For a while sheer anger mastered me. It was as if he had during
her life struck Lucy on the face. I smote the table hard and rose
up as I said to him, "Dr. Van Helsing, are you mad?"
He raised his head and looked at me, and somehow the tenderness
of his face calmed me at once. "Would I were!" he said. "Madness
were easy to bear compared with truth like this. Oh, my friend,
whey, think you, did I go so far round, why take so long to tell so
simple a thing? Was it because I hate you and have hated you all my
life? Was it because I wished to give you pain? Was it that I
wanted, no so late, revenge for that time when you saved my life,
and from a fearful death? Ah no!"
"Forgive me," said I.
He went on, "My friend, it was because I wished to be gentle in
the breaking to you, for I know you have loved that so sweet lady.
But even yet I do not expect you to believe. It is so hard to
accept at once any abstract truth, that we may doubt such to be
possible when we have always believed the `no' of it. It is more
hard still to accept so sad a concrete truth, and of such a one as
Miss Lucy. Tonight I go to prove it. Dare you come with me?"
This staggered me. A man does not like to prove such a truth,
Byron excepted from the catagory, jealousy.
"And prove the very truth he most abhorred."
He saw my hesitation, and spoke, "The logic is simple, no
madman's logic this time, jumping from tussock to tussock in a
misty bog. If it not be true, then proof will be relief. At worst
it will not harm. If it be true! Ah, there is the dread. Yet every
dread should help my cause, for in it is some need of belief. Come,
I tell you what I propose. First, that we go off now and see that
child in the hospital. Dr. Vincent, of the North Hospital, where
the papers say the child is, is a friend of mine, and I think of
yours since you were in class at Amsterdam. He will let two
scientists see his case, if he will not let two friends. We shall
tell him nothing, but only that we wish to learn. And then …
"
"And then?"tell him nothing, but only that we wish to learn. And then …
"
"And then?"
He took a key from his pocket and held it up. "And then we spend
the night, you and I, in the churchyard where Lucy lies. This is
the key that lock the tomb. I had it from the coffin man to give to
Arthur."
My heart sank within me, for I felt that there was some fearful
ordeal before us. I could do nothing, however, so I plucked up what
heart I could and said that we had better hasten, as the afternoon
was passing.
We found the child awake. It had had a sleep and taken some
food, and altogether was going on well. Dr, Vincent took the
bandage from its throat, and showed us the punctures. There was no
mistaking the similarity to those which had been on Lucy's throat.
They were smaller, and the edges looked fresher, that was all. We
asked Vincent to what he attributed them, and he replied that it
must have been a bite of some animal, perhaps a rat, but for his
own part, he was inclined to think it was one of the bats which are
so numerous on the northern heights of London. "Out of so many
harmless ones," he said, "there may be some wild specimen from the
South of a more malignant species. Some sailor may have brought one
home, and it managed to escape, or even from the Zoological Gardens
a young one may have got loose, or one be bred there from a
vampire. These things do occur, you, know. Only ten days ago a wolf
got out, and was, I believe, traced up in this direction. For a
week after, the children were playing nothing but Red Riding Hood
on the Heath and in every alley in the place until this `bloofer
lady' scare came along, since then it has been quite a gala time
with them. Even this poor little mite, when he woke up today, asked
the nurse if he might go away. When she asked him why he wanted to
go, he said he wanted to play with the `bloofer lady'."
"I hope," said Van Helsing, "that when you are sending the child
home you will caution its parents to keep strict watch over it.home you will caution its parents to keep strict watch over it.
These fancies to stray are most dangerous, and if the child were to
remain out another night, it would probably be fatal. But in any
case I suppose you will not let it away for some days?"
"Certainly not, not for a week at least, longer if the wound is
not healed."
Our visit to the hospital took more time than we had reckoned
on, and the sun had dipped before we came out. When Van Helsing saw
how dark it was, he said,
"There is not hurry. It is more late than I thought. Come, let
us seek somewhere that we may eat, and then we shall go on our
way."
We dined at `Jack Straw's Castle' along with a little crowd of
bicyclists and others who were genially noisy. About ten o'clock we
started from the inn. It was then very dark, and the scattered
lamps made the darkness greater when we were once outside their
individual radius. The Professor had evidently noted the road we
were to go, for he went on unhesitatingly, but, as for me, I was in
quite a mixup as to locality. As we went further, we met fewer and
fewer people, till at last we were somewhat surprised when we met
even the patrol of horse police going their usual suburban round.
At last we reached the wall of the churchyard, which we climbed
over. With some little difficulty, for it was very dark, and the
whole place seemed so strange to us, we found the Westenra tomb.
The Professor took the key, opened the creaky door, and standing
back, politely, but quite unconsciously, motioned me to precede
him. There was a delicious irony in the offer, in the courtliness
of giving preference on such a ghastly occasion. My companion
followed me quickly, and cautiously drew the door to, after
carefully ascertaining that the lock was a falling, and not a
spring one. In the latter case we should have been in a bad plight.
Then he fumbled in his bag, and taking out a matchbox and a piece
of candle, proceeded to make a light. The tomb in the daytime, and
when wreathed with fresh flowers, had looked grim and gruesome