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 realization 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 Undead.
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
fervor. 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 HARKER'S 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 w eWe did not go fast, though the way was steeply downhill, for w e
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 Dracula's 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.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 dog's tail wagging, with each stern inequality of
the road. Outlined against the snow as they were, I could see from
the men's 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 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. God's will be done!" Down came
another blinding rush of driving snow, and the whole landscape was