Renfield in a tone which did not surprise me at the time, but only
when I thought of it afterwards, for it was as of one addressing an
equal, "Can you not tell frankly your real reason for wishing to be
free tonight? I will undertake that if you will satisfy even me, a
stranger, without prejudice, and with the habit of keeping an open
mind, Dr. Seward will give you, at his own risk and on his own
responsibility, the privilege you seek."
He shook his head sadly, and with a look of poignant regret on
his face. The Professor went on, "Come, sir, bethink yourself. You
claim the privilege of reason in the highest degree, since you seek
to impress us with your complete reasonableness. You do this, whose
sanity we have reason to doubt, since you are not yet released from
medical treatment for this very defect. If you will not help us in
our effort to choose the wisest course, how can we perform the duty
which you yourself put upon us? Be wise, and help us, and if we can
we shall aid you to achieve your wish."
He still shook his head as he said, "Dr. Van Helsing, I have
nothing to say. Your argument is complete, and if I were free to
speak I should not hesitate a moment, but I am not my own master in
the matter. I can only ask you to trust me. If I am refused, the
responsibility does not rest with me."
I thought it was now time to end the scene, which was becoming
too comically grave, so I went towards the door, simply saying,
"Come, my friends, we have work to do. Goodnight."
As, however, I got near the door, a new change came over the
patient. He moved towards me so quickly that for the moment I
feared that he was about to make another homicidal attack. My
fears, however, were groundless, for he held up his two hands
imploringly, and made his petition in a moving manner. As he saw
that the very excess of his emotion was militating against him, by
restoring us more to our old relations, he became still more
demonstrative. I glanced at Van Helsing, and saw my convictiondemonstrative. I glanced at Van Helsing, and saw my conviction
reflected in his eyes, so I became a little more fixed in my
manner, if not more stern, and motioned to him that his efforts
were unavailing. I had previously seen something of the same
constantly growing excitement in him when he had to make some
request of which at the time he had thought much, such for
instance, as when he wanted a cat, and I was prepared to see the
collapse into the same sullen acquiescence on this occasion.
My expectation was not realized, for when he found that his
appeal would not be successful, he got into quite a frantic
condition. He threw himself on his knees, and held up his hands,
wringing them in plaintive supplication, and poured forth a torrent
of entreaty, with the tears rolling down his cheeks, and his whole
face and form expressive of the deepest emotion.
"Let me entreat you, Dr. Seward, oh, let me implore you, to let
me out of this house at once. Send me away how you will and where
you will, send keepers with me with whips and chains, let them take
me in a strait waistcoat, manacled and leg-ironed, even to gaol,
but let me go out of this. You don't know what you do by keeping me
here. I am speaking from the depths of my heart, of my very soul.
You don't know whom you wrong, or how, and I may not tell. Woe is
me! I may not tell. By all you hold sacred, by all you hold dear,
by your love that is lost, by your hope that lives, for the sake of
the Almighty, take me out of this and save my soul from guilt!
Can't you hear me, man? Can't you understand? Will you never learn?
Don't you know that I am sane and earnest now, that I am no lunatic
in a mad fit, but a sane man fighting for his soul? Oh, hear me!
Hear me! Let me go, let me go, let me go!"
I thought that the longer this went on the wilder he would get,
and so would bring on a fit, so I took him by the hand and raised
him up.
"Come," I said sternly, "no more of this, we have had quite
enough already. Get to your bed and try to behave more
discreetly."enough already. Get to your bed and try to behave more
discreetly."
He suddenly stopped and looked at me intently for several
moments. Then, without a word, he rose and moving over, sat down on
the side of the bed. The collapse had come, as on former occasions,
just as I had expected.
When I was leaving the room, last of our party, he said to me in
a quiet, well-bred voice, "You will, I trust, Dr. Seward, do me the
justice to bear in mind, later on, that I did what I could to
convince you tonight."1 October, 5 a. m.—I went with the party to the search with an
easy mind, for I think I never saw Mina so absolutely strong and
well. I am so glad that she consented to hold back and let us men
do the work. Somehow, it was a dread to me that she was in this
fearful business at all, but now that her work is done, and that it
is due to her energy and brains and foresight that the whole story
is put together in such a way that every point tells, she may well
feel that her part is finished, and that she can henceforth leave
the rest to us. We were, I think, all a little upset by the scene
with Mr. Renfield. When we came away from his room we were silent
till we got back to the study.
Then Mr. Morris said to Dr. Seward, "Say, Jack, if that man
wasn't attempting a bluff, he is about the sanest lunatic I ever
saw. I'm not sure, but I believe that he had some serious purpose,
and if he had, it was pretty rough on him not to get a chance."
Lord Godalming and I were silent, but Dr. Van Helsing added,
"Friend John, you know more lunatics than I do, and I'm glad of it,
for I fear that if it had been to me to decide I would before that
last hysterical outburst have given him free. But we live and
learn, and in our present task we must take no chance, as my friend
Quincey would say. All is best as they are."
Dr. Seward seemed to answer them both in a dreamy kind of way,
"I don't know but that I agree with you. If that man had been an
ordinary lunatic I would have taken my chance of trusting him, but
he seems so mixed up with the Count in an indexy kind of way that I
am afraid of doing anything wrong by helping his fads. I can't
forget how he prayed with almost equal fervor for a cat, and then
tried to tear my throat out with his teeth. Besides, he called the
Count `lord and master', and he may want to get out to help him in
some diabolical way. That horrid thing has the wolves and the rats
and his own kind to help him, so I suppose he isn't above trying to
use a respectable lunatic. He certainly did seem earnest, though. I