectation. We are due to arrive between two and three in the morning;
+but already, at Bucharest, we are three hours late, so we cannot
+possibly get in till well after sun-up. Thus we shall have two more
+hypnotic messages from Mrs. Harker; either or both may possibly throw
+more light on what is happening.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Sunset has come and gone. Fortunately it came at a time when
+there was no distraction; for had it occurred whilst we were at a
+station, we might not have secured the necessary calm and isolation.
+Mrs. Harker yielded to the hypnotic influence even less readily than
+this morning. I am in fear that her power of reading the Count's
+sensations may die away, just when we want it most. It seems to me that
+her imagination is beginning to work. Whilst she has been in the trance
+hitherto she has confined herself to the simplest of facts. If this goes
+on it may ultimately mislead us. If I thought that the Count's power
+over her would die away equally with her power of knowledge it would be
+a happy thought; but I am afraid that it may not be so. When she did
+speak, her words were enigmatical:--
+
+"Something is going out; I can feel it pass me like a cold wind. I can
+hear, far off, confused sounds--as of men talking in strange tongues,
+fierce-falling water, and the howling of wolves." She stopped and a
+shudder ran through her, increasing in intensity for a few seconds,
+till, at the end, she shook as though in a palsy. She said no more, even
+in answer to the Professor's imperative questioning. When she woke from
+the trance, she was cold, and exhausted, and languid; but her mind was
+all alert. She could not remember anything, but asked what she had said;
+when she was told, she pondered over it deeply for a long time and in
+silence.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_30 October, 7 a. m._--We are near Galatz now, and I may not have time
+to write later. Sunrise this morning was anxiously looked for by us all.
+Knowing of the increasing difficulty of procuring the hypnotic trance,
+Van Helsing began his passes earlier than usual. They produced no
+effect, however, until the regular time, when she yielded with a still
+greater difficulty, only a minute before the sun rose. The Professor
+lost no time in his questioning; her answer came with equal quickness:--
+
+"All is dark. I hear water swirling by, level with my ears, and the
+creaking of wood on wood. Cattle low far off. There is another sound, a
+queer one like----" She stopped and grew white, and whiter still.
+
+"Go on; go on! Speak, I command you!" said Van Helsing in an agonised
+voice. At the same time there was despair in his eyes, for the risen sun
+was reddening even Mrs. Harker's pale face. She opened her eyes, and we
+all started as she said, sweetly and seemingly with the utmost
+unconcern:--
+
+"Oh, Professor, why ask me to do what you know I can't? I don't remember
+anything." Then, seeing the look of amazement on our faces, she said,
+turning from one to the other with a troubled look:--
+
+"What have I said? What have I done? I know nothing, only that I was
+lying here, half asleep, and heard you say go on! speak, I command you!'
+It seemed so funny to hear you order me about, as if I were a bad
+child!"
+
+"Oh, Madam Mina," he said, sadly, "it is proof, if proof be needed, of
+how I love and honour you, when a word for your good, spoken more
+earnest than ever, can seem so strange because it is to order her whom I
+am proud to obey!"
+
+The whistles are sounding; we are nearing Galatz. We are on fire with
+anxiety and eagerness.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_30 October._--Mr. Morris took me to the hotel where our rooms had been
+ordered by telegraph, he being the one who could best be spared, since
+he does not speak any foreign language. The forces were distributed
+much as they had been at Varna, except that Lord Godalming went to the
+Vice-Consul, as his rank might serve as an immediate guarantee of some
+sort to the official, we being in extreme hurry. Jonathan and the two
+doctors went to the shipping agent to learn particulars of the arrival
+of the _Czarina Catherine_.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Lord Godalming has returned. The Consul is away, and the
+Vice-Consul sick; so the routine work has been attended to by a clerk.
+He was very obliging, and offered to do anything in his power.
+
+
+_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
+
+_30 October._--At nine o'clock Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, and I called
+on Messrs. Mackenzie & Steinkoff, the agents of the London firm of
+Hapgood. They had received a wire from London, in answer to Lord
+Godalming's telegraphed request, asking us to show them any civility in
+their power. They were more than kind and courteous, and took us at once
+on board the _Czarina Catherine_, which lay at anchor out in the river
+harbour. There we saw the Captain, Donelson by name, who told us of his
+voyage. He said that in all his life he had never had so favourable a
+run.
+
+"Man!" he said, "but it made us afeard, for we expeckit that we should
+have to pay for it wi' some rare piece o' ill luck, so as to keep up the
+average. It's no canny to run frae London to the Black Sea wi' a wind
+ahint ye, as though the Deil himself were blawin' on yer sail for his
+ain purpose. An' a' the time we could no speer a thing. Gin we were nigh
+a ship, or a port, or a headland, a fog fell on us and travelled wi' us,
+till when after it had lifted and we looked out, the deil a thing could
+we see. We ran by Gibraltar wi'oot bein' able to signal; an' till we
+came to the Dardanelles and had to wait to get our permit to pass, we
+never were within hail o' aught. At first I inclined to slack off sail
+and beat about till the fog was lifted; but whiles, I thocht that if the
+Deil was minded to get us into the Black Sea quick, he was like to do it
+whether we would or no. If we had a quick voyage it would be no to our
+miscredit wi' the owners, or no hurt to our traffic; an' the Old Mon who
+had served his ain purpose wad be decently grateful to us for no
+hinderin' him." This mixture of simplicity and cunning, of superstition
+and commercial reasoning, aroused Van Helsing, who said:--
+
+"Mine friend, that Devil is more clever than he is thought by some; and
+he know when he meet his match!" The skipper was not displeased with the
+compliment, and went on:--
+
+"When we got past the Bosphorus the men began to grumble; some o' them,
+the Roumanians, came and asked me to heave overboard a big box which had
+been put on board by a queer lookin' old man just before we had started
+frae London. I had seen them speer at the fellow, and put out their twa
+fingers when they saw him, to guard against the evil eye. Man! but the
+supersteetion of foreigners is pairfectly rideeculous! I sent them aboot
+their business pretty quick; but as just after a fog closed in on us I
+felt a wee bit as they did anent something, though I wouldn't say it was
+agin the big box. Well, on we went, and as the fog didn't let up for
+five days I joost let the wind carry us; for if the Deil wanted to get
+somewheres--well, he would fetch it up a'reet. An' if he didn't, well,
+we'd keep a sharp lookout anyhow. Sure eneuch, we had a fair way and
+deep water all the time; and two days ago, when the mornin' sun came
+through the fog, we found ourselves just in the river opposite Galatz.
+The Roumanians were wild, and wanted me right or wrong to take out the
+box and fling it in the river. I had to argy wi' them aboot it wi' a
+handspike; an' when the last o' them rose off the deck wi' his head in
+his hand, I had convinced them that, evil eye or no evil eye, the
+property and the trust of my owners were better in my hands than in the
+river Danube. They had, mind ye, taken the box on the deck ready to
+fling in, and as it was marked Galatz _via_ Varna, I thocht I'd let it
+lie till we discharged in the port an' get rid o't althegither. We
+didn't do much clearin' that day, an' had to remain the nicht at anchor;
+but in the mornin', braw an' airly, an hour before sun-up, a man came
+aboard wi' an order, written to him from England, to receive a box
+marked for one Count Dracula. Sure eneuch the matter was one ready to
+his hand. He had his papers a' reet, an' glad I was to be rid o' the
+dam' thing, for I was beginnin' masel' to feel uneasy at it. If the Deil
+did have any luggage aboord the ship, I'm thinkin' it was nane ither
+than that same!"
+
+"What was the name of the man who took it?" asked Dr. Van Helsing with
+restrained eagerness.
+
+"I'll be tellin' ye quick!" he answered, and, stepping down to his
+cabin, produced a receipt signed "Immanuel Hildesheim." Burgen-strasse
+16 was the address. We found out that this was all the Captain knew; so
+with thanks we came away.
+
+We found Hildesheim in his office, a Hebrew of rather the Adelphi
+Theatre type, with a nose like a sheep, and a fez. His arguments were
+pointed with specie--we doing the punctuation--and with a little
+bargaining he told us what he knew. This turned out to be simple but
+important. He had received a letter from Mr. de Ville of London, telling
+him to receive, if possible before sunrise so as to avoid customs, a box
+which would arrive at Galatz in the _Czarina Catherine_. This he was to
+give in charge to a certain Petrof Skinsky, who dealt with the Slovaks
+who traded down the river to the port. He had been paid for his work by
+an English bank note, which had been duly cashed for gold at the Danube
+International Bank. When Skinsky had come to him, he had taken him to
+the ship and handed over the box, so as to save porterage. That was all
+he knew.
+
+We then sought for Skinsky, but were unable to find him. One of his
+neighbours, who did not seem to bear him any affection, said that he had
+gone away two days before, no one knew whither. This was corroborated by
+his landlord, who had received by messenger the key of the house
+together with the rent due, in English money. This had been between ten
+and eleven o'clock last night. We were at a standstill again.
+
+Whilst we were talking one came running and breathlessly gasped out that
+the body of Skinsky had been found inside the wall of the churchyard of
+St. Peter, and that the throat had been torn open as if by some wild
+animal. Those we had been speaking with ran off to see the horror, the
+women crying out "This is the work of a Slovak!" We hurried away lest we
+should have been in some way drawn into the affair, and so detained.
+
+As we came home we could arrive at no definite conclusion. We were all
+convinced that the box was on its way, by water, to somewhere; but where
+that might be we would have to discover. With heavy hearts we came home
+to the hotel to Mina.
+
+When we met together, the first thing was to consult as to taking Mina
+again into our confidence. Things are getting desperate, and it is at
+least a chance, though a hazardous one. As a preliminary step, I was
+released from my promise to her.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_30 October, evening._--They were so tired and worn out and dispirited
+that there was nothing to be done till they had some rest; so I asked
+them all to lie down for half an hour whilst I should enter everything
+up to the moment. I feel so grateful to the man who invented the
+"Traveller's" typewriter, and to Mr. Morris for getting this one for
+me. I should have felt quite; astray doing the work if I had to write
+with a pen....
+
+It is all done; poor dear, dear Jonathan, what he must have suffered,
+what must he be suffering now. He lies on the sofa hardly seeming to
+breathe, and his whole body appears in collapse. His brows are knit; his
+face is drawn with pain. Poor fellow, maybe he is thinking, and I can
+see his face all wrinkled up with the concentration of his thoughts. Oh!
+if I could only help at all.... I shall do what I can.
+
+I have asked Dr. Van Helsing, and he has got me all the papers that I
+have not yet seen.... Whilst they are resting, I shall go over all
+carefully, and perhaps I may arrive at some conclusion. I shall try to
+follow the Professor's example, and think without prejudice on the facts
+before me....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I do believe that under God's providence I have made a discovery. I
+shall get the maps and look over them....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I am more than ever sure that I am right. My new conclusion is ready, so
+I shall get our party together and read it. They can judge it; it is
+well to be accurate, and every minute is precious.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Memorandum._
+
+(Entered in her Journal.)
+
+_Ground of inquiry._--Count Dracula's problem is to get back to his own
+place.
+
+(_a_) He must be _brought back_ by some one. This is evident; for had he
+power to move himself as he wished he could go either as man, or wolf,
+or bat, or in some other way. He evidently fears discovery or
+interference, in the state of helplessness in which he must be--confined
+as he is between dawn and sunset in his wooden box.
+
+(_b_) _How is he to be taken?_--Here a process of exclusions may help
+us. By road, by rail, by water?
+
+1. _By Road._--There are endless difficulties, especially in leaving the
+city.
+
+(_x_) There are people; and people are curious, and investigate. A hint,
+a surmise, a doubt as to what might be in the box, would destroy him.
+
+(_y_) There are, or there may be, customs and octroi officers to pass.
+
+(_z_) His pursuers might follow. This is his highest fear; and in order
+to prevent his being betrayed he has repelled, so far as he can, even
+his victim--me!
+
+2. _By Rail._--There is no one in charge of the box. It would have to
+take its chance of being delayed; and delay would be fatal, with enemies
+on the track. True, he might escape at night; but what would he be, if
+left in a strange place with no refuge that he could fly to? This is not
+what he intends; and he does not mean to risk it.
+
+3. _By Water._--Here is the safest way, in one respect, but with most
+danger in another. On the water he is powerless except at night; even
+then he can only summon fog and storm and snow and his wolves. But were
+he wrecked, the living water would engulf him, helpless; and he would
+indeed be lost. He could have the vessel drive to land; but if it were
+unfriendly land, wherein he was not free to move, his position would
+still be desperate.
+
+We know from the record that he was on the water; so what we have to do
+is to ascertain _what_ water.
+
+The first thing is to realise exactly what he has done as yet; we may,
+then, get a light on what his later task is to be.
+
+_Firstly._--We must differentiate between what he did in London as part
+of his general plan of action, when he was pressed for moments and had
+to arrange as best he could.
+
+_Secondly_ we must see, as well as we can surmise it from the facts we
+know of, what he has done here.
+
+As to the first, he evidently intended to arrive at Galatz, and sent
+invoice to Varna to deceive us lest we should ascertain his means of
+exit from England; his immediate and sole purpose then was to escape.
+The proof of this, is the letter of instructions sent to Immanuel
+Hildesheim to clear and take away the box _before sunrise_. There is
+also the instruction to Petrof Skinsky. These we must only guess at; but
+there must have been some letter or message, since Skinsky came to
+Hildesheim.
+
+That, so far, his plans were successful we know. The _Czarina Catherine_
+made a phenomenally quick journey--so much so that Captain Donelson's
+suspicions were aroused; but his superstition united with his canniness
+played the Count's game for him, and he ran with his favouring wind
+through fogs and all till he brought up blindfold at Galatz. That the
+Count's arrangements were well made, has been proved. Hildesheim cleared
+the box, took it off, and gave it to Skinsky. Skinsky took it--and here
+we lose the trail. We only know that the box is somewhere on the water,
+moving along. The customs and the octroi, if there be any, have been
+avoided.
+
+Now we come to what the Count must have done after his arrival--_on
+land_, at Galatz.
+
+The box was given to Skinsky before sunrise. At sunrise the Count could
+appear in his own form. Here, we ask why Skinsky was chosen at all to
+aid in the work? In my husband's diary, Skinsky is mentioned as dealing
+with the Slovaks who trade down the river to the port; and the man's
+remark, that the murder was the work of a Slovak, showed the general
+feeling against his class. The Count wanted isolation.
+
+My surmise is, this: that in London the Count decided to get back to his
+castle by water, as the most safe and secret way. He was brought from
+the castle by Szgany, and probably they delivered their cargo to Slovaks
+who took the boxes to Varna, for there they were shipped for London.
+Thus the Count had knowledge of the persons who could arrange this
+service. When the box was on land, before sunrise or after sunset, he
+came out from his box, met Skinsky and instructed him what to do as to
+arranging the carriage of the box up some river. When this was done, and
+he knew that all was in train, he blotted out his traces, as he thought,
+by murdering his agent.
+
+I have examined the map and find that the river most suitable for the
+Slovaks to have ascended is either the Pruth or the Sereth. I read in
+the typescript that in my trance I heard cows low and water swirling
+level with my ears and the creaking of wood. The Count in his box, then,
+was on a river in an open boat--propelled probably either by oars or
+poles, for the banks are near and it is working against stream. There
+would be no such sound if floating down stream.
+
+Of course it may not be either the Sereth or the Pruth, but we may
+possibly investigate further. Now of these two, the Pruth is the more
+easily navigated, but the Sereth is, at Fundu, joined by the Bistritza
+which runs up round the Borgo Pass. The loop it makes is manifestly as
+close to Dracula's castle as can be got by water.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal--continued._
+
+When I had done reading, Jonathan took me in his arms and kissed me. The
+others kept shaking me by both hands, and Dr. Van Helsing said:--
+
+"Our dear Madam Mina is once more our teacher. Her eyes have been where
+we were blinded. Now we are on the track once again, and this time we
+may succeed. Our enemy is at his most helpless; and if we can come on
+him by day, on the water, our task will be over. He has a start, but he
+is powerless to hasten, as he may not leave his box lest those who carry
+him may suspect; for them to suspect would be to prompt them to throw
+him in the stream where he perish. This he knows, and will not. Now men,
+to our Council of War; for, here and now, we must plan what each and all
+shall do."
+
+"I shall get a steam launch and follow him," said Lord Godalming.
+
+"And I, horses to follow on the bank lest by chance he land," said Mr.
+Morris.
+
+"Good!" said the Professor, "both good. But neither must go alone. There
+must be force to overcome force if need be; the Slovak is strong and
+rough, and he carries rude arms." All the men smiled, for amongst them
+they carried a small arsenal. Said Mr. Morris:--
+
+"I have brought some Winchesters; they are pretty handy in a crowd, and
+there may be wolves. The Count, if you remember, took some other
+precautions; he made some requisitions on others that Mrs. Harker could
+not quite hear or understand. We must be ready at all points." Dr.
+Seward said:--
+
+"I think I had better go with Quincey. We have been accustomed to hunt
+together, and we two, well armed, will be a match for whatever may come
+along. You must not be alone, Art. It may be necessary to fight the
+Slovaks, and a chance thrust--for I don't suppose these fellows carry
+guns--would undo all our plans. There must be no chances, this time; we
+shall, not rest until the Count's head and body have been separated, and
+we are sure that he cannot re-incarnate." He looked at Jonathan as he
+spoke, and Jonathan looked at me. I could see that the poor dear was
+torn about in his mind. Of course he wanted to be with me; but then the
+boat service would, most likely, be the one which would destroy the ...
+the ... the ... Vampire. (Why did I hesitate to write the word?) He was
+silent awhile, and during his silence Dr. Van Helsing spoke:--
+
+"Friend Jonathan, this is to you for twice reasons. First, because you
+are young and brave and can fight, and all energies may be needed at the
+last; and again that it is your right to destroy him--that--which has
+wrought such woe to you and yours. Be not afraid for Madam Mina; she
+will be my care, if I may. I am old. My legs are not so quick to run as
+once; and I am not used to ride so long or to pursue as need be, or to
+fight with lethal weapons. But I can be of other service; I can fight in
+other way. And I can die, if need be, as well as younger men. Now let
+me say that what I would is this: while you, my Lord Godalming and
+friend Jonathan go in your so swift little steamboat up the river, and
+whilst John and Quincey guard the bank where perchance he might be
+landed, I will take Madam Mina right into the heart of the enemy's
+country. Whilst the old fox is tied in his box, floating on the running
+stream whence he cannot escape to land--where he dares not raise the lid
+of his coffin-box lest his Slovak carriers should in fear leave him to
+perish--we shall go in the track where Jonathan went,--from Bistritz
+over the Borgo, and find our way to the Castle of Dracula. Here, Madam
+Mina's hypnotic power will surely help, and we shall find our way--all
+dark and unknown otherwise--after the first sunrise when we are near
+that fateful place. There is much to be done, and other places to be
+made sanctify, so that that nest of vipers be obliterated." Here
+Jonathan interrupted him hotly:--
+
+"Do you mean to say, Professor Van Helsing, that you would bring Mina,
+in her sad case and tainted as she is with that devil's illness, right
+into the jaws of his death-trap? Not for the world! Not for Heaven or
+Hell!" He became almost speechless for a minute, and then went on:--
+
+"Do you know what the place is? Have you seen that awful den of hellish
+infamy--with the very moonlight alive with grisly shapes, and every
+speck of dust that whirls in the wind a devouring monster in embryo?
+Have you felt the Vampire's lips upon your throat?" Here he turned to
+me, and as his eyes lit on my forehead he threw up his arms with a cry:
+"Oh, my God, what have we done to have this terror upon us!" and he sank
+down on the sofa in a collapse of misery. The Professor's voice, as he
+spoke in clear, sweet tones, which seemed to vibrate in the air, calmed
+us all:--
+
+"Oh, my friend, it is because I would save Madam Mina from that awful
+place that I would go. God forbid that I should take her into that
+place. There is work--wild work--to be done there, that her eyes may not
+see. We men here, all save Jonathan, have seen with their own eyes what
+is to be done before that place can be purify. Remember that we are in
+terrible straits. If the Count escape us this time--and he is strong and
+subtle and cunning--he may choose to sleep him for a century, and then
+in time our dear one"--he took my hand--"would come to him to keep him
+company, and would be as those others that you, Jonathan, saw. You have
+told us of their gloating lips; you heard their ribald laugh as they
+clutched the moving bag that the Count threw to them. You shudder; and
+well may it be. Forgive me that I make you so much pain, but it is
+necessary. My friend, is it not a dire need for the which I am giving,
+possibly my life? If it were that any one went into that place to stay,
+it is I who would have to go to keep them company."
+
+"Do as you will," said Jonathan, with a sob that shook him all over, "we
+are in the hands of God!"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Oh, it did me good to see the way that these brave men worked.
+How can women help loving men when they are so earnest, and so true, and
+so brave! And, too, it made me think of the wonderful power of money!
+What can it not do when it is properly applied; and what might it do
+when basely used. I felt so thankful that Lord Godalming is rich, and
+that both he and Mr. Morris, who also has plenty of money, are willing
+to spend it so freely. For if they did not, our little expedition could
+not start, either so promptly or so well equipped, as it will within
+another hour. It is not three hours since it was arranged what part each
+of us was to do; and now Lord Godalming and Jonathan have a lovely steam
+launch, with steam up ready to start at a moment's notice. Dr. Seward
+and Mr. Morris have half a dozen good horses, well appointed. We have
+all the maps and appliances of various kinds that can be had. Professor
+Van Helsing and I are to leave by the 11:40 train to-night for Veresti,
+where we are to get a carriage to drive to the Borgo Pass. We are
+bringing a good deal of ready money, as we are to buy a carriage and
+horses. We shall drive ourselves, for we have no one whom we can trust
+in the matter. The Professor knows something of a great many languages,
+so we shall get on all right. We have all got arms, even for me a
+large-bore revolver; Jonathan would not be happy unless I was armed like
+the rest. Alas! I cannot carry one arm that the rest do; the scar on my
+forehead forbids that. Dear Dr. Van Helsing comforts me by telling me
+that I am fully armed as there may be wolves; the weather is getting
+colder every hour, and there are snow-flurries which come and go as
+warnings.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--It took all my courage to say good-bye to my darling. We may
+never meet again. Courage, Mina! the Professor is looking at you keenly;
+his look is a warning. There must be no tears now--unless it may be that
+God will let them fall in gladness.
+
+
+_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
+
+_October 30. Night._--I am writing this in the light from the furnace
+door of the steam launch: Lord Godalming is firing up. He is an
+experienced hand at the work, as he has had for years a launch of his
+own on the Thames, and another on the Norfolk Broads. Regarding our
+plans, we finally decided that Mina's guess was correct, and that if any
+waterway was chosen for the Count's escape back to his Castle, the
+Sereth and then the Bistritza at its junction, would be the one. We took
+it, that somewhere about the 47th degree, north latitude, would be the
+place chosen for the crossing the country between the river and the
+Carpathians. We have no fear in running at good speed up the river at
+night; there is plenty of water, and the banks are wide enough apart to
+make steaming, even in the dark, easy enough. Lord Godalming tells me to
+sleep for a while, as it is enough for the present for one to be on
+watch. But I cannot sleep--how can I with the terrible danger hanging
+over my darling, and her going out into that awful place.... My only
+comfort is that we are in the hands of God. Only for that faith it would
+be easier to die than to live, and so be quit of all the trouble. Mr.
+Morris and Dr. Seward were off on their long ride before we started;
+they are to keep up the right bank, far enough off to get on higher
+lands where they can see a good stretch of river and avoid the following
+of its curves. They have, for the first stages, two men to ride and lead
+their spare horses--four in all, so as not to excite curiosity. When
+they dismiss the men, which shall be shortly, they shall themselves look
+after the horses. It may be necessary for us to join forces; if so they
+can mount our whole party. One of the saddles has a movable horn, and
+can be easily adapted for Mina, if required.
+
+It is a wild adventure we are on. Here, as we are rushing along through
+the darkness, with the cold from the river seeming to rise up and strike
+us; with all the mysterious voices of the night around us, it all comes
+home. We seem to be drifting into unknown places and unknown ways; into
+a whole world of dark and dreadful things. Godalming is shutting the
+furnace door....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_31 October._--Still hurrying along. The day has come, and Godalming is
+sleeping. I am on watch. The morning is bitterly cold; the furnace heat
+is grateful, though we have heavy fur coats. As yet we have passed only
+a few open boats, but none of them had on board any box or package of
+anything like the size of the one we seek. The men were scared every
+time we turned our electric lamp on them, and fell on their knees and
+prayed.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_1 November, evening._--No news all day; we have found nothing of the
+kind we seek. We have now passed into the Bistritza; and if we are wrong
+in our surmise our chance is gone. We have over-hauled every boat, big
+and little. Early this morning, one crew took us for a Government boat,
+and treated us accordingly. We saw in this a way of smoothing matters,
+so at Fundu, where the Bistritza runs into the Sereth, we got a
+Roumanian flag which we now fly conspicuously. With every boat which we
+have over-hauled since then this trick has succeeded; we have had every
+deference shown to us, and not once any objection to whatever we chose
+to ask or do. Some of the Slovaks tell us that a big boat passed them,
+going at more than usual speed as she had a double crew on board. This
+was before they came to Fundu, so they could not tell us whether the
+boat turned into the Bistritza or continued on up the Sereth. At Fundu
+we could not hear of any such boat, so she must have passed there in the
+night. I am feeling very sleepy; the cold is perhaps beginning to tell
+upon me, and nature must have rest some time. Godalming insists that he
+shall keep the first watch. God bless him for all his goodness to poor
+dear Mina and me.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_2 November, morning._--It is broad daylight. That good fellow would not
+wake me. He says it would have been a sin to, for I slept peacefully and
+was forgetting my trouble. It seems brutally selfish to me to have slept
+so long, and let him watch all night; but he was quite right. I am a new
+man this morning; and, as I sit here and watch him sleeping, I can do
+all that is necessary both as to minding the engine, steering, and
+keeping watch. I can feel that my strength and energy are coming back to
+me. I wonder where Mina is now, and Van Helsing. They should have got to
+Veresti about noon on Wednesday. It would take them some time to get the
+carriage and horses; so if they had started and travelled hard, they
+would be about now at the Borgo Pass. God guide and help them! I am
+afraid to think what may happen. If we could only go faster! but we
+cannot; the engines are throbbing and doing their utmost. I wonder how
+Dr. Seward and Mr. Morris are getting on. There seem to be endless
+streams running down the mountains into this river, but as none of them
+are very large--at present, at all events, though they are terrible
+doubtless in winter and when the snow melts--the horsemen may not have
+met much obstruction. I hope that before we get to Strasba we may see
+them; for if by that time we have not overtaken the Count, it may be
+necessary to take counsel together what to do next.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_2 November._--Three days on the road. No news, and no time to write it
+if there had been, for every moment is precious. We have had only the
+rest needful for the horses; but we are both bearing it wonderfully.
+Those adventurous days of ours are turning up useful. We must push on;
+we shall never feel happy till we get the launch in sight again.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_3 November._--We heard at Fundu that the launch had gone up the
+Bistritza. I wish it wasn't so cold. There are signs of snow coming; and
+if it falls heavy it will stop us. In such case we must get a sledge and
+go on, Russian fashion.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_4 November._--To-day we heard of the launch having been detained by an
+accident when trying to force a way up the rapids. The Slovak boats get
+up all right, by aid of a rope and steering with knowledge. Some went up
+only a few hours before. Godalming is an amateur fitter himself, and
+evidently it was he who put the launch in trim again. Finally, they got
+up the rapids all right, with local help, and are off on the chase
+afresh. I fear that the boat is not any better for the accident; the
+peasantry tell us that after she got upon smooth water again, she kept
+stopping every now and again so long as she was in sight. We must push
+on harder than ever; our help may be wanted soon.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_31 October._--Arrived at Veresti at noon. The Professor tells me that
+this morning at dawn he could hardly hypnotise me at all, and that all I
+could say was: "dark and quiet." He is off now buying a carriage and
+horses. He says that he will later on try to buy additional horses, so
+that we may be able to change them on the way. We have something more
+than 70 miles before us. The country is lovely, and most interesting; if
+only we were under different conditions, how delightful it would be to
+see it all. If Jonathan and I were driving through it alone what a
+pleasure it would be. To stop and see people, and learn something of
+their life, and to fill our minds and memories with all the colour and
+picturesqueness of the whole wild, beautiful country and the quaint
+people! But, alas!--
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_Later._--Dr. Van Helsing has returned. He has got the carriage and
+horses; we are to have some dinner, and to start in an hour. The
+landlady is putting us up a huge basket of provisions; it seems enough
+for a company of soldiers. The Professor encourages her, and whispers to
+me that it may be a week before we can get any good food again. He has
+been shopping too, and has sent home such a wonderful lot of fur coats
+and wraps, and all sorts of warm things. There will not be any chance of
+our being cold.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+We shall soon be off. I am afraid to think what may happen to us. We are
+truly in the hands of God. He alone knows what may be, and I pray Him,
+with all the strength of my sad and humble soul, that He will watch over
+my beloved husband; that whatever may happen, Jonathan may know that I
+loved him and honoured him more than I can say, and that my latest and
+truest thought will be always for him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+MINA HARKER'S JOURNAL
+
+
+_1 November._--All day long we have travelled, and at a good speed. The
+horses seem to know that they are being kindly treated, for they go
+willingly their full stage at best speed. We have now had so many
+changes and find the same thing so constantly that we are encouraged to
+think that the journey will be an easy one. Dr. Van Helsing is laconic;
+he tells the farmers that he is hurrying to Bistritz, and pays them well
+to make the exchange of horses. We get hot soup, or coffee, or tea; and
+off we go. It is a lovely country; full of beauties of all imaginable
+kinds, and the people are brave, and strong, and simple, and seem full
+of nice qualities. They are _very, very_ superstitious. In the first
+house where we stopped, when the woman who served us saw the scar on my
+forehead, she crossed herself and put out two fingers towards me, to
+keep off the evil eye. I believe they went to the trouble of putting an
+extra amount of garlic into our food; and I can't abide garlic. Ever
+since then I have taken care not to take off my hat or veil, and so have
+escaped their suspicions. We are travelling fast, and as we have no
+driver with us to carry tales, we go ahead of scandal; but I daresay
+that fear of the evil eye will follow hard behind us all the way. The
+Professor seems tireless; all day he would not take any rest, though he
+made me sleep for a long spell. At sunset time he hypnotised me, and he
+says that I answered as usual "darkness, lapping water and creaking
+wood"; so our enemy is still on the river. I am afraid to think of
+Jonathan, but somehow I have now no fear for him, or for myself. I write
+this whilst we wait in a farmhouse for the horses to be got ready. Dr.
+Van Helsing is sleeping, Poor dear, he looks very tired and old and
+grey, but his mouth is set as firmly as a conqueror's; even in his sleep
+he is instinct with resolution. When we have well started I must make
+him rest whilst I drive. I shall tell him that we have days before us,
+and we must not break down when most of all his strength will be
+needed.... All is ready; we are off shortly.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_2 November, morning._--I was successful, and we took turns driving all
+night; now the day is on us, bright though cold. There is a strange
+heaviness in the air--I say heaviness for want of a better word; I mean
+that it oppresses us both. It is very cold, and only our warm furs keep
+us comfortable. At dawn Van Helsing hypnotised me; he says I answered
+"darkness, creaking wood and roaring water," so the river is changing as
+they ascend. I do hope that my darling will not run any chance of
+danger--more than need be; but we are in God's hands.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_2 November, night._--All day long driving. The country gets wilder as
+we go, and the great spurs of the Carpathians, which at Veresti seemed
+so far from us and so low on the horizon, now seem to gather round us
+and tower in front. We both seem in good spirits; I think we make an
+effort each to cheer the other; in the doing so we cheer ourselves. Dr.
+Van Helsing says that by morning we shall reach the Borgo Pass. The
+houses are very few here now, and the Professor says that the last horse
+we got will have to go on with us, as we may not be able to change. He
+got two in addition to the two we changed, so that now we have a rude
+four-in-hand. The dear horses are patient and good, and they give us no
+trouble. We are not worried with other travellers, and so even I can
+drive. We shall get to the Pass in daylight; we do not want to arrive
+before. So we take it easy, and have each a long rest in turn. Oh, what
+will to-morrow bring to us? We go to seek the place where my poor
+darling suffered so much. God grant that we may be guided aright, and
+that He will deign to watch over my husband and those dear to us both,
+and who are in such deadly peril. As for me, I am not worthy in His
+sight. Alas! I am unclean to His eyes, and shall be until He may deign
+to let me stand forth in His sight as one of those who have not incurred
+His wrath.
+
+
+_Memorandum by Abraham Van Helsing._
+
+_4 November._--This to my old and true friend John Seward, M.D., of
+Purfleet, London, in case I may not see him. It may explain. It is
+morning, and I write by a fire which all the night I have kept
+alive--Madam Mina aiding me. It is cold, cold; so cold that the grey
+heavy sky is full of snow, which when it falls will settle for all
+winter as the ground is hardening to receive it. It seems to have
+affected Madam Mina; she has been so heavy of head all day that she was
+not like herself. She sleeps, and sleeps, and sleeps! She who is usual
+so alert, have done literally nothing all the day; she even have lost
+her appetite. She make no entry into her little diary, she who write so
+faithful at every pause. Something whisper to me that all is not well.
+However, to-night she is more _vif_. Her long sleep all day have refresh
+and restore her, for now she is all sweet and bright as ever. At sunset
+I try to hypnotise her, but alas! with no effect; the power has grown
+less and less with each day, and to-night it fail me altogether. Well,
+God's will be done--whatever it may be, and whithersoever it may lead!
+
+Now to the historical, for as Madam Mina write not in her stenography, I
+must, in my cumbrous old fashion, that so each day of us may not go
+unrecorded.
+
+We got to the Borgo Pass just after sunrise yesterday morning. When I
+saw the signs of the dawn I got ready for the hypnotism. We stopped our
+carriage, and got down so that there might be no disturbance. I made a
+couch with furs, and Madam Mina, lying down, yield herself as usual, but
+more slow and more short time than ever, to the hypnotic sleep. As
+before, came the answer: "darkness and the swirling of water." Then she
+woke, bright and radiant and we go on our way and soon reach the Pass.
+At this time and place, she become all on fire with zeal; some new
+guiding power be in her manifested, for she point to a road and say:--
+
+"This is the way."
+
+"How know you it?" I ask.
+
+"Of course I know it," she answer, and with a pause, add: "Have not my
+Jonathan travelled it and wrote of his travel?"
+
+At first I think somewhat strange, but soon I see that there be only one
+such by-road. It is used but little, and very different from the coach
+road from the Bukovina to Bistritz, which is more wide and hard, and
+more of use.
+
+So we came down this road; when we meet other ways--not always were we
+sure that they were roads at all, for they be neglect and light snow
+have fallen--the horses know and they only. I give rein to them, and
+they go on so patient. By-and-by we find all the things which Jonathan
+have note in that wonderful diary of him. Then we go on for long, long
+hours and hours. At the first, I tell Madam Mina to sleep; she try, and
+she succeed. She sleep all the time; till at the last, I feel myself to
+suspicious grow, and attempt to wake her. But she sleep on, and I may
+not wake her though I try. I do not wish to try too hard lest I harm
+her; for I know that she have suffer much, and sleep at times be
+all-in-all to her. I think I drowse myself, for all of sudden I feel
+guilt, as though I have done something; I find myself bolt up, with the
+reins in my hand, and the good horses go along jog, jog, just as ever. I
+look down and find Madam Mina still sleep. It is now not far off sunset
+time, and over the snow the light of the sun flow in big yellow flood,
+so that we throw great long shadow on where the mountain rise so steep.
+For we are going up, and up; and all is oh! so wild and rocky, as though
+it were the end of the world.
+
+Then I arouse Madam Mina. This time she wake with not much trouble, and
+then I try to put her to hypnotic sleep. But she sleep not, being as
+though I were not. Still I try and try, till all at once I find her and
+myself in dark; so I look round, and find that the sun have gone down.
+Madam Mina laugh, and I turn and look at her. She is now quite awake,
+and look so well as I never saw her since that night at Carfax when we
+first enter the Count's house. I am amaze, and not at ease then; but she
+is so bright and tender and thoughtful for me that I forget all fear. I
+light a fire, for we have brought supply of wood with us, and she
+prepare food while I undo the horses and set them, tethered in shelter,
+to feed. Then when I return to the fire she have my supper ready. I go
+to help her; but she smile, and tell me that she have eat already--that
+she was so hungry that she would not wait. I like it not, and I have
+grave doubts; but I fear to affright her, and so I am silent of it. She
+help me and I eat alone; and then we wrap in fur and lie beside the
+fire, and I tell her to sleep while I watch. But presently I forget all
+of watching; and when I sudden remember that I watch, I find her lying
+quiet, but awake, and looking at me with so bright eyes. Once, twice
+more the same occur, and I get much sleep till before morning. When I
+wake I try to hypnotise her; but alas! though she shut her eyes
+obedient, she may not sleep. The sun rise up, and up, and up; and then
+sleep come to her too late, but so heavy that she will not wake. I have
+to lift her up, and place her sleeping in the carriage when I have
+harnessed the horses and made all ready. Madam still sleep, and she look
+in her sleep more healthy and more redder than before. And I like it
+not. And I am afraid, afraid, afraid!--I am afraid of all things--even
+to think but I must go on my way. The stake we play for is life and
+death, or more than these, and we must not flinch.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+_5 November, morning._--Let me be accurate in everything, for though you
+and I have seen some strange things together, you may at the first think
+that I, Van Helsing, am mad--that the many horrors and the so long
+strain on nerves has at the last turn my brain.
+
+All yesterday we travel, ever getting closer to the mountains, and
+moving into a more and more wild and desert land. There are great,
+frowning precipices and much falling water, and Nature seem to have held
+sometime her carnival. Madam Mina still sleep and sleep; and though I
+did have hunger and appeased it, I could not waken her--even for food. I
+began to fear that the fatal spell of the place was upon her, tainted as
+she is with that Vampire baptism. "Well," said I to myself, "if it be
+that she sleep all the day, it shall also be that I do not sleep at
+night." As we travel on the rough road, for a road of an ancient and
+imperfect kind there was, I held down my head and slept. Again I waked
+with a sense of guilt and of time passed, and found Madam Mina still
+sleeping, and the sun low down. But all was indeed changed; the frowning
+mountains seemed further away, and we were near the top of a
+steep-rising hill, on summit of which was such a castle as Jonathan tell
+of in his diary. At once I exulted and feared; for now, for good or ill,
+the end was near.
+
+I woke Madam Mina, and again tried to hypnotise her; but alas!
+unavailing till too late. Then, ere the great dark came upon us--for
+even after down-sun the heavens reflected the gone sun on the snow, and
+all was for a time in a great twilight--I took out the horses and fed
+them in what shelter I could. Then I make a fire; and near it I make
+Madam Mina, now awake and more charming than ever, sit comfortable amid
+her rugs. I got ready food: but she would not eat, simply saying that
+she had not hunger. I did not press her, knowing her unavailingness. But
+I myself eat, for I must needs now be strong for all. Then, with the
+fear on me of what might be, I drew a ring so big for her comfort, round
+where Madam Mina sat; and over the ring I passed some of the wafer, and
+I broke it fine so that all was well guarded. She sat still all the
+time--so still as one dead; and she grew whiter and ever whiter till the
+snow was not more pale; and no word she said. But when I drew near, she
+clung to me, and I could know that the poor soul shook her from head to
+feet with a tremor that was pain to feel. I said to her presently, when
+she had grown more quiet:--
+
+"Will you not come over to the fire?" for I wished to make a test of
+what she could. She rose obedient, but when she have made a step she
+stopped, and stood as one stricken.
+
+"Why not go on?" I asked. She shook her head, and, coming back, sat
+down in her place. Then, looking at me with open eyes, as of one waked
+from sleep, she said simply:--
+
+"I cannot!" and remained silent. I rejoiced, for I knew that what she
+could not, none of those that we dreaded could. Though there might be
+danger to her body, yet her soul was safe!
+
+Presently the horses began to scream, and tore at their tethers till I
+came to them and quieted them. When they did feel my hands on them, they
+whinnied low as in joy, and licked at my hands and were quiet for a
+time. Many times through the night did I come to them, till it arrive to
+the cold hour when all nature is at lowest; and every time my coming was
+with quiet of them. In the cold hour the fire began to die, and I was
+about stepping forth to replenish it, for now the snow came in flying
+sweeps and with it a chill mist. Even in the dark there was a light of
+some kind, as there ever is over snow; and it seemed as though the
+snow-flurries and the wreaths of mist took shape as of women with
+trailing garments. All was in dead, grim silence only that the horses
+whinnied and cowered, as if in terror of the worst. I began to
+fear--horrible fears; but then came to me the sense of safety in that
+ring wherein I stood. I began, too, to think that my imaginings were of
+the night, and the gloom, and the unrest that I have gone through, and
+all the terrible anxiety. It was as though my memories of all Jonathan's
+horrid experience were befooling me; for the snow flakes and the mist
+began to wheel and circle round, till I could get as though a shadowy
+glimpse of those women that would have kissed him. And then the horses
+cowered lower and lower, and moaned in terror as men do in pain. Even
+the madness of fright was not to them, so that they could break away. I
+feared for my dear Madam Mina when these weird figures drew near and
+circled round. I looked at her, but she sat calm, and smiled at me; when
+I would have stepped to the fire to replenish it, she caught me and held
+me back, and whispered, like a voice that one hears in a dream, so low
+it was:--
+
+"No! No! Do not go without. Here you are safe!" I turned to her, and
+looking in her eyes, said:--
+
+"But you? It is for you that I fear!" whereat she laughed--a laugh, low
+and unreal, and said:--
+
+"Fear for _me_! Why fear for me? None safer in all the world from them
+than I am," and as I wondered at the meaning of her words, a puff of
+wind made the flame leap up, and I see the red scar on her forehead.
+Then, alas! I knew. Did I not, I would soon have learned, for the
+wheeling figures of mist and snow came closer, but keeping ever without
+the Holy circle. Then they began to materialise till--if God have not
+take away my reason, for I saw it through my eyes--there were before me
+in actual flesh the same three women that Jonathan saw in the room, when
+they would have kissed his throat. I knew the swaying round forms, the
+bright hard eyes, the white teeth, the ruddy colour, the voluptuous
+lips. They smiled ever at poor dear Madam Mina; and as their laugh came
+through the silence of the night, they twined their arms and pointed to
+her, and said in those so sweet tingling tones that Jonathan said were
+of the intolerable sweetness of the water-glasses:--
+
+"Come, sister. Come to us. Come! Come!" In fear I turned to my poor
+Madam Mina, and my heart with gladness leapt like flame; for oh! the
+terror in her sweet eyes, the repulsion, the horror, told a story to my
+heart that was all of hope. God be thanked she was not, yet, of them. I
+seized some of the firewood which was by me, and holding out some of the
+Wafer, advanced on them towards the fire. They drew back before me, and
+laughed their low horrid laugh. I fed the fire, and feared them not; for
+I knew that we were safe within our protections. They could not
+approach, me, whilst so armed, nor Madam Mina whilst she remained within
+the ring, which she could not leave no more than they could enter. The
+horses had ceased to moan, and lay still on the ground; the snow fell on
+them softly, and they grew whiter. I knew that there was for the poor
+beasts no more of terror.
+
+And so we remained till the red of the dawn to fall through the
+snow-gloom. I was desolate and afraid, and full of woe and terror; but
+when that beautiful sun began to climb the horizon life was to me again.
+At the first coming of the dawn the horrid figures melted in the
+whirling mist and snow; the wreaths of transparent gloom moved away
+towards the castle, and were lost.
+
+Instinctively, with the dawn coming, I turned to Madam Mina, intending
+to hypnotise her; but she lay in a deep and sudden sleep, from which I
+could not wake her. I tried to hypnotise through her sleep, but she made
+no response, none at all; and the day broke. I fear yet to stir. I have
+made my fire and have seen the horses, they are all dead. To-day I have
+much to do here, and I keep waiting till the sun is up high; for there
+may be places where I must go, where that sunlight, though snow and mist
+obscure it, will be to me a safety.
+
+I will strengthen me with breakfast, and then I will to my terrible
+work. Madam Mina still sleeps; and, God be thanked! she is calm in her
+sleep....
+
+
+_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
+
+_4 November, evening._--The accident to the launch has been a terrible
+thing for us. Only for it we should have overtaken the boat long ago;
+and by now my dear Mina would have been free. I fear to think of her,
+off on the wolds near that horrid place. We have got horses, and we
+follow on the track. I note this whilst Godalming is getting ready. We
+have our arms. The Szgany must look out if they mean fight. Oh, if only
+Morris and Seward were with us. We must only hope! If I write no more
+Good-bye, Mina! God bless and keep you.
+
+
+_Dr. Seward's Diary._
+
+_5 November._--With the dawn we saw the body of Szgany before us dashing
+away from the river with their leiter-wagon. They surrounded it in a
+cluster, and hurried along as though beset. The snow is falling lightly
+and there is a strange excitement in the air. It may be our own
+feelings, but the depression is strange. Far off I hear the howling of
+wolves; the snow brings them down from the mountains, and there are
+dangers to all of us, and from all sides. The horses are nearly ready,
+and we are soon off. We ride to death of some one. God alone knows who,
+or where, or what, or when, or how it may be....
+
+
+_Dr. Van Helsing's Memorandum._
+
+_5 November, afternoon._--I am at least sane. Thank God for that mercy
+at all events, though the proving it has been dreadful. When I left
+Madam Mina sleeping within the Holy circle, I took my way to the castle.
+The blacksmith hammer which I took in the carriage from Veresti was
+useful; though the doors were all open I broke them off the rusty
+hinges, lest some ill-intent or ill-chance should close them, so that
+being entered I might not get out. Jonathan's bitter experience served
+me here. By memory of his diary I found my way to the old chapel, for I
+knew that here my work lay. The air was oppressive; it seemed as if
+there was some sulphurous fume, which at times made me dizzy. Either
+there was a roaring in my ears or I heard afar off the howl of wolves.
+Then I bethought me of my dear Madam Mina, and I was in terrible plight.
+The dilemma had me between his horns.
+
+Her, I had not dare to take into this place, but left safe from the
+Vampire in that Holy circle; and yet even there would be the wolf! I
+resolve me that my work lay here, and that as to the wolves we must
+submit, if it were God's will. At any rate it was only death and
+freedom beyond. So did I choose for her. Had it but been for myself the
+choice had been easy, the maw of the wolf were better to rest in than
+the grave of the Vampire! So I make my choice to go on with my work.
+
+I knew that there were at least three graves to find--graves that are
+inhabit; so I search, and search, and I find one of them. She lay in her
+Vampire sleep, so full of life and voluptuous beauty that I shudder as
+though I have come to do murder. Ah, I doubt not that in old time, when
+such things were, many a man who set forth to do such a task as mine,
+found at the last his heart fail him, and then his nerve. So he delay,
+and delay, and delay, till the mere beauty and the fascination of the
+wanton Un-Dead have hypnotise him; and he remain on and on, till sunset
+come, and the Vampire sleep be over. Then the beautiful eyes of the fair
+woman open and look love, and the voluptuous mouth present to a
+kiss--and man is weak. And there remain one more victim in the Vampire
+fold; one more to swell the grim and grisly ranks of the Un-Dead!...
+
+There is some fascination, surely, when I am moved by the mere presence
+of such an one, even lying as she lay in a tomb fretted with age and
+heavy with the dust of centuries, though there be that horrid odour such
+as the lairs of the Count have had. Yes, I was moved--I, Van Helsing,
+with all my purpose and with my motive for hate--I was moved to a
+yearning for delay which seemed to paralyse my faculties and to clog my
+very soul. It may have been that the need of natural sleep, and the
+strange oppression of the air were beginning to overcome me. Certain it
+was that I was lapsing into sleep, the open-eyed sleep of one who yields
+to a sweet fascination, when there came through the snow-stilled air a
+long, low wail, so full of woe and pity that it woke me like the sound
+of a clarion. For it was the voice of my dear Madam Mina that I heard.
+
+Then I braced myself again to my horrid task, and found by wrenching
+away tomb-tops one other of the sisters, the other dark one. I dared not
+pause to look on her as I had on her sister, lest once more I should
+begin to be enthrall; but I go on searching until, presently, I find in
+a high great tomb as if made to one much beloved that other fair sister
+which, like Jonathan I had seen to gather herself out of the atoms of
+the mist. She was so fair to look on, so radiantly beautiful, so
+exquisitely voluptuous, that the very instinct of man in me, which calls
+some of my sex to love and to protect one of hers, made my head whirl
+with new emotion. But God be thanked, that soul-wail of my dear Madam
+Mina had not died out of my ears; and, before the spell could be wrought
+further upon me, I had nerved myself to my wild work. By this time I had
+searched all the tombs in the chapel, so far as I could tell; and as
+there had been only three of these Un-Dead phantoms around us in the
+night, I took it that there were no more of active Un-Dead existent.
+There was one great tomb more lordly than all the rest; huge it was, and
+nobly proportioned. On it was but one word
+
+ DRACULA.
+
+This then was the Un-Dead home of the King-Vampire, to whom so many more
+were due. Its emptiness spoke eloquent to make certain what I knew.
+Before I began to restore these women to their dead selves through my
+awful work, I laid in Dracula's tomb some of the Wafer, and so banished
+him from it, Un-Dead, for ever.
+
+Then began my terrible task, and I dreaded it. Had it been but one, it
+had been easy, comparative. But three! To begin twice more after I had
+been through a deed of horror; for if it was terrible with the sweet
+Miss Lucy, what would it not be with these strange ones who had survived
+through centuries, and who had been strengthened by the passing of the
+years; who would, if they could, have fought for their foul lives....
+
+Oh, my friend John, but it was butcher work; had I not been nerved by
+thoughts of other dead, and of the living over whom hung such a pall of
+fear, I could not have gone on. I tremble and tremble even yet, though
+till all was over, God be thanked, my nerve did stand. Had I not seen
+the repose in the first place, and the gladness that stole over it just
+ere the final dissolution came, as realisation that the soul had been
+won, I could not have gone further with my butchery. I could not have
+endured the horrid screeching as the stake drove home; the plunging of
+writhing form, and lips of bloody foam. I should have fled in terror and
+left my work undone. But it is over! And the poor souls, I can pity them
+now and weep, as I think of them placid each in her full sleep of death
+for a short moment ere fading. For, friend John, hardly had my knife
+severed the head of each, before the whole body began to melt away and
+crumble in to its native dust, as though the death that should have come
+centuries agone had at last assert himself and say at once and loud "I
+am here!"
+
+Before I left the castle I so fixed its entrances that never more can
+the Count enter there Un-Dead.
+
+When I stepped into the circle where Madam Mina slept, she woke from her
+sleep, and, seeing, me, cried out in pain that I had endured too much.
+
+"Come!" she said, "come away from this awful place! Let us go to meet my
+husband who is, I know, coming towards us." She was looking thin and
+pale and weak; but her eyes were pure and glowed with fervour. I was
+glad to see her paleness and her illness, for my mind was full of the
+fresh horror of that ruddy vampire sleep.
+
+And so with trust and hope, and yet full of fear, we go eastward to meet
+our friends--and _him_--whom Madam Mina tell me that she _know_ are
+coming to meet us.
+
+
+_Mina Harker's Journal._
+
+_6 November._--It was late in the afternoon when the Professor and I
+took our way towards the east whence I knew Jonathan was coming. We did
+not go fast, though the way was steeply downhill, for we had to take
+heavy rugs and wraps with us; we dared not face the possibility of being
+left without warmth in the cold and the snow. We had to take some of our
+provisions, too, for we were in a perfect desolation, and, so far as we
+could see through the snowfall, there was not even the sign of
+habitation. When we had gone about a mile, I was tired with the heavy
+walking and sat down to rest. Then we looked back and saw where the
+clear line of Dracula's castle cut the sky; for we were so deep under
+the hill whereon it was set that the angle of perspective of the
+Carpathian mountains was far below it. We saw it in all its grandeur,
+perched a thousand feet on the summit of a sheer precipice, and with
+seemingly a great gap between it and the steep of the adjacent mountain
+on any side. There was something wild and uncanny about the place. We
+could hear the distant howling of wolves. They were far off, but the
+sound, even though coming muffled through the deadening snowfall, was
+full of terror. I knew from the way Dr. Van Helsing was searching about
+that he was trying to seek some strategic point, where we would be less
+exposed in case of attack. The rough roadway still led downwards; we
+could trace it through the drifted snow.
+
+In a little while the Professor signalled to me, so I got up and joined
+him. He had found a wonderful spot, a sort of natural hollow in a rock,
+with an entrance like a doorway between two boulders. He took me by the
+hand and drew me in: "See!" he said, "here you will be in shelter; and
+if the wolves do come I can meet them one by one." He brought in our
+furs, and made a snug nest for me, and got out some provisions and
+forced them upon me. But I could not eat; to even try to do so was
+repulsive to me, and, much as I would have liked to please him, I could
+not bring myself to the attempt. He looked very sad, but did not
+reproach me. Taking his field-glasses from the case, he stood on the top
+of the rock, and began to search the horizon. Suddenly he called out:--
+
+"Look! Madam Mina, look! look!" I sprang up and stood beside him on the
+rock; he handed me his glasses and pointed. The snow was now falling
+more heavily, and swirled about fiercely, for a high wind was beginning
+to blow. However, there were times when there were pauses between the
+snow flurries and I could see a long way round. From the height where we
+were it was possible to see a great distance; and far off, beyond the
+white waste of snow, I could see the river lying like a black ribbon in
+kinks and curls as it wound its way. Straight in front of us and not far
+off--in fact, so near that I wondered we had not noticed before--came a
+group of mounted men hurrying along. In the midst of them was a cart, a
+long leiter-wagon which swept from side to side, like a dog's tail
+wagging, with each stern inequality of the road. Outlined against the
+snow as they were, I could see from the men's clothes that they were
+peasants or gypsies of some kind.
+
+On the cart was a great square chest. My heart leaped as I saw it, for I
+felt that the end was coming. The evening was now drawing close, and
+well I knew that at sunset the Thing, which was till then imprisoned
+there, would take new freedom and could in any of many forms elude all
+pursuit. In fear I turned to the Professor; to my consternation,
+however, he was not there. An instant later, I saw him below me. Round
+the rock he had drawn a circle, such as we had found shelter in last
+night. When he had completed it he stood beside me again, saying:--
+
+"At least you shall be safe here from _him_!" He took the glasses from
+me, and at the next lull of the snow swept the whole space below us.
+"See," he said, "they come quickly; they are flogging the horses, and
+galloping as hard as they can." He paused and went on in a hollow
+voice:--
+
+"They are racing for the sunset. We may be too late. God's will be
+done!" Down came another blinding rush of driving snow, and the whole
+landscape was blotted out. It soon passed, however, and once more his
+glasses were fixed on the plain. Then came a sudden cry:--
+
+"Look! Look! Look! See, two horsemen follow fast, coming up from the
+south. It must be Quincey and John. Take the glass. Look before the snow
+blots it all out!" I took it and looked. The two men might be Dr. Seward
+and Mr. Morris. I knew at all events that neither of them was Jonathan.
+At the same time I _knew_ that Jonathan was not far off; looking around
+I saw on the north side of the coming party two other men, riding at
+break-neck speed. One of them I knew was Jonathan, and the other I took,
+of course, to be Lord Godalming. They, too, were pursuing the party with
+the cart. When I told the Professor he shouted in glee like a schoolboy,
+and, after looking intently till a snow fall made sight impossible, he
+laid his Winchester rifle ready for use against the boulder at the
+opening of our shelter. "They are all converging," he said. "When the
+time comes we shall have gypsies on all sides." I got out my revolver
+ready to hand, for whilst we were speaking the howling of wolves came
+louder and closer. When the snow storm abated a moment we looked again.
+It was strange to see the snow falling in such heavy flakes close to us,
+and beyond, the sun shining more and more brightly as it sank down
+towards the far mountain tops. Sweeping the glass all around us I could
+see here and there dots moving singly and in twos and threes and larger
+numbers--the wolves were gathering for their prey.
+
+Every instant seemed an age whilst we waited. The wind came now in
+fierce bursts, and the snow was driven with fury as it swept upon us in
+circling eddies. At times we could not see an arm's length before us;
+but at others, as the hollow-sounding wind swept by us, it seemed to
+clear the air-space around us so that we could see afar off. We had of
+late been so accustomed to watch for sunrise and sunset, that we knew
+with fair accuracy when it would be; and we knew that before long the
+sun would set. It was hard to believe that by our watches it was less
+than an hour that we waited in that rocky shelter before the various
+bodies began to converge close upon us. The wind came now with fiercer
+and more bitter sweeps, and more steadily from the north. It seemingly
+had driven the snow clouds from us, for, with only occasional bursts,
+the snow fell. We could distinguish clearly the individuals of each
+party, the pursued and the pursuers. Strangely enough those pursued did
+not seem to realise, or at least to care, that they were pursued; they
+seemed, however, to hasten with redoubled speed as the sun dropped lower
+and lower on the mountain tops.
+
+Closer and closer they drew. The Professor and I crouched down behind
+our rock, and held our weapons ready; I could see that he was determined
+that they should not pass. One and all were quite unaware of our
+presence.
+
+All at once two voices shouted out to: "Halt!" One was my Jonathan's,
+raised in a high key of passion; the other Mr. Morris' strong resolute
+tone of quiet command. The gypsies may not have known the language, but
+there was no mistaking the tone, in whatever tongue the words were
+spoken. Instinctively they reined in, and at the instant Lord Godalming
+and Jonathan dashed up at one side and Dr. Seward and Mr. Morris on the
+other. The leader of the gypsies, a splendid-looking fellow who sat his
+horse like a centaur, waved them back, and in a fierce voice gave to his
+companions some word to proceed. They lashed the horses which sprang
+forward; but the four men raised their Winchester rifles, and in an
+unmistakable way commanded them to stop. At the same moment Dr. Van
+Helsing and I rose behind the rock and pointed our weapons at them.
+Seeing that they were surrounded the men tightened their reins and drew
+up. The leader turned to them and gave a word at which every man of the
+gypsy party drew what weapon he carried, knife or pistol, and held
+himself in readiness to attack. Issue was joined in an instant.
+
+The leader, with a quick movement of his rein, threw his horse out in
+front, and pointing first to the sun--now close down on the hill
+tops--and then to the castle, said something which I did not understand.
+For answer, all four men of our party threw themselves from their horses
+and dashed towards the cart. I should have felt terrible fear at seeing
+Jonathan in such danger, but that the ardour of battle must have been
+upon me as well as the rest of them; I felt no fear, but only a wild,
+surging desire to do something. Seeing the quick movement of our
+parties, the leader of the gypsies gave a command; his men instantly
+formed round the cart in a sort of undisciplined endeavour, each one
+shouldering and pushing the other in his eagerness to carry out the
+order.
+
+In the midst of this I could see that Jonathan on one side of the ring
+of men, and Quincey on the other, were forcing a way to the cart; it was
+evident that they were bent on finishing their task before the sun
+should set. Nothing seemed to stop or even to hinder them. Neither the
+levelled weapons nor the flashing knives of the gypsies in front, nor
+the howling of the wolves behind, appeared to even attract their
+attention. Jonathan's impetuosity, and the manifest singleness of his
+purpose, seemed to overawe those in front of him; instinctively they
+cowered, aside and let him pass. In an instant he had jumped upon the
+cart, and, with a strength which seemed incredible, raised the great
+box, and flung it over the wheel to the ground. In the meantime, Mr.
+Morris had had to use force to pass through his side of the ring of
+Szgany. All the time I had been breathlessly watching Jonathan I had,
+with the tail of my eye, seen him pressing desperately forward, and had
+seen the knives of the gypsies flash as he won a way through them, and
+they cut at him. He had parried with his great bowie knife, and at first
+I thought that he too had come through in safety; but as he sprang
+beside Jonathan, who had by now jumped from the cart, I could see that
+with his left hand he was clutching at his side, and that the blood was
+spurting through his fingers. He did not delay notwithstanding this, for
+as Jonathan, with desperate energy, attacked one end of the chest,
+attempting to prize off the lid with his great Kukri knife, he attacked
+the other frantically with his bowie. Under the efforts of both men the
+lid began to yield; the nails drew with a quick screeching sound, and
+the top of the box was thrown back.
+
+By this time the gypsies, seeing themselves covered by the Winchesters,
+and at the mercy of Lord Godalming and Dr. Seward, had given in and made
+no resistance. The sun was almost down on the mountain tops, and the
+shadows of the whole group fell long upon the snow. I saw the Count
+lying within the box upon the earth, some of which the rude falling from
+the cart had scattered over him. He was deathly pale, just like a waxen
+image, and the red eyes glared with the horrible vindictive look which I
+knew too well.
+
+As I looked, the eyes saw the sinking sun, and the look of hate in them
+turned to triumph.
+
+But, on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan's great knife.
+I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat; whilst at the same
+moment Mr. Morris's bowie knife plunged into the heart.
+
+It was like a miracle; but before our very eyes, and almost in the
+drawing of a breath, the whole body crumble into dust and passed from
+our sight.
+
+I shall be glad as long as I live that even in that moment of final
+dissolution, there was in the face a look of peace, such as I never
+could have imagined might have rested there.
+
+The Castle of Dracula now stood out against the red sky, and every stone
+of its broken battlements was articulated against the light of the
+setting sun.
+
+The gypsies, taking us as in some way the cause of the extraordinary
+disappearance of the dead man, turned, without a word, and rode away as
+if for their lives. Those who were unmounted jumped upon the
+leiter-wagon and shouted to the horsemen not to desert them. The wolves,
+which had withdrawn to a safe distance, followed in their wake, leaving
+us alone.
+
+Mr. Morris, who had sunk to the ground, leaned on his elbow, holding his
+hand pressed to his side; the blood still gushed through his fingers. I
+flew to him, for the Holy circle did not now keep me back; so did the
+two doctors. Jonathan knelt behind him and the wounded man laid back his
+head on his shoulder. With a sigh he took, with a feeble effort, my hand
+in that of his own which was unstained. He must have seen the anguish of
+my heart in my face, for he smiled at me and said:--
+
+"I am only too happy to have been of any service! Oh, God!" he cried
+suddenly, struggling up to a sitting posture and pointing to me, "It was
+worth for this to die! Look! look!"
+
+The sun was now right down upon the mountain top, and the red gleams
+fell upon my face, so that it was bathed in rosy light. With one impulse
+the men sank on their knees and a deep and earnest "Amen" broke from all
+as their eyes followed the pointing of his finger. The dying man
+spoke:--
+
+"Now God be thanked that all has not been in vain! See! the snow is not
+more stainless than her forehead! The curse has passed away!"
+
+And, to our bitter grief, with a smile and in silence, he died, a
+gallant gentleman.
+
+
+
+
+ NOTE
+
+
+Seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of
+some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured. It
+is an added joy to Mina and to me that our boy's birthday is the same
+day as that on which Quincey Morris died. His mother holds, I know, the
+secret belief that some of our brave friend's spirit has passed into
+him. His bundle of names links all our little band of men together; but
+we call him Quincey.
+
+In the summer of this year we made a journey to Transylvania, and went
+over the old ground which was, and is, to us so full of vivid and
+terrible memories. It was almost impossible to believe that the things
+which we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears were
+living truths. Every trace of all that had been was blotted out. The
+castle stood as before, reared high above a waste of desolation.
+
+When we got home we were talking of the old time--which we could all
+look back on without despair, for Godalming and Seward are both happily
+married. I took the papers from the safe where they had been ever since
+our return so long ago. We were struck with the fact, that in all the
+mass of material of which the record is composed, there is hardly one
+authentic document; nothing but a mass of typewriting, except the later
+note-books of Mina and Seward and myself, and Van Helsing's memorandum.
+We could hardly ask any one, even did we wish to, to accept these as
+proofs of so wild a story. Van Helsing summed it all up as he said, with
+our boy on his knee:--
+
+"We want no proofs; we ask none to believe us! This boy will some day
+know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her
+sweetness and loving care; later on he will understand how some men so
+loved her, that they did dare much for her sake."
+
+JONATHAN HARKER.
+
+ THE END
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ _There's More to Follow!_
+
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+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
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+THE SECRET OF THE BARBICAN
+
+THE ANNEXATION SOCIETY
+
+THE WOLVES AND THE LAMB
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+GREEN INK
+
+THE KING versus WARGRAVE
+
+THE LOST MR. LINTHWAITE
+
+THE MILL OF MANY WINDOWS
+
+THE HEAVEN-KISSED HILL
+
+THE MIDDLE TEMPLE MURDER
+
+RAVENSDENE COURT
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+
+ * * * * *
+
+Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
+
+in a very simply way=> in a very simple way {pg 68}
+
+"The Westminister Gazette," 25 September.=> "The Westminster Gazette,"
+25 September. {pg 165}
+
+It have told him=> She must have told him {pg 169}
+
+from md sight=> from my sight {pg}184
+
+Goldaming=> Godalming {pg 226}
+
+I I did not want to hinder him=> I did not want to hinder him {pg 267}
+
+They lay in a sort of or-orderly=> They lay in a sort of orderly {pg
+279}
+
+Translyvania=> Transylvania {pg 294}
+
+this mrrning from Dardanelles=> this morning from Dardanelles {pg 313}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dracula, by Bram Stoker
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