Atlas Nightshade

Day 52

The hammer fell from Arthur's hand. He reeled and would have fallen had

we not caught him. The great drops of sweat sprang from his forehead,

and his breath came in broken gasps. It had indeed been an awful strain

on him; and had he not been forced to his task by more than human

considerations he could never have gone through with it. For a few

minutes we were so taken up with him that we did not look towards the

coffin. When we did, however, a murmur of startled surprise ran from one

to the other of us. We gazed so eagerly that Arthur rose, for he had

been seated on the ground, and came and looked too; and then a glad,

strange light broke over his face and dispelled altogether the gloom of

horror that lay upon it.

There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we had so dreaded

and grown to hate that the work of her destruction was yielded as a

privilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her in

her life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity. True that

there were there, as we had seen them in life, the traces of care and

pain and waste; but these were all dear to us, for they marked her truth

to what we knew. One and all we felt that the holy calm that lay like

sunshine over the wasted face and form was only an earthly token and

symbol of the calm that was to reign for ever.

Van Helsing came and laid his hand on Arthur's shoulder, and said to

him:--

"And now, Arthur my friend, dear lad, am I not forgiven?"

The reaction of the terrible strain came as he took the old man's hand

in his, and raising it to his lips, pressed it, and said:--

"Forgiven! God bless you that you have given my dear one her soul again,

and me peace." He put his hands on the Professor's shoulder, and laying

his head on his breast, cried for a while silently, whilst we stood

unmoving. When he raised his head Van Helsing said to him:--

"And now, my child, you may kiss her. Kiss her dead lips if you will, as

she would have you to, if for her to choose. For she is not a grinning

devil now--not any more a foul Thing for all eternity. No longer she is

the devil's Un-Dead. She is God's true dead, whose soul is with Him!"

Arthur bent and kissed her, and then we sent him and Quincey out of the

tomb; the Professor and I sawed the top off the stake, leaving the point

of it in the body. Then we cut off the head and filled the mouth with

garlic. We soldered up the leaden coffin, screwed on the coffin-lid,

and gathering up our belongings, came away. When the Professor locked

the door he gave the key to Arthur.

Outside the air was sweet, the sun shone, and the birds sang, and it

seemed as if all nature were tuned to a different pitch. There was

gladness and mirth and peace everywhere, for we were at rest ourselves

on one account, and we were glad, though it was with a tempered joy.

Before we moved away Van Helsing said:--

"Now, my friends, one step of our work is done, one the most harrowing

to ourselves. But there remains a greater task: to find out the author

of all this our sorrow and to stamp him out. I have clues which we can

follow; but it is a long task, and a difficult, and there is danger in

it, and pain. Shall you not all help me? We have learned to believe, all

of us--is it not so? And since so, do we not see our duty? Yes! And do

we not promise to go on to the bitter end?"

Each in turn, we took his hand, and the promise was made. Then said the

Professor as we moved off:--

"Two nights hence you shall meet with me and dine together at seven of

the clock with friend John. I shall entreat two others, two that you

know not as yet; and I shall be ready to all our work show and our plans

unfold. Friend John, you come with me home, for I have much to consult

about, and you can help me. To-night I leave for Amsterdam, but shall

return to-morrow night. And then begins our great quest. But first I

shall have much to say, so that you may know what is to do and to dread.

Then our promise shall be made to each other anew; for there is a

terrible task before us, and once our feet are on the ploughshare we

must not draw back."

CHAPTER XVII

DR. SEWARD'S DIARY--_continued_

When we arrived at the Berkeley Hotel, Van Helsing found a telegram

waiting for him:--

"Am coming up by train. Jonathan at Whitby. Important news.--MINA

HARKER."

The Professor was delighted. "Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina," he said,

"pearl among women! She arrive, but I cannot stay. She must go to your

house, friend John. You must meet her at the station. Telegraph her _en

route_, so that she may be prepared."

When the wire was despatched he had a cup of tea; over it he told me of

a diary kept by Jonathan Harker when abroad, and gave me a typewritten

copy of it, as also of Mrs. Harker's diary at Whitby. "Take these," he

said, "and study them well. When I have returned you will be master of

all the facts, and we can then better enter on our inquisition. Keep

them safe, for there is in them much of treasure. You will need all your

faith, even you who have had such an experience as that of to-day. What

is here told," he laid his hand heavily and gravely on the packet of

papers as he spoke, "may be the beginning of the end to you and me and

many another; or it may sound the knell of the Un-Dead who walk the

earth. Read all, I pray you, with the open mind; and if you can add in

any way to the story here told do so, for it is all-important. You have

kept diary of all these so strange things; is it not so? Yes! Then we

shall go through all these together when we meet." He then made ready

for his departure, and shortly after drove off to Liverpool Street. I

took my way to Paddington, where I arrived about fifteen minutes before

the train came in.

The crowd melted away, after the bustling fashion common to arrival

platforms; and I was beginning to feel uneasy, lest I might miss my

guest, when a sweet-faced, dainty-looking girl stepped up to me, and,

after a quick glance, said: "Dr. Seward, is it not?"

"And you are Mrs. Harker!" I answered at once; whereupon she held out

her hand.

"I knew you from the description of poor dear Lucy; but----" She stopped

suddenly, and a quick blush overspread her face.

The blush that rose to my own cheeks somehow set us both at ease, for it

was a tacit answer to her own. I got her luggage, which included a

typewriter, and we took the Underground to Fenchurch Street, after I had

sent a wire to my housekeeper to have a sitting-room and bedroom

prepared at once for Mrs. Harker.

In due time we arrived. She knew, of course, that the place was a

lunatic asylum, but I could see that she was unable to repress a shudder

when we entered.

She told me that, if she might, she would come presently to my study, as

she had much to say. So here I am finishing my entry in my phonograph

diary whilst I await her. As yet I have not had the chance of looking at

the papers which Van Helsing left with me, though they lie open before

me. I must get her interested in something, so that I may have an

opportunity of reading them. She does not know how precious time is, or

what a task we have in hand. I must be careful not to frighten her. Here

she is!

_Mina Harker's Journal._

_29 September._--After I had tidied myself, I went down to Dr. Seward's

study. At the door I paused a moment, for I thought I heard him talking

with some one. As, however, he had pressed me to be quick, I knocked at

the door, and on his calling out, "Come in," I entered.

To my intense surprise, there was no one with him. He was quite alone,

and on the table opposite him was what I knew at once from the

description to be a phonograph. I had never seen one, and was much

interested.