?There have been a good many here of your opinion,? said Cassy; ?but you couldn?t stay in the swamps,?you?d be tracked by the dogs, and brought back, and then?then?? ?What would he do?? said the girl, looking, with breathless interest, into her face ?What wouldn?t he do, you?d better ask,? said Cassy?He?s learned his trade well, among the pirates in the West IndiesYou wouldn?t sleep much, if I should tell you things I?ve seen,?things that he tells of, sometimes, for good jokesI?ve heard screams here that I haven?t been able to get out of my head for weeks and weeksThere?s a place way out down by the quarters, where you can see a black, blasted tree, and the ground all covered with black ashesAsk anyone what was done there, and see if they will dare to tell you ?O! what do you mean?? ?I won?t tell youI hate to think of itAnd I tell you, the Lord only knows what we may see tomorrow, if that poor fellow holds out as he?s begun ?Horrid!? said Emmeline, every drop of blood receding from her cheeks?O, Cassy, do tell me what I shall do!? ?What I?ve doneDo the best you can,?do what you must,?and make it up in hating and cursing ?He wanted to make me drink some of his hateful brandy,? said Emmeline; ?and I hate it so?? ?You?d better drink,? said Cassy?I hated it, too; and now I can?t live without itOne must have something;?things don?t look so dreadful, when you take that ?Mother used to tell me never to touch any such thing,? said Emmeline ?Mother told you!? said Cassy, with a thrilling and bitter emphasis on the word mother?What use is it for mothers to say anything? You are all to be bought and paid for, and your souls belong to whoever gets youThat?s the way it goesI say, drink brandy; drink all you can, and it?ll make things come easier ?O, Cassy! do pity me!? ?Pity you!?don?t I? Haven?t I a daughter,?Lord knows where she is, and whose she is, now,?going the way her mother went, before her, I suppose, and that her children must go, after her! There?s no end to the curse?forever!? ?I wish I?d never been born!? said Emmeline, wringing her hands ?That?s an old wish with me,? said Cassy?I?ve got used to wishing thatI?d die, if I dared to,? she said, looking out into the darkness, with that still, fixed despair which was the habitual expression of her face when at rest ?It would be wicked to kill one?s self,? said Emmeline ?I don?t know why,?no wickeder than things we live and do, day after dayBut the sisters told me things, when I was in the convent, that make me afraid to dieIf it would only be the end of us, why, then?? Emmeline turned away, and hid her face in her hands While this conversation was passing in the chamber, Legree, overcome with his carouse, had sunk to sleep in the room belowLegree was not an habitual drunkardHis coarse, strong nature craved, and could endure, a continual stimulation, that would have utterly wrecked and crazed a finer oneBut a deep, underlying spirit of cautiousness prevented his often yielding to appetite in such measure as to lose control of himself This night, however, in his feverish efforts to banish from his mind those fearful elements of woe and remorse which woke within him, he had indulged more than common; so that, when he had discharged his sable attendants, he fell heavily on a settle in the room, and was sound asleep O! how dares the bad soul to enter the shadowy world of sleep??that land whose dim outlines lie so fearfully near to the mystic scene of retribution! Legree dreamedIn his heavy and feverish sleep, a veiled form stood beside him, and laid a cold, soft hand upon himHe thought he knew who it was; and shuddered, with creeping horror, though the face was veiledThen he thought he felt that hair twining round his fingers; and then, that it slid smoothly round his neck, and tightened and tightened, and he could not draw his breath; and then he thought voices whispered to him,?whispers that chilled him with horrorThen it seemed to him he was on the edge of a frightful abyss, holding on and struggling in mortal fear, while dark hands stretched up, and were pulling him over; and Cassy came behind him laughing, and pushed himAnd then rose up that solemn veiled figure, and drew aside the veilIt was his mother; and she turned away from him, and he fell down, down, down, amid a confused noise of shrieks, and groans, and shouts of demon laughter,?and Legree shop awoke

I thought it well to know if possible where the Count would go when he left the houseI did not see him, but I saw a bat rise from Renfield's window, and flap westwardI expected to see him in some shape go back to Carfax, but he evidently sought some other lairHe will not be back tonight, for the sky is reddening in the east, and the dawn is closeWe must work tomorrow!" He said the latter words through his shut teethFor a space of perhaps a couple of minutes there was silence, and I could fancy that I could hear the sound of our hearts beating Then Van Helsing said, placing his hand tenderly on MrsHarker's head, "And now, Madam Mina, poor dear, dear, Madam Mina, tell us exactly what happenedGod knows that I do not want that you be pained, but it is need that we know allFor now more than ever has all work to be done quick and sharp, and in deadly earnestThe day is close to us that must end all, if it may be so, and now is the chance that we may live and learn The poor dear lady shivered, and I could see the tension of her nerves as she clasped her husband closer to her and bent her head lower and lower still on his breastThen she raised her head proudly, and held out one hand to Van Helsing who took it in his, and after stooping and kissing it reverently, held it fastThe other hand was locked in that of her husband, who held his other arm thrown round her protectinglyAfter a pause in which she was evidently ordering her thoughts, she began "I took the sleeping draught which you had so kindly given me, but for a long time it did not actI seemed to become more wakeful, and myriads of horrible fancies began to crowd in upon my mindAll of them connected with death, and vampires, with blood, and pain, and trouble Her husband involuntarily groaned as she turned to him and said lovingly, "Do not fret, dearYou must be brave and strong, and help me through the horrible taskIf you only knew what an effort it is to me to tell of this fearful thing at all, you would understand how much I need your helpWell, I saw I must try to help the medicine to its work with my will, if it was to do me any good, so I resolutely set myself to sleepSure enough sleep must soon have come to me, for I remember no moreJonathan coming in had not waked me, for he lay by my side when next I rememberThere was in the room the same thin white mist that I had before noticedBut I forget now if you know of thisYou will find it in my diary which I shall show you laterI felt the same vague terror which had come to me before and the same sense of some presenceI turned to wake Jonathan, but found that he slept so soundly that it seemed as if it was he who had taken the sleeping draught, and not II tried, but I could not wake himThis caused me a great fear, and I looked around terrifiedThen indeed, my heart sank within meBeside the bed, as if he had stepped out of the mist, or rather as if the mist had turned into his figure, for it had entirely disappeared, stood a tall, thin man, all in blackI knew him at once from the description of the othersThe waxen face, the high aquiline nose, on which the light fell in a thin white line, the parted red lips, with the sharp white teeth showing between, and the red eyes that I had seemed to see in the sunset on the windows of StMary's Church at WhitbyI knew, too, the red scar on his forehead where Jonathan had struck himFor an instant my heart stood still, and I would have screamed out, only that I was paralyzedIn the pause he spoke in a sort of keen, cutting whisper, pointing as he spoke to Jonathan "'Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his brains out before your very shop eyes

And then, please God, all this sorrow and anxiety may lead to a good endI used to think I would like to practice interviewingJonathan's friend on "The Exeter News" told him that memory is everything in such work, that you must be able to put down exactly almost every word spoken, even if you had to refine some of it afterwardsHere was a rare interviewI shall try to record it verbatim It was half-past two o'clock when the knock cameI took my courage a deux mains and waitedIn a few minutes Mary opened the door, and announced "Dr I rose and bowed, and he came towards me, a man of medium weight, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neckThe poise of the head strikes me at once as indicative of thought and powerThe head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the earsThe face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big bushy brows come down and the mouth tightensThe forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart, such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sidesBig, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moodsHe said to me, "MrsHarker, is it not?" I bowed assent "That was Miss Mina Murray?" Again I assented "It is Mina Murray that I came to see that was friend of that poor dear child Lucy WestenraMadam Mina, it is on account of the dead that I come "Sir," I said, "you could have no better claim on me than that you were a friend and helper of Lucy Westenra And I held out my handHe took it and said tenderly, "Oh, Madam Mina, I know that the friend of that poor little girl must be good, but I had yet to learn?" He finished his speech with a courtly bowI asked him what it was that he wanted to see me about, so he at once began "I have read your letters to Miss LucyForgive me, but I had to begin to inquire somewhere, and there was none to askI know that you were with her at WhitbyShe sometimes kept a diary, you need not look surprised, Madam MinaIt was begun after you had left, and was an imitation of you, and in that diary she traces by inference certain things to a sleep-walking in which she puts down that you saved herIn great perplexity then I come to you, and ask you out of your so much kindness to tell me all of it that you can remember "I can tell you, I think, DrVan Helsing, all about it "Ah, then you have good memory for facts, for details? It is not always so with young ladies "No, doctor, but I wrote it all down at the timeI can show it to you if you like "Oh, Madam Mina, I well be gratefulYou will do me much favour I could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit, I suppose it is some taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths, so I handed him the shorthand diaryHe took it with a grateful bow, and said, "May I read it?" "If you wish," I answered as demurely as I couldHe opened it, and for an instant his face fellThen he stood up and shop bowed

I dread coming up to London, as we must do that day after tomorrow, for poor MrHawkins left in his will that he was to be buried in the grave with his fatherAs there are no relations at all, Jonathan will have to be chief mournerI shall try to run over to see you, dearest, if only for a few minutesForgive me for troubling youWith all blessings, "Your loving "Mina Harker" DRSEWARD'S DIARY 20 September-Only resolution and habit can let me make an entry tonightI am too miserable, too low spirited, too sick of the world and all in it, including life itself, that I would not care if I heard this moment the flapping of the wings of the angel of deathAnd he has been flapping those grim wings to some purpose of late, Lucy's mother and Arthur's father, and now? Let me get on with my work I duly relieved Van Helsing in his watch over LucyWe wanted Arthur to go to rest also, but he refused at firstIt was only when I told him that we should want him to help us during the day, and that we must not all break down for want of rest, lest Lucy should suffer, that he agreed to go Van Helsing was very kind to him"Come, my child," he saidYou are sick and weak, and have had much sorrow and much mental pain, as well as that tax on your strength that we know ofYou must not be alone, for to be alone is to be full of fears and alarmsCome to the drawing room, where there is a big fire, and there are two sofasYou shall lie on one, and I on the other, and our sympathy will be comfort to each other, even though we do not speak, and even if we sleep Arthur went off with him, casting back a longing look on Lucy's face, which lay in her pillow, almost whiter than the lawnShe lay quite still, and I looked around the room to see that all was as it should beI could see that the Professor had carried out in this room, as in the other, his purpose of using the garlicThe whole of the window sashes reeked with it, and round Lucy's neck, over the silk handkerchief which Van Helsing made her keep on, was a rough chaplet of the same odorous flowers Lucy was breathing somewhat stertorously, and her face was at its worst, for the open mouth showed the pale gumsHer teeth, in the dim, uncertain light, seemed longer and sharper than they had been in the morningIn particular, by some trick of the light, the canine teeth looked longer and sharper than the rest I sat down beside her, and presently she moved uneasilyAt the same moment there came a sort of dull flapping or buffeting at the windowI went over to it softly, and peeped out by the corner of the blindThere was a full moonlight, and I could see that the noise was made by a great bat, which wheeled around, doubtless attracted by the light, although so dim, and every now and again struck the window with its wingsWhen I came back to my seat, I found that Lucy had moved slightly, and had torn away the garlic flowers from her throatI replaced them as well as I could, and sat watching her Presently she woke, and I gave her food, as Van Helsing had prescribedShe took but a little, and that languidlyThere did not seem to be with her now the unconscious struggle for life and strength that had hitherto so marked her illnessIt struck me as curious that the moment she became conscious she pressed the garlic flowers close to herIt was certainly odd that whenever she got into that lethargic state, with the stertorous breathing, she put the flowers from her, but that when she waked she clutched them closeThere was no possibility of making any mistake about this, for in the long hours that followed, she had many spells of sleeping and waking and repeated both actions many times At six o'clock Van Helsing came to relieve meArthur had then fallen into a doze, and he mercifully let him sleep shop on

This land is very different from yours or mineEven if we did have a special, it would probably not arrive as soon as our regular trainMoreover, we have something to prepareYou, friend Arthur, go to the train and get the tickets and arrange that all be ready for us to go in the morningDo you, friend Jonathan, go to the agent of the ship and get from him letters to the agent in Galatz, with authority to make a search of the ship just as it was hereQuincey Morris, you see the Vice Consul, and get his aid with his fellow in Galatz and all he can do to make our way smooth, so that no times be lost when over the DanubeJohn will stay with Madam Mina and me, and we shall consultFor so if time be long you may be delayedAnd it will not matter when the sun set, since I am here with Madam to make report "And I," said MrsHarker brightly, and more like her old self than she had been for many a long day, "shall try to be of use in all ways, and shall think and write for you as I used to doSomething is shifting from me in some strange way, and I feel freer than I have been of late!" The three younger men looked happier at the moment as they seemed to realize the significance of her wordsBut Van Helsing and I, turning to each other, met each a grave and troubled glanceWe said nothing at the time, however When the three men had gone out to their tasks Van Helsing asked MrsHarker to look up the copy of the diaries and find him the part of Harker's journal at the CastleShe went away to get it When the door was shut upon her he said to me, "We mean the same! Speak out!" "Here is some changeIt is a hope that makes me sick, for it may deceive usDo you know why I asked her to get the manuscript?" "No!" said I, "unless it was to get an opportunity of seeing me alone "You are in part right, friend John, but only in partI want to tell you somethingAnd oh, my friend, I am taking a great, a terrible, riskBut I believe it is rightIn the moment when Madam Mina said those words that arrest both our understanding, an inspiration came to meIn the trance of three days ago the Count sent her his spirit to read her mindOr more like he took her to see him in his earth box in the ship with water rushing, just as it go free at rise and set of sunHe learn then that we are here, for she have more to tell in her open life with eyes to see ears to hear than he, shut as he is, in his coffin boxNow he make his most effort to escape usAt present he want her not "He is sure with his so great knowledge that she will come at his callBut he cut her off, take her, as he can do, out of his own power, that so she come not to himAh! There I have hope that our man brains that have been of man so long and that have not lost the grace of God, will come higher than his child-brain that lie in his tomb for centuries, that grow not yet to our stature, and that do only work selfish and therefore smallHere comes Madam MinaNot a word to her of her trance! She knows it not, and it would overwhelm her and make despair just when we want all her hope, all her courage, when most we want all her great brain which is trained like man's brain, but is of sweet woman and have a special power which the Count give her, and which he may not take away altogether, though he think not soHush! Let me speak, and you shall learnOh, John, my friend, we are in awful straitsI fear, as I never feared beforeWe can only trust the good GodSilence! Here she comes!" I thought that the Professor was going to break down and have hysterics, just as he had when Lucy died, but with a great effort he controlled himself and was at perfect nervous poise when shop Mrs