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The Industries

Lawsuits



Dracula 22

index NAVIGATE Dracula 23 Dracula license
        CHAPTER XXII

        JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL
        
        
        _3 October._--As I must do something or go mad, I write this diary. It
        is now six o'clock, and we are to meet in the study in half an hour and
        take something to eat; for Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward are agreed
        that if we do not eat we cannot work our best. Our best will be, God
        knows, required to-day. I must keep writing at every chance, for I dare
        not stop to think. All, big and little, must go down; perhaps at the end
        the little things may teach us most. The teaching, big or little, could
        not 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 tears
        running down her dear cheeks, that it is in trouble and trial that our
        faith is tested--that we must keep on trusting; and that God will aid us
        up 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 poor
        Renfield, we went gravely into what was to be done. First, Dr. Seward
        told us that when he and Dr. Van Helsing had gone down to the room below
        they had found Renfield lying on the floor, all in a heap. His face was
        all 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 had
        heard anything. He said that he had been sitting down--he confessed to
        half dozing--when he heard loud voices in the room, and then Renfield
        had called out loudly several times, "God! God! God!" after that there
        was a sound of falling, and when he entered the room he found him lying
        on the floor, face down, just as the doctors had seen him. Van Helsing
        asked if he had heard "voices" or "a voice," and he said he could not
        say; that at first it had seemed to him as if there were two, but as
        there was no one in the room it could have been only one. He could swear
        to 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 into
        the matter; the question of an inquest had to be considered, and it
        would 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 a
        certificate of death by misadventure in falling from bed. In case the
        coroner should demand it, there would be a formal inquest, necessarily
        to the same result.
        
        When the question began to be discussed as to what should be our next
        step, the very first thing we decided was that Mina should be in full
        confidence; that nothing of any sort--no matter how painful--should be
        kept from her. She herself agreed as to its wisdom, and it was pitiful
        to see her so brave and yet so sorrowful, and in such a depth of
        despair. "There must be no concealment," she said, "Alas! we have had
        too much already. And besides there is nothing in all the world that can
        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, suddenly
        but quietly:--
        
        "But dear Madam Mina, are you not afraid; not for yourself, but for
        others from yourself, after what has happened?" Her face grew set in its
        lines, but her eyes shone with the devotion of a martyr as she
        answered:--
        
        "Ah no! for my mind is made up!"
        
        "To what?" he asked gently, whilst we were all very still; for each in
        our own way we had a sort of vague idea of what she meant. Her answer
        came 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 of
        harm 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 such a
        pain, and so desperate an effort!" She looked at him meaningly as she
        spoke. He was sitting down; but now he rose and came close to her and
        put his hand on her head as he said solemnly:
        
        "My child, there is such an one if it were for your good. For myself I
        could hold it in my account with God to find such an euthanasia for you,
        even at this moment if it were best. Nay, were it safe! But my
        child----" For a moment he seemed choked, and a great sob rose in his
        throat; he gulped it down and went on:--
        
        "There are here some who would stand between you and death. You must not
        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 must not
        die; for if he is still with the quick Un-Dead, your death would make
        you even as he is. No, you must live! You must struggle and strive to
        live, though death would seem a boon unspeakable. You must fight Death
        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 you that you
        do not die--nay, nor think of death--till this great evil be past." The
        poor dear grew white as death, and shock and shivered, as I have seen a
        quicksand shake and shiver at the incoming of the tide. We were all
        silent; we could do nothing. At length she grew more calm and turning to
        him said, sweetly, but oh! so sorrowfully, as she held out her hand:--
        
        "I promise you, my dear friend, that if God will let me live, I shall
        strive to do so; till, if it may be in His good time, this horror may
        have passed away from me." She was so good and brave that we all felt
        that our hearts were strengthened to work and endure for her, and we
        began to discuss what we were to do. I told her that she was to have all
        the papers in the safe, and all the papers or diaries and phonographs we
        might 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" could
        be used in connection with so grim an interest.
        
        As usual Van Helsing had thought ahead of everyone else, and was
        prepared with an exact ordering of our work.
        
        "It is perhaps well," he said, "that at our meeting after our visit to
        Carfax we decided not to do anything with the earth-boxes that lay
        there. Had we done so, the Count must have guessed our purpose, and
        would doubtless have taken measures in advance to frustrate such an
        effort with regard to the others; but now he does not know our
        intentions. Nay, more, in all probability, he does not know that such a
        power exists to us as can sterilise his lairs, so that he cannot use
        them as of old. We are now so much further advanced in our knowledge as
        to their disposition that, when we have examined the house in
        Piccadilly, 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 morning
        guards us in its course. Until it sets to-night, that monster must
        retain whatever form he now has. He is confined within the limitations
        of his earthly envelope. He cannot melt into thin air nor disappear
        through cracks or chinks or crannies. If he go through a doorway, he
        must open the door like a mortal. And so we have this day to hunt out
        all his lairs and sterilise them. So we shall, if we have not yet catch
        him and destroy him, drive him to bay in some place where the catching
        and the destroying shall be, in time, sure." Here I started up for I
        could not contain myself at the thought that the minutes and seconds so
        preciously laden with Mina's life and happiness were flying from us,
        since whilst we talked action was impossible. But Van Helsing held up
        his hand warningly. "Nay, friend Jonathan," he said, "in this, the
        quickest way home is the longest way, so your proverb say. We shall all
        act and act with desperate quick, when the time has come. But think, in
        all probable the key of the situation is in that house in Piccadilly.
        The Count may have many houses which he has bought. Of them he will have
        deeds of purchase, keys and other things. He will have paper that he
        write on; he will have his book of cheques. There are many belongings
        that 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 the
        very vast of the traffic there is none to notice. We shall go there and
        search that house; and when we learn what it holds, then we do what our
        friend Arthur call, in his phrases of hunt 'stop the earths' and so we
        run 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; but I knew that if he wished to delay he had a good
        reason 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 am
        in."
        
        "Ah, my child, that I do; and indeed there is no wish of me to add to
        your anguish. But just think, what can we do, until all the world be at
        movement. Then will come our time. I have thought and thought, and it
        seems to me that the simplest way is the best of all. Now we wish to get
        into 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, and could
        not still get it; and think there was to you no conscience of the
        housebreaker, what would you do?"
        
        "I should get a respectable locksmith, and set him to work to pick the
        lock 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 as keenly as he spoke, "all that is in doubt is
        the conscience of the employer, and the belief of your policemen as to
        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!--in reading
        the heart, that they trouble themselves in such matter. No, no, my
        friend Jonathan, you go take the lock off a hundred empty house in this
        your London, or of any city in the world; and if you do it as such
        things are rightly done, and at the time such things are rightly done,
        no one will interfere. I have read of a gentleman who owned a so fine
        house in London, and when he went for months of summer to Switzerland
        and lock up his house, some burglar came and broke window at back and
        got in. Then he went and made open the shutters in front and walk 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 big notice;
        and when the day come he sell off by a great auctioneer all the goods of
        that other man who own them. Then he go to a builder, and he sell him
        that house, making an agreement that he pull it down and take all away
        within a certain time. And your police and other authority help him all
        they can. And when that owner come back from his holiday in Switzerland
        he find only an empty hole where his house had been. This was all done
        _en règle_; and in our work we shall be _en règle_ too. We shall not go
        so early that the policemen who have then little to think of, shall deem
        it strange; but we shall go after ten o'clock, when there are many
        about, and such things would be done were we indeed owners of the
        house."
        
        I could not but see how right he was and the terrible despair of Mina's
        face became relaxed a thought; there was hope in such good counsel. Van
        Helsing went on:--
        
        "When once within that house we may find more clues; at any rate some of
        us can remain there whilst the rest find the other places where there be
        more earth-boxes--at Bermondsey and Mile End."
        
        Lord Godalming stood up. "I can be of some use here," he said. "I shall
        wire to my people to have horses and carriages where they will be most
        convenient."
        
        "Look here, old fellow," said Morris, "it is a capital idea to have all
        ready in case we want to go horsebacking; but don't you think that one
        of your snappy carriages with its heraldic adornments in a byway of
        Walworth 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; and
        even leave them somewhere near the neighbourhood we are going to."
        
        "Friend Quincey is right!" said the Professor. "His head is what you
        call in plane with the horizon. It is a difficult thing that we go to
        do, 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 see
        that the exigency of affairs was helping her to forget for a time the
        terrible experience of the night. She was very, very pale--almost
        ghastly, and so thin that her lips were drawn away, showing her teeth in
        somewhat of prominence. I did not mention this last, lest it should give
        her needless pain; but it made my blood run cold in my veins to think of
        what had occurred with poor Lucy when the Count had sucked her blood. As
        yet there was no sign of the teeth growing sharper; but the time as yet
        was short, and there was time for fear.
        
        When we came to the discussion of the sequence of our efforts and of the
        disposition of our forces, there were new sources of doubt. It was
        finally agreed that before starting for Piccadilly we should destroy the
        Count's lair close at hand. In case he should find it out too soon, we
        should thus be still ahead of him in our work of destruction; and his
        presence in his purely material shape, and at his weakest, might give us
        some 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 Godalming
        and Quincey found the lairs at Walworth and Mile End and destroyed them.
        It was possible, if not likely, the Professor urged, that the Count
        might appear in Piccadilly during the day, and that if so we might be
        able to cope with him then and there. At any rate, we might be able to
        follow him in force. To this plan I strenuously objected, and so far as
        my going was concerned, for I said that I intended to stay and 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 be some law matter
        in which I could be useful; that amongst the Count's papers might be
        some clue which I could understand out of my experience in Transylvania;
        and that, as it was, all the strength we could muster was required to
        cope with the Count's extraordinary power. I had to give in, for Mina's
        resolution was fixed; she said that it was the last hope 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 whatever may happen must
        have in it some element of hope or comfort. Go, my husband! God can, if
        He wishes it, guard me as well alone as with any one present." So I
        started up crying out: "Then in God's name let us come at once, for we
        are losing time. The Count may come to Piccadilly earlier 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 he
        banqueted heavily, and will sleep late?"
        
        Did I forget! shall I ever--can I ever! Can any of us ever forget that
        terrible scene! Mina struggled hard to keep her brave countenance; but
        the pain overmastered her and she put her hands before her face, and
        shuddered whilst she moaned. Van Helsing had not intended to recall her
        frightful experience. He had simply lost sight of her and her part in
        the affair in his intellectual effort. When it struck him what he said,
        he was horrified at his thoughtlessness and tried to comfort her. "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 deserve so; but you will
        forget it, will you not?" He bent low beside her as he spoke; she took
        his hand, and looking at him through her tears, said hoarsely:--
        
        "No, I shall not forget, for it is well that I remember; and with it I
        have so much in memory of you that is sweet, that I take it all
        together. Now, you must all be going soon. Breakfast is ready, and we
        must all eat that we may be strong."
        
        Breakfast was a strange meal to us all. We tried to be cheerful and
        encourage each other, and Mina was the brightest and most cheerful of
        us. When it was over, Van Helsing stood up and said:--
        
        "Now, my dear friends, we go forth to our terrible enterprise. Are we
        all armed, as we were on that night when first we visited our enemy's
        lair; armed against ghostly as well as carnal attack?" We all assured
        him. "Then it is well. Now, Madam Mina, you are in any case _quite_ safe
        here until the sunset; and before then we shall return--if---- We shall
        return! But before we go let me see you armed against personal attack. I
        have myself, since you came down, prepared your chamber by the placing
        of things of which we know, so that He may not enter. Now let me guard
        yourself. On your forehead I touch this piece of Sacred Wafer in the
        name of the Father, the Son, and----"
        
        There was a fearful scream which almost froze our hearts to hear. As he
        had placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had seared it--had burned
        into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal. My poor
        darling's brain had told her the significance of the fact as quickly as
        her nerves received the pain of it; and the two so overwhelmed her that
        her overwrought nature had its voice in that dreadful scream. But the
        words to her thought came quickly; the echo of the scream had not ceased
        to ring on the air when there came the reaction, and she sank on her
        knees on the floor in an agony of abasement. Pulling her beautiful hair
        over her face, as the leper of old his mantle, she wailed out:--
        
        "Unclean! Unclean! Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh! I must
        bear this mark of shame upon my forehead until the Judgment Day." They
        all paused. I had thrown myself beside her in an agony of helpless
        grief, and putting my arms around held her tight. For a few minutes our
        sorrowful hearts beat together, whilst the friends around us turned away
        their eyes that ran tears silently. Then Van Helsing turned and said
        gravely; so gravely that I could not help feeling that he was in some
        way 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 of
        the earth and of His children that He has placed thereon. And oh, Madam
        Mina, my dear, my dear, may we who love you be there to see, when that
        red scar, the sign of God's knowledge of what has been, shall pass away,
        and leave your forehead as pure as the heart we know. For so surely as
        we live, that scar shall pass away when God sees right to lift the
        burden that is hard upon us. Till then we bear our Cross, as His Son did
        in obedience to His Will. It may be that we are chosen instruments of
        His good pleasure, and that we ascend to His bidding as that other
        through stripes 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 old
        man's hands and bent over and kissed it. Then without a word we all
        knelt down together, and, all holding hands, swore to be true to each
        other. We men pledged ourselves to raise the veil of sorrow from the
        head of her whom, each in his own way, we loved; and we prayed for help
        and guidance in the terrible task which lay before us.
        
        It was then time to start. So I said farewell to Mina, a parting which
        neither 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 be a
        vampire in the end, then she shall not go into that unknown and terrible
        land alone. I suppose it is thus that in old times one vampire meant
        many; just as their hideous bodies could only rest in sacred earth, so
        the holiest love was the recruiting sergeant for their ghastly ranks.
        
        We entered Carfax without trouble and found all things the same as on
        the first occasion. It was hard to believe that amongst so prosaic
        surroundings of neglect and dust and decay there was any ground for such
        fear as already we knew. Had not our minds been made up, and had there
        not been terrible memories to spur us on, we could hardly have proceeded
        with our task. We found no papers, or any sign of use in the house; and
        in 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 sterilise this
        earth, so sacred of holy memories, that he has brought from a far
        distant land for such fell use. He has chosen this earth because it has
        been holy. Thus we defeat him with his own weapon, for we make it more
        holy still. It was sanctified to such use of man, now we sanctify it to
        God." As he spoke he took from his bag a screwdriver and a wrench, and
        very soon the top of one of the cases was thrown open. The earth smelled
        musty and close; but we did not somehow seem to mind, for our attention
        was concentrated on the Professor. Taking from his box a piece of the
        Sacred Wafer he laid it reverently on the earth, and then shutting down
        the 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 left
        them as we had found them to all appearance; but in each was a portion
        of 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 can
        be so successful, then the sunset of this evening may shine on Madam
        Mina's forehead all white as ivory and with no stain!"
        
        As we passed across the lawn on our way to the station to catch our
        train we could see the front of the asylum. I looked eagerly, and in the
        window of my own room saw Mina. I waved my hand to her, and nodded to
        tell that our work there was successfully accomplished. She nodded in
        reply to show that she understood. The last I saw, she was waving her
        hand in farewell. It was with a heavy heart that we sought the station
        and just caught 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 Street
        Lord Godalming said to me:--
        
        "Quincey and I will find a locksmith. You had better not come with us in
        case there should be any difficulty; for under the circumstances it
        wouldn't seem so bad for us to break into an empty house. But you are a
        solicitor and the Incorporated Law Society might tell you that you
        should have known better." I demurred as to my not sharing any danger
        even of odium, but he went on: "Besides, it will attract less attention
        if there are not too many of us. My title will make it all right with
        the locksmith, and with any policeman that may come along. You had
        better go with Jack and the Professor and stay in the Green Park,
        somewhere in sight of the house; and when you see the door opened and
        the smith has gone away, do you all come across. We shall be on the
        lookout for you, and shall let you in."
        
        "The advice is good!" said Van Helsing, so we said no more. Godalming
        and Morris hurried off in a cab, we following in another. At the corner
        of Arlington Street our contingent got out and strolled into the Green
        Park. My heart beat as I saw the house on which so much of our hope was
        centred, looming up grim and silent in its deserted condition amongst
        its more lively and spruce-looking neighbours. We sat down on a bench
        within good view, and began to smoke cigars so as to attract as little
        attention as possible. The minutes seemed to pass with leaden feet as we
        waited for the coming of the others.
        
        At length we saw a four-wheeler drive up. Out of it, in leisurely
        fashion, got Lord Godalming and Morris; and down from the box descended
        a thick-set working man with his rush-woven basket of tools. Morris paid
        the cabman, who touched his hat and drove away. Together the two
        ascended 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 spikes
        of the rail, saying something to a policeman who just then sauntered
        along. The policeman nodded acquiescence, and the man kneeling down
        placed his bag beside him. After searching through it, he took out a
        selection of tools which he produced to lay beside him in orderly
        fashion. Then he stood up, looked into the keyhole, blew into it, and
        turning to his employers, made some remark. Lord Godalming smiled, and
        the man lifted a good-sized bunch of keys; selecting one of them, he
        began to probe the lock, as if feeling his way with it. After fumbling
        about for a bit he tried a second, and then a third. All at once the
        door opened under a slight push from him, and he and the two others
        entered the hall. We sat still; my own cigar burnt furiously, but Van
        Helsing's went cold altogether. We waited patiently as we saw the
        workman come out and bring in his bag. Then he held the door partly
        open, steadying it with his knees, whilst he fitted a key to the lock.
        This he finally handed to Lord Godalming, who took out his purse and
        gave him something. The man touched his hat, took his bag, put on his
        coat and departed; not a soul took the slightest notice of the whole
        transaction.
        
        When the man had fairly gone, we three crossed the street and knocked at
        the door. It was immediately opened by Quincey Morris, beside whom stood
        Lord Godalming lighting a cigar.
        
        "The place smells so vilely," said the latter as we came in. It did
        indeed smell vilely--like the old chapel at Carfax--and with our
        previous experience it was plain to us that the Count had been using the
        place pretty freely. We moved to explore the house, all keeping together
        in case of attack; for we knew we had a strong and wily enemy to deal
        with, and as yet we did not know whether the Count might not be in 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, which we sought!
        Our work was not over, and would never be until we should have found the
        missing box. First we opened the shutters of the window which looked out
        across a narrow stone-flagged yard at the blank face of a stable,
        pointed to look like the front of a miniature house. There were no
        windows in it, so we were not afraid of being over-looked. We did not
        lose any time in examining the chests. With the tools which we had
        brought with us we opened them, one by one, and treated them as we had
        treated those others in the old chapel. It was evident to us that the
        Count was not at present in the house, and we proceeded to search for
        any of his 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 effects
        which might belong to the Count; and so we proceeded to minutely examine
        them. They lay in a sort of orderly disorder on the great dining-room
        table. There were title deeds of the Piccadilly house in a great bundle;
        deeds of the purchase of the houses at Mile End and Bermondsey;
        note-paper, envelopes, and pens and ink. All were covered up in thin
        wrapping paper to keep them from the dust. There were also a clothes
        brush, a brush and comb, and a jug and basin--the latter containing
        dirty water which was reddened as if with blood. Last of all was a
        little heap of keys of all sorts and sizes, probably those belonging to
        the other houses. When we had examined this last find, Lord Godalming
        and Quincey Morris taking accurate notes of the various addresses of the
        houses in the East and the South, took with them the keys in a great
        bunch, and set out to destroy the boxes in these places. The rest of us
        are, with what patience we can, waiting their return--or the coming of
        the Count.