by Bram Stoker
CHAPTER XXII.
/Jonathan Harker's Journal./
_3 October._--As I must do something or go mad, I write this diary. Itis now six o'clock, and we are to meet in the study in half an hour andtake something to eat; for Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward are agreedthat if we do not eat we cannot work our best. Our best will be, Godknows, required to-day. I must keep writing at every chance, for I darenot stop to think. All, big and little, must go down; perhaps at the endthe little things may teach us most. The teaching, big or little, couldnot have landed Mina or me anywhere worse than we are to-day. However,we must trust and hope. Poor Mina told me just now, with the tearsrunning down her dear cheeks, that it is in trouble and trial that ourfaith is tested--that we must keep on trusting; and that God will aid usup to the end. The end! oh, my God! what end?... To work! To work!
When Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward had come back from seeing poorRenfield, we went gravely into what was to be done. First, Dr. Sewardtold us that when he and Dr. Van Helsing had gone down to the room belowthey had found Renfield lying on the floor, all in a heap. His face wasall bruised and crushed in, and the bones of the neck were broken.
Dr. Seward asked the attendant who was on duty in the passage if he hadheard anything. He said that he had been sitting down--he confessed tohalf dozing--when he heard loud voices in the room, and then Renfieldhad called out loudly several times, "God! God! God!" After that therewas a sound of falling, and when he entered the room he found him lyingon the floor, face down, just as the doctors had seen him. Van Helsingasked if he had heard "voices" or "a voice," and he said he could notsay; that at first it had seemed to him as if there were two, but asthere was no one in the room it could have been only one. He could swearto it, if required, that the word "God" was spoken by the patient. Dr.Seward said to us, when we were alone, that he did not wish to go intothe matter; the question of an inquest had to be considered, and itwould never do to put forward the truth, as no one would believe it.As it was, he thought that on the attendant's evidence he could give acertificate of death by misadventure in falling from bed. In case thecoroner should demand it, there would be a formal inquest, necessarilyto the same result.
When the question began to be discussed as to what should be our nextstep, the very first thing we decided was that Mina should be in fullconfidence; that nothing of any sort--no matter how painful--should bekept from her. She herself agreed as to its wisdom, and it was pitifulto see her so brave and yet so sorrowful, and in such a depth ofdespair. "There must be no more concealment," she said. "Alas! we havehad too much already. And besides there is nothing in all the world thatcan give me more pain than I have already endured--than I suffer now!Whatever may happen, it must be of new hope or of new courage to me!"Van Helsing was looking at her fixedly as she spoke, and said, suddenlybut quietly:--
"But, dear Madam Mina are you not afraid; not for yourself, but forothers from yourself, after what has happened?" Her face grew set inits lines, but her eyes shone with the devotion of a martyr as sheanswered:--
"Ah no! for my mind is made up!"
"To what?" he asked gently, whilst we were all very still; for each inour own way we had a sort of vague idea of what she meant. Her answercame with direct simplicity, as though she were simply stating a fact:--
"Because if I find in myself--and I shall watch keenly for it--a sign ofharm to any that I love, I shall die!"
"You would not kill yourself?" he asked hoarsely.
"I would; if there were no friend who loved me, who would save me sucha pain, and so desperate an effort!" She looked at him meaningly as shespoke. He was sitting down; but now he rose and came close to her andput his hand on her head as he said solemnly:--
"My child, there is such an one if it were for your good. For myselfI could hold it in my account with God to find such an euthanasia foryou, even at this moment, if it were best. Nay, were it safe! But, mychild----" for a moment he seemed choked, and a great sob rose in histhroat; he gulped it down and went on:--
"There are here some who would stand between you and death. You mustnot die. You must not die by any hand; but least of all by your own.Until the other, who has fouled your sweet life, is true dead you mustnot die; for if he is still with the quick Un-Dead, your death wouldmake you even as he is. No, you must live! You must struggle and striveto live, though death would seem a boon unspeakable. You must fightDeath himself, though he come to you in pain or in joy; by the day,or the night; in safety or in peril! On your living soul I charge youthat you do not die--nay, nor think of death--till this great evil bepast." The poor dear grew white as death, and shook and shivered, as Ihave seen a quicksand shake and shiver at the incoming of the tide. Wewere all silent; we could do nothing. At length she grew more calm, andturning to him said, sweetly, but oh! so sorrowfully, as she held outher hand:--
"I promise you, my dear friend, that if God will let me live, I shallstrive to do so; till, if it may be in His good time, this horror mayhave passed away from me." She was so good and brave that we all feltthat our hearts were strengthened to work and endure for her, and webegan to discuss what we were to do. I told her that she was to have allthe papers in the safe, and all the papers or diaries and phonographs wemight hereafter use; and was to keep the record as she had done before.She was pleased with the prospect of anything to do--if "pleased" couldbe used in connection with so grim an interest.
As usual Van Helsing had thought ahead of everyone else, and wasprepared with an exact ordering of our work.
"It is perhaps well" he said, "that at our meeting after our visitto Carfax we decided not to do anything with the earth-boxes thatlay there. Had we done so, the Count must have guessed our purpose,and would doubtless have taken measures in advance to frustrate suchan effort with regard to the others; but now he does not know ourintentions. Nay more, in all probability he does not know that such apower exists to us as can sterilize his lairs, so that he cannot usethem as of old. We are now so much further advanced in our knowledgeas to their disposition, that, when we have examined the house inPiccadilly, we may track the very last of them. To-day, then, is ours;and in it rests our hope. The sun that rose on our sorrow this morningguards us in its course. Until it sets to-night, that monster mustretain whatever form he now has. He is confined within the limitationsof his earthly envelope. He cannot melt into thin air nor disappearthrough cracks or chinks or crannies. If he go through a door-way, hemust open the door like a mortal. And so we have this day to hunt outall his lairs and sterilize them. So we shall, if we have not yet catchhim and destroy him, drive him to bay in some place where the catchingand the destroying shall be, in time, sure." Here I started up for Icould not contain myself at the thought that the minutes and seconds sopreciously laden with Mina's life and happiness were flying from us,since whilst we talked action was possible. But Van Helsing held up hishand warningly. "Nay, friend Jonathan," he said, "in this, the quickestway home is the longest way, so your proverb say. We shall all act, andact with desperate quick, when the time has come. But think, in allprobable the key of the situation is in that house in Piccadilly. TheCount may have many houses which he has bought. Of them he will havedeeds of purchase, keys and other things. He will have paper that hewrite on; he will have his book of cheques. There are many belongingsthat he must have somewhere; why not in this place so central, so quiet,where he come and go by the front or the back at all hour, when in thevery vast of the traffic there is none to notice. We shall go there andsearch that house; and when we learn what it holds, then we do what ourfriend Arthur call, in his phrases of hunt, 'stop the earths' and so werun down our old fox--so? is it not?"
"Then let us come at once," I cried, "we are wasting the precious,precious time!" The Professor did not move, but simply said:--
"And how are we to get into that house in Piccadilly?"
"Any way!" I cried. "We shall break in if need be."
"And your police; where will they be, and what will they say?"
I was staggered; bu
t I knew that if he wished to delay he had a goodreason for it. So I said, as quietly as I could:--
"Don't wait more than need be; you know, I am sure, what torture I amin."
"Ah, my child, that I do; and indeed there is no wish of me to add toyour anguish. But just think, what can we do, until all the world be atmovement? Then will come our time. I have thought and thought, and itseems to me that the simplest way is the best of all. Now we wish to getinto the house, but we have no key; is it not so?" I nodded.
"Now suppose that you were, in truth, the owner of that house, andcould not still get it; and think there was to you no conscience of thehousebreaker, what would you do?"
"I should get a respectable locksmith, and set him to work to pick thelock for me."
"And your police, they would interfere, would they not?"
"Oh, no! not if they knew the man was properly employed."
"Then," he looked at me keenly as he spoke, "all that is in doubt isthe conscience of the employer, and the belief of your policemen asto whether or no that employer has a good conscience or a bad one.Your police must indeed be zealous men and clever--oh, so clever!--inreading the heart, that they trouble themselves in such matter. No, no,my friend Jonathan, you go take the lock off a hundred empty housesin this your London, or of any city in the world; and if you do it assuch things are rightly done, and at the time such things are rightlydone, no one will interfere. I have read of a gentleman who owned a sofine house in your London, and when he went for months of summer toZwitzerland and lock up his house, some burglar came and broke window atback and got in. Then he went and made open the shutters in front andwalk out and in through the door, before the very eyes of the police.Then he have an auction in that house, and advertise it, and put up bignotice; and when the day come he sell off by a great auctioneer all thegoods of that other man who own them. Then he go to a builder, and hesell him that house, making an agreement that he pull it down and takeall away within a certain time. And your police and other authority helphim all they can. And when that owner come back from his holiday inZwitzerland he find only an empty hole where his house had been. Thiswas all done _en regle_; and in our work we shall be _en regle_ too. Weshall not go so early that the policeman who have then little to thinkof, shall deem it strange; but we shall go after ten o'clock when thereare many about, and when such things would be done were we indeed ownersof the house."
I could not but see how right he was, and the terrible despair of Mina'sface became relaxed a thought; there was hope in such good counsel. VanHelsing went on:--
"When once within that house we may find more clues; at any rate some ofus can remain there whilst the rest find the other places where there bemore earth-boxes--at Bermondsey and Mile End."
Lord Godalming stood up. "I can be of some use here," he said. "I shallwire to my people to have horses and carriages where they will be mostconvenient."
"Look here, old fellow," said Morris, "it is a capital idea to have allready in case we want to go horsebacking; but don't you think that oneof your snappy carriages with its heraldic adornments in a byeway atWalworth or Mile End would attract too much attention for our purposes?It seems to me that we ought to take cabs when we go south or east; andeven leave them somewhere near the neighbourhood we are going to."
"Friend Quincey is right!" said the Professor. "His head is what youcall in plane with the horizon. It is a difficult thing that we go todo, and we do not want no peoples to watch us if so it may."
Mina took a growing interest in everything, and I was rejoiced to seethat the exigency of affairs was helping her to forget for a time theterrible experience of the night. She was very, very pale--almostghastly, and so thin that her lips were drawn away, showing her teeth insomewhat of prominence. I did not mention this last, lest it should giveher needless pain; but it made my blood run cold in my veins to think ofwhat had occurred with poor Lucy when the Count had sucked her blood. Asyet there was no sign of the teeth growing sharper; but the time as yetwas short, and there was time for fear.
When we came to the discussion of the sequence of our efforts and ofthe disposition of our forces, there were new sources of doubt. It wasfinally agreed that before starting for Piccadilly we should destroy theCount's lair close at hand. In case he should find it out too soon, weshould thus be still ahead of him in our work of destruction; and hispresence in his purely material shape, and at his weakest, might give ussome new clue.
As to the disposal of forces, it was suggested by the Professor that,after our visit to Carfax, we should all enter the house in Piccadilly;that the two doctors and I should remain there, whilst Lord Godalmingand Quincey found the lairs at Walworth and Mile End and destroyedthem. It was possible, if not likely, the Professor urged, that theCount might appear in Piccadilly during the day, and that if so wemight be able to cope with him then and there. At any rate we might beable to follow him in force. To this plan I strenuously objected, inso far as my going was concerned, for I said that I intended to stayand protect Mina. I thought that my mind was made up on the subject;but Mina would not listen to my objection. She said that there might besome law matter in which I could be useful; that amongst the Count'spapers might be some clue which I could understand out of my experiencein Transylvania; and that, as it was, all the strength we could musterwas required to cope with the Count's extraordinary power. I had togive in, for Mina's resolution was fixed; she said that it was the lasthope for _her_ that we should all work together. "As for me," she said,"I have no fear. Things have been as bad as they can be; and whatevermay happen must have in it some element of hope or comfort. Go, myhusband! God can, if He wishes it, guard me as well alone as with anyone present." So I started up crying out: "Then in God's name let uscome at once, for we are losing time. The Count may come to Piccadillyearlier than we think."
"Not so!" said Van Helsing, holding up his hand.
"But why?" I asked.
"Do you forget," he said, with actually a smile, "that last night hebanqueted heavily, and will sleep late?"
Did I forget! shall I ever--can I ever! Can any of us ever forget thatterrible scene! Mina struggled hard to keep her brave countenance; butthe pain overmastered her and she put her hands before her face, andshuddered whilst she moaned. Van Helsing had not intended to recallher frightful experience. He had simply lost sight of her and her partin the affair in his intellectual effort. When it struck him what hehad said, he was horrified at his thoughtlessness and tried to comforther. "Oh Madam Mina," he said, "dear, dear Madam Mina, alas! that I,of all who so reverence you, should have said anything so forgetful.These stupid old lips of mine and this stupid old head do not deserveso; but you will forget it, will you not?" He bent low beside her as hespoke; she took his hand, and looking at him through her tears, saidhoarsely:--
"No, I shall not forget, for it is well that I remember; and with itI have so much in memory of you that is sweet, that I take it alltogether. Now, you must all be going soon. Breakfast is ready, and wemust all eat that we may be strong."
Breakfast was a strange meal to us all. We tried to be cheerful andencourage each other, and Mina was the brightest and most cheerful ofus. When it was over, Van Helsing stood up and said:--
"Now, my dear friends, we go forth to our terrible enterprise. Are weall armed, as we were on that night when first we visited our enemy'slair; armed against ghostly as well as carnal attack?" We all assuredhim. "Then it is well. Now, Madam Mina, you are in any case _quite_ safehere until the sunset; and before then we shall return--if--we shallreturn! But before we go let me see you armed against personal attack. Ihave myself, since you came down, prepared your chamber by the placingof the things of which we know, so that He may not enter. Now let meguard yourself. On your forehead I touch this piece of Sacred Wafer inthe name of the Father, the Son, and----"
There was a fearful scream which almost froze our hearts to hear. As heplaced the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had seared it--had burned intothe flesh as though it had been a piece o
f white-hot metal. My poordarling's brain told her the significance of the fact as quickly as hernerves received the pain of it; and the two so overwhelmed her that heroverwrought nature had its voice in that dreadful scream. But the wordsto her thought came quickly; the echo of the scream had not ceased toring on the air when there came the reaction, and she sank on her kneeson the floor in an agony of abasement. Pulling her beautiful hair overher face, as the leper of old his mantle, she wailed out:--
"Unclean! Unclean! Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh! I mustbear this mark of shame upon my forehead until the Judgment Day." Theyall paused. I had thrown myself beside her in an agony of helplessgrief, and putting my arms around held her tight. For a few minutes oursorrowful hearts beat together, whilst the friends around us turned awaytheir eyes that ran tears silently. Then Van Helsing turned and saidgravely; so gravely that I could not help feeling that he was in someway inspired and was stating things outside himself:--
"It may be that you may have to bear that mark till God Himself see fit,as He most surely shall, on the Judgment Day to redress all wrongs ofthe earth and of His children that He has placed thereon. And oh, MadamMina, my dear, my dear, may we who love you be there to see, when thatred scar, the sign of God's knowledge of what has been, shall pass awayand leave your forehead as pure as the heart we know. For so surely aswe live, that scar shall pass away when God see right to lift the burdenthat is hard upon us. Till then we bear our Cross, as His Son did inobedience to His will. It may be that we are chosen instruments of Hisgood pleasure, and that we ascend to His bidding as that other throughstripes and shame; through tears and blood; through doubts and fears,and all that makes the difference between God and man."
There was hope in his words, and comfort; and they made for resignation.Mina and I both felt so, and simultaneously we each took one of the oldman's hands and bent over and kissed it. Then without a word we allknelt down together, and, all holding hands, swore to be true to eachother. We men pledged ourselves to raise the veil of sorrow from thehead of her whom, each in his own way, we loved; and we prayed for helpand guidance in the terrible task which lay before us.
It was then time to start. So I said farewell to Mina, a parting whichneither of us shall forget to our dying day; and we set out.
To one thing I have made up my mind: if we find out that Mina must bea vampire in the end, then she shall not go into that unknown andterrible land alone. I suppose it is thus that in old times one vampiremeant many; just as their hideous bodies could only rest in sacredearth, so the holiest love was the recruiting sergeant for their ghastlyranks.
We entered Carfax without trouble and found all things the same as onthe first occasion. It was hard to believe that amongst so prosaicsurroundings of neglect and dust and decay there was any ground for suchfear as we already knew. Had not our minds been made up, and had therenot been terrible memories to spur us on, we could hardly have proceededwith our task. We found no papers, nor any sign of use in the house; andin the old chapel the great boxes looked just as we had seen them last.Dr. Van Helsing said to us solemnly as we stood before them:--
"And now, my friends, we have a duty here to do. We must sterilisethis earth, so sacred of holy memories, that he has brought from a fardistant land for such fell use. He has chosen this earth because it hasbeen holy. Thus we defeat him with his own weapon, for we make it moreholy still. It was sanctified to such use of man, now we sanctify it toGod." As he spoke he took from his bag a screw-driver and a wrench, andvery soon the top of one of the cases was thrown open. The earth smelledmusty and close; but we did not somehow seem to mind, for our attentionwas concentrated on the Professor. Taking from his box a piece of theSacred Wafer he laid it reverently on the earth, and then shutting downthe lid began to screw it home, we aiding him as he worked.
One by one we treated in the same way each of the great boxes, and leftthem as we had found them to all appearance; but in each was a portionof the Host.
When we closed the door behind us, the Professor said solemnly:--
"So much is already done. If it may be that with all the others we canbe so successful, then the sunset of this evening may shine on MadamMina's forehead all white as ivory and with no stain!"
As we passed across the lawn on our way to the station to catch ourtrain we could see the front of the asylum. I looked eagerly, and in thewindow of my room saw Mina. I waved my hand to her, and nodded to tellthat our work there was successfully accomplished. She nodded in replyto show that she understood. The last I saw, she was waving her hand infarewell. It was with a heavy heart that we sought the station and justcaught the train, which was steaming in as we reached the platform.
I have written this in the train.
_Piccadilly, 12.30 o'clock._--Just before we reached Fenchurch StreetLord Godalming said to me:
"Quincey and I will find a locksmith. You had better not come with usin case there should be any difficulty; for under the circumstances itwouldn't seem so bad for us to break into an empty house. But you area solicitor, and the Incorporated Law Society might tell you that youshould have known better." I demurred as to my not sharing any dangereven of odium, but he went on: "Besides, it will attract less attentionif there are not too many of us. My title will make it all right withthe locksmith, and with any policeman that may come along. You hadbetter go with Jack and the Professor and stay in the Green Park,somewhere in sight of the house; and when you see the door open and thesmith has gone away, do you all come across. We shall be on the look outfor you, and will let you in."
"The advice is good!" said Van Helsing, so we said no more. Godalmingand Morris hurried off in a cab, we following in another. At the cornerof Arlington Street our contingent got out and strolled into the GreenPark. My heart beat as I saw the house on which so much of our hope wascentred, looming up grim and silent in its deserted condition amongstits more lively and spruce-looking neighbours. We sat down on a benchwithin good view, and began to smoke cigars so as to attract as littleattention as possible. The minutes seemed to pass with leaden feet as wewaited for the coming of the others.
At length we saw a four-wheeler drive up. Out of it, in leisurelyfashion, got Lord Godalming and Morris; and down from the box descendeda thick-set working man with his rush-woven basket of tools. Morrispaid the cabman, who touched his hat and drove away. Together the twoascended the steps, and Lord Godalming pointed out what he wanted done.The workman took off his coat leisurely and hung it on one of the spikesof the rail, saying something to a policeman who just then saunteredalong. The policeman nodded acquiescence, and the man kneeling downplaced his bag beside him. After searching through it, he took out aselection of tools which he proceeded to lay beside him in orderlyfashion. Then he stood up, looked into the keyhole, blew into it, andturning to his employers, made some remark. Lord Godalming smiled, andthe man lifted a good-sized bunch of keys; selecting one of them, hebegan to probe the lock, as if feeling his way with it. After fumblingabout for a bit he tried a second, and then a third. All at once thedoor opened under a slight push from him, and he and the two othersentered the hall. We sat still; my own cigar burnt furiously, but VanHelsing's went cold altogether. We waited patiently as we saw theworkman come out and take in his bag. Then he held the door partly open,steading it with his knees, whilst he fitted a key to the lock. This hefinally handed to Lord Godalming, who took out his purse and gave himsomething. The man touched his hat, took his bag, put on his coat anddeparted; not a soul took the slightest notice of the whole transaction.
When the man had fairly gone, we three crossed the street and knocked atthe door. It was immediately opened by Quincey Morris, beside whom stoodLord Godalming lighting a cigar.
"The place smells so vilely," said the latter as we came in. It didindeed smell vilely--like the old chapel at Carfax--and with ourprevious experience it was plain to us that the Count had been usingthe place pretty freely. We moved to explore the house, all keepingtogether in case of attack; for we knew we had a strong and wil
y enemyto deal with, and as yet we did not know whether the Count might not bein the house. In the dining-room, which lay at the back of the hall,we found eight boxes of earth. Eight boxes only out of the nine whichwe sought! Our work was not over, and would never be until we shouldhave found the missing box. First we opened the shutters of the windowwhich looked out across a narrow stone-flagged yard at the blank faceof a stable, pointed to look like the front of a miniature house. Therewere no windows in it, so we were not afraid of being overlooked. We didnot lose any time in examining the chests. With the tools which we hadbrought with us we opened them, one by one, and treated them as we hadtreated those others in the chapel. It was evident to us that the Countwas not at present in the house, and we proceeded to search for any ofhis effects.
After a cursory glance at the rest of the rooms from basement to attic,we came to the conclusion that the dining-room contained any effectswhich might belong to the Count; and so we proceeded to minutely examinethem. They lay in a sort of orderly disorder on the great dining-roomtable. There were title-deeds of the Piccadilly house in a greatbundle; deeds of the purchase of the houses at Mile End and Bermondsey;notepaper, envelopes, and pens and ink. All were covered up in thinwrapping paper to keep them from the dust. There were also a clothesbrush, a brush and comb, and a jug and basin--the latter containingdirty water which was reddened as if with blood. Last of all was alittle heap of keys of all sorts and sizes, probably those belonging tothe other houses. When we had examined this last find, Lord Godalmingand Quincey Morris, taking accurate notes of the various addresses ofthe houses in the East and the South, took with them the keys in a greatbunch, and set out to destroy the boxes in these places. The rest of usare, with what patience we can, awaiting their return--or the coming ofthe Count.