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night-robe was stained with blood where her lips had touched, and where |
the thin open wound in her neck had sent forth drops. The instant she |
saw it she drew back, with a low wail, and whispered, amidst choking |
sobs:-- |
"Unclean, unclean! I must touch him or kiss him no more. Oh, that it |
should be that it is I who am now his worst enemy, and whom he may have |
most cause to fear." To this he spoke out resolutely:-- |
"Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame to me to hear such a word. I would not |
hear it of you; and I shall not hear it from you. May God judge me by my |
deserts, and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, |
if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!" He put out |
his arms and folded her to his breast; and for a while she lay there |
sobbing. He looked at us over her bowed head, with eyes that blinked |
damply above his quivering nostrils; his mouth was set as steel. After a |
while her sobs became less frequent and more faint, and then he said to |
me, speaking with a studied calmness which I felt tried his nervous |
power to the utmost:-- |
"And now, Dr. Seward, tell me all about it. Too well I know the broad |
fact; tell me all that has been." I told him exactly what had happened, |
and he listened with seeming impassiveness; but his nostrils twitched |
and his eyes blazed as I told how the ruthless hands of the Count had |
held his wife in that terrible and horrid position, with her mouth to |
the open wound in his breast. It interested me, even at that moment, to |
see, that, whilst the face of white set passion worked convulsively over |
the bowed head, the hands tenderly and lovingly stroked the ruffled |
hair. Just as I had finished, Quincey and Godalming knocked at the door. |
They entered in obedience to our summons. Van Helsing looked at me |
questioningly. I understood him to mean if we were to take advantage of |
their coming to divert if possible the thoughts of the unhappy husband |
and wife from each other and from themselves; so on nodding acquiescence |
to him he asked them what they had seen or done. To which Lord Godalming |
answered:-- |
"I could not see him anywhere in the passage, or in any of our rooms. I |
looked in the study but, though he had been there, he had gone. He had, |
however----" He stopped suddenly, looking at the poor drooping figure on |
the bed. Van Helsing said gravely:-- |
"Go on, friend Arthur. We want here no more concealments. Our hope now |
is in knowing all. Tell freely!" So Art went on:-- |
"He had been there, and though it could only have been for a few |
seconds, he made rare hay of the place. All the manuscript had been |
burned, and the blue flames were flickering amongst the white ashes; the |
cylinders of your phonograph too were thrown on the fire, and the wax |
had helped the flames." Here I interrupted. "Thank God there is the |
other copy in the safe!" His face lit for a moment, but fell again as he |
went on: "I ran downstairs then, but could see no sign of him. I looked |
into Renfield's room; but there was no trace there except----!" Again he |
paused. "Go on," said Harker hoarsely; so he bowed his head and |
moistening his lips with his tongue, added: "except that the poor fellow |
is dead." Mrs. Harker raised her head, looking from one to the other of |
us she said solemnly:-- |
"God's will be done!" I could not but feel that Art was keeping back |
something; but, as I took it that it was with a purpose, I said nothing. |
Van Helsing turned to Morris and asked:-- |
"And you, friend Quincey, have you any to tell?" |
"A little," he answered. "It may be much eventually, but at present I |
can't say. I thought it well to know if possible where the Count would |
go when he left the house. I did not see him; but I saw a bat rise from |
Renfield's window, and flap westward. I expected to see him in some |
shape go back to Carfax; but he evidently sought some other lair. He |
will not be back to-night; for the sky is reddening in the east, and the |
dawn is close. We must work to-morrow!" |
He said the latter words through his shut teeth. For a space of perhaps |
a couple of minutes there was silence, and I could fancy that I could |
hear the sound of our hearts beating; then Van Helsing said, placing his |
hand very tenderly on Mrs. Harker's head:-- |
"And now, Madam Mina--poor, dear, dear Madam Mina--tell us exactly what |
happened. God knows that I do not want that you be pained; but it is |
need that we know all. For now more than ever has all work to be done |
quick and sharp, and in deadly earnest. The day is close to us that must |
end all, if it may be so; and now is the chance that we may live and |
learn." |
The poor, dear lady shivered, and I could see the tension of her nerves |
as she clasped her husband closer to her and bent her head lower and |
lower still on his breast. Then she raised her head proudly, and held |
out one hand to Van Helsing who took it in his, and, after stooping and |
kissing it reverently, held it fast. The other hand was locked in that |
of her husband, who held his other arm thrown round her protectingly. |
After a pause in which she was evidently ordering her thoughts, she |
began:-- |
"I took the sleeping draught which you had so kindly given me, but for a |
long time it did not act. I seemed to become more wakeful, and myriads |
of horrible fancies began to crowd in upon my mind--all of them |
connected with death, and vampires; with blood, and pain, and trouble." |
Her husband involuntarily groaned as she turned to him and said |
lovingly: "Do not fret, dear. You must be brave and strong, and help me |
through the horrible task. If you only knew what an effort it is to me |
to tell of this fearful thing at all, you would understand how much I |
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