mother's cry, though they come to him, they run pell-mell from the
so little dogs of my friend Arthur. We have other matters before
us, other dangers, other fears, and that monster … He has not
used his power over the brute world for the only or the last time
tonight. So be it that he has gone elsewhere. Good! It has given us
opportunity to cry `check'in some ways in this chess game, which we
play for the stake of human souls. And now let us go home. The dawn
is close at hand, and we have reason to be content with our first
night's work. It may be ordained that we have many nights and days
to follow, if full of peril, but we must go on, and from no danger
shall we shrink."
The house was silent when we got back, save for some poor
creature who was screaming away in one of the distant wards, and a
low, moaning sound from Renfield's room. The poor wretch was
doubtless torturing himself, after the manner of the insane, with
needless thoughts of pain.
I came tiptoe into our own room, and found Mina asleep,
breathing so softly that I had to put my ear down to hear it. She
looks paler than usual. I hope the meeting tonight has not upset
her. I am truly thankful that she is to be left out of our future
work, and even of our deliberations. It is too great a strain for a
woman to bear. I did not think so at first, but I know better now.
Therefore I am glad that it is settled. There may be things which
would frighten her to hear, and yet to conceal them from her might
be worse than to tell her if once she suspected that there was any
concealment. Henceforth our work is to be a sealed book to her,
till at least such time as we can tell her that all is finished,
and the earth free from a monster of the nether world. I daresay it
will be difficult to begin to keep silence after such confidence as
ours, but I must be resolute, and tomorrow I shall keep dark over
tonight's doings, and shall refuse to speak of anything that has
happened. I rest on the sofa, so as not to disturb her.happened. I rest on the sofa, so as not to disturb her.
1 October, later.—I suppose it was natural that we should have
all overslept ourselves, for the day was a busy one, and the night
had no rest at all. Even Mina must have felt its exhaustion, for
though I slept till the sun was high, I was awake before her, and
had to call two or three times before she awoke. Indeed, she was so
sound asleep that for a few seconds she did not recognize me, but
looked at me with a sort of blank terror, as one looks who has been
waked out of a bad dream. She complained a little of being tired,
and I let her rest till later in the day. We now know of twenty-one
boxes having been removed, and if it be that several were taken in
any of these removals we may be able to trace them all. Such will,
of course, immensely simplify our labor, and the sooner the matter
is attended to the better. I shall look up Thomas Snelling
today.
DR. SEWARD'S DIARY
1 October.—It was towards noon when I was awakened by the
Professor walking into my room. He was more jolly and cheerful than
usual, and it is quite evident that last night's work has helped to
take some of the brooding weight off his mind.
After going over the adventure of the night he suddenly said,
"Your patient interests me much. May it be that with you I visit
him this morning? Or if that you are too occupy, I can go alone if
it may be. It is a new experience to me to find a lunatic who talk
philosophy, and reason so sound."
I had some work to do which pressed, so I told him that if he
would go alone I would be glad, as then I should not have to keep
him waiting, so I called an attendant and gave him the necessary
instructions. Before the Professor left the room I cautioned him
against getting any false impression from my patient.
"But," he answered, "I want him to talk of himself and of his
delusion as to consuming live things. He said to Madam Mina, as I
see in your diary of yesterday, that he had once had such a belief.
Why do you smile, friend John?"see in your diary of yesterday, that he had once had such a belief.
Why do you smile, friend John?"
"Excuse me," I said, "but the answer is here." I laid my hand on
the typewritten matter."When our sane and learned lunatic made that
very statement of how he used to consume life, his mouth was
actually nauseous with the flies and spiders which he had eaten
just before Mrs. Harker entered the room."
Van Helsing smiled in turn. "Good!" he said. "Your memory is
true, friend John. I should have remembered. And yet it is this
very obliquity of thought and memory which makes mental disease
such a fascinating study. Perhaps I may gain more knowledge out of
the folly of this madman than I shall from the teaching of the most
wise. Who knows?"
I went on with my work, and before long was through that in
hand. It seemed that the time had been very short indeed, but there
was Van Helsing back in the study.
"Do I interrupt?" he asked politely as he stood at the door.
"Not at all,"I answered. "Come in. My work is finished, and I am
free. I can go with you now, if you like."
"It is needless, I have seen him!"
"Well?"
"I fear that he does not appraise me at much. Our interview was
short. When I entered his room he was sitting on a stool in the
center, with his elbows on his knees, and his face was the picture
of sullen discontent. I spoke to him as cheerfully as I could, and
with such a measure of respect as I could assume. He made no reply
whatever. 'Don't you know me?' I asked. His answer was not
reassuring. "I know you well enough, you are the old fool Van
Helsing. I wish you would take yourself and your idiotic brain
theories somewhere else. Damn all thick-headed Dutchmen!' Not a
word more would he say, but sat in his implacable sullenness as
indifferent to me as though I had not been in the room at all. Thus
departed for this time my chance of much learning from this so
clever lunatic, so I shall go, if I may, and cheer myself with a
few happy words with that sweet soul Madam Mina. Friend John, it