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locked, and I returned baffled to the porch. As I did so, I heard the |
rapid pit-pat of a swiftly driven horse's feet. They stopped at the |
gate, and a few seconds later I met Van Helsing running up the avenue. |
When he saw me, he gasped out:-- |
"Then it was you, and just arrived. How is she? Are we too late? Did you |
not get my telegram?" |
I answered as quickly and coherently as I could that I had only got his |
telegram early in the morning, and had not lost a minute in coming here, |
and that I could not make any one in the house hear me. He paused and |
raised his hat as he said solemnly:-- |
"Then I fear we are too late. God's will be done!" With his usual |
recuperative energy, he went on: "Come. If there be no way open to get |
in, we must make one. Time is all in all to us now." |
We went round to the back of the house, where there was a kitchen |
window. The Professor took a small surgical saw from his case, and |
handing it to me, pointed to the iron bars which guarded the window. I |
attacked them at once and had very soon cut through three of them. Then |
with a long, thin knife we pushed back the fastening of the sashes and |
opened the window. I helped the Professor in, and followed him. There |
was no one in the kitchen or in the servants' rooms, which were close at |
hand. We tried all the rooms as we went along, and in the dining-room, |
dimly lit by rays of light through the shutters, found four |
servant-women lying on the floor. There was no need to think them dead, |
for their stertorous breathing and the acrid smell of laudanum in the |
room left no doubt as to their condition. Van Helsing and I looked at |
each other, and as we moved away he said: "We can attend to them later." |
Then we ascended to Lucy's room. For an instant or two we paused at the |
door to listen, but there was no sound that we could hear. With white |
faces and trembling hands, we opened the door gently, and entered the |
room. |
How shall I describe what we saw? On the bed lay two women, Lucy and her |
mother. The latter lay farthest in, and she was covered with a white |
sheet, the edge of which had been blown back by the draught through the |
broken window, showing the drawn, white face, with a look of terror |
fixed upon it. By her side lay Lucy, with face white and still more |
drawn. The flowers which had been round her neck we found upon her |
mother's bosom, and her throat was bare, showing the two little wounds |
which we had noticed before, but looking horribly white and mangled. |
Without a word the Professor bent over the bed, his head almost touching |
poor Lucy's breast; then he gave a quick turn of his head, as of one who |
listens, and leaping to his feet, he cried out to me:-- |
"It is not yet too late! Quick! quick! Bring the brandy!" |
I flew downstairs and returned with it, taking care to smell and taste |
it, lest it, too, were drugged like the decanter of sherry which I found |
on the table. The maids were still breathing, but more restlessly, and I |
fancied that the narcotic was wearing off. I did not stay to make sure, |
but returned to Van Helsing. He rubbed the brandy, as on another |
occasion, on her lips and gums and on her wrists and the palms of her |
hands. He said to me:-- |
"I can do this, all that can be at the present. You go wake those maids. |
Flick them in the face with a wet towel, and flick them hard. Make them |
get heat and fire and a warm bath. This poor soul is nearly as cold as |
that beside her. She will need be heated before we can do anything |
more." |
I went at once, and found little difficulty in waking three of the |
women. The fourth was only a young girl, and the drug had evidently |
affected her more strongly, so I lifted her on the sofa and let her |
sleep. The others were dazed at first, but as remembrance came back to |
them they cried and sobbed in a hysterical manner. I was stern with |
them, however, and would not let them talk. I told them that one life |
was bad enough to lose, and that if they delayed they would sacrifice |
Miss Lucy. So, sobbing and crying, they went about their way, half clad |
as they were, and prepared fire and water. Fortunately, the kitchen and |
boiler fires were still alive, and there was no lack of hot water. We |
got a bath and carried Lucy out as she was and placed her in it. Whilst |
we were busy chafing her limbs there was a knock at the hall door. One |
of the maids ran off, hurried on some more clothes, and opened it. Then |
she returned and whispered to us that there was a gentleman who had come |
with a message from Mr. Holmwood. I bade her simply tell him that he |
must wait, for we could see no one now. She went away with the message, |
and, engrossed with our work, I clean forgot all about him. |
I never saw in all my experience the Professor work in such deadly |
earnest. I knew--as he knew--that it was a stand-up fight with death, |
and in a pause told him so. He answered me in a way that I did not |
understand, but with the sternest look that his face could wear:-- |
"If that were all, I would stop here where we are now, and let her fade |
away into peace, for I see no light in life over her horizon." He went |
on with his work with, if possible, renewed and more frenzied vigour. |
Presently we both began to be conscious that the heat was beginning to |
be of some effect. Lucy's heart beat a trifle more audibly to the |
stethoscope, and her lungs had a perceptible movement. Van Helsing's |
face almost beamed, and as we lifted her from the bath and rolled her in |
a hot sheet to dry her he said to me:-- |
"The first gain is ours! Check to the King!" |
We took Lucy into another room, which had by now been prepared, and laid |
her in bed and forced a few drops of brandy down her throat. I noticed |
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