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"There
must be no concealment," she said.
"Alas! We have had
too much already. And besides
there is nothing in all the world that can give me more pain than I have
already endured, than I suffer now! Whatever may happen, it must be of new
hope or of new courage to me!"
Van
Helsing was looking at her fixedly as she spoke, and said, suddenly but
quietly, "But dear Madam Mina, are you not afraid. Not for yourself,
but for others from yourself, after what has happened?"
Her
face grew set in its lines, but her eyes shone with the devotion of a martyr
as she answered, "Ah no! For my mind is made up!"
"To
what?" he asked gently, whilst we were all very still, for each in our
own way we had a sort of vague idea of what she meant.
Her
answer came with direct simplicity, as though she was simply stating a fact,
"Because if I find in myself, and I shall watch keenly for it, a sign
of harm to any that I love, I shall die!"
"You
would not kill yourself?" he asked, hoarsely.
"I
would. If there were no friend
who loved me, who would save me such a pain, and so desperate an
effort!" She looked at him meaningly as she spoke.
He
was sitting down, but now he rose and came close to her and put his hand on
her head as he said solemnly. "My child, there is such an one if it
were for your good. For myself I could hold it in my account with God to
find such an euthanasia for you, even at this moment if it were best. Nay,
were it safe! But my child.
. ."
For
a moment he seemed choked, and a great sob rose in his throat. He gulped it
down and went on, "There are here some who would stand between you and
death. You must not die.
You must not die by any hand, but least of all your own.
Until the other, who has fouled your sweet life, is true dead you
must not die. For if he is still with the quick Undead, your death would
make you even as he is. No, you
must live! You must struggle
and strive to live, though death would seem a boon unspeakable. You must
fight Death himself, though he come to you in pain or in joy.
By the day, or the night, in safety or in peril! On your living soul
I charge you that you do not die. Nay, nor think of death, till this great
evil be past."
The
poor dear grew white as death, and shook and shivered, as I have seen a
quicksand shake and shiver at the incoming of the tide.
We were all silent. We
could do nothing. At length she grew more calm and turning to him said
sweetly, but oh so sorrowfully, as she held out her hand, "I promise
you, my dear friend, that if God will let me live, I shall strive to do so.
Till, if it may be in His good time, this horror may have passed away
from me."
She
was so good and brave that we all felt that our hearts were strengthened to
work and endure for her, and we began to discuss what we were to do. I told
her that she was to have all the papers in the safe, and all the papers or
diaries and phonographs we might hereafter use, and was to keep the record
as she had done before. She was
pleased with the prospect of anything to do, if "pleased" could be
used in connection with so grim an interest.
As
usual Van Helsing had thought ahead of everyone else, and was prepared with
an exact ordering of our work.
"It
is perhaps well," he said, "that at our meeting after our visit to
Carfax we decided not to do anything with the earth boxes that lay there.
Had we done so, the Count must have guessed our purpose, and would doubtless
have taken measures in advance to frustrate such an effort with regard to
the others. But now he does not
know our intentions. Nay, more, in all probability, he does not know that
such a power exists to us as can sterilize his lairs, so that he cannot use
them as of old.
"We
are now so much further advanced in our knowledge as to their disposition
that, when we have examined the house in Piccadilly, we may track the very
last of them. Today then, is ours, and in it rests our hope. The sun that
rose on our sorrow this morning guards us in its course. Until it sets
tonight, that monster must retain whatever form he now has. He is confined
within the limitations of his earthly envelope.
He cannot melt into thin air nor disappear through cracks or chinks
or crannies. If he go through a doorway, he must open the door like a
mortal. And so we have this day to hunt out all his lairs and sterilize
them. So we shall, if we have not yet catch him and destroy him, drive him
to bay in some place where the catching and the destroying shall be, in
time, sure."
Here
I started up for I could not contain myself at the thought that the minutes
and seconds so preciously laden with Mina's life and happiness were flying
from us, since whilst we talked action was impossible. But Van Helsing held
up his hand warningly.
"Nay,
friend Jonathan," he said, "in this, the quickest way home is the
longest way, so your proverb say. We
shall all act and act with desperate quick, when the time has come. But
think, in all probable the key of the situation is in that house in
Piccadilly. The Count may have
many houses which he has bought. Of them he will have deeds of purchase,
keys and other things. He will have paper that he write on.
He will have his book of cheques. There are many belongings that he
must have somewhere. Why not in this place so central, so quiet, where he
come and go by the front or the back at all hours, when in the very vast of
the traffic there is none to notice. We
shall go there and search that house. And when we learn what it holds, then
we do what our friend Arthur call, in his phrases of hunt `stop the earths'
and so we run down our old fox, so? Is
it not?"
"Then
let us come at once," I cried, "we are wasting the precious,
precious time!"
The
Professor did not move, but simply said, "And how are we to get into
that house in Piccadilly?"
"Any
way!" I cried. "We
shall break in if need be."
"And
your police? Where will they be, and what will they say?"
I
was staggered, but I knew that if he wished to delay he had a good reason
for it. So I said, as quietly
as I could, "Don't wait more than need be. You know, I am sure, what
torture I am in."
"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 not 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 houses 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 come 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 regle, and in our work we shall be
en regle 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 in 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 horse backing, 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 purpose? It seems to me
that we ought to take cabs when we go south or east. And even leave them
somewhere near the neighborhood 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.
A
s 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 whitehot 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 Judgement 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 Judgement 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 fear, 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 him, "And now, my
friends, we have a duty here to do. We
must sterilize 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 Scared 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. It may be that with all the others we can be
so successful, then the sunset of this evening may shine of 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
centered, looming up grim and silent in its deserted condition amongst its
more lively and spruce-looking neighbors. 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 proceeded to lay beside him in orderly fashion. Then he stood
up, looked in 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 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
overlooked. 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, notepaper, 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.
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