Atlas Nightshade

Day 67

"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

need your help. Well, I saw I must try to help the medicine to its work

with my will, if it was to do me any good, so I resolutely set myself to

sleep. Sure enough sleep must soon have come to me, for I remember no

more. Jonathan coming in had not waked me, for he lay by my side when

next I remember. There was in the room the same thin white mist that I

had before noticed. But I forget now if you know of this; you will find

it in my diary which I shall show you later. I felt the same vague

terror which had come to me before and the same sense of some presence.

I turned to wake Jonathan, but found that he slept so soundly that it

seemed as if it was he who had taken the sleeping draught, and not I. I

tried, but I could not wake him. This caused me a great fear, and I

looked around terrified. Then indeed, my heart sank within me: beside

the bed, as if he had stepped out of the mist--or rather as if the mist

had turned into his figure, for it had entirely disappeared--stood a

tall, thin man, all in black. I knew him at once from the description of

the others. The waxen face; the high aquiline nose, on which the light

fell in a thin white line; the parted red lips, with the sharp white

teeth showing between; and the red eyes that I had seemed to see in the

sunset on the windows of St. Mary's Church at Whitby. I knew, too, the

red scar on his forehead where Jonathan had struck him. For an instant

my heart stood still, and I would have screamed out, only that I was

paralysed. In the pause he spoke in a sort of keen, cutting whisper,

pointing as he spoke to Jonathan:--

"'Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his brains out

before your very eyes.' I was appalled and was too bewildered to do or

say anything. With a mocking smile, he placed one hand upon my shoulder

and, holding me tight, bared my throat with the other, saying as he did

so, 'First, a little refreshment to reward my exertions. You may as well

be quiet; it is not the first time, or the second, that your veins have

appeased my thirst!' I was bewildered, and, strangely enough, I did not

want to hinder him. I suppose it is a part of the horrible curse that

such is, when his touch is on his victim. And oh, my God, my God, pity

me! He placed his reeking lips upon my throat!" Her husband groaned

again. She clasped his hand harder, and looked at him pityingly, as if

he were the injured one, and went on:--

"I felt my strength fading away, and I was in a half swoon. How long

this horrible thing lasted I know not; but it seemed that a long time

must have passed before he took his foul, awful, sneering mouth away. I

saw it drip with the fresh blood!" The remembrance seemed for a while to

overpower her, and she drooped and would have sunk down but for her

husband's sustaining arm. With a great effort she recovered herself and

went on:--