"He has all along, since his coming, been trying his power, slowly butsurely; that big child-brain of his is working. Well for us, it is, asyet, a child-brain; for had he dared, at the first, to attempt certainthings he would long ago have been beyond our power. However, he meansto succeed, and a man who has centuries before him can afford to waitand to go slow. _Festina lente_ may well be his motto."
"I fail to understand," said Harker wearily. "Oh, do be more plain tome! Perhaps grief and trouble are dulling my brain." The Professor laidhis hand tenderly on his shoulder as he spoke:--
"Ah, my child, I will be plain. Do you not see how, of late, thismonster has been creeping into knowledge experimentally? How he has beenmaking use of the zoophagous patient to effect his entry into friendJohn's home; for your Vampire, though in all afterwards he can come whenand how he will, must at the first make entry only when asked theretoby an inmate. But these are not his most important experiments. Do wenot see how at the first all these so great boxes were moved by others?He knew not then but that must be so. But all the time that so greatchild-brain of his was growing, and he began to consider whether hemight not himself move the box. So he begin to help; and then, when hefound that this be all right, he try to move them all alone. And so heprogress, and he scatter these graves of him; and none but he know wherethey are hidden. He may have intend to bury them deep in the ground.So that he only use them in the night, or at such time as he can changehis form, they do him equal well; and none may know these are his hidingplace! But, my child, do not despair; this knowledge come to him justtoo late! Already all of his lairs but one be sterilize as for him;and before the sunset this shall be so. Then he have no place where hecan move and hide. I delayed this morning that so we might be sure. Isthere not more at stake for us than for him? Then why we not be evenmore careful than him? By my clock it is one hour, and already, if allbe well, friend Arthur and Quincey are on their way to us. To-day is ourday, and we must go sure, if slow, and lose no chance. See! there arefive of us when those absent ones return."
Whilst he was speaking we were startled by a knock at the hall door,the double postman's knock of the telegraph boy. We all moved out tothe hall with one impulse, and Van Helsing, holding up his hand to usto keep silence, stepped to the door and opened it. The boy handed in adespatch. The Professor closed the door again and, after looking at thedirection, opened it and read it aloud:--
"Look out for D. He has just now, 12.45, come from Carfax hurriedly andhastened towards the south. He seems to be going the round and may wantto see you: Mina."
There was a pause, broken by Jonathan Harker's voice:--
"Now, God be thanked, we shall soon meet!" Van Helsing turned to himquickly and said:--
"God will act in His own way and time. Do not fear, and do not rejoiceas yet; for what we wish for at the moment may be our undoings."
"I care for nothing now," he answered hotly, "except to wipe out thisbrute from the face of creation. I would sell my soul to do it!"
"Oh, hush, hush, my child!" said Van Helsing, "God does not purchasesouls in this wise; and the Devil, though he may purchase, does notkeep faith. But God is merciful and just, and knows your pain and yourdevotion to that dear Madam Mina. Think you, how her pain would bedoubled, did she but hear your wild words. Do not fear any of us; weare all devoted to this cause, and to-day shall see the end. The timeis coming for action; to-day this Vampire is limit to the powers ofman, and till sunset he may not change. It will take him time to arrivehere--see, it is twenty minutes past one--and there are yet some timesbefore he can hither come, be he never so quick. What we must hope foris that my Lord Arthur and Quincey arrive first."
About half an hour after we had received Mrs. Harker's telegram, therecame a quiet resolute knock at the hall door. It was just an ordinaryknock, such as is given hourly by thousands of gentlemen, but it madethe Professor's heart and mine beat loudly. We looked at each other, andtogether moved out into the hall; we each held ready to use our variousarmaments--the spiritual in the left hand, the moral in the right. VanHelsing pulled back the latch, and, holding the door half open, stoodback, having both hands ready for action. The gladness of our heartsmust have shown upon our faces when on the step, close to the door, wesaw Lord Godalming and Quincey Morris. They came quickly in and closedthe door behind them, the former saying, as they moved along the hall:--
"It is all right. We found both places; six boxes in each, and wedestroyed them all!"
"Destroyed?" asked the Professor.
"For him!" We were silent for a minute, and then Quincey said:--
"There's nothing to do but to wait here. If, however, he doesn't turn upby five o'clock, we must start off; for it won't do to leave Mrs. Harkeralone after sunset."
"He will be here before long now," said Van Helsing, who had beenconsulting his pocket-book. "_Nota bene_, in Madam's telegram he wentsouth from Carfax, that means he went to cross the river, and he couldonly do so at slack of tide, which should be something before oneo'clock. That he went south has a meaning for us. He is as yet onlysuspicious; and he went from Carfax first to the place where he wouldsuspect interference least. You must have been at Bermondsey only ashort time before him. That he is not here already shows that he wentto Mile End next. This took him some time; for he would then have to becarried over the river in some way. Believe me, my friends, we shall nothave long to wait now. We should have ready some plan of attack, so thatwe may throw away no chance. Hush, there is no time now. Have all yourarms! Be ready!" He held up a warning hand as he spoke, for we all couldhear a key softly inserted in the lock of the hall-door.
I could not but admire, even at such a moment, the way in which adominant spirit asserted itself.
In all our hunting parties andadventures in different parts of the world, Quincey Morris had alwaysbeen the one to arrange the plan of action, and Arthur and I had beenaccustomed to obey him implicitly. Now, the old habit seemed to berenewed instinctively. With a swift glance round the room, he at oncelaid out our plan of attack, and, without speaking a word, with agesture, placed us each in position. Van Helsing, Harker, and I werejust behind the door so that when it was opened the Professor couldguard it whilst we two stepped between the incomer and the door.Godalming behind and Quincey in front stood just out of sight readyto move in front of the window. We waited in a suspence that made theseconds pass with nightmare slowness. The slow, careful steps came alongthe hall; the Count was evidently prepared for some surprise--at leasthe feared it.
Suddenly with a single bound he leaped into the room, winning a waypast us before any of us could raise a hand to stay him. There wassomething so panther-like in the movement--something so unhuman, that itseemed to sober us all from the shock of his coming. The first to actwas Harker, who, with a quick movement, threw himself before the doorleading into the room in the front of the house. As the Count saw us,a horrible sort of snarl passed over his face, showing the eye-teethlong and pointed; but the evil smile as quickly passed into a cold stareof lion-like disdain. His expression again changed, as, with a singleimpulse, we all advanced upon him. It was a pity that we had not somebetter organised plan of attack, for even at the moment I wondered whatwe were to do. I did not myself know whether our lethal weapons wouldavail us anything. Harker evidently meant to try the matter, for hehad ready his great Kukri knife, and made a fierce and sudden cut athim. The blow was a powerful one; only the diabolical quickness of theCount's leap back saved him. A second less and the trenchant blade hadshorn through his heart. As it was, the point just cut the cloth of hiscoat, making a wide gap whence a bundle of bank-notes and a stream ofgold fell out. The expression of the Count's face was so hellish, thatfor a moment I feared for Harker, though I saw him throw the terribleknife aloft again for another stroke. Instinctively I moved forward witha protective impulse, holding the crucifix and wafer in my left hand. Ifelt a mighty power fly along my arm; and it was without surprise that Isaw the monster cower back before a similar movement made spontaneouslyby each one of us. It would be impossible to describe the expression ofhate and baffled malignity--of anger and hellish rage--which came overthe Count's face. His waxen hue became greenish-yellow by the contrastof his burning eyes, and the red scar on the forehead showed on thepallid skin like a palpitating wound. The next instant, with a sinuousdive he swept under Harker's arm ere his blow could fall, and, graspinga handful of the money from the floor, dashed across the room, andthrew himself at the window. Amid the crash and glitter of the fallingglass, he tumbled into the flagged area below. Through the sound of theshivering glass I could hear the "ting" of the gold, as some of thesovereigns fell on the flagging.
We ran over and saw him spring unhurt from the ground. He, rushing upthe steps, crossed the flagged yard, and pushed open the stable door.There he turned and spoke to us:--
"You think to baffle me, you----with your pale faces all in a row,like sheep in a butcher's. You shall be sorry yet, each one of you! Youthink you have left me without a place to rest; but I have more. Myrevenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on myside. Your girls that you all love are mine already; and through themyou and others shall yet be mine--my creatures, to do my bidding and tobe my jackals when I want to feed. Bah!" With a contemptuous sneer, hepassed quickly through the door, and we heard the rusty bolt creak as hefastened it behind him. A door beyond opened and shut. The first of usto speak was the Professor, as, realising the difficulty of followinghim through the stable, we moved towards the hall.
"We have learnt something--much! Notwithstanding his brave words, hefears us; he fear time, he fear want! For if not, why he hurry so? Hisvery tone betray him, or my ears deceive. Why take that money? Youfollow quick. You are hunters of wild beast, and understand it so. Forme, I make sure that nothing here may be of use to him, if so that hereturn." As he spoke he put the money remaining into his pocket; tookthe title-deeds in the bundle as Harker had left them, and swept theremaining things into the open fireplace, where he set fire to them witha match.
Godalming and Morris had rushed out into the yard, and Harker hadlowered himself from the window to follow the Count. He had, however,bolted the stable door; and by the time they had forced it open therewas no sign of him. Van Helsing and I tried to make inquiry at the backof the house; but the mews was deserted and no one had seen him depart.
It was now late in the afternoon, and sunset was not far off. We had torecognise that our game was up; with heavy hearts we agreed with theProfessor when he said:--
"Let us go back to Madam Mina--poor, poor, dear Madam Mina. All we cando just now is done; and we can there, at least, protect her. But weneed not despair. There is but one more earth-box, and we must try tofind it; when that is done all may yet be well." I could see that hespoke as bravely as he could to comfort Harker. The poor fellow wasquite broken down; now and again he gave a low groan which he could notsuppress--he was thinking of his wife.
With sad hearts we came back to my house, where we found Mrs. Harkerawaiting us, with an appearance of cheerfulness which did honour to herbravery and unselfishness. When she saw our faces, her own became aspale as death; for a second or two her eyes were closed as if she werein secret prayer; and then she said cheerfully:--
"I can never thank you all enough. Oh, my poor darling!" as she spokeshe took her husband's grey head in her hands and kissed it--"Lay yourpoor head here and rest it. All will yet be well, dear! God will protectus if He so will it in His good intent." The poor fellow only groaned.There was no place for words in his sublime misery.
We had a sort of perfunctory supper together, and I think it cheeredus all up somewhat. It was, perhaps, the mere animal heat of food tohungry people--for none of us had eaten anything since breakfast--orthe sense of companionship may have helped us; but anyhow we were allless miserable, and saw the morrow as not altogether without hope.True to our promise, we told Mrs. Harker everything which had passed;and although she grew snowy white at times when danger had seemed tothreaten her husband, and red at others when his devotion to her wasmanifested, she listened bravely and with calmness. When we came tothe part where Harker had rushed at the Count so recklessly, she clungto her husband's arm, and held it tight as though her clinging couldprotect him from any harm that might come. She said nothing, however,till the narration was all done, and matters had been brought rightup to the present time. Then without letting go her husband's handshe stood up amongst us and spoke. Oh that I could give any idea ofthe scene; of that sweet, sweet, good, good woman in all the radiantbeauty of her youth and animation, with the red scar on her foreheadof which she was conscious, and which we saw with grinding of ourteeth--remembering whence and how it came; her loving kindness againstour grim hate; her tender faith against all our fears and doubting; andwe, knowing that, so far as symbols went, she with all her goodness andpurity and faith, was outcast from God.
"Jonathan," she said, and the word sounded like music on her lips, itwas so full of love and tenderness, "Jonathan dear, and you all, mytrue, true friends, I want you to bear something in mind through allthis dreadful time. I know that you must fight--that you must destroyeven as you destroyed the false Lucy so that the true Lucy might livehereafter; but it is not a work of hate. That poor soul who has wroughtall this misery is the saddest case of all. Just think what will be hisjoy when he too is destroyed in his worser part that his better part mayhave spiritual immortality. You must be pitiful to him too, though itmay not hold your hands from his destruction."
As she spoke I could see her husband's face darken and draw together,as though the passion in him were shrivelling his being to its core.Instinctively the clasp on his wife's hand grew closer, till hisknuckles looked white. She did not flinch from the pain which I knew sh