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"How?" |
"By making them happen; just as he used to send in the flies when the |
sun was shining. Great big fat ones with steel and sapphire on their |
wings; and big moths, in the night, with skull and cross-bones on their |
backs." Van Helsing nodded to him as he whispered to me unconsciously:-- |
"The _Acherontia Aitetropos of the Sphinges_--what you call the |
'Death's-head Moth'?" The patient went on without stopping. |
"Then he began to whisper: 'Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, |
millions of them, and every one a life; and dogs to eat them, and cats |
too. All lives! all red blood, with years of life in it; and not merely |
buzzing flies!' I laughed at him, for I wanted to see what he could do. |
Then the dogs howled, away beyond the dark trees in His house. He |
beckoned me to the window. I got up and looked out, and He raised his |
hands, and seemed to call out without using any words. A dark mass |
spread over the grass, coming on like the shape of a flame of fire; and |
then He moved the mist to the right and left, and I could see that there |
were thousands of rats with their eyes blazing red--like His, only |
smaller. He held up his hand, and they all stopped; and I thought he |
seemed to be saying: 'All these lives will I give you, ay, and many more |
and greater, through countless ages, if you will fall down and worship |
me!' And then a red cloud, like the colour of blood, seemed to close |
over my eyes; and before I knew what I was doing, I found myself opening |
the sash and saying to Him: 'Come in, Lord and Master!' The rats were |
all gone, but He slid into the room through the sash, though it was only |
open an inch wide--just as the Moon herself has often come in through |
the tiniest crack and has stood before me in all her size and |
splendour." |
His voice was weaker, so I moistened his lips with the brandy again, and |
he continued; but it seemed as though his memory had gone on working in |
the interval for his story was further advanced. I was about to call him |
back to the point, but Van Helsing whispered to me: "Let him go on. Do |
not interrupt him; he cannot go back, and maybe could not proceed at all |
if once he lost the thread of his thought." He proceeded:-- |
"All day I waited to hear from him, but he did not send me anything, not |
even a blow-fly, and when the moon got up I was pretty angry with him. |
When he slid in through the window, though it was shut, and did not even |
knock, I got mad with him. He sneered at me, and his white face looked |
out of the mist with his red eyes gleaming, and he went on as though he |
owned the whole place, and I was no one. He didn't even smell the same |
as he went by me. I couldn't hold him. I thought that, somehow, Mrs. |
Harker had come into the room." |
The two men sitting on the bed stood up and came over, standing behind |
him so that he could not see them, but where they could hear better. |
They were both silent, but the Professor started and quivered; his face, |
however, grew grimmer and sterner still. Renfield went on without |
noticing:-- |
"When Mrs. Harker came in to see me this afternoon she wasn't the same; |
it was like tea after the teapot had been watered." Here we all moved, |
but no one said a word; he went on:-- |
"I didn't know that she was here till she spoke; and she didn't look the |
same. I don't care for the pale people; I like them with lots of blood |
in them, and hers had all seemed to have run out. I didn't think of it |
at the time; but when she went away I began to think, and it made me mad |
to know that He had been taking the life out of her." I could feel that |
the rest quivered, as I did, but we remained otherwise still. "So when |
He came to-night I was ready for Him. I saw the mist stealing in, and I |
grabbed it tight. I had heard that madmen have unnatural strength; and |
as I knew I was a madman--at times anyhow--I resolved to use my power. |
Ay, and He felt it too, for He had to come out of the mist to struggle |
with me. I held tight; and I thought I was going to win, for I didn't |
mean Him to take any more of her life, till I saw His eyes. They burned |
into me, and my strength became like water. He slipped through it, and |
when I tried to cling to Him, He raised me up and flung me down. There |
was a red cloud before me, and a noise like thunder, and the mist seemed |
to steal away under the door." His voice was becoming fainter and his |
breath more stertorous. Van Helsing stood up instinctively. |
"We know the worst now," he said. "He is here, and we know his purpose. |
It may not be too late. Let us be armed--the same as we were the other |
night, but lose no time; there is not an instant to spare." There was no |
need to put our fear, nay our conviction, into words--we shared them in |
common. We all hurried and took from our rooms the same things that we |
had when we entered the Count's house. The Professor had his ready, and |
as we met in the corridor he pointed to them significantly as he said:-- |
"They never leave me; and they shall not till this unhappy business is |
over. Be wise also, my friends. It is no common enemy that we deal with. |
Alas! alas! that that dear Madam Mina should suffer!" He stopped; his |
voice was breaking, and I do not know if rage or terror predominated in |
my own heart. |
Outside the Harkers' door we paused. Art and Quincey held back, and the |
latter said:-- |
"Should we disturb her?" |
"We must," said Van Helsing grimly. "If the door be locked, I shall |
break it in." |
"May it not frighten her terribly? It is unusual to break into a lady's |
room!" |
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