{"id":45,"date":"2019-02-25T20:46:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T20:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/dracula\/chapter\/dracula-21\/"},"modified":"2019-02-26T01:30:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T01:30:43","slug":"21","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/chapter\/21\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 21 - Dr. Seward's Diary","rendered":"Chapter 21 – Dr. Seward’s Diary"},"content":{"raw":"\r\n
\r\n\r\n3 October.\u2014Let me put down with exactness all that happened, as\r\nwell as I can remember, since last I made an entry. Not a detail\r\nthat I can recall must be forgotten. In all calmness I must\r\nproceed.\r\n\r\nWhen I came to Renfield's room I found him lying on the floor on\r\nhis left side in a glittering pool of blood. When I went to move\r\nhim, it became at once apparent that he had received some terrible\r\ninjuries. There seemed none of the unity of purpose between the\r\nparts of the body which marks even lethargic sanity. As the face\r\nwas exposed I could see that it was horribly bruised, as though it\r\nhad been beaten against the floor. Indeed it was from the face\r\nwounds that the pool of blood originated.\r\n\r\nThe attendant who was kneeling beside the body said to me as we\r\nturned him over, \"I think, sir, his back is broken. See, both his\r\nright arm and leg and the whole side of his face are paralysed.\"\r\nHow such a thing could have happened puzzled the attendant beyond\r\nmeasure. He seemed quite bewildered, and his brows were gathered in\r\nas he said, \"I can't understand the two things. He could mark his\r\nface like that by beating his own head on the floor. I saw a young\r\nwoman do it once at the Eversfield Asylum before anyone could lay\r\nhands on her. And I suppose he might have broken his neck by\r\nfalling out of bed, if he got in an awkward kink. But for the life\r\nof me I can't imagine how the two things occurred. If his back was\r\nbroke, he couldn't beat his head, and if his face was like that\r\nbefore the fall out of bed, there would be marks of it.\"\r\n\r\nI said to him, \"Go to Dr. Van Helsing, and ask him to kindly\r\ncome here at once. I want him without an instant's delay.\"\r\n\r\nThe man ran off, and within a few minutes the Professor, in his\r\ndressing gown and slippers, appeared. When he saw Renfield on the\r\nground, he looked keenly at him a moment, and then turned to me. I\r\nthink he recognized my thought in my eyes, for he said very\r\nquietly, manifestly for the ears of the attendant, \"Ah, a sad\r\naccident! He will need very careful watching, and much attention. I\r\nshall stay with you myself, but I shall first dress myself. If you\r\nwill remain I shall in a few minutes join you.\"\r\n\r\nThe patient was now breathing stertorously and it was easy to\r\nsee that he had suffered some terrible injury.\r\n\r\nVan Helsing returned with extraordinary celerity, bearing with\r\nhim a surgical case. He had evidently been thinking and had his\r\nmind made up, for almost before he looked at the patient, he\r\nwhispered to me, \"Send the attendant away. We must be alone with\r\nhim when he becomes conscious, after the operation.\"\r\n\r\nI said, \"I think that will do now, Simmons. We have done all\r\nthat we can at present. You had better go your round, and Dr. Van\r\nHelsing will operate. Let me know instantly if there be anything\r\nunusual anywhere.\"\r\n\r\nThe man withdrew, and we went into a strict examination of the\r\npatient. The wounds of the face were superficial. The real injury\r\nwas a depressed fracture of the skull, extending right up through\r\nthe motor area.\r\n\r\nThe Professor thought a moment and said,\"We must reduce the\r\npressure and get back to normal conditions, as far as can be. The\r\nrapidity of the suffusion shows the terrible nature of his injury.\r\nThe whole motor area seems affected. The suffusion of the brain\r\nwill increase quickly, so we must trephine at once or it may be too\r\nlate.\"\r\n\r\nAs he was speaking there was a soft tapping at the door. I went\r\nover and opened it and found in the corridor without, Arthur and\r\nQuincey in pajamas and slippers, the former spoke, \"I heard your\r\nman call up Dr. Van Helsing and tell him of an accident. So I woke\r\nQuincey or rather called for him as he was not asleep. Things are\r\nmoving too quickly and too strangely for sound sleep for any of us\r\nthese times. I've been thinking that tomorrow night will not see\r\nthings as they have been. We'll have to look back, and forward a\r\nlittle more than we have done. May we come in?\"\r\n\r\nI nodded, and held the door open till they had entered, then I\r\nclosed it again. When Quincey saw the attitude and state of the\r\npatient, and noted the horrible pool on the floor, he said softly,\r\n\"My God! What has happened to him? Poor, poor devil!\"\r\n\r\nI told him briefly, and added that we expected he would recover\r\nconsciousness after the operation, for a short time, at all events.\r\nHe went at once and sat down on the edge of the bed, with Godalming\r\nbeside him. We all watched in patience.\r\n\r\n\"We shall wait,\" said Van Helsing, \"just long enough to fix the\r\nbest spot for trephining, so that we may most quickly and perfectly\r\nremove the blood clot, for it is evident that the haemorrhage is\r\nincreasing.\"\r\n\r\nThe minutes during which we waited passed with fearful slowness.\r\nI had a horrible sinking in my heart, and from Van Helsing's face I\r\ngathered that he felt some fear or apprehension as to what was to\r\ncome. I dreaded the words Renfield might speak. I was positively\r\nafraid to think. But the conviction of what was coming was on me,\r\nas I have read of men who have heard the death watch. The poor\r\nman's breathing came in uncertain gasps.Each instant he seemed as\r\nthough he would open his eyes and speak, but then would follow a\r\nprolonged stertorous breath, and he would relapse into a more fixed\r\ninsensibility. Inured as I was to sick beds and death, this\r\nsuspense grew and grew upon me. I could almost hear the beating of\r\nmy own heart, and the blood surging through my temples sounded like\r\nblows from a hammer. The silence finally became agonizing. I looked\r\nat my companions, one after another, and saw from their flushed\r\nfaces and damp brows that they were enduring equal torture. There\r\nwas a nervous suspense over us all, as though overhead some dread\r\nbell would peal out powerfully when we should least expect it.\r\n\r\nAt last there came a time when it was evident that the patient\r\nwas sinking fast. He might die at any moment. I looked up at the\r\nProfessor and caught his eyes fixed on mine. His face was sternly\r\nset as he spoke, \"There is no time to lose. His words may be worth\r\nmany lives. I have been thinking so, as I stood here. It may be\r\nthere is a soul at stake! We shall operate just above the ear.\"\r\n\r\nWithout another word he made the operation. For a few moments\r\nthe breathing continued to be stertorous. Then there came a breath\r\nso prolonged that it seemed as though it would tear open his chest.\r\nSuddenly his eyes opened, and became fixed in a wild, helpless\r\nstare. This was continued for a few moments, then it was softened\r\ninto a glad surprise, and from his lips came a sigh of relief. He\r\nmoved convulsively, and as he did so, said, \"I'll be quiet, Doctor.\r\nTell them to take off the strait waistcoat. I have had a terrible\r\ndream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot move. What's wrong\r\nwith my face? It feels all swollen, and it smarts dreadfully.\"\r\n\r\nHe tried to turn his head, but even with the effort his eyes\r\nseemed to grow glassy again so I gently put it back. Then Van\r\nHelsing said in a quiet grave tone, \"Tell us your dream, Mr.\r\nRenfield.\"\r\n\r\nAs he heard the voice his face brightened, through its\r\nmutilation, and he said, \"That is Dr. Van Helsing. How good it is\r\nof you to be here. Give me some water, my lips are dry, and I shall\r\ntry to tell you. I dreamed\"\u00a0\u2026\r\n\r\nHe stopped and seemed fainting. I called quietly to Quincey,\r\n\"The brandy, it is in my study, quick!\" He flew and returned with a\r\nglass, the decanter of brandy and a carafe of water. We moistened\r\nthe parched lips, and the patient quickly revived.\r\n\r\nIt seemed, however, that his poor injured brain had been working\r\nin the interval, for when he was quite conscious, he looked at me\r\npiercingly with an agonized confusion which I shall never forget,\r\nand said, \"I must not deceive myself. It was no dream, but all a\r\ngrim reality.\" Then his eyes roved round the room. As they caught\r\nsight of the two figures sitting patiently on the edge of the bed\r\nhe went on, \"If I were not sure already, I would know from\r\nthem.\"\r\n\r\nFor an instant his eyes closed, not with pain or sleep but\r\nvoluntarily, as though he were bringing all his faculties to bear.\r\nWhen he opened them he said, hurriedly, and with more energy than\r\nhe had yet displayed, \"Quick, Doctor, quick, I am dying! I feel\r\nthat I have but a few minutes, and then I must go back to death, or\r\nworse! Wet my lips with brandy again. I have something that I must\r\nsay before I die. Or before my poor crushed brain dies anyhow.\r\nThank you! It was that night after you left me, when I implored you\r\nto let me go away. I couldn't speak then, for I felt my tongue was\r\ntied. But I was as sane then, except in that way, as I am now. I\r\nwas in an agony of despair for a long time after you left me, it\r\nseemed hours. Then there came a sudden peace to me. My brain seemed\r\nto become cool again, and I realized where I was. I heard the dogs\r\nbark behind our house, but not where He was!\"\r\n\r\nAs he spoke, Van Helsing's eyes never blinked, but his hand came\r\nout and met mine and gripped it hard. He did not, however, betray\r\nhimself. He nodded slightly and said, \"Go on,\" in a low voice.\r\n\r\nRenfield proceeded. \"He came up to the window in the mist, as I\r\nhad seen him often before, but he was solid then, not a ghost, and\r\nhis eyes were fierce like a man's when angry. He was laughing with\r\nhis red mouth, the sharp white teeth glinted in the moonlight when\r\nhe turned to look back over the belt of trees, to where the dogs\r\nwere barking. I wouldn't ask him to come in at first, though I knew\r\nhe wanted to, just as he had wanted all along. Then he began\r\npromising me things, not in words but by doing them.\"\r\n\r\nHe was interrupted by a word from the Professor, \"How?\"\r\n\r\n\"By making them happen. Just as he used to send in the flies\r\nwhen the sun was shining. Great big fat ones with steel and\r\nsapphire on their wings. And big moths, in the night, with skull\r\nand cross-bones on their backs.\"\r\n\r\nVan Helsing nodded to him as he whispered to me unconsciously,\r\n\"The Acherontia Atropos of the Sphinges, what you call the\r\n`Death's-head Moth'?\"\r\n\r\nThe patient went on without stopping, \"Then he began to\r\nwhisper.`Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, millions of them,\r\nand every one a life. And dogs to eat them, and cats too. All\r\nlives! All red blood, with years of life in it, and not merely\r\nbuzzing flies!' I laughed at him, for I wanted to see what he could\r\ndo. Then the dogs howled, away beyond the dark trees in His house.\r\nHe beckoned me to the window. I got up and looked out, and He\r\nraised his hands,and seemed to call out without using any words. A\r\ndark mass spread over the grass, coming on like the shape of a\r\nflame of fire. And then He moved the mist to the right and left,\r\nand I could see that there were thousands of rats with their eyes\r\nblazing red, like His only smaller. He held up his hand, and they\r\nall stopped, and I thought he seemed to be saying, `All these lives\r\nwill I give you, ay, and many more and greater, through countless\r\nages, if you will fall down and worship me!' And then a red cloud,\r\nlike the color of blood, seemed to close over my eyes, and before I\r\nknew what I was doing, I found myself opening the sash and saying\r\nto Him, `Come in, Lord and Master!' The rats were all gone, but He\r\nslid into the room through the sash, though it was only open an\r\ninch wide, just as the Moon herself has often come in through the\r\ntiniest crack and has stood before me in all her size and\r\nsplendor.\"\r\n\r\nHis voice was weaker, so I moistened his lips with the brandy\r\nagain, and he continued, but it seemed as though his memory had\r\ngone on working in the interval for his story was further advanced.\r\nI was about to call him back to the point, but Van Helsing\r\nwhispered to me, \"Let him go on. Do not interrupt him. He cannot go\r\nback, and maybe could not proceed at all if once he lost the thread\r\nof his thought.\"\r\n\r\nHe proceeded, \"All day I waited to hear from him, but he did not\r\nsend me anything, not even a blowfly, and when the moon got up I\r\nwas pretty angry with him. When he did slide in through the window,\r\nthough it was shut, and did not even knock, I got mad with him. He\r\nsneered at me, and his white face looked out of the mist with his\r\nred eyes gleaming, and he went on as though he owned the whole\r\nplace, and I was no one. He didn't even smell the same as he went\r\nby me. I couldn't hold him. I thought that, somehow, Mrs. Harker\r\nhad come into the room.\"\r\n\r\nThe two men sitting on the bed stood up and came over, standing\r\nbehind him so that he could not see them, but where they could hear\r\nbetter. They were both silent, but the Professor started and\r\nquivered. His face, however, grew grimmer and sterner still.\r\nRenfield went on without noticing, \"When Mrs. Harker came in to see\r\nme this afternoon she wasn't the same. It was like tea after the\r\nteapot has been watered.\" Here we all moved, but no one said a\r\nword.\r\n\r\nHe went on, \"I didn't know that she was here till she spoke, and\r\nshe didn't look the same. I don't care for the pale people. I like\r\nthem with lots of blood in them, and hers all seemed to have run\r\nout. I didn't think of it at the time, but when she went away I\r\nbegan to think, and it made me mad to know that He had been taking\r\nthe life out of her.\" I could feel that the rest quivered, as I\r\ndid. But we remained otherwise still. \"So when He came tonight I\r\nwas ready for Him. I saw the mist stealing in, and I grabbed it\r\ntight. I had heard that madmen have unnatural strength. And as I\r\nknew I was a madman, at times anyhow, I resolved to use my power.\r\nAy, and He felt it too, for He had to come out of the mist to\r\nstruggle with me. I held tight, and I thought I was going to win,\r\nfor I didn't mean Him to take any more of her life, till I saw His\r\neyes. They burned into me, and my strength became like water. He\r\nslipped through it, and when I tried to cling to Him, He raised me\r\nup and flung me down. There was a red cloud before me, and a noise\r\nlike thunder,and the mist seemed to steal away under the door.\"\r\n\r\nHis voice was becoming fainter and his breath more stertorous.\r\nVan Helsing stood up instinctively.\r\n\r\n\"We know the worst now,\" he said. \"He is here, and we know his\r\npurpose. It may not be too late. Let us be armed, the same as we\r\nwere the other night, but lose no time, there is not an instant to\r\nspare.\"\r\n\r\nThere was no need to put our fear, nay our conviction, into\r\nwords, we shared them in common. We all hurried and took from our\r\nrooms the same things that we had when we entered the Count's\r\nhouse. The Professor had his ready, and as we met in the corridor\r\nhe pointed to them significantly as he said, \"They never leave me,\r\nand they shall not till this unhappy business is over. Be wise\r\nalso, my friends. It is no common enemy that we deal with Alas!\r\nAlas! That dear Madam Mina should suffer!\" He stopped, his voice\r\nwas breaking, and I do not know if rage or terror predominated in\r\nmy own heart.\r\n\r\nOutside the Harkers' door we paused. Art and Quincey held back,\r\nand the latter said, \"Should we disturb her?\"\r\n\r\n\"We must,\" said Van Helsing grimly. \"If the door be locked, I\r\nshall break it in.\"\r\n\r\n\"May it not frighten her terribly? It is unusual to break into a\r\nlady's room!\"\r\n\r\nVan Helsing said solemnly, \"You are always right. But this is\r\nlife and death. All chambers are alike to the doctor. And even were\r\nthey not they are all as one to me tonight. Friend John, when I\r\nturn the handle, if the door does not open, do you put your\r\nshoulder down and shove. And you too, my friends. Now!\"\r\n\r\nHe turned the handle as he spoke, but the door did not yield. We\r\nthrew ourselves against it. With a crash it burst open, and we\r\nalmost fell headlong into the room. The Professor did actually\r\nfall, and I saw across him as he gathered himself up from hands and\r\nknees. What I saw appalled me. I felt my hair rise like bristles on\r\nthe back of my neck, and my heart seemed to stand still.\r\n\r\nThe moonlight was so bright that through the thick yellow blind\r\nthe room was light enough to see. On the bed beside the window lay\r\nJonathan Harker, his face flushed and breathing heavily as though\r\nin a stupor. Kneeling on the near edge of the bed facing outwards\r\nwas the white-clad figure of his wife. By her side stood a tall,\r\nthin man, clad in black. His face was turned from us, but the\r\ninstant we saw we all recognized the Count, in every way, even to\r\nthe scar on his forehead. With his left hand he held both Mrs.\r\nHarker's hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension.\r\nHis right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her\r\nface down on his bosom. Her white night-dress was smeared with\r\nblood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare chest which\r\nwas shown by his torn-open dress. The attitude of the two had a\r\nterrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten's nose into a\r\nsaucer of milk to compel it to drink. As we burst into the room,\r\nthe Count turned his face, and the hellish look that I had heard\r\ndescribed seemed to leap into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish\r\npassion. The great nostrils of the white aquiline nose opened wide\r\nand quivered at the edge, and the white sharp teeth, behind the\r\nfull lips of the blood dripping mouth, clamped together like those\r\nof a wild beast. With a wrench, which threw his victim back upon\r\nthe bed as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us.\r\nBut by this time the Professor had gained his feet, and was holding\r\ntowards him the envelope which contained the Sacred Wafer. The\r\nCount suddenly stopped, just as poor Lucy had done outside the\r\ntomb, and cowered back. Further and further back he cowered, as we,\r\nlifting our crucifixes, advanced. The moonlight suddenly failed, as\r\na great black cloud sailed across the sky. And when the gaslight\r\nsprang up under Quincey's match, we saw nothing but a faint vapor.\r\nThis, as we looked, trailed under the door, which with the recoil\r\nfrom its bursting open, had swung back to its old position. Van\r\nHelsing, Art, and I moved forward to Mrs. Harker, who by this time\r\nhad drawn her breath and with it had given a scream so wild, so\r\near-piercing, so despairing that it seems to me now that it will\r\nring in my ears till my dying day. For a few seconds she lay in her\r\nhelpless attitude and disarray. Her face was ghastly, with a pallor\r\nwhich was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and\r\ncheeks and chin. From her throat trickled a thin stream of blood.\r\nHer eyes were mad with terror. Then she put before her face her\r\npoor crushed hands, which bore on their whiteness the red mark of\r\nthe Count's terrible grip, and from behind them came a low desolate\r\nwail which made the terrible scream seem only the quick expression\r\nof an endless grief. Van Helsing stepped forward and drew the\r\ncoverlet gently over her body, whilst Art, after looking at her\r\nface for an instant despairingly, ran out of the room.\r\n\r\nVan Helsing whispered to me, \"Jonathan is in a stupor such as we\r\nknow the Vampire can produce. We can do nothing with poor Madam\r\nMina for a few moments till she recovers herself. I must wake\r\nhim!\"\r\n\r\nHe dipped the end of a towel in cold water and with it began to\r\nflick him on the face, his wife all the while holding her face\r\nbetween her hands and sobbing in a way that was heart breaking to\r\nhear. I raised the blind, and looked out of the window. There was\r\nmuch moonshine, and as I looked I could see Quincey Morris run\r\nacross the lawn and hide himself in the shadow of a great yew tree.\r\nIt puzzled me to think why he was doing this. But at the instant I\r\nheard Harker's quick exclamation as he woke to partial\r\nconsciousness, and turned to the bed. On his face, as there might\r\nwell be, was a look of wild amazement. He seemed dazed for a few\r\nseconds, and then full consciousness seemed to burst upon him all\r\nat once, and he started up.\r\n\r\nHis wife was aroused by the quick movement, and turned to him\r\nwith her arms stretched out, as though to embrace him. Instantly,\r\nhowever, she drew them in again, and putting her elbows together,\r\nheld her hands before her face,and shuddered till the bed beneath\r\nher shook.\r\n\r\n\"In God's name what does this mean?\" Harker cried out. \"Dr.\r\nSeward, Dr. Van Helsing, what is it? What has happened? What is\r\nwrong? Mina, dear what is it? What does that blood mean? My God, my\r\nGod! Has it come to this!\" And, raising himself to his knees, he\r\nbeat his hands wildly together.\"Good God help us! Help her! Oh,\r\nhelp her!\"\r\n\r\nWith a quick movement he jumped from bed, and began to pull on\r\nhis clothes, all the man in him awake at the need for instant\r\nexertion. \"What has happened? Tell me all about it!\" he cried\r\nwithout pausing. \"Dr. Van Helsing you love Mina, I know. Oh, do\r\nsomething to save her. It cannot have gone too far yet. Guard her\r\nwhile I look for him!\"\r\n\r\nHis wife, through her terror and horror and distress, saw some\r\nsure danger to him. Instantly forgetting her own grief, she seized\r\nhold of him and cried out.\r\n\r\n\"No! No! Jonathan, you must not leave me. I have suffered enough\r\ntonight, God knows, without the dread of his harming you. You must\r\nstay with me. Stay with these friends who will watch over you!\" Her\r\nexpression became frantic as she spoke. And, he yielding to her,\r\nshe pulled him down sitting on the bedside, and clung to him\r\nfiercely.\r\n\r\nVan Helsing and I tried to calm them both. The Professor held up\r\nhis golden crucifix, and said with wonderful calmness, \"Do not\r\nfear, my dear. We are here, and whilst this is close to you no foul\r\nthing can approach. You are safe for tonight, and we must be calm\r\nand take counsel together.\"\r\n\r\nShe shuddered and was silent, holding down her head on her\r\nhusband's breast. When she raised it, his white nightrobe was\r\nstained with blood where her lips had touched, and where the thin\r\nopen wound in the neck had sent forth drops. The instant she saw it\r\nshe drew back, with a low wail, and whispered, amidst choking\r\nsobs.\r\n\r\n\"Unclean, unclean! I must touch him or kiss him no more. Oh,\r\nthat it should be that it is I who am now his worst enemy, and whom\r\nhe may have most cause to fear.\"\r\n\r\nTo this he spoke out resolutely, \"Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame\r\nto me to hear such a word. I would not hear it of you. And I shall\r\nnot hear it from you. May God judge me by my deserts, and punish me\r\nwith more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or\r\nwill of mine anything ever come between us!\"\r\n\r\nHe put out his arms and folded her to his breast. And for a\r\nwhile she lay there sobbing. He looked at us over her bowed head,\r\nwith eyes that blinked damply above his quivering nostrils. His\r\nmouth was set as steel.\r\n\r\nAfter a while her sobs became less frequent and more faint, and\r\nthen he said to me, speaking with a studied calmness which I felt\r\ntried his nervous power to the utmost.\r\n\r\n\"And now, Dr. Seward, tell me all about it. Too well I know the\r\nbroad fact. Tell me all that has been.\"\r\n\r\nI told him exactly what had happened and he listened with\r\nseeming impassiveness, but his nostrils twitched and his eyes\r\nblazed as I told how the ruthless hands of the Count had held his\r\nwife in that terrible and horrid position, with her mouth to the\r\nopen wound in his breast. It interested me, even at that moment, to\r\nsee that whilst the face of white set passion worked convulsively\r\nover the bowed head, the hands tenderly and lovingly stroked the\r\nruffled hair. Just as I had finished, Quincey and Godalming knocked\r\nat the door. They entered in obedience to our summons. Van Helsing\r\nlooked at me questioningly. I understood him to mean if we were to\r\ntake advantage of their coming to divert if possible the thoughts\r\nof the unhappy husband and wife from each other and from\r\nthemselves. So on nodding acquiescence to him he asked them what\r\nthey had seen or done. To which Lord Godalming answered.\r\n\r\n\"I could not see him anywhere in the passage, or in any of our\r\nrooms. I looked in the study but, though he had been there, he had\r\ngone. He had, however\u00a0\u2026 \" He stopped suddenly, looking at the\r\npoor drooping figure on the bed.\r\n\r\nVan Helsing said gravely, \"Go on, friend Arthur. We want here no\r\nmore concealments. Our hope now is in knowing all. Tell\r\nfreely!\"\r\n\r\nSo Art went on, \"He had been there, and though it could only\r\nhave been for a few seconds, he made rare hay of the place. All the\r\nmanuscript had been burned, and the blue flames were flickering\r\namongst the white ashes. The cylinders of your phonograph too were\r\nthrown on the fire, and the wax had helped the flames.\"\r\n\r\nHere I interrupted. \"Thank God there is the other copy in the\r\nsafe!\"\r\n\r\nHis face lit for a moment, but fell again as he went on. \"I ran\r\ndownstairs then, but could see no sign of him. I looked into\r\nRenfield's room, but there was no trace there except\u00a0\u2026 \" Again\r\nhe paused.\r\n\r\n\"Go on,\" said Harker hoarsely. So he bowed his head and\r\nmoistening his lips with his tongue, added, \"except that the poor\r\nfellow is dead.\"\r\n\r\nMrs. Harker raised her head, looking from one to the other of us\r\nshe said solemnly, \"God's will be done!\"\r\n\r\nI could not but feel that Art was keeping back something. But,\r\nas I took it that it was with a purpose, I said nothing.\r\n\r\nVan Helsing turned to Morris and asked,\"And you, friend Quincey,\r\nhave you any to tell?\"\r\n\r\n\"A little,\" he answered. \"It may be much eventually, but at\r\npresent I can't say. I thought it well to know if possible where\r\nthe Count would go when he left the house. I did not see him, but I\r\nsaw a bat rise from Renfield's window, and flap westward. I\r\nexpected to see him in some shape go back to Carfax, but he\r\nevidently sought some other lair. He will not be back tonight, for\r\nthe sky is reddening in the east, and the dawn is close. We must\r\nwork tomorrow!\"\r\n\r\nHe said the latter words through his shut teeth. For a space of\r\nperhaps a couple of minutes there was silence, and I could fancy\r\nthat I could hear the sound of our hearts beating.\r\n\r\nThen Van Helsing said, placing his hand tenderly on Mrs.\r\nHarker's head, \"And now, Madam Mina, poor dear, dear, Madam Mina,\r\ntell us exactly what happened. God knows that I do not want that\r\nyou be pained, but it is need that we know all. For now more than\r\never has all work to be done quick and sharp, and in deadly\r\nearnest. The day is close to us that must end all, if it may be so,\r\nand now is the chance that we may live and learn.\"\r\n\r\nThe poor dear lady shivered, and I could see the tension of her\r\nnerves as she clasped her husband closer to her and bent her head\r\nlower and lower still on his breast. Then she raised her head\r\nproudly, and held out one hand to Van Helsing who took it in his,\r\nand after stooping and kissing it reverently, held it fast. The\r\nother hand was locked in that of her husband, who held his other\r\narm thrown round her protectingly. After a pause in which she was\r\nevidently ordering her thoughts, she began.\r\n\r\n\"I took the sleeping draught which you had so kindly given me,\r\nbut for a long time it did not act. I seemed to become more\r\nwakeful, and myriads of horrible fancies began to crowd in upon my\r\nmind. All of them connected with death, and vampires, with blood,\r\nand pain, and trouble.\" Her husband involuntarily groaned as she\r\nturned to him and said lovingly, \"Do not fret, dear. You must be\r\nbrave and strong, and help me through the horrible task. If you\r\nonly knew what an effort it is to me to tell of this fearful thing\r\nat all, you would understand how much I need your help. Well, I saw\r\nI must try to help the medicine to its work with my will, if it was\r\nto do me any good, so I resolutely set myself to sleep. Sure enough\r\nsleep must soon have come to me, for I remember no more. Jonathan\r\ncoming in had not waked me, for he lay by my side when next I\r\nremember. There was in the room the same thin white mist that I had\r\nbefore noticed. But I forget now if you know of this. You will find\r\nit in my diary which I shall show you later. I felt the same vague\r\nterror which had come to me before and the same sense of some\r\npresence. I turned to wake Jonathan, but found that he slept so\r\nsoundly that it seemed as if it was he who had taken the sleeping\r\ndraught, and not I. I tried, but I could not wake him. This caused\r\nme a great fear, and I looked around terrified. Then indeed, my\r\nheart sank within me. Beside the bed, as if he had stepped out of\r\nthe mist, or rather as if the mist had turned into his figure, for\r\nit had entirely disappeared, stood a tall, thin man, all in black.\r\nI knew him at once from the description of the others. The waxen\r\nface, the high aquiline nose, on which the light fell in a thin\r\nwhite line, the parted red lips, with the sharp white teeth showing\r\nbetween, and the red eyes that I had seemed to see in the sunset on\r\nthe windows of St. Mary's Church at Witby. I knew, too, the red\r\nscar on his forehead where Jonathan had struck him. For an instant\r\nmy heart stood still, and I would have screamed out, only that I\r\nwas paralyzed. In the pause he spoke in a sort of keen, cutting\r\nwhisper, pointing as he spoke to Jonathan.\r\n\r\n\"`Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his\r\nbrains out before your very eyes.' I was appalled and was too\r\nbewildered to do or say anything. With a mocking smile, he placed\r\none hand upon my shoulder and, holding me tight, bared my throat\r\nwith the other, saying as he did so, `First, a little refreshment\r\nto reward my exertions. You may as well be quiet. It is not the\r\nfirst time, or the second, that your veins have appeased my\r\nthirst!' I was bewildered, and strangely enough, I did not want to\r\nhinder him. I suppose it is a part of the horrible curse that such\r\nis, when his touch is on his victim. And oh, my God, my God, pity\r\nme! He placed his reeking lips upon my throat!\" Her husband groaned\r\nagain. She clasped his hand harder, and looked at him pityingly, as\r\nif he were the injured one, and went on.\r\n\r\n\"I felt my strength fading away, and I was in a half swoon. How\r\nlong this horrible thing lasted I know not, but it seemed that a\r\nlong time must have passed before he took his foul, awful, sneering\r\nmouth away. I saw it drip with the fresh blood!\"The remembrance\r\nseemed for a while to overpower her, and she drooped and would have\r\nsunk down but for her husband's sustaining arm. With a great effort\r\nshe recovered herself and went on.\r\n\r\n\"Then he spoke to me mockingly, `And so you, like the others,\r\nwould play your brains against mine. You would help these men to\r\nhunt me and frustrate me in my design! You know now, and they know\r\nin part already, and will know in full before long, what it is to\r\ncross my path. They should have kept their energies for use closer\r\nto home. Whilst they played wits against me, against me who\r\ncommanded nations, and intrigued for them, and fought for them,\r\nhundreds of years before they were born, I was countermining them.\r\nAnd you, their best beloved one, are now to me, flesh of my flesh,\r\nblood of my blood, kin of my kin, my bountiful wine-press for a\r\nwhile, and shall be later on my companion and my helper. You shall\r\nbe avenged in turn, for not one of them but shall minister to your\r\nneeds. But as yet you are to be punished for what you have done.\r\nYou have aided in thwarting me. Now you shall come to my call. When\r\nmy brain says \"Come!\" to you, you shall cross land or sea to do my\r\nbidding. And to that end this!'\r\n\r\nWith that he pulled open his shirt, and with his long sharp\r\nnails opened a vein in his breast. When the blood began to spurt\r\nout, he took my hands in one of his, holding them tight, and with\r\nthe other seized my neck and pressed my mouth to the wound, so that\r\nI must either suffocate or swallow some to the\u00a0\u2026 Oh, my God!\r\nMy God! What have I done? What have I done to deserve such a fate,\r\nI who have tried to walk in meekness and righteousness all my days.\r\nGod pity me! Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril.\r\nAnd in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!\" Then she began to rub\r\nher lips as though to cleanse them from pollution.\r\n\r\nAs she was telling her terrible story, the eastern sky began to\r\nquicken, and everything became more and more clear. Harker was\r\nstill and quiet. But over his face, as the awful narrative went on,\r\ncame a grey look which deepened and deepened in the morning light,\r\ntill when the first red streak of the coming dawn shot up, the\r\nflesh stood darkly out against the whitening hair.\r\n\r\nWe have arranged that one of us is to stay within call of the\r\nunhappy pair till we can meet together and arrange about taking\r\naction.\r\n\r\nOf this I am sure. The sun rises today on no more miserable\r\nhouse in all the great round of its daily course.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n","rendered":"
\n

3 October.\u2014Let me put down with exactness all that happened, as
\nwell as I can remember, since last I made an entry. Not a detail
\nthat I can recall must be forgotten. In all calmness I must
\nproceed.<\/p>\n

When I came to Renfield’s room I found him lying on the floor on
\nhis left side in a glittering pool of blood. When I went to move
\nhim, it became at once apparent that he had received some terrible
\ninjuries. There seemed none of the unity of purpose between the
\nparts of the body which marks even lethargic sanity. As the face
\nwas exposed I could see that it was horribly bruised, as though it
\nhad been beaten against the floor. Indeed it was from the face
\nwounds that the pool of blood originated.<\/p>\n

The attendant who was kneeling beside the body said to me as we
\nturned him over, “I think, sir, his back is broken. See, both his
\nright arm and leg and the whole side of his face are paralysed.”
\nHow such a thing could have happened puzzled the attendant beyond
\nmeasure. He seemed quite bewildered, and his brows were gathered in
\nas he said, “I can’t understand the two things. He could mark his
\nface like that by beating his own head on the floor. I saw a young
\nwoman do it once at the Eversfield Asylum before anyone could lay
\nhands on her. And I suppose he might have broken his neck by
\nfalling out of bed, if he got in an awkward kink. But for the life
\nof me I can’t imagine how the two things occurred. If his back was
\nbroke, he couldn’t beat his head, and if his face was like that
\nbefore the fall out of bed, there would be marks of it.”<\/p>\n

I said to him, “Go to Dr. Van Helsing, and ask him to kindly
\ncome here at once. I want him without an instant’s delay.”<\/p>\n

The man ran off, and within a few minutes the Professor, in his
\ndressing gown and slippers, appeared. When he saw Renfield on the
\nground, he looked keenly at him a moment, and then turned to me. I
\nthink he recognized my thought in my eyes, for he said very
\nquietly, manifestly for the ears of the attendant, “Ah, a sad
\naccident! He will need very careful watching, and much attention. I
\nshall stay with you myself, but I shall first dress myself. If you
\nwill remain I shall in a few minutes join you.”<\/p>\n

The patient was now breathing stertorously and it was easy to
\nsee that he had suffered some terrible injury.<\/p>\n

Van Helsing returned with extraordinary celerity, bearing with
\nhim a surgical case. He had evidently been thinking and had his
\nmind made up, for almost before he looked at the patient, he
\nwhispered to me, “Send the attendant away. We must be alone with
\nhim when he becomes conscious, after the operation.”<\/p>\n

I said, “I think that will do now, Simmons. We have done all
\nthat we can at present. You had better go your round, and Dr. Van
\nHelsing will operate. Let me know instantly if there be anything
\nunusual anywhere.”<\/p>\n

The man withdrew, and we went into a strict examination of the
\npatient. The wounds of the face were superficial. The real injury
\nwas a depressed fracture of the skull, extending right up through
\nthe motor area.<\/p>\n

The Professor thought a moment and said,”We must reduce the
\npressure and get back to normal conditions, as far as can be. The
\nrapidity of the suffusion shows the terrible nature of his injury.
\nThe whole motor area seems affected. The suffusion of the brain
\nwill increase quickly, so we must trephine at once or it may be too
\nlate.”<\/p>\n

As he was speaking there was a soft tapping at the door. I went
\nover and opened it and found in the corridor without, Arthur and
\nQuincey in pajamas and slippers, the former spoke, “I heard your
\nman call up Dr. Van Helsing and tell him of an accident. So I woke
\nQuincey or rather called for him as he was not asleep. Things are
\nmoving too quickly and too strangely for sound sleep for any of us
\nthese times. I’ve been thinking that tomorrow night will not see
\nthings as they have been. We’ll have to look back, and forward a
\nlittle more than we have done. May we come in?”<\/p>\n

I nodded, and held the door open till they had entered, then I
\nclosed it again. When Quincey saw the attitude and state of the
\npatient, and noted the horrible pool on the floor, he said softly,
\n“My God! What has happened to him? Poor, poor devil!”<\/p>\n

I told him briefly, and added that we expected he would recover
\nconsciousness after the operation, for a short time, at all events.
\nHe went at once and sat down on the edge of the bed, with Godalming
\nbeside him. We all watched in patience.<\/p>\n

“We shall wait,” said Van Helsing, “just long enough to fix the
\nbest spot for trephining, so that we may most quickly and perfectly
\nremove the blood clot, for it is evident that the haemorrhage is
\nincreasing.”<\/p>\n

The minutes during which we waited passed with fearful slowness.
\nI had a horrible sinking in my heart, and from Van Helsing’s face I
\ngathered that he felt some fear or apprehension as to what was to
\ncome. I dreaded the words Renfield might speak. I was positively
\nafraid to think. But the conviction of what was coming was on me,
\nas I have read of men who have heard the death watch. The poor
\nman’s breathing came in uncertain gasps.Each instant he seemed as
\nthough he would open his eyes and speak, but then would follow a
\nprolonged stertorous breath, and he would relapse into a more fixed
\ninsensibility. Inured as I was to sick beds and death, this
\nsuspense grew and grew upon me. I could almost hear the beating of
\nmy own heart, and the blood surging through my temples sounded like
\nblows from a hammer. The silence finally became agonizing. I looked
\nat my companions, one after another, and saw from their flushed
\nfaces and damp brows that they were enduring equal torture. There
\nwas a nervous suspense over us all, as though overhead some dread
\nbell would peal out powerfully when we should least expect it.<\/p>\n

At last there came a time when it was evident that the patient
\nwas sinking fast. He might die at any moment. I looked up at the
\nProfessor and caught his eyes fixed on mine. His face was sternly
\nset as he spoke, “There is no time to lose. His words may be worth
\nmany lives. I have been thinking so, as I stood here. It may be
\nthere is a soul at stake! We shall operate just above the ear.”<\/p>\n

Without another word he made the operation. For a few moments
\nthe breathing continued to be stertorous. Then there came a breath
\nso prolonged that it seemed as though it would tear open his chest.
\nSuddenly his eyes opened, and became fixed in a wild, helpless
\nstare. This was continued for a few moments, then it was softened
\ninto a glad surprise, and from his lips came a sigh of relief. He
\nmoved convulsively, and as he did so, said, “I’ll be quiet, Doctor.
\nTell them to take off the strait waistcoat. I have had a terrible
\ndream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot move. What’s wrong
\nwith my face? It feels all swollen, and it smarts dreadfully.”<\/p>\n

He tried to turn his head, but even with the effort his eyes
\nseemed to grow glassy again so I gently put it back. Then Van
\nHelsing said in a quiet grave tone, “Tell us your dream, Mr.
\nRenfield.”<\/p>\n

As he heard the voice his face brightened, through its
\nmutilation, and he said, “That is Dr. Van Helsing. How good it is
\nof you to be here. Give me some water, my lips are dry, and I shall
\ntry to tell you. I dreamed”\u00a0\u2026<\/p>\n

He stopped and seemed fainting. I called quietly to Quincey,
\n“The brandy, it is in my study, quick!” He flew and returned with a
\nglass, the decanter of brandy and a carafe of water. We moistened
\nthe parched lips, and the patient quickly revived.<\/p>\n

It seemed, however, that his poor injured brain had been working
\nin the interval, for when he was quite conscious, he looked at me
\npiercingly with an agonized confusion which I shall never forget,
\nand said, “I must not deceive myself. It was no dream, but all a
\ngrim reality.” Then his eyes roved round the room. As they caught
\nsight of the two figures sitting patiently on the edge of the bed
\nhe went on, “If I were not sure already, I would know from
\nthem.”<\/p>\n

For an instant his eyes closed, not with pain or sleep but
\nvoluntarily, as though he were bringing all his faculties to bear.
\nWhen he opened them he said, hurriedly, and with more energy than
\nhe had yet displayed, “Quick, Doctor, quick, I am dying! I feel
\nthat I have but a few minutes, and then I must go back to death, or
\nworse! Wet my lips with brandy again. I have something that I must
\nsay before I die. Or before my poor crushed brain dies anyhow.
\nThank you! It was that night after you left me, when I implored you
\nto let me go away. I couldn’t speak then, for I felt my tongue was
\ntied. But I was as sane then, except in that way, as I am now. I
\nwas in an agony of despair for a long time after you left me, it
\nseemed hours. Then there came a sudden peace to me. My brain seemed
\nto become cool again, and I realized where I was. I heard the dogs
\nbark behind our house, but not where He was!”<\/p>\n

As he spoke, Van Helsing’s eyes never blinked, but his hand came
\nout and met mine and gripped it hard. He did not, however, betray
\nhimself. He nodded slightly and said, “Go on,” in a low voice.<\/p>\n

Renfield proceeded. “He came up to the window in the mist, as I
\nhad seen him often before, but he was solid then, not a ghost, and
\nhis eyes were fierce like a man’s when angry. He was laughing with
\nhis red mouth, the sharp white teeth glinted in the moonlight when
\nhe turned to look back over the belt of trees, to where the dogs
\nwere barking. I wouldn’t ask him to come in at first, though I knew
\nhe wanted to, just as he had wanted all along. Then he began
\npromising me things, not in words but by doing them.”<\/p>\n

He was interrupted by a word from the Professor, “How?”<\/p>\n

“By making them happen. Just as he used to send in the flies
\nwhen the sun was shining. Great big fat ones with steel and
\nsapphire on their wings. And big moths, in the night, with skull
\nand cross-bones on their backs.”<\/p>\n

Van Helsing nodded to him as he whispered to me unconsciously,
\n“The Acherontia Atropos of the Sphinges, what you call the
\n`Death’s-head Moth’?”<\/p>\n

The patient went on without stopping, “Then he began to
\nwhisper.`Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, millions of them,
\nand every one a life. And dogs to eat them, and cats too. All
\nlives! All red blood, with years of life in it, and not merely
\nbuzzing flies!’ I laughed at him, for I wanted to see what he could
\ndo. Then the dogs howled, away beyond the dark trees in His house.
\nHe beckoned me to the window. I got up and looked out, and He
\nraised his hands,and seemed to call out without using any words. A
\ndark mass spread over the grass, coming on like the shape of a
\nflame of fire. And then He moved the mist to the right and left,
\nand I could see that there were thousands of rats with their eyes
\nblazing red, like His only smaller. He held up his hand, and they
\nall stopped, and I thought he seemed to be saying, `All these lives
\nwill I give you, ay, and many more and greater, through countless
\nages, if you will fall down and worship me!’ And then a red cloud,
\nlike the color of blood, seemed to close over my eyes, and before I
\nknew what I was doing, I found myself opening the sash and saying
\nto Him, `Come in, Lord and Master!’ The rats were all gone, but He
\nslid into the room through the sash, though it was only open an
\ninch wide, just as the Moon herself has often come in through the
\ntiniest crack and has stood before me in all her size and
\nsplendor.”<\/p>\n

His voice was weaker, so I moistened his lips with the brandy
\nagain, and he continued, but it seemed as though his memory had
\ngone on working in the interval for his story was further advanced.
\nI was about to call him back to the point, but Van Helsing
\nwhispered to me, “Let him go on. Do not interrupt him. He cannot go
\nback, and maybe could not proceed at all if once he lost the thread
\nof his thought.”<\/p>\n

He proceeded, “All day I waited to hear from him, but he did not
\nsend me anything, not even a blowfly, and when the moon got up I
\nwas pretty angry with him. When he did slide in through the window,
\nthough it was shut, and did not even knock, I got mad with him. He
\nsneered at me, and his white face looked out of the mist with his
\nred eyes gleaming, and he went on as though he owned the whole
\nplace, and I was no one. He didn’t even smell the same as he went
\nby me. I couldn’t hold him. I thought that, somehow, Mrs. Harker
\nhad come into the room.”<\/p>\n

The two men sitting on the bed stood up and came over, standing
\nbehind him so that he could not see them, but where they could hear
\nbetter. They were both silent, but the Professor started and
\nquivered. His face, however, grew grimmer and sterner still.
\nRenfield went on without noticing, “When Mrs. Harker came in to see
\nme this afternoon she wasn’t the same. It was like tea after the
\nteapot has been watered.” Here we all moved, but no one said a
\nword.<\/p>\n

He went on, “I didn’t know that she was here till she spoke, and
\nshe didn’t look the same. I don’t care for the pale people. I like
\nthem with lots of blood in them, and hers all seemed to have run
\nout. I didn’t think of it at the time, but when she went away I
\nbegan to think, and it made me mad to know that He had been taking
\nthe life out of her.” I could feel that the rest quivered, as I
\ndid. But we remained otherwise still. “So when He came tonight I
\nwas ready for Him. I saw the mist stealing in, and I grabbed it
\ntight. I had heard that madmen have unnatural strength. And as I
\nknew I was a madman, at times anyhow, I resolved to use my power.
\nAy, and He felt it too, for He had to come out of the mist to
\nstruggle with me. I held tight, and I thought I was going to win,
\nfor I didn’t mean Him to take any more of her life, till I saw His
\neyes. They burned into me, and my strength became like water. He
\nslipped through it, and when I tried to cling to Him, He raised me
\nup and flung me down. There was a red cloud before me, and a noise
\nlike thunder,and the mist seemed to steal away under the door.”<\/p>\n

His voice was becoming fainter and his breath more stertorous.
\nVan Helsing stood up instinctively.<\/p>\n

“We know the worst now,” he said. “He is here, and we know his
\npurpose. It may not be too late. Let us be armed, the same as we
\nwere the other night, but lose no time, there is not an instant to
\nspare.”<\/p>\n

There was no need to put our fear, nay our conviction, into
\nwords, we shared them in common. We all hurried and took from our
\nrooms the same things that we had when we entered the Count’s
\nhouse. The Professor had his ready, and as we met in the corridor
\nhe pointed to them significantly as he said, “They never leave me,
\nand they shall not till this unhappy business is over. Be wise
\nalso, my friends. It is no common enemy that we deal with Alas!
\nAlas! That dear Madam Mina should suffer!” He stopped, his voice
\nwas breaking, and I do not know if rage or terror predominated in
\nmy own heart.<\/p>\n

Outside the Harkers’ door we paused. Art and Quincey held back,
\nand the latter said, “Should we disturb her?”<\/p>\n

“We must,” said Van Helsing grimly. “If the door be locked, I
\nshall break it in.”<\/p>\n

“May it not frighten her terribly? It is unusual to break into a
\nlady’s room!”<\/p>\n

Van Helsing said solemnly, “You are always right. But this is
\nlife and death. All chambers are alike to the doctor. And even were
\nthey not they are all as one to me tonight. Friend John, when I
\nturn the handle, if the door does not open, do you put your
\nshoulder down and shove. And you too, my friends. Now!”<\/p>\n

He turned the handle as he spoke, but the door did not yield. We
\nthrew ourselves against it. With a crash it burst open, and we
\nalmost fell headlong into the room. The Professor did actually
\nfall, and I saw across him as he gathered himself up from hands and
\nknees. What I saw appalled me. I felt my hair rise like bristles on
\nthe back of my neck, and my heart seemed to stand still.<\/p>\n

The moonlight was so bright that through the thick yellow blind
\nthe room was light enough to see. On the bed beside the window lay
\nJonathan Harker, his face flushed and breathing heavily as though
\nin a stupor. Kneeling on the near edge of the bed facing outwards
\nwas the white-clad figure of his wife. By her side stood a tall,
\nthin man, clad in black. His face was turned from us, but the
\ninstant we saw we all recognized the Count, in every way, even to
\nthe scar on his forehead. With his left hand he held both Mrs.
\nHarker’s hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension.
\nHis right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her
\nface down on his bosom. Her white night-dress was smeared with
\nblood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare chest which
\nwas shown by his torn-open dress. The attitude of the two had a
\nterrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s nose into a
\nsaucer of milk to compel it to drink. As we burst into the room,
\nthe Count turned his face, and the hellish look that I had heard
\ndescribed seemed to leap into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish
\npassion. The great nostrils of the white aquiline nose opened wide
\nand quivered at the edge, and the white sharp teeth, behind the
\nfull lips of the blood dripping mouth, clamped together like those
\nof a wild beast. With a wrench, which threw his victim back upon
\nthe bed as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us.
\nBut by this time the Professor had gained his feet, and was holding
\ntowards him the envelope which contained the Sacred Wafer. The
\nCount suddenly stopped, just as poor Lucy had done outside the
\ntomb, and cowered back. Further and further back he cowered, as we,
\nlifting our crucifixes, advanced. The moonlight suddenly failed, as
\na great black cloud sailed across the sky. And when the gaslight
\nsprang up under Quincey’s match, we saw nothing but a faint vapor.
\nThis, as we looked, trailed under the door, which with the recoil
\nfrom its bursting open, had swung back to its old position. Van
\nHelsing, Art, and I moved forward to Mrs. Harker, who by this time
\nhad drawn her breath and with it had given a scream so wild, so
\near-piercing, so despairing that it seems to me now that it will
\nring in my ears till my dying day. For a few seconds she lay in her
\nhelpless attitude and disarray. Her face was ghastly, with a pallor
\nwhich was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and
\ncheeks and chin. From her throat trickled a thin stream of blood.
\nHer eyes were mad with terror. Then she put before her face her
\npoor crushed hands, which bore on their whiteness the red mark of
\nthe Count’s terrible grip, and from behind them came a low desolate
\nwail which made the terrible scream seem only the quick expression
\nof an endless grief. Van Helsing stepped forward and drew the
\ncoverlet gently over her body, whilst Art, after looking at her
\nface for an instant despairingly, ran out of the room.<\/p>\n

Van Helsing whispered to me, “Jonathan is in a stupor such as we
\nknow the Vampire can produce. We can do nothing with poor Madam
\nMina for a few moments till she recovers herself. I must wake
\nhim!”<\/p>\n

He dipped the end of a towel in cold water and with it began to
\nflick him on the face, his wife all the while holding her face
\nbetween her hands and sobbing in a way that was heart breaking to
\nhear. I raised the blind, and looked out of the window. There was
\nmuch moonshine, and as I looked I could see Quincey Morris run
\nacross the lawn and hide himself in the shadow of a great yew tree.
\nIt puzzled me to think why he was doing this. But at the instant I
\nheard Harker’s quick exclamation as he woke to partial
\nconsciousness, and turned to the bed. On his face, as there might
\nwell be, was a look of wild amazement. He seemed dazed for a few
\nseconds, and then full consciousness seemed to burst upon him all
\nat once, and he started up.<\/p>\n

His wife was aroused by the quick movement, and turned to him
\nwith her arms stretched out, as though to embrace him. Instantly,
\nhowever, she drew them in again, and putting her elbows together,
\nheld her hands before her face,and shuddered till the bed beneath
\nher shook.<\/p>\n

“In God’s name what does this mean?” Harker cried out. “Dr.
\nSeward, Dr. Van Helsing, what is it? What has happened? What is
\nwrong? Mina, dear what is it? What does that blood mean? My God, my
\nGod! Has it come to this!” And, raising himself to his knees, he
\nbeat his hands wildly together.”Good God help us! Help her! Oh,
\nhelp her!”<\/p>\n

With a quick movement he jumped from bed, and began to pull on
\nhis clothes, all the man in him awake at the need for instant
\nexertion. “What has happened? Tell me all about it!” he cried
\nwithout pausing. “Dr. Van Helsing you love Mina, I know. Oh, do
\nsomething to save her. It cannot have gone too far yet. Guard her
\nwhile I look for him!”<\/p>\n

His wife, through her terror and horror and distress, saw some
\nsure danger to him. Instantly forgetting her own grief, she seized
\nhold of him and cried out.<\/p>\n

“No! No! Jonathan, you must not leave me. I have suffered enough
\ntonight, God knows, without the dread of his harming you. You must
\nstay with me. Stay with these friends who will watch over you!” Her
\nexpression became frantic as she spoke. And, he yielding to her,
\nshe pulled him down sitting on the bedside, and clung to him
\nfiercely.<\/p>\n

Van Helsing and I tried to calm them both. The Professor held up
\nhis golden crucifix, and said with wonderful calmness, “Do not
\nfear, my dear. We are here, and whilst this is close to you no foul
\nthing can approach. You are safe for tonight, and we must be calm
\nand take counsel together.”<\/p>\n

She shuddered and was silent, holding down her head on her
\nhusband’s breast. When she raised it, his white nightrobe was
\nstained with blood where her lips had touched, and where the thin
\nopen wound in the neck had sent forth drops. The instant she saw it
\nshe drew back, with a low wail, and whispered, amidst choking
\nsobs.<\/p>\n

“Unclean, unclean! I must touch him or kiss him no more. Oh,
\nthat it should be that it is I who am now his worst enemy, and whom
\nhe may have most cause to fear.”<\/p>\n

To this he spoke out resolutely, “Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame
\nto me to hear such a word. I would not hear it of you. And I shall
\nnot hear it from you. May God judge me by my deserts, and punish me
\nwith more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or
\nwill of mine anything ever come between us!”<\/p>\n

He put out his arms and folded her to his breast. And for a
\nwhile she lay there sobbing. He looked at us over her bowed head,
\nwith eyes that blinked damply above his quivering nostrils. His
\nmouth was set as steel.<\/p>\n

After a while her sobs became less frequent and more faint, and
\nthen he said to me, speaking with a studied calmness which I felt
\ntried his nervous power to the utmost.<\/p>\n

“And now, Dr. Seward, tell me all about it. Too well I know the
\nbroad fact. Tell me all that has been.”<\/p>\n

I told him exactly what had happened and he listened with
\nseeming impassiveness, but his nostrils twitched and his eyes
\nblazed as I told how the ruthless hands of the Count had held his
\nwife in that terrible and horrid position, with her mouth to the
\nopen wound in his breast. It interested me, even at that moment, to
\nsee that whilst the face of white set passion worked convulsively
\nover the bowed head, the hands tenderly and lovingly stroked the
\nruffled hair. Just as I had finished, Quincey and Godalming knocked
\nat the door. They entered in obedience to our summons. Van Helsing
\nlooked at me questioningly. I understood him to mean if we were to
\ntake advantage of their coming to divert if possible the thoughts
\nof the unhappy husband and wife from each other and from
\nthemselves. So on nodding acquiescence to him he asked them what
\nthey had seen or done. To which Lord Godalming answered.<\/p>\n

“I could not see him anywhere in the passage, or in any of our
\nrooms. I looked in the study but, though he had been there, he had
\ngone. He had, however\u00a0\u2026 ” He stopped suddenly, looking at the
\npoor drooping figure on the bed.<\/p>\n

Van Helsing said gravely, “Go on, friend Arthur. We want here no
\nmore concealments. Our hope now is in knowing all. Tell
\nfreely!”<\/p>\n

So Art went on, “He had been there, and though it could only
\nhave been for a few seconds, he made rare hay of the place. All the
\nmanuscript had been burned, and the blue flames were flickering
\namongst the white ashes. The cylinders of your phonograph too were
\nthrown on the fire, and the wax had helped the flames.”<\/p>\n

Here I interrupted. “Thank God there is the other copy in the
\nsafe!”<\/p>\n

His face lit for a moment, but fell again as he went on. “I ran
\ndownstairs then, but could see no sign of him. I looked into
\nRenfield’s room, but there was no trace there except\u00a0\u2026 ” Again
\nhe paused.<\/p>\n

“Go on,” said Harker hoarsely. So he bowed his head and
\nmoistening his lips with his tongue, added, “except that the poor
\nfellow is dead.”<\/p>\n

Mrs. Harker raised her head, looking from one to the other of us
\nshe said solemnly, “God’s will be done!”<\/p>\n

I could not but feel that Art was keeping back something. But,
\nas I took it that it was with a purpose, I said nothing.<\/p>\n

Van Helsing turned to Morris and asked,”And you, friend Quincey,
\nhave you any to tell?”<\/p>\n

“A little,” he answered. “It may be much eventually, but at
\npresent I can’t say. I thought it well to know if possible where
\nthe Count would go when he left the house. I did not see him, but I
\nsaw a bat rise from Renfield’s window, and flap westward. I
\nexpected to see him in some shape go back to Carfax, but he
\nevidently sought some other lair. He will not be back tonight, for
\nthe sky is reddening in the east, and the dawn is close. We must
\nwork tomorrow!”<\/p>\n

He said the latter words through his shut teeth. For a space of
\nperhaps a couple of minutes there was silence, and I could fancy
\nthat I could hear the sound of our hearts beating.<\/p>\n

Then Van Helsing said, placing his hand tenderly on Mrs.
\nHarker’s head, “And now, Madam Mina, poor dear, dear, Madam Mina,
\ntell us exactly what happened. God knows that I do not want that
\nyou be pained, but it is need that we know all. For now more than
\never has all work to be done quick and sharp, and in deadly
\nearnest. The day is close to us that must end all, if it may be so,
\nand now is the chance that we may live and learn.”<\/p>\n

The poor dear lady shivered, and I could see the tension of her
\nnerves as she clasped her husband closer to her and bent her head
\nlower and lower still on his breast. Then she raised her head
\nproudly, and held out one hand to Van Helsing who took it in his,
\nand after stooping and kissing it reverently, held it fast. The
\nother hand was locked in that of her husband, who held his other
\narm thrown round her protectingly. After a pause in which she was
\nevidently ordering her thoughts, she began.<\/p>\n

“I took the sleeping draught which you had so kindly given me,
\nbut for a long time it did not act. I seemed to become more
\nwakeful, and myriads of horrible fancies began to crowd in upon my
\nmind. All of them connected with death, and vampires, with blood,
\nand pain, and trouble.” Her husband involuntarily groaned as she
\nturned to him and said lovingly, “Do not fret, dear. You must be
\nbrave and strong, and help me through the horrible task. If you
\nonly knew what an effort it is to me to tell of this fearful thing
\nat all, you would understand how much I need your help. Well, I saw
\nI must try to help the medicine to its work with my will, if it was
\nto do me any good, so I resolutely set myself to sleep. Sure enough
\nsleep must soon have come to me, for I remember no more. Jonathan
\ncoming in had not waked me, for he lay by my side when next I
\nremember. There was in the room the same thin white mist that I had
\nbefore noticed. But I forget now if you know of this. You will find
\nit in my diary which I shall show you later. I felt the same vague
\nterror which had come to me before and the same sense of some
\npresence. I turned to wake Jonathan, but found that he slept so
\nsoundly that it seemed as if it was he who had taken the sleeping
\ndraught, and not I. I tried, but I could not wake him. This caused
\nme a great fear, and I looked around terrified. Then indeed, my
\nheart sank within me. Beside the bed, as if he had stepped out of
\nthe mist, or rather as if the mist had turned into his figure, for
\nit had entirely disappeared, stood a tall, thin man, all in black.
\nI knew him at once from the description of the others. The waxen
\nface, the high aquiline nose, on which the light fell in a thin
\nwhite line, the parted red lips, with the sharp white teeth showing
\nbetween, and the red eyes that I had seemed to see in the sunset on
\nthe windows of St. Mary’s Church at Witby. I knew, too, the red
\nscar on his forehead where Jonathan had struck him. For an instant
\nmy heart stood still, and I would have screamed out, only that I
\nwas paralyzed. In the pause he spoke in a sort of keen, cutting
\nwhisper, pointing as he spoke to Jonathan.<\/p>\n

“`Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his
\nbrains out before your very eyes.’ I was appalled and was too
\nbewildered to do or say anything. With a mocking smile, he placed
\none hand upon my shoulder and, holding me tight, bared my throat
\nwith the other, saying as he did so, `First, a little refreshment
\nto reward my exertions. You may as well be quiet. It is not the
\nfirst time, or the second, that your veins have appeased my
\nthirst!’ I was bewildered, and strangely enough, I did not want to
\nhinder him. I suppose it is a part of the horrible curse that such
\nis, when his touch is on his victim. And oh, my God, my God, pity
\nme! He placed his reeking lips upon my throat!” Her husband groaned
\nagain. She clasped his hand harder, and looked at him pityingly, as
\nif he were the injured one, and went on.<\/p>\n

“I felt my strength fading away, and I was in a half swoon. How
\nlong this horrible thing lasted I know not, but it seemed that a
\nlong time must have passed before he took his foul, awful, sneering
\nmouth away. I saw it drip with the fresh blood!”The remembrance
\nseemed for a while to overpower her, and she drooped and would have
\nsunk down but for her husband’s sustaining arm. With a great effort
\nshe recovered herself and went on.<\/p>\n

“Then he spoke to me mockingly, `And so you, like the others,
\nwould play your brains against mine. You would help these men to
\nhunt me and frustrate me in my design! You know now, and they know
\nin part already, and will know in full before long, what it is to
\ncross my path. They should have kept their energies for use closer
\nto home. Whilst they played wits against me, against me who
\ncommanded nations, and intrigued for them, and fought for them,
\nhundreds of years before they were born, I was countermining them.
\nAnd you, their best beloved one, are now to me, flesh of my flesh,
\nblood of my blood, kin of my kin, my bountiful wine-press for a
\nwhile, and shall be later on my companion and my helper. You shall
\nbe avenged in turn, for not one of them but shall minister to your
\nneeds. But as yet you are to be punished for what you have done.
\nYou have aided in thwarting me. Now you shall come to my call. When
\nmy brain says “Come!” to you, you shall cross land or sea to do my
\nbidding. And to that end this!’<\/p>\n

With that he pulled open his shirt, and with his long sharp
\nnails opened a vein in his breast. When the blood began to spurt
\nout, he took my hands in one of his, holding them tight, and with
\nthe other seized my neck and pressed my mouth to the wound, so that
\nI must either suffocate or swallow some to the\u00a0\u2026 Oh, my God!
\nMy God! What have I done? What have I done to deserve such a fate,
\nI who have tried to walk in meekness and righteousness all my days.
\nGod pity me! Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril.
\nAnd in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!” Then she began to rub
\nher lips as though to cleanse them from pollution.<\/p>\n

As she was telling her terrible story, the eastern sky began to
\nquicken, and everything became more and more clear. Harker was
\nstill and quiet. But over his face, as the awful narrative went on,
\ncame a grey look which deepened and deepened in the morning light,
\ntill when the first red streak of the coming dawn shot up, the
\nflesh stood darkly out against the whitening hair.<\/p>\n

We have arranged that one of us is to stay within call of the
\nunhappy pair till we can meet together and arrange about taking
\naction.<\/p>\n

Of this I am sure. The sun rises today on no more miserable
\nhouse in all the great round of its daily course.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"menu_order":21,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-45","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/45\/revisions\/83"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/45\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/dracula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}