“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.