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Van Helsing said solemnly, "You are always right; but this is life and |
death. All chambers are alike to the doctor; and even were they not they |
are all as one to me to-night. Friend John, when I turn the handle, if |
the door does not open, do you put your shoulder down and shove; and you |
too, my friends. Now!" |
He turned the handle as he spoke, but the door did not yield. We threw |
ourselves against it; with a crash it burst open, and we almost fell |
headlong into the room. The Professor did actually fall, and I saw |
across him as he gathered himself up from hands and knees. What I saw |
appalled me. I felt my hair rise like bristles on the back of my neck, |
and my heart seemed to stand still. |
The moonlight was so bright that through the thick yellow blind the room |
was light enough to see. On the bed beside the window lay Jonathan |
Harker, his face flushed and breathing heavily as though in a stupor. |
Kneeling on the near edge of the bed facing outwards was the white-clad |
figure of his wife. By her side stood a tall, thin man, clad in black. |
His face was turned from us, but the instant we saw we all recognised |
the Count--in every way, even to the scar on his forehead. With his left |
hand he held both Mrs. Harker's hands, keeping them away with her arms |
at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, |
forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared |
with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare breast which |
was shown by his torn-open dress. The attitude of the two had a terrible |
resemblance to a child forcing a kitten's nose into a saucer of milk to |
compel it to drink. As we burst into the room, the Count turned his |
face, and the hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap |
into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish passion; the great nostrils |
of the white aquiline nose opened wide and quivered at the edge; and the |
white sharp teeth, behind the full lips of the blood-dripping mouth, |
champed together like those of a wild beast. With a wrench, which threw |
his victim back upon the bed as though hurled from a height, he turned |
and sprang at us. But by this time the Professor had gained his feet, |
and was holding towards him the envelope which contained the Sacred |
Wafer. The Count suddenly stopped, just as poor Lucy had done outside |
the tomb, and cowered back. Further and further back he cowered, as we, |
lifting our crucifixes, advanced. The moonlight suddenly failed, as a |
great black cloud sailed across the sky; and when the gaslight sprang up |
under Quincey's match, we saw nothing but a faint vapour. This, as we |
looked, trailed under the door, which with the recoil from its bursting |
open, had swung back to its old position. Van Helsing, Art, and I moved |
forward to Mrs. Harker, who by this time had drawn her breath and with |
it had given a scream so wild, so ear-piercing, so despairing that it |
seems to me now that it will ring in my ears till my dying day. For a |
few seconds she lay in her helpless attitude and disarray. Her face was |
ghastly, with a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared |
her lips and cheeks and chin; from her throat trickled a thin stream of |
blood; her eyes were mad with terror. Then she put before her face her |
poor crushed hands, which bore on their whiteness the red mark of the |
Count's terrible grip, and from behind them came a low desolate wail |
which made the terrible scream seem only the quick expression of an |
endless grief. Van Helsing stepped forward and drew the coverlet gently |
over her body, whilst Art, after looking at her face for an instant |
despairingly, ran out of the room. Van Helsing whispered to me:-- |
"Jonathan is in a stupor such as we know the Vampire can produce. We can |
do nothing with poor Madam Mina for a few moments till she recovers |
herself; I must wake him!" He dipped the end of a towel in cold water |
and with it began to flick him on the face, his wife all the while |
holding her face between her hands and sobbing in a way that was |
heart-breaking to hear. I raised the blind, and looked out of the |
window. There was much moonshine; and as I looked I could see Quincey |
Morris run across the lawn and hide himself in the shadow of a great |
yew-tree. It puzzled me to think why he was doing this; but at the |
instant I heard Harker's quick exclamation as he woke to partial |
consciousness, and turned to the bed. On his face, as there might well |
be, was a look of wild amazement. He seemed dazed for a few seconds, and |
then full consciousness seemed to burst upon him all at once, and he |
started up. His wife was aroused by the quick movement, and turned to |
him with her arms stretched out, as though to embrace him; instantly, |
however, she drew them in again, and putting her elbows together, held |
her hands before her face, and shuddered till the bed beneath her shook. |
"In God's name what does this mean?" Harker cried out. "Dr. Seward, Dr. |
Van Helsing, what is it? What has happened? What is wrong? Mina, dear, |
what is it? What does that blood mean? My God, my God! has it come to |
this!" and, raising himself to his knees, he beat his hands wildly |
together. "Good God help us! help her! oh, help her!" With a quick |
movement he jumped from bed, and began to pull on his clothes,--all the |
man in him awake at the need for instant exertion. "What has happened? |
Tell me all about it!" he cried without pausing. "Dr. Van Helsing, you |
love Mina, I know. Oh, do something to save her. It cannot have gone too |
far yet. Guard her while I look for _him_!" His wife, through her terror |
and horror and distress, saw some sure danger to him: instantly |
forgetting her own grief, she seized hold of him and cried out:-- |
"No! no! Jonathan, you must not leave me. I have suffered enough |
to-night, God knows, without the dread of his harming you. You must stay |
with me. Stay with these friends who will watch over you!" Her |
expression became frantic as she spoke; and, he yielding to her, she |
pulled him down sitting on the bed side, and clung to him fiercely. |
Van Helsing and I tried to calm them both. The Professor held up his |
little golden crucifix, and said with wonderful calmness:-- |
"Do not fear, my dear. We are here; and whilst this is close to you no |
foul thing can approach. You are safe for to-night; and we must be calm |
and take counsel together." She shuddered and was silent, holding down |
her head on her husband's breast. When she raised it, his white |
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