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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 Judgment 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 Judgment 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 |
fears, 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 them:-- |
"And now, my friends, we have a duty here to do. We must sterilise 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 |
Sacred 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. If it may be that with all the others we can |
be so successful, then the sunset of this evening may shine on 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 |
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