Dracula

B >> Bram Stoker >> Dracula

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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 proceeded to lay beside
him in orderly fashion. Then he stood up, looked in 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 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 overlooked. 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,
notepaper, 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 23

DR. SEWARD'S DIARY

3 October.--The time seemed terribly 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.
Today 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
Arminius 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 zoophagous 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 only he
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 came to him just too late!
Already all of his lairs but one be sterilize 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 not be 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. Today 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 we were 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 dispatch. 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 own 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 today shall see the end. The
time is coming for action. Today 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 pocketbook. "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 pantherlike 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
eyeteeth 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 organized 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 shorn 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.
Realizing 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 fears time, he fears 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 the wild beast, and
understand it so. For me, I make sure that nothing here may be of use
to him, if so that he returns."

As he spoke he put the money remaining in 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 recognize 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 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 shriveling 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 forever 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.

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