No More Learning

I felt so thankful that Lord Godalming is rich, and
that both he and Mr. Morris, who also has plenty of money, are willing
to spend it so freely. For if they did not, our little expedition could
not start, either so promptly or so well equipped, as it will within
another hour. It is not three hours since it was arranged what part each
of us was to do; now Lord Godalming and Jonathan have a lovely steam
launch, with steam up ready to start at a moment's notice. Dr. Seward
and Mr. Morris have half a dozen beautiful horses, well appointed. We
have all the maps and appliances of various kinds that can be had.
Professor Van Helsing and I are to leave by the 11. 40 train to-night
for Veresti, where we are to get a carriage to drive to the Borgo Pass.
We are bringing a good deal of ready money, as we are to buy a carriage
and horses. We shall drive ourselves, for we have no one whom we can
trust in this matter. The Professor knows something of a great many
languages, so we shall get on all right. We have all got arms, even for
me a large-bore revolver; Jonathan would not be happy unless I was armed
like the rest. Alas! I cannot carry one arm that the rest do; the scar
on my forehead forbids that. Dear Dr. Van Helsing comforts me by telling
me that I am fully armed as there may be wolves; the weather is getting
colder every hour, and there are snow-flurries which come and go as
warnings.

_Later. _--It took all my courage to say good-bye to my darling. We may
never meet again. Courage, Mina! the Professor is looking at you keenly;
his look is a warning. There must be no tears now--unless it may be that
God will let them fall in gladness.


_Jonathan Harker's Journal. _

_October 30. Night. _--I am writing this in the light from the furnace
door of the steam launch; Lord Godalming is firing up. He is an
experienced hand at the work, as he has had for years a launch of his
own on the Thames, and another on the Norfolk Broads. Regarding our
plans, we finally decided that Mina's guess was correct, and that if
any waterway was chosen for the Count's escape back to his Castle, the
Sereth, and then the Bistritza at its junction, would be the one. We
took it that somewhere about the 47th degree, north latitude, would be
the place chosen for crossing the country between the river and the
Carpathians. We have no fear in running at good speed up the river at
night; there is plenty of water, and the banks are wide enough apart
to make steaming, even in the dark, easy enough. Lord Godalming tells
me to sleep for a while, as it is enough for the present for one to
be on watch. But I cannot sleep--how can I with the terrible danger
hanging over my darling, and her going out into that awful place. . . . My
only comfort is that we are in the hands of God. Only for that faith
it would be easier to die than to live, and so be quit of all the
trouble. Mr. Morris and Dr. Seward were off on their long ride before
we started; they are to keep up the right bank, far enough off to get
on higher lands, where they can see a good stretch of river and avoid
the following of its curves. They have, for the first stages, two men
to ride and lead their spare horses--four in all, so as not to excite
curiosity. When they dismiss the men, which will be shortly, they will
themselves look after the horses. It may be necessary for us to join
forces; if so they can mount our whole party. One of the saddles has a
movable horn, and can be easily adapted for Mina, if required.

It is a wild adventure we are on. Here, as we are rushing along through
the darkness, with the cold from the river seeming to rise up and strike
us; with all the mysterious voices of the night around us, it all comes
home. We seem to be drifting into unknown places and unknown ways; into
a whole world of dark and dreadful things. Godalming is shutting the
furnace door. . . .

_31 October. _--Still hurrying along. The day has come, and Godalming is
sleeping. I am on watch. The morning is bitterly cold; the furnace heat
is grateful, though we have heavy fur coats. As yet we have passed only
a few open boats, but none of them had on board any box or package of
anything like the size of the one we seek. The men were scared every
time we turned our electric lamp on them, and fell on their knees and
prayed.

_1 November, evening. _--No news all day; we have found nothing of the
kind we seek. We have now passed into the Bistritza; and if we are
wrong in our surmise our chance is gone. We have overhauled every boat,
big and little. Early this morning, one crew took us for a Government
boat, and treated us accordingly. We saw in this a way of smoothing
matters, so at Fundu, where the Bistritza runs into the Sereth, we got a
Roumanian flag which we now fly conspicuously. With every boat which we
have overhauled since then this trick has succeeded; we have had every
deference shown to us, and not once any objection to whatever we chose
to ask or do. Some of the Slovaks tell us that a big boat passed them,
going at more than usual speed as she had a double crew on board. This
was before they came to Fundu, so they could not tell us whether the
boat turned into the Bistritza or continued on up the Sereth. At Fundu
we could not hear of any such boat, so she must have passed there in
the night. I am feeling very sleepy; the cold is perhaps beginning to
tell upon me, and nature must have rest some time. Godalming insists
that he shall keep the first watch. God bless him for all his goodness
to poor dear Mina and me.

_2 November, morning. _--It is broad daylight. That good fellow would not
wake me. He says it would have been a sin to, for I slept so peacefully
and was forgetting my trouble. It seems brutally selfish of me to have
slept so long, and let him watch all night; but he was quite right. I am
a new man this morning; and, as I sit here and watch him sleeping, I can
do all that is necessary both as to minding the engine, steering, and
keeping watch. I can feel that my strength and energy are coming back
to me. I wonder where Mina is now, and Van Helsing. They should have
got to Veresti about noon on Wednesday. It would take them some time to
get the carriage and horses; so if they had started and travelled hard,
they would be about now at the Borgo Pass. God guide and help them! I
am afraid to think what may happen. If we could only go faster! but
we cannot; the engines are throbbing and doing their utmost. I wonder
how Dr. Seward and Mr. Morris are getting on. There seem to be endless
streams running down from the mountains into this river, but as none of
them are very large--at present, at all events, though they are terrible
doubtless in winter and when the snow melts--the horsemen may not have
met much obstruction. I hope that before we get to Strasba we may see
them; for if by that time we have not overtaken the Count, it may be
necessary to take counsel together what to do next.


_Dr. Seward's Diary. _

_2 November. _--Three days on the road. No news, and no time to write it
if there had been, for every moment is precious. We have had only the
rest needful for the horses; but we are both bearing it wonderfully.
Those adventurous days of ours are turning up useful. We must push on;
we shall never feel happy till we get the launch in sight again.

_3 November. _--We heard at Fundu that the launch had gone up the
Bistritza. I wish it wasn't so cold. There are signs of snow coming;
and if it falls heavy it will stop us. In such case we must get a sledge
and go on, Russian fashion.

_4 November. _--To-day we heard of the launch having been detained by an
accident when trying to force a way up the rapid. The Slovak boats get
up all right, by aid of a rope, and steering with knowledge. Some went
up only a few hours before. Godalming is an amateur fitter himself, and
evidently it was he who put the launch in trim again. Finally, they
got up the Rapids all right, with local help, and are off on the chase
afresh. I fear that the boat is not any better for the accident; the
peasantry tell us that after she got upon the smooth water again, she
kept stopping every now and again so long as she was in sight. We must
push on harder than ever; our help may be wanted soon.


_Mina Harker's Journal. _

_31 October. _--Arrived at Veresti at noon. The Professor tells me that
this morning at dawn he could hardly hypnotize me at all, and that all
I could say was: "Dark and quiet. " He is off now buying a carriage and
horses. He says that he will later on try to buy additional horses, so
that we may be able to change them on the way. We have something more
than 70 miles before us. The country is lovely, and most interesting;
if only it were under different conditions, how delightful it would be
to see it all. If Jonathan and I were driving through it alone what a
pleasure it would be. To stop and see people, and learn something of
their life, and to fill our minds and memories with all the colour and
picturesqueness of the whole wild, beautiful country and the quaint
people! But, alas! --

_Later. _--Dr. Van Helsing has returned. He has got the carriage and
horses; we are to have some dinner, and to start in an hour. The
landlady is putting us up a huge basket of provisions; it seems enough
for a company of soldiers. The Professor encourages her, and whispers to
me that it may be a week before we can get any good food again. He has
been shopping too, and has sent home such a wonderful lot of fur coats
and wraps, and all sorts of warm things. There will not be any chance of
our being cold.

* * * * *

We shall soon be off. I am afraid to think what may happen to us. We
are truly in the hands of God. He alone knows what may be, and I pray
Him, with all the strength of my sad and humble soul, that He will
watch over my beloved husband; that whatever may happen, Jonathan may
know that I loved him and honoured him more than I can say, and that my
latest and truest thought will be always for him.




CHAPTER XXVII.

/Mina Harker's 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 can't 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 hypnotized
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 conqueror's; 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 God's 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, God's 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 travel 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 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 Count's 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 run 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 seemed 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 as 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 made 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
Jonathan's 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 Harker's 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 to 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. Seward's Diary. _

_5 November. _--With the dawn we saw the body of Szgany before us
dashing away from the river with their leiter-waggon. 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 excited 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 Helsing's 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. Jonathan's 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 God's
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 enthral; 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.