“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:--