“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:--