Atlas Nightshade

Day 65

The patient was now breathing stertorously and it was easy to see that

he had suffered some terrible injury. Van Helsing returned with

extraordinary celerity, bearing with him a surgical case. He had

evidently been thinking and had his mind made up; for, almost before he

looked at the patient, he whispered to me:--

"Send the attendant away. We must be alone with him when he becomes

conscious, after the operation." So I said:--

"I think that will do now, Simmons. We have done all that we can at

present. You had better go your round, and Dr. Van Helsing will operate.

Let me know instantly if there be anything unusual anywhere."

The man withdrew, and we went into a strict examination of the patient.

The wounds of the face was superficial; the real injury was a depressed

fracture of the skull, extending right up through the motor area. The

Professor thought a moment and said:--

"We must reduce the pressure and get back to normal conditions, as far

as can be; the rapidity of the suffusion shows the terrible nature of

his injury. The whole motor area seems affected. The suffusion of the

brain will increase quickly, so we must trephine at once or it may be

too late." As he was speaking there was a soft tapping at the door. I

went over and opened it and found in the corridor without, Arthur and

Quincey in pajamas and slippers: the former spoke:--

"I heard your man call up Dr. Van Helsing and tell him of an accident.

So I woke Quincey or rather called for him as he was not asleep. Things

are moving too quickly and too strangely for sound sleep for any of us

these times. I've been thinking that to-morrow night will not see things

as they have been. We'll have to look back--and forward a little more

than we have done. May we come in?" I nodded, and held the door open

till they had entered; then I closed it again. When Quincey saw the

attitude and state of the patient, and noted the horrible pool on the

floor, he said softly:--

"My God! what has happened to him? Poor, poor devil!" I told him

briefly, and added that we expected he would recover consciousness after

the operation--for a short time, at all events. He went at once and sat

down on the edge of the bed, with Godalming beside him; we all watched

in patience.

"We shall wait," said Van Helsing, "just long enough to fix the best

spot for trephining, so that we may most quickly and perfectly remove

the blood clot; for it is evident that the hæmorrhage is increasing."

The minutes during which we waited passed with fearful slowness. I had a

horrible sinking in my heart, and from Van Helsing's face I gathered

that he felt some fear or apprehension as to what was to come. I dreaded

the words that Renfield might speak. I was positively afraid to think;

but the conviction of what was coming was on me, as I have read of men

who have heard the death-watch. The poor man's breathing came in

uncertain gasps. Each instant he seemed as though he would open his eyes

and speak; but then would follow a prolonged stertorous breath, and he

would relapse into a more fixed insensibility. Inured as I was to sick

beds and death, this suspense grew, and grew upon me. I could almost

hear the beating of my own heart; and the blood surging through my

temples sounded like blows from a hammer. The silence finally became

agonising. I looked at my companions, one after another, and saw from

their flushed faces and damp brows that they were enduring equal

torture. There was a nervous suspense over us all, as though overhead

some dread bell would peal out powerfully when we should least expect

it.

At last there came a time when it was evident that the patient was

sinking fast; he might die at any moment. I looked up at the Professor

and caught his eyes fixed on mine. His face was sternly set as he

spoke:--

"There is no time to lose. His words may be worth many lives; I have

been thinking so, as I stood here. It may be there is a soul at stake!

We shall operate just above the ear."

Without another word he made the operation. For a few moments the

breathing continued to be stertorous. Then there came a breath so

prolonged that it seemed as though it would tear open his chest.

Suddenly his eyes opened, and became fixed in a wild, helpless stare.

This was continued for a few moments; then it softened into a glad

surprise, and from the lips came a sigh of relief. He moved

convulsively, and as he did so, said:--

"I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait-waistcoat. I

have had a terrible dream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot

move. What's wrong with my face? it feels all swollen, and it smarts

dreadfully." He tried to turn his head; but even with the effort his

eyes seemed to grow glassy again so I gently put it back. Then Van

Helsing said in a quiet grave tone:--

"Tell us your dream, Mr. Renfield." As he heard the voice his face

brightened, through its mutilation, and he said:--

"That is Dr. Van Helsing. How good it is of you to be here. Give me some

water, my lips are dry; and I shall try to tell you. I dreamed"--he

stopped and seemed fainting, I called quietly to Quincey--"The

brandy--it is in my study--quick!" He flew and returned with a glass,

the decanter of brandy and a carafe of water. We moistened the parched

lips, and the patient quickly revived. It seemed, however, that his poor

injured brain had been working in the interval, for, when he was quite

conscious, he looked at me piercingly with an agonised confusion which I

shall never forget, and said:--

"I must not deceive myself; it was no dream, but all a grim reality."

Then his eyes roved round the room; as they caught sight of the two

figures sitting patiently on the edge of the bed he went on:--

"If I were not sure already, I would know from them." For an instant his

eyes closed--not with pain or sleep but voluntarily, as though he were

bringing all his faculties to bear; when he opened them he said,

hurriedly, and with more energy than he had yet displayed:--

"Quick, Doctor, quick. I am dying! I feel that I have but a few minutes;

and then I must go back to death--or worse! Wet my lips with brandy

again. I have something that I must say before I die; or before my poor

crushed brain dies anyhow. Thank you! It was that night after you left

me, when I implored you to let me go away. I couldn't speak then, for I

felt my tongue was tied; but I was as sane then, except in that way, as

I am now. I was in an agony of despair for a long time after you left

me; it seemed hours. Then there came a sudden peace to me. My brain

seemed to become cool again, and I realised where I was. I heard the

dogs bark behind our house, but not where He was!" As he spoke, Van

Helsing's eyes never blinked, but his hand came out and met mine and

gripped it hard. He did not, however, betray himself; he nodded slightly

and said: "Go on," in a low voice. Renfield proceeded:--

"He came up to the window in the mist, as I had seen him often before;

but he was solid then--not a ghost, and his eyes were fierce like a

man's when angry. He was laughing with his red mouth; the sharp white

teeth glinted in the moonlight when he turned to look back over the belt

of trees, to where the dogs were barking. I wouldn't ask him to come in

at first, though I knew he wanted to--just as he had wanted all along.

Then he began promising me things--not in words but by doing them." He

was interrupted by a word from the Professor:--

"How?"

"By making them happen; just as he used to send in the flies when the

sun was shining. Great big fat ones with steel and sapphire on their

wings; and big moths, in the night, with skull and cross-bones on their

backs." Van Helsing nodded to him as he whispered to me unconsciously:--

"The _Acherontia Aitetropos of the Sphinges_--what you call the

'Death's-head Moth'?" The patient went on without stopping.

"Then he began to whisper: 'Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands,

millions of them, and every one a life; and dogs to eat them, and cats

too. All lives! all red blood, with years of life in it; and not merely

buzzing flies!' I laughed at him, for I wanted to see what he could do.

Then the dogs howled, away beyond the dark trees in His house. He

beckoned me to the window. I got up and looked out, and He raised his

hands, and seemed to call out without using any words. A dark mass

spread over the grass, coming on like the shape of a flame of fire; and

then He moved the mist to the right and left, and I could see that there

were thousands of rats with their eyes blazing red--like His, only

smaller. He held up his hand, and they all stopped; and I thought he

seemed to be saying: 'All these lives will I give you, ay, and many more

and greater, through countless ages, if you will fall down and worship

me!' And then a red cloud, like the colour of blood, seemed to close

over my eyes; and before I knew what I was doing, I found myself opening

the sash and saying to Him: 'Come in, Lord and Master!' The rats were

all gone, but He slid into the room through the sash, though it was only

open an inch wide--just as the Moon herself has often come in through

the tiniest crack and has stood before me in all her size and

splendour."

His voice was weaker, so I moistened his lips with the brandy again, and

he continued; but it seemed as though his memory had gone on working in

the interval for his story was further advanced. I was about to call him

back to the point, but Van Helsing whispered to me: "Let him go on. Do

not interrupt him; he cannot go back, and maybe could not proceed at all

if once he lost the thread of his thought." He proceeded:--