Atlas Nightshade

Day 64

"I see," I said. "You want big things that you can make your teeth meet

in? How would you like to breakfast on elephant?"

"What ridiculous nonsense you are talking!" He was getting too wide

awake, so I thought I would press him hard. "I wonder," I said

reflectively, "what an elephant's soul is like!"

The effect I desired was obtained, for he at once fell from his

high-horse and became a child again.

"I don't want an elephant's soul, or any soul at all!" he said. For a

few moments he sat despondently. Suddenly he jumped to his feet, with

his eyes blazing and all the signs of intense cerebral excitement. "To

hell with you and your souls!" he shouted. "Why do you plague me about

souls? Haven't I got enough to worry, and pain, and distract me already,

without thinking of souls!" He looked so hostile that I thought he was

in for another homicidal fit, so I blew my whistle. The instant,

however, that I did so he became calm, and said apologetically:--

"Forgive me, Doctor; I forgot myself. You do not need any help. I am so

worried in my mind that I am apt to be irritable. If you only knew the

problem I have to face, and that I am working out, you would pity, and

tolerate, and pardon me. Pray do not put me in a strait-waistcoat. I

want to think and I cannot think freely when my body is confined. I am

sure you will understand!" He had evidently self-control; so when the

attendants came I told them not to mind, and they withdrew. Renfield

watched them go; when the door was closed he said, with considerable

dignity and sweetness:--

"Dr. Seward, you have been very considerate towards me. Believe me that

I am very, very grateful to you!" I thought it well to leave him in this

mood, and so I came away. There is certainly something to ponder over in

this man's state. Several points seem to make what the American

interviewer calls "a story," if one could only get them in proper order.

Here they are:--

Will not mention "drinking."

Fears the thought of being burdened with the "soul" of anything.

Has no dread of wanting "life" in the future.

Despises the meaner forms of life altogether, though he dreads being

haunted by their souls.

Logically all these things point one way! he has assurance of some kind

that he will acquire some higher life. He dreads the consequence--the

burden of a soul. Then it is a human life he looks to!

And the assurance--?

Merciful God! the Count has been to him, and there is some new scheme of

terror afoot!

* * * * *

_Later._--I went after my round to Van Helsing and told him my

suspicion. He grew very grave; and, after thinking the matter over for a

while asked me to take him to Renfield. I did so. As we came to the door

we heard the lunatic within singing gaily, as he used to do in the time

which now seems so long ago. When we entered we saw with amazement that

he had spread out his sugar as of old; the flies, lethargic with the

autumn, were beginning to buzz into the room. We tried to make him talk

of the subject of our previous conversation, but he would not attend. He

went on with his singing, just as though we had not been present. He had

got a scrap of paper and was folding it into a note-book. We had to come

away as ignorant as we went in.

His is a curious case indeed; we must watch him to-night.

_Letter, Mitchell, Sons and Candy to Lord Godalming._

_"1 October._

"My Lord,

"We are at all times only too happy to meet your wishes. We beg, with

regard to the desire of your Lordship, expressed by Mr. Harker on your

behalf, to supply the following information concerning the sale and

purchase of No. 347, Piccadilly. The original vendors are the executors

of the late Mr. Archibald Winter-Suffield. The purchaser is a foreign

nobleman, Count de Ville, who effected the purchase himself paying the

purchase money in notes 'over the counter,' if your Lordship will pardon

us using so vulgar an expression. Beyond this we know nothing whatever

of him.

"We are, my Lord,

"Your Lordship's humble servants,

"MITCHELL, SONS & CANDY."

_Dr. Seward's Diary._

_2 October._--I placed a man in the corridor last night, and told him to

make an accurate note of any sound he might hear from Renfield's room,

and gave him instructions that if there should be anything strange he

was to call me. After dinner, when we had all gathered round the fire

in the study--Mrs. Harker having gone to bed--we discussed the attempts

and discoveries of the day. Harker was the only one who had any result,

and we are in great hopes that his clue may be an important one.

Before going to bed I went round to the patient's room and looked in

through the observation trap. He was sleeping soundly, and his heart

rose and fell with regular respiration.

This morning the man on duty reported to me that a little after midnight

he was restless and kept saying his prayers somewhat loudly. I asked him

if that was all; he replied that it was all he heard. There was

something about his manner so suspicious that I asked him point blank if

he had been asleep. He denied sleep, but admitted to having "dozed" for

a while. It is too bad that men cannot be trusted unless they are

watched.

To-day Harker is out following up his clue, and Art and Quincey are

looking after horses. Godalming thinks that it will be well to have

horses always in readiness, for when we get the information which we

seek there will be no time to lose. We must sterilise all the imported

earth between sunrise and sunset; we shall thus catch the Count at his

weakest, and without a refuge to fly to. Van Helsing is off to the

British Museum looking up some authorities on ancient medicine. The old

physicians took account of things which their followers do not accept,

and the Professor is searching for witch and demon cures which may be

useful to us later.

I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in

strait-waistcoats.

* * * * *

_Later._--We have met again. We seem at last to be on the track, and our

work of to-morrow may be the beginning of the end. I wonder if

Renfield's quiet has anything to do with this. His moods have so

followed the doings of the Count, that the coming destruction of the

monster may be carried to him in some subtle way. If we could only get

some hint as to what passed in his mind, between the time of my argument

with him to-day and his resumption of fly-catching, it might afford us a

valuable clue. He is now seemingly quiet for a spell.... Is he?---- That

wild yell seemed to come from his room....

* * * * *

The attendant came bursting into my room and told me that Renfield had

somehow met with some accident. He had heard him yell; and when he went

to him found him lying on his face on the floor, all covered with blood.

I must go at once....

CHAPTER XXI

DR. SEWARD'S DIARY

_3 October._--Let me put down with exactness all that happened, as well

as I can remember it, since last I made an entry. Not a detail that I

can recall must be forgotten; in all calmness I must proceed.

When I came to Renfield's room I found him lying on the floor on his

left side in a glittering pool of blood. When I went to move him, it

became at once apparent that he had received some terrible injuries;

there seemed none of that unity of purpose between the parts of the body

which marks even lethargic sanity. As the face was exposed I could see

that it was horribly bruised, as though it had been beaten against the

floor--indeed it was from the face wounds that the pool of blood

originated. The attendant who was kneeling beside the body said to me as

we turned him over:--

"I think, sir, his back is broken. See, both his right arm and leg and

the whole side of his face are paralysed." How such a thing could have

happened puzzled the attendant beyond measure. He seemed quite

bewildered, and his brows were gathered in as he said:--

"I can't understand the two things. He could mark his face like that by

beating his own head on the floor. I saw a young woman do it once at the

Eversfield Asylum before anyone could lay hands on her. And I suppose he

might have broke his neck by falling out of bed, if he got in an awkward

kink. But for the life of me I can't imagine how the two things

occurred. If his back was broke, he couldn't beat his head; and if his

face was like that before the fall out of bed, there would be marks of

it." I said to him:--

"Go to Dr. Van Helsing, and ask him to kindly come here at once. I want

him without an instant's delay." The man ran off, and within a few

minutes the Professor, in his dressing gown and slippers, appeared. When

he saw Renfield on the ground, he looked keenly at him a moment, and

then turned to me. I think he recognised my thought in my eyes, for he

said very quietly, manifestly for the ears of the attendant:--

"Ah, a sad accident! He will need very careful watching, and much

attention. I shall stay with you myself; but I shall first dress myself.

If you will remain I shall in a few minutes join you."