Dracula

B >> Bram Stoker >> Dracula

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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 loved 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 tomorrow to think of, and there is no rest for
me until . . .

Later--I must have fallen asleep, for I was awakened 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 hypnotize 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.

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 today!" Then turning to her, he said
cheerfully, "And what am I to do for you? For at this hour you do not
want me for nothing."

"I want you to hypnotize 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 tiptoe, 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 ratchet."

"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 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 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 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 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 nothing 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 24

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 today.
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 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. Mina and I fear to be idle, so we
have been over all the diaries again and again. Somehow, although the
reality seem 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.
Omme 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 to other ports and up the Danube. 'So!' 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. 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 gangplank, 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 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
gangplank 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 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 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 to 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
Undead, 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 wonderous way. The very
place, where he have been alive, Undead 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 maneater, 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 maneater, 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 politics,
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 armor, 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."

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