Bram Stoker

, what a wealth of sor­row in a few words! Poor Mrs. Westenra! poor Lucy!

But he is right enough about the beds and windows and things

What I saw was the Count’s head com­ing out from the win­dow. I did not

I was not alone. The room was the same, un­changed in any way since I came into it; I could see along the floor, in the bril­liant moon­light, my own foot­step

Good night, every­body.

The boy handed in a des­patch. The Pro­fessor closed the door again, and, after look­ing at the dir­ec­tion, opened it and read aloud.

“Look out for D. He has just now, 12:45, come from Car­fax hur­riedly and hastened to­wards the South. He seems to be go­ing the round and may want to see you: Mina.”

There was a pause, broken by Jonathan Harker’s voice:―

“Now, God be thanked, we shall soon meet!” Van Helsing turned to him quickly and said:―

“God will act in His own way and time. Do not fear, and do not re­joice as yet; for what we wish for at the mo­ment may be our un­do­ings.”

“I care for noth­ing now,” he answered hotly, “ex­cept to wipe out this brute from the face of cre­ation. I would sell my soul to do it!”

“Oh, hush, hush, my child!” said Van Helsing. “God does not pur­chase souls in this wise; and the Devil, though he may pur­chase, does not keep faith. But God is mer­ci­ful and just, and knows your pain and your de­vo­tion to that dear Madam Mina. Think you, how her pain would be doubled, did she but hear your wild words. Do not fear any of us, we are all de­voted to this cause, and today shall see the end. The time is com­ing for ac­tion; today this Vam­pire is limit to the powers of man, and till sun­set he may not change. It will take him time to ar­rive here—see, it is twenty minutes past one—and there are yet some times be­fore he can hither come, be he never so quick. What we must hope for is that my Lord Ar­thur and Quin­cey ar­rive first.”

Be­lieve me, my friends, we shall not have long to wait now. We should have ready some plan of at­tack, so that we may throw away no chance. Hush, there is no time now. Have all your arms! Be ready!” He held up a warn­ing hand as he spoke, for we all could hear a key softly in­ser­ted in the lock of the hall door.

I could not but ad­mire, even at such a mo­ment, the way in which a dom­in­ant spirit as­ser­ted it­self. In all our hunt­ing parties and ad­ven­tures in dif­fer­ent parts of the world, Quin­cey Mor­ris had al­ways been the one to ar­range the plan of ac­tion, and Ar­thur and I had been ac­cus­tomed to obey him im­pli­citly. Now, the old habit seemed to be re­newed in­stinct­ively. With a swift glance around the room, he at once laid out our plan of at­tack, and, without speak­ing a word, with a ges­ture, placed us each in po­s­i­tion. Van Helsing, Harker, and I were just be­hind the door, so that when it was opened the Pro­fessor could guard it whilst we two stepped between the in­comer and the door. Godalm­ing be­hind and Quin­cey in front stood just out of sight ready to move in front of the win­dow. We waited in a sus­pense that made the seconds pass with night­mare slow­ness. The slow, care­ful steps came along the hall; the Count was evid­ently pre­pared for some sur­prise—at least he feared it.

“I can never thank you all enough. Oh, my poor darling!” As she spoke, she took her hus­band’s grey head in her hands and kissed it—“Lay your poor head here and rest it. All will yet be well, dear! God will pro­tect us if He so will it in His good in­tent.” The poor fel­low groaned. There was no place for words in his sub­lime misery.

True to our prom­ise, we told Mrs. Harker everything which had passed; and al­though she grew snowy white at times when danger had seemed to threaten her hus­band, and red at oth­ers when his de­vo­tion to her was mani­fes­ted, she listened bravely and with calmness.

This very creature that we pur­sue, he take hun­dreds of years to get so far as Lon­don; and yet in one day, when we know of the dis­posal of him we drive him out. He is fi­nite, though he is power­ful to do much harm and suf­fers not as we do. But we are strong, each in our pur­pose; and we are all more strong to­gether. Take heart afresh, dear hus­band of Madam Mina. This battle is but be­gun, and in the end we shall win—so sure as that God sits on high to watch over His chil­dren. There­fore be of much com­fort till we re­turn.