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"Something is going out; I can feel it pass me like a cold wind. I can
hear, far off, confused sounds--as of men talking in strange tongues,
fierce-falling water, and the howling of wolves." She stopped and a
shudder ran through her, increasing in intensity for a few seconds,
till, at the end, she shook as though in a palsy. She said no more, even
in answer to the Professor's imperative questioning. When she woke from
the trance, she was cold, and exhausted, and languid; but her mind was
all alert. She could not remember anything, but asked what she had said;
when she was told, she pondered over it deeply for a long time and in
silence.
* * * * *
_30 October, 7 a. m._--We are near Galatz now, and I may not have time
to write later. Sunrise this morning was anxiously looked for by us all.
Knowing of the increasing difficulty of procuring the hypnotic trance,
Van Helsing began his passes earlier than usual. They produced no
effect, however, until the regular time, when she yielded with a still
greater difficulty, only a minute before the sun rose. The Professor
lost no time in his questioning; her answer came with equal quickness:--
"All is dark. I hear water swirling by, level with my ears, and the
creaking of wood on wood. Cattle low far off. There is another sound, a
queer one like----" She stopped and grew white, and whiter still.
"Go on; go on! Speak, I command you!" said Van Helsing in an agonised
voice. At the same time there was despair in his eyes, for the risen sun
was reddening even Mrs. Harker's pale face. She opened her eyes, and we
all started as she said, sweetly and seemingly with the utmost
unconcern:--
"Oh, Professor, why ask me to do what you know I can't? I don't remember
anything." Then, seeing the look of amazement on our faces, she said,
turning from one to the other with a troubled look:--
"What have I said? What have I done? I know nothing, only that I was
lying here, half asleep, and heard you say go on! speak, I command you!'
It seemed so funny to hear you order me about, as if I were a bad
child!"
"Oh, Madam Mina," he said, sadly, "it is proof, if proof be needed, of
how I love and honour you, when a word for your good, spoken more
earnest than ever, can seem so strange because it is to order her whom I
am proud to obey!"
The whistles are sounding; we are nearing Galatz. We are on fire with
anxiety and eagerness.
_Mina Harker's Journal._
_30 October._--Mr. Morris took me to the hotel where our rooms had been
ordered by telegraph, he being the one who could best be spared, since
he does not speak any foreign language. The forces were distributed
much as they had been at Varna, except that Lord Godalming went to the
Vice-Consul, as his rank might serve as an immediate guarantee of some
sort to the official, we being in extreme hurry. Jonathan and the two
doctors went to the shipping agent to learn particulars of the arrival
of the _Czarina Catherine_.
* * * * *
_Later._--Lord Godalming has returned. The Consul is away, and the
Vice-Consul sick; so the routine work has been attended to by a clerk.
He was very obliging, and offered to do anything in his power.
_Jonathan Harker's Journal._
_30 October._--At nine o'clock Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, and I called
on Messrs. Mackenzie & Steinkoff, the agents of the London firm of
Hapgood. They had received a wire from London, in answer to Lord
Godalming's telegraphed request, asking us to show them any civility in
their power. They were more than kind and courteous, and took us at once
on board the _Czarina Catherine_, which lay at anchor out in the river
harbour. There we saw the Captain, Donelson by name, who told us of his
voyage. He said that in all his life he had never had so favourable a
run.
"Man!" he said, "but it made us afeard, for we expeckit that we should
have to pay for it wi' some rare piece o' ill luck, so as to keep up the
average. It's no canny to run frae London to the Black Sea wi' a wind
ahint ye, as though the Deil himself were blawin' on yer sail for his
ain purpose. An' a' the time we could no speer a thing. Gin we were nigh
a ship, or a port, or a headland, a fog fell on us and travelled wi' us,
till when after it had lifted and we looked out, the deil a thing could
we see. We ran by Gibraltar wi'oot bein' able to signal; an' till we
came to the Dardanelles and had to wait to get our permit to pass, we
never were within hail o' aught. At first I inclined to slack off sail
and beat about till the fog was lifted; but whiles, I thocht that if the
Deil was minded to get us into the Black Sea quick, he was like to do it
whether we would or no. If we had a quick voyage it would be no to our
miscredit wi' the owners, or no hurt to our traffic; an' the Old Mon who
had served his ain purpose wad be decently grateful to us for no
hinderin' him." This mixture of simplicity and cunning, of superstition
and commercial reasoning, aroused Van Helsing, who said:--
"Mine friend, that Devil is more clever than he is thought by some; and
he know when he meet his match!" The skipper was not displeased with the