“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 in;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 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.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.