Mina Harkers Journal
1 November All day long we
have travelled, and at a good speed. The horses seem to know that
they are being kindly treated, for they go willingly their full
stage at best speed. We have now had so many changes and find the
same thing so constantly that we are encouraged to think that the
journey will be an easy one. Dr. Van Helsing is laconic; he tells
the farmers that he is hurrying to bistritz, and pays them well
to make the exchange of horses. We get hot soup, or coffee, or tea;
and off we go. It is a lovely country; full of beauties of all imaginable
kinds, and the people are brave, and strong, and simple, and seem
full of nice qualities. They are very, very superstitious. In the
first house where we stopped, when the woman who served us saw the
scar on my forehead, she crossed herself and put out two fingers
towards me, to keep off the evil eye. I believe they went to the
trouble of putting an extra amount of garlic into our food; and
I cant abide garlic. Ever since then I have taken care not
to take off my hat or veil, and so have escaped their suspicions.
We are travelling fast, and as we have no driver with us to carry
tales, we go ahead of scandal; but I daresay that fear of the evil
eye will follow hard behind us all the way. The Professor seems
tireless; all day he would not take any rest, though he made me
sleep for a long spell. At sunset time he hypnotised me, and he
says that I answered as usual darkness, lapping water and
creaking wood; so our enemy is still on the river. I am afraid
to think of Jonathan, but somehow I have now no fear for him, or
for myself I write this whilst we wait in a farmhouse for the horses
to be got ready. Dr. Van Helsing is sleeping. Poor dear, he looks
very tired and old and grey, but his mouth is set as firmly as a
conquerors; even in his sleep he is instinct with resolution.
When we have well started I must make him rest whilst I drive. I
shall tell him that we have days before us, and he must not break
down when most of all his strength will be needed... All is ready;
we are off shortly.
2 November, morning I was successful, and we took
turns driving all night; now the day is on us, bright though cold.
There is a strange heaviness in the air I say heaviness for
want of a better word; I mean that it oppresses us both. It is very
cold, and only our warm furs keep us comfortable. At dawn Van Helsing
hypnotised me; he says I answered darkness, creaking wood
and roaring water, so the river is changing as they ascend.
I do hope that my darling will not run any chance of danger
more than need be; but we are in Gods hands.
2 November, night All day long driving. The country
gets wilder as we go, and the great spurs of the Carpathians, which
at Veresti seemed so far from us and so low on the horizon, now
seem to gather round us and tower in front. We both seem in good
spirits; I think we make an effort each to cheer the other; in the
doing so we cheer ourselves. Dr. Van Helsing says that by morning
we shall reach the borgo Pass. The houses are very few here now,
and the Professor says that the last horses we got will have to
go on with us, as we may not be able to change. He got two in addition
to the two we changed, so that now we have a rude four-in-hand.
The dear horses are patient and good, and they give us no trouble.
We are not worried with other travellers, and so even I can drive.
We shall get to the Pass in daylight; we do not want to arrive before.
So we take it easy, and have each a long rest in turn. Oh, what
will to-morrow bring to us? We go to seek the place where my poor
darling suffered so much. God grant that we may be guided aright,
and that He will deign to watch over my husband and those dear to
us both, and who are in such deadly peril. As for me, I am not worthy
in His sight. Alas! I am unclean to His eyes, and shall be until
He may deign to let me stand forth in His sight as one of those
who have not incurred His wrath.
Memorandum by Abraham Van Helsing
4 November This to my old
and true friend John Seward, M.D., of Purfleet, London, in case
I may not see him. It may explain. It is morning, and I write by
a fire which all the night I have kept alive Madam Mina aiding
me. It is cold, cold; so cold that the grey heavy sky is full of
snow, which when it falls will settle for all winter as the ground
is hardening to receive it. It seems to have affected Madam Mina;
she has been so heavy of head all day that she was not like herself.
She sleeps, and sleeps, and sleeps! She, who is usual so alert,
have done literally nothing all the day; she even have lost her
appetite. She make no entry into her little diary, she who write
so faithful at every pause. Something whisper to me that all is
not well. However to-night she is more vif. Her long sleep all day
have refresh and restore her, for now she is all sweet and bright
as ever. At sunset I try to hypnotise her, but alas! with no effect;
the power has grown less and less with each day, and to-night it
fail me altogether. Well, Gods will be done whatever
it may be, and whithersoever it may lead!
Now to the historical, for as Madam
Mina write not in her stenography, I must, in my cumbrous old fashion,
that so each day of us may not go unrecorded.
We got to the borgo Pass just after
sunrise yesterday morning. When I saw the signs of the dawn I got
ready for the hypnotism. We stopped our carriage, and got down so
that there might be no disturbance. I made a couch with furs, and
Madam Mina, lying down, yield herself as usual, but more slow and
more short time than ever, to the hypnotic sleep. As before, came
the answer: darkness and the swirling of water. Then
she woke, bright and radiant, and we go on our way and soon reach
the Pass. At this time and place she become all on fire with zeal;
some new guiding power be in her manifested, for she point to a
road and say: This is the way.
How know you it? I
ask.
Of course I know it,
she answer, and with a pause, add: Have not my Jonathan travelled
it and wrote of his travel?
At first I think somewhat strange, but soon I see that there be only one such by-road. It is used but
little, and very different from the coach road from the bukovina
to bistritz, which is more wide and hard, and more of use.
So we came down this road; when
we meet other ways not always were we sure that they were
roads at all, for they be neglect and light snow have fallen
the horses know and they only. I give rein to them, and they go
on so patient. By-and-by we find all the things which Jonathan have
note in that wonderful diary of him. Then we go on for long, long
hours and hours. At the first, I tell Madam Mina to sleep; she try,
and she succeed. She sleep all the time; till at the last, I feel
myself to suspicious grow, and attempt to wake her. But she sleep
on, and I may not wake her though I try. I do not wish to try too
hard lest I harm her; for I know that she have suffer much, and
sleep at times be all-in-all to her. I think I drowse myself, for
all of sudden I feel guilt, as though I have done something; I find
myself bolt up, with the reins in my hand, and the good horses go
along jog, jog, just as ever. I look down and find Madam Mina still
sleep. It is now not far off sunset time, and over the snow the
light of the sun flow in big yellow flood, so that we throw great
long shadow on where the mountain rise so steep. For we are going
up, and up; and all is oh so wild and rocky, as though it were the
end of the world.
Then I arouse Madam Mina. This time
she wake with not much trouble, and then I try to put her to hypnotic
sleep. But she sleep not, being as though I were not. Still I try
and try, till all at once I find her and myself in dark; so I look
round, and find that the sun have gone down. Madam Mina laugh, and
I turn and look at her. She is now quite awake, and look so well
as I never saw her since that night at Carfax when we first enter
the Counts house. I am amaze, and not at ease then; but she
is so bright and tender and thoughtful for me that I forget all
fear. I light a fire, for we have brought supply of wood with us,
and she prepare food while I undo the horses and set them, tethered
in shelter, to feed. Then when I return to the fire she have my
supper ready. I go to help her, but she smile, and tell me that
she have eat already that she was so hungry that she would
not wait. I like it not, and I have grave doubts; but I fear to
affright her, and so I am silent of it. She help me and I eat alone;
and then we wrap in fur and lie beside the fire, and I tell her
to sleep while I watch. But presently I forget all of watching;
and when I sudden remember that I watch, I find her lying quiet, but awake, and looking at me with so bright eyes. Once, twice more
the same occur, and I get much sleep till before morning. When I
wake I try to hypnotise her; but alas! though she shut her eyes
obedient, she may not sleep. The sun rise up, and up, and up; and
then sleep come to her too late, but so heavy that she will not
wake. I have to lift her up, and place her sleeping in the carriage
when I have harnessed the horses and made all ready. Madam still
sleep, and sleep; and she look in her sleep more healthy and more
redder than before. And I like it not. And I am afraid, afraid,
afraid! I am afraid of all things even to think; but
I must go on my way. The stake we play for is life and death, or
more than these, and we must not flinch.
5 November, morning Let me be accurate in everything, for though you and I have seen some strange
things together, you may at the first think that I, Van Helsing,
am mad that the many horrors and the so long strain on nerves
has at the last turn my brain.
All yesterday we travel, ever getting
closer to the mountains, and moving into a more and more wild and
desert land. There are great, frowning precipices and much falling
water, and Nature seem to have held sometime her carnival. Madam
Mina still sleep and sleep; and though I did have hunger and appeased
it, I could not waken her even for food. I began to fear
that the fatal spell of the place was upon her, tainted as she is
with that Vampire baptism.Well, said I to myself, if
it be that she sleep all the day, it shall also be that I do not
sleep at night. As we travel on the rough road, for a road
of an ancient and imperfect kind there was, I held down my head
and slept. Again I waked with a sense of guilt and of time passed,
and found Madam Mina still sleeping, and the sun low down. But all
was indeed changed; the frowning mountains seemed further away,
and we were near the top of a steep-rising hill, on summit of which
was such a castle as Jonathan tell of in his diary. At once I exulted
and feared; for now, for good or ill, the end was near.
I woke Madam Mina, and again tried
to hypnotise her, but alas! unavailing till too late. Then, ere
the great dark came upon us for even after down-sun the heavens
reflected the gone sun on the snow, and all was for a time in a
great twilight I took out the horses and fed them in what
shelter I could. Then I make a fire; and near it I make Madam Mina,
now awake and more charming than ever, sit comfortable amid her
rugs. I got ready food: but she would not eat, simply saying that
she had not hunger. I did not press her, knowing her unavailingness. But I myself eat, for I must needs now be strong for all. Then,
with the fear on me of what might be, I drew a ring so big for her
comfort, round where Madam Mina sat; and over the ring I passed
some of the wafer, and I broke it fine so that all was well guarded.
She sat still all the time so still as one dead; and she
grew whiter and ever whiter till the snow was not more pale; and
no word she said. But when I drew near, she clung to me, and I could
know that the poor soul shook her from head to feet with a tremor
that was pain to feel. I said to her presently, when she had grown
more quiet: Will you not come over to
the fire? for I wished to make a test of what she could. She
rose obedient, but when she have made a step she stopped, and stood
as one stricken.
Why not go on? I asked.
She shook her head, and, coming back, sat down in her place. Then,
looking at me with open eyes, as of one waked from sleep, she said
simply: I cannot! and remained
silent. I rejoiced, for I knew that what she could not, none of
those that we dreaded could. Though there might be danger to her body, yet her soul was safe!
Presently the horses began to scream,
and tore at their tethers till I came to them and quieted them.
When they did feel my hands on them, they whinnied low as in joy,
and licked at my hands and were quiet for a time. Many times through
the night did I come to them, till it arrive to the cold hour when
all nature is at lowest; and every time my coming was with quiet
of them. In the cold hour the fire began to die, and I was about
stepping forth to replenish it, for now the snow came in flying
sweeps and with it a chill mist. Even in the dark there was a light
of some kind, as there ever is over snow; and it seemed as though
the snow-flurries and the wreaths of mist took shape as of women
with trailing garments. All was in dead, grim silence only that
the horses whinnied and cowered, as if in terror of the worst. I began to fear horrible fears; but then came to me the sense
of safety in that ring wherein I stood. I began, too, to think that
my imaginings were of the night, and the gloom, and the unrest that
I have gone through, and all the terrible anxiety. It was as though
my memories of all Jonathans horrid experience were befooling
me; for the snow flakes and the mist began to wheel and circle round,
till I could get as though a shadowy glimpse of those women that
would have kissed him. And then the horses cowered lower and lower,
and moaned in terror as men do in pain. Even the madness of fright
was not to them, so that they could break away. I feared for my
dear Madam Mina when these weird figures drew near and circled round.
I looked at her, but she sat calm, and smiled at me; when I would
have stepped to the fire to replenish it, she caught me and held
me back, and whispered, like a voice that one hears in a dream,
so low it was: No! No! Do not go without.
Here you are safe! I turned to her, and looking in her eyes,
said: But you? It is for you that
I fear! whereat she laughed a laugh, low and unreal,
and said: Fear for me! Why fear for
me? None safer in all the world from them than I am, and as
I wondered at the meaning of her words, a puff of wind made the
flame leap up, and I see the red scar on her forehead. Then, alas!
I knew. Did I not, I would soon have learned, for the wheeling figures
of mist and snow came closer, but keeping ever without the Holy
circle. Then they began to materialise, till if God have
not take away my reason, for I saw it through my eyes there
were before me in actual flesh the same three women that Jonathan
saw in the room, when they would have kissed his throat. I knew
the swaying round forms, the bright hard eyes, the white teeth,
the ruddy colour, the voluptuous lips. They smiled ever at poor
dear Madam Mina; and as their laugh came through the silence of
the night, they twined their arms and pointed to her, and said in
those so sweet tingling tones that Jonathan said were of the intolerable
sweetness of the water-glasses: Come, sister. Come to us.
Come! Come! in fear I turned to my poor Madam Mina, and my
heart with gladness leapt like flame; for oh! the terror in her
sweet eyes, the repulsion, the horror, told a story to my heart
that was all of hope. God be thanked she was not, yet, of them.
I seized some of the firewood which was by me, and holding out some
of the Wafer, advanced on them towards the fire. They drew back before me, and laughed their low horrid laugh. I fed the fire, and
feared them not; for I knew that we were safe within our protections.
They could not approach me, whilst so armed, nor Madam Mina whilst
she remained within the ring, which she could not leave no more
than they could enter. The horses had ceased to moan, and lay still
on the ground; the snow fell on them softly, and they grew whiter.
I knew that there was for the poor beasts no more of terror.
And so we remained till the red
of the dawn began to fall through the snow-gloom. I was desolate
and afraid, and full of woe and terror, but when that beautiful
sun began to climb the horizon life was to me again. At the first
coming of the dawn the horrid figures melted in the whirling mist
and snow; the wreaths of transparent gloom moved away towards the
castle, and were lost.
Instinctively, with the dawn coming,
I turned to Madam Mina, intending to hypnotise her, but she lay
in a deep and sudden sleep, from which I could not wake her. I tried
to hypnotise through her sleep, but she made no response, none at
all; and the day broke. I fear yet to stir. I have made my fire
and have seen the horses, they are all dead. To-day I have much
to do here, and I keep waiting till the sun is up high; for there
may be places where I must go, where that sunlight, though snow
and mist obscure it, will be to me a safety.
I will strengthen me with breakfast,
and then I will to my terrible work. Madam Mina still sleeps; and,
God be thanked she is calm in her sleep...
Jonathan Harkers Journal
4 November, evening The accident
to the launch has been a terrible thing for us. Only for it we should
have overtaken the boat long ago; and by now my dear Mina would
have been free. I fear to think of her, off on the wolds near that
horrid place. We have got horses, and we follow on the track. I
note this whilst Godalming is getting ready. We have our arms. The
Szgany must look out if they mean fight. Oh, if only Morris and
Seward were with us. We must only hope! if I write no more Good-bye
Mina! God bless and keep you.
Dr. Sewards Diary
5 November With the dawn we
saw the body of Szgany before us dashing away from the river with
their leiter-wagon. They surrounded it in a cluster, and hurried
along as though beset. The snow is falling lightly and there is
a strange excitement in the air. It may be our own feelings, but
the depression is strange. Far off I hear the howling of wolves;
the snow brings them down from the mountains, and there are dangers
to all of us, and from all sides. The horses are nearly ready, and
we are soon off. We ride to death of some one. God alone knows who,
or where, or what, or when, or how it may be...
Dr. Van Helsings Memorandum
5 November, afternoon I am
at least sane. Thank God for that mercy at all events, though the
proving it has been dreadful. When I left Madam Mina sleeping within
the Holy circle, I took my way to the castle. The blacksmith hammer
which I took in the carriage from Veresti was useful; though the
doors were all open I broke them off the rusty hinges, lest some
ill-intent or ill-chance should close them, so that being entered
I might not get out. Jonathans bitter experience served me
here. By memory of his diary I found my way to the old chapel, for
I knew that here my work lay. The air was oppressive; it seemed
as if there was some sulphurous fume, which at times made me dizzy.
Either there was a roaring in my ears or I heard afar off the howl
of wolves. Then I bethought me of my dear Madam Mina, and I was
in terrible plight. The dilemma had me between his horns. Her, I
had not dare to take into this place, but left safe from the Vampire
in that Holy circle; and yet even there would be the wolf! I resolve
me that my work lay here, and that as to the wolves we must submit,
if it were Gods will. At any rate it was only death and freedom beyond. So did I choose for her. Had it but been for myself the
choice had been easy, the maw of the wolf were better to rest in
than the grave of the Vampire! So I make my choice to go on with
my work.
I knew that there were at least
three graves to find graves that are inhabit; so I search,
and search, and I find one of them. She lay in her vampire sleep,
so full of life and voluptuous beauty that I shudder as though I
have come to do murder. Ah, I doubt not that in old time, when such
things were, many a man who set forth to do such a task as mine,
found at the last his heart fail him, and then his nerve. So he
delay, and delay, and delay, till the mere beauty and the fascination
of the wanton Un-Dead have hypnotise him; and he remain on, and
on, till sunset come, and the Vampire sleep be over. Then the beautiful
eyes of the fair woman open and look love, and the voluptuous mouth
present to a kiss and man is weak. And there remain one more
victim in the Vampire fold; one more to swell the grim and grisly
ranks of the Un-dead!...
There is some fascination, surely,
when I am moved by the mere presence of such an one, even lying
as she lay in a tomb fretted with age and heavy with the dust of
centuries, though there be that horrid odour such as the lairs of
the Count have had. Yes, I was moved I, Van Helsing, with
all my purpose and with my motive for hate I was moved to
a yearning for delay which seemed to paralyse my faculties and to
clog my very soul. It may have been that the need of natural sleep,
and the strange oppression of the air were beginning to overcome
me. Certain it was that I was lapsing into sleep, the open-eyed
sleep of one who yields to a sweet fascination, when there came
through the snow-stilled air a long, low wail, so full of woe and
pity that it woke me like the sound of a clarion. For it was the
voice of my dear Madam Mina that I heard.
Then I braced myself again to my
horrid task, and found by wrenching away tomb-tops one other of
the sisters, the other dark one. I dared not pause to look on her
as I had on her sister, lest once more I should begin to be enthrall; but I go on searching until, presently, I find in a high great tomb
as if made to one much beloved that other fair sister which, like
Jonathan I had seen to gather herself out of the atoms of the mist.
She was so fair to look on, so radiantly beautiful, so exquisitely
voluptuous, that the very instinct of man in me, which calls some
of my sex to love and to protect one of hers, made my head whirl
with new emotion. But God be thanked, that soul-wall of my dear
Madam Mina had not died out of my ears; and, before the spell could be wrought further upon me, I had nerved myself to my wild work. By this time I had searched all the tombs in the chapel, so far
as I could tell; and as there had been only three of these Un-Dead
phantoms around us in the night, I took it that there were no more
of active Un-Dead existent. There was one great tomb more lordly
than all the rest; huge it was, and nobly proportioned. On it was but one word
This then was the Un-Dead home of the King-Vampire,
to whom so many more were due. Its emptiness spoke eloquent to make
certain what I knew. Before I began to restore these women to their
dead selves through my awful work, I laid in Draculas tomb
some of the Wafer, and so banished him from it, Un-Dead, for ever.
Then began my terrible task, and,
I dreaded it. Had it been but one, it had been easy, comparative. But three! To begin twice more after I had been through a deed of
horror, for if it was terrible with the sweet Miss Lucy, what would
it not be with these strange ones who had survived through centuries,
and who had been strengthened by the passing of the years; who would,
if they could, have fought for their foul lives...
Oh, my friend John, but it was butcher
work; had I not been nerved by thoughts of other dead, and of the
living over whom hung such a pall of fear, I could not have gone
on. I tremble and tremble even yet, though till all was over, God be thanked, my nerve did stand. Had I not seen the repose in the
first place, and the gladness that stole over it just ere the final
dissolution came, as realisation that the soul had been won, I could
not have gone further with my butchery. I could not have endured
the horrid screeching as the stake drove home; the plunging of writhing
form, and lips of bloody foam. I should have fled in terror and
left my work undone. But it is over! And the poor souls, I can pity
them now and weep, as I think of them placid each in her full sleep
of death, for a short moment ere fading. For, friend John, hardly
had my knife severed the head of each, before the whole body began
to melt away and crumble into its native dust, as though the death
that should have come centuries agone had at last assert himself
and say at once and loud I am here!
Before I left the castle I so fixed
its entrances that never more can the Count enter there Un-dead.
When I stepped into the circle where
Madam Mina slept, she woke from her sleep, and, seeing me, cried
out in pain that I had endured too much.
Come! she said, come
away from this awful place! Let us go to meet my husband who is,
I know, coming towards us. She was looking thin and pale and
weak; but her eyes were pure and glowed with fervour. I was glad
to see her paleness and her illness, for my mind was full of the
fresh horror of that ruddy vampire sleep.
And so with trust and hope, and
yet full of fear, we go eastward to meet our friends and
him whom Madam Mina tell me that she know are coming to meet
us.
Mina Harkers Journal
6 November it was late in
the afternoon when the Professor and I took our way towards the
east whence I knew Jonathan was coming. We did not go fast, though
the way was steeply downhill, for we had to take heavy rugs and
wraps with us; we dared not face the possibility of being left without
warmth in the cold and the snow. We had to take some of our provisions
too, for we were in a perfect desolation, and, so far as we could
see through the snowfall, there was not even the sign of habitation.
When we had gone about a mile, I was tired with the heavy walking
and sat down to rest. Then we looked back and saw where the clear
line of Draculas castle cut the sky; for we were so deep under
the hill whereon it was set that the angle of perspective of the
Carpathian mountains was far below it. We saw it in all its grandeur,
perched a thousand feet on the summit of a sheer precipice, and
with seemingly a great gap between it and the steep of the adjacent
mountain on any side. There was something wild and uncanny about
the place. We could hear the distant howling of wolves. They were
far off, but the sound, even though coming muffled through the deadening
snowfall, was full of terror. I knew from the way Dr. Van Helsing
was searching about that he was trying to seek some strategic point,
where we would be less exposed in case of attack. The rough roadway
still led downwards; we could trace it through the drifted snow.
In a little while the Professor
signalled to me, so I got up and joined him. He had found a wonderful
spot, a sort of natural hollow in a rock, with an entrance like
a doorway between two boulders. He took me by the hand and drew
me in.See! he said, here you will be in shelter,
and if the wolves do come I can meet them one by one. He brought
in our furs, and made a snug nest for me, and got out some provisions
and forced them upon me. But I could not eat; to even try to do
so was repulsive to me, and, much as I would have liked to please
him, I could not bring myself to the attempt. He looked very sad, but did not reproach me. Taking his field-glasses from the case,
he stood on the top of the rock, and began to search the horizon.
Suddenly he called out: Look! Madam Mina, look! look!
I sprang up and stood beside him on the rock; he handed me his glasses
and pointed. The snow was now falling more heavily, and swirled
about fiercely, for a high wind was beginning to blow. However there
were times when there were pauses between the snow flurries and
I could see a long way round. From the height where we were it was
possible to see a great distance; and far off, beyond the white
waste of snow, I could see the river lying like a black ribbon in
kinks and curls as it wound its way. Straight in front of us and
not far off in fact so near that I wondered we had not noticed before came a group of mounted men hurrying along. In the
midst of them was a cart, a long leiter-wagon which swept from side
to side, like a dogs tail wagging, with each stern inequality
of the road. Outlined against the snow as they were, I could see
from the mens clothes that they were peasants or gypsies of
some kind.
On the cart was a great square chest.
My heart leaped as I saw it, for I felt that the end was coming.
The evening was now drawing close, and well I knew that at sunset
the Thing, which was till then imprisoned there, would take new
freedom and could in any of many forms elude all pursuit. In fear
I turned to the Professor, to my consternation, however, he was
not there. An instant later, I saw him below me. Round the rock
he had drawn a circle, such as we had found shelter in last night.
When he had completed it he stood beside me again, saying: At least you shall be safe
here from him! He took the glasses from me, and at the next
lull of the snow swept the whole space below us.See,
he said, they come quickly; they are flogging the horses,
and galloping as hard as they can. He paused and went on in
a hollow voice: They are racing for the sunset.
We may be too late. Gods will be done! Down came another blinding rush of driving snow, and the whole landscape was blotted
out. It soon passed, however, and once more his glasses were fixed
on the plain. Then came a sudden cry: Look! Look! Look! See, two
horsemen follow fast, coming up from the south. It must be Quincey
and John. Take the glass. Look, before the snow blots it all out!
I took it and looked. The two men might be Dr. Seward and Mr. Morris.
I knew at all events that neither of them was Jonathan. At the same
time I knew that Jonathan was not far off, looking around I saw
on the north side of the coming party two other men, riding at break-neck
speed. One of them I knew was Jonathan, and the other I took, of
course, to be Lord Godalming. They, too, were pursuing the party
with the cart. When I told the Professor he shouted in glee like
a schoolboy, and, after looking intently till a snow fall made sight
impossible, he laid his Winchester rifle ready for use against the boulder at the opening of our shelter.They are all converging,
he said.When the time comes we shall have the gypsies on all
sides. I got out my revolver ready to hand, for whilst we
were speaking the howling of wolves came louder and closer. When
the snow storm abated a moment we looked again. It was strange to
see the snow falling in such heavy flakes close to us, and beyond,
the sun shining more and more brightly as it sank down towards the
far mountain tops. Sweeping the glass all around us I could see
here and there dots moving singly and in twos and threes and larger
numbers the wolves were gathering for their prey.
Every instant seemed an age whilst
we waited. The wind came now in fierce bursts, and the snow was
driven with fury as it swept upon us in circling eddies. At times
we could not see an arms length before us; but at others as
the hollow-sounding wind swept by us, it seemed to clear the air-space
around us so that we could see afar off. We had of late been so
accustomed to watch for sunrise and sunset, that we knew with fair
accuracy when it would be; and we knew that before long the sun
would set.
It was hard to believe that by our
watches it was less than an hour that we waited in that rocky shelter before the various bodies began to converge close upon us. The wind
came now with fiercer and more bitter sweeps, and more steadily
from the north. It seemingly had driven the snow clouds from us,
for, with only occasional bursts, the snow fell. We could distinguish
clearly the individuals of each party, the pursued and the pursuers.
Strangely enough those pursued did not seem to realise, or at least
to care, that they were pursued; they seemed, however, to hasten
with redoubled speed as the sun dropped lower and lower on the mountain
tops.
Closer and closer they drew. The
Professor and I crouched down behind our rock, and held our weapons
ready; I could see that he was determined that they should not pass.
One and all were quite unaware of our presence.
All at once two voices shouted out
to: Halt! One was my Jonathans, raised in a high
key of passion; the other Mr. Morris strong resolute tone
of quiet command. The gypsies may not have known the language, but
there was no mistaking the tone, in whatever tongue the words were
spoken. Instinctively they reined in, and at the instant Lord Godalming
and Jonathan dashed up at one side and Dr. Seward and Mr. Morris
on the other. The leader of the gypsies, a splendid looking fellow
who sat his horse like a centaur, waved them back, and in a fierce
voice gave to his companions some word to proceed. They lashed the
horses which sprang forward; but the four men raised their Winchester
rifles, and in an unmistakable way commanded them to stop. At the
same moment Dr. Van Helsing and I rose behind the rock and pointed
our weapons at them. Seeing that they were surrounded the men tightened
their reins and drew up. The leader turned to them and gave a word
at which every man of the gypsy party drew what weapon he carried,
knife or pistol, and held himself in readiness to attack. Issue
was joined in an instant.
The leader, with a quick movement
of his rein, threw his horse out in front, and pointing first to
the sun now close down on the hill tops and then to
the castle, said something which I did not understand. For answer,
all four men of our party threw themselves from their horses and
dashed towards the cart. I should have felt terrible fear at seeing
Jonathan in such danger, but that the ardour of battle must have been upon me as well as the rest of them; I felt no fear, but only
a wild, surging desire to do something. Seeing the quick movement
of our parties, the leader of the gypsies gave a command; his men
instantly formed round the cart in a sort of undisciplined endeavour,
each one shouldering and pushing the other in his eagerness to carry
out the order.
In the midst of this I could see
that Jonathan on one side of the ring of men, and Quincey on the
other, were forcing a way to the cart; it was evident that they
were bent on finishing their task before the sun should set. Nothing
seemed to stop or even to hinder them. Neither the levelled weapons
or the flashing knives of the gypsies in front, or the howling of
the wolves behind, appeared to even attract their attention. Jonathans
impetuosity, and the manifest singleness of his purpose, seemed
to overawe those in front of him; instinctively they cowered aside
and let him pass. In an instant he had jumped upon the cart, and,
with a strength which seemed incredible, raised the great box, and
flung it over the wheel to the ground. In the meantime, Mr. Morris
had had to use force to pass through his side of the ring of Szgany.
All the time I had been breathlessly watching Jonathan I had, with
the tail of my eye, seen him pressing desperately forward, and had
seen the knives of the gypsies flash as he won a way through them,
and they cut at him. He had parried with his great bowie knife,
and at first I thought that he too had come through in safety; but
as he sprang beside Jonathan, who had by now jumped from the cart,
I could see that with his left hand he was clutching at his side,
and that the blood was spurting through his fingers. He did not
delay notwithstanding this, for as Jonathan with desperate energy,
attacked one end of the chest, attempting to prize off the lid with
his great Kukri knife, he attacked the other frantically with his bowie. Under the efforts of both men the lid began to yield; the
nails drew with a quick screeching sound, and the top of the box
was thrown back.
By this time the gypsies, seeing
themselves covered by the Winchesters, and at the mercy of Lord
Godalming and Dr. Seward, had given in and made no further resistance.
The sun was almost down on the mountain tops, and the shadows of
the whole group fell long upon the snow. I saw the Count lying within
the box upon the earth, some of which the rude falling from the
cart had scattered over him. He was deathly pale, just like a waxen
image, and the red eyes glared with the horrible vindictive look
which I knew too well.
As I looked, the eyes saw the sinking
sun, and the look of hate in them turned to triumph.
But, on the instant, came the sweep
and flash of Jonathans great knife. I shrieked as I saw it
shear through the throat, whilst at the same moment Mr. Morriss bowie knife plunged into the heart.
It was like a miracle; but before
our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumbled into dust and passed from our sight.
I shall be glad as long as I live
that even in that moment of final dissolution, there was in the
face a look of peace, such as I never could have imagined might
have rested there.
The Castle of Dracula now stood
out against the red sky, and every stone of its broken battlements
was articulated against the light of the setting sun.
The gypsies, taking us as in some
way the cause of the extraordinary disappearance of the dead man,
turned, without a word, and rode away as if for their lives. Those
who were unmounted jumped upon the leiter-wagon and shouted to the
horsemen not to desert them. The wolves, which had withdrawn to
a safe distance, followed in their wake, leaving us alone.
Mr. Morris, who had sunk to the
ground, leaned on his elbow, holding his hand pressed to his side;
the blood still gushed through his fingers. I flew to him, for the
Holy circle did not now keep me back; so did the two doctors. Jonathan
knelt behind him and the wounded man laid back his head on his shoulder.
With a sigh he took, with a feeble effort, my hand in that of his
own which was unstained. He must have seen the anguish of my heart
in my face, for he smiled at me and said: I am only too happy to have been of any service! Oh, God! he cried suddenly, struggling
up to a sitting posture and pointing to me, It was worth for
this to die! Look! look!
The sun was now right down upon
the mountain top, and the red gleams fell upon my face, so that
it was bathed in rosy light. With one impulse the men sank on their
knees and a deep and earnest Amen broke from all as
their eyes followed the pointing of his finger. The dying man spoke: Now God be thanked that all
has not been in vain! See! the snow is not more stainless than her
forehead The curse has passed away!
And, to our bitter grief, with a
smile and in silence, he died, a gallant gentleman.
NOTE
SEVEN years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness
of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured.
It is an added joy to Mina and to me that our boys birthday
is the same day as that on which Quincey Morris died. His mother
holds, I know, the secret belief that some of our brave friends
spirit has passed into him. His bundle of names links all our little band of men together, but we call him Quincey.
In the summer of this year we made
a journey to Transylvania, and went over the old ground which was,
and is, to us so full of vivid and terrible memories. It was almost
impossible to believe that the things which we had seen with our
own eyes and heard with our own ears were living truths. Every trace
of all that had been was blotted out. The castle stood as before,
reared high above a waste of desolation.
When we got home we were talking
of the old time which we could all look back on without despair,
for Godalming and Seward are both happily married. I took the papers
from the safe where they had been ever since our return so long
ago. We were struck with the fact, that in all the mass of material
of which the record is composed, there is hardly one authentic document;
nothing but a mass of type-writing, except the later note-books
of Mina and Seward and myself, and Van Helsings memorandum.
We could hardly ask any one, even did we wish to, to accept these
as proofs of so wild a story. Van Helsing summed it all up as he
said, with our boy on his knee: We want no proofs; we ask
none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and
gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and
loving care; later on he will understand how some men so loved her,
that they did dare much for her sake. Jonathan Harker.
The End
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