 CHAPTER XIX. On October 5 a.m. I went with the party to the search with an easy mind, for I think I never saw Mina so absolutely strong and well. I am so glad that she consented to hold back and let us men do the work. Somehow it was a dread to me that she was in this fearful business at all, but now that her work is done and it is due to her energy and brains and foresight that the host's story is put together in such a way that every point tells, she may well feel that her part is finished and that she can henceforth leave the rest to us. We were, I think, all a little upset by the scene with Mr. Renfield. When we came away from his room we were silent till we got back to the study. Then Mr. Morris said to Dr. Seward, Say, Jack, if that man wasn't attempting a bluff he's about the sadist lunatic I ever saw. I'm not sure, but I believe that he had some serious purpose, and if he had it was pretty rough on him not to get a chance. Lord Godelming and I were silent. But Dr. Van Helsing added, Friend John, you know more lunatics than I do, and I'm glad of it, for I fear that if it had been me to decide I would before that last hysterical outburst have given him free. But we live and learn, and in our present task we must take no chance as my friend Quincy would say, all his best as they are. Dr. Seward seemed to answer them both in a dreamy kind of way. I don't know but that I agree with you. If that man had been an ordinary lunatic I would have taken my chance of trusting him, but he seemed so mixed up with the count in an indexy sort of way that I'm afraid of doing anything wrong by helping his fads. I can't forget how he prayed with almost equal fervour for a cat, and then tried to tear my throat out with his teeth. Besides he called the count Lord and Master, and he may want to get out to help him in some diabolical way. That horrid thing has the wolves and the rats and his own kind to help him, so I suppose he isn't above trying to use a respectable lunatic. He certainly did seem earnest, though. I only hope we have done what is best. These things in conjunction with the wild work we have in hand help to unnerve a man. The professor stepped over, and laying his hand on his shoulder said in a grave kindly way, Friend John, have no fear. We are trying to do our duty in a very sad and terrible case. We can only do as we deem best. What else have we to hope for, except the pity of the good God? Lord Godelming had slipped away for a few minutes, but now he returned. He held up a little silver whistle, as he remarked. That old place may be full of rats, and if so, I've got an antidote on call. Having passed the wall, we took our way to the house, taking care to keep in the shadows of the trees on the lawn when the moonlight shone out. When we got to the porch, the professor opened his bag and took out a lot of things, which he laid on the steps, sorting them into four little groups, evidently one for each. Then he spoke. My friends, we are going into a terrible danger, and we need arms of many kinds. Our enemy is not merely spiritual. Remember that he has the strength of twenty men, and that, though our necks or our windpipes are of the common kind and therefore breakable or crushable, his are not amenable to mere strength. A stronger man, or a body of men more strong in all than him, can at certain times hold him, but they cannot hurt him, as we can be hurt by him. We must therefore guard ourselves from his touch. Keep this near your heart. As he spoke, he lifted a little silver crucifix, and held it out to me, I, being nearest to him. Put these flowers round your neck. Here he handed me a wreath of withered garlic blossoms. For other enemies more mundane this revolver and this knife, and for aid in all, so small electric lamps which you can fasten to your breast, and for all, and above all, at the last, this which we must not desecrate needless. This was a portion of sacred wafer, which he put in an envelope and handed to me. Each of the others was similarly equipped. Now, he said, Friend John, where are the skeleton keys? If so that we can open the door, we need not break house by the window, as before at Miss Lucy's. Doctor Seward tried one or two skeleton keys, his mechanical dexterity as a surgeon standing him in good stead. Presently he got one to suit, after a little playback and forward the bolt yielded, and with a rusty clang shot back. We pressed on the door, the rusty hinges creaked, and it slowly opened. It was startlingly like the image conveyed to me in Doctor Seward's diary of the opening of Miss Westrenra's tomb. I fancy that the same idea seemed to strike the others, for with one accord they shrank back. The professor was the first to move forward and stepped into the open door. In Manus to us, Domine, he said, crossing himself as he passed over the threshold. We closed the door behind us, lest when we should have lit our lamps we should possibly attract attention from the road. The professor carefully tried the lock, lest we might not be able to open it from within should we be in a hurry making our exit. Then we all lit our lamps and proceeded on our search, the light from the tiny lamps fell in all sorts of odd forms as the rays crossed each other or the opacity of our bodies through great shadows. I could not for my life get away from the feeling that there was someone else amongst us. I suppose it was the recollection so powerfully brought home to me by the grim surroundings of that terrible experience in Transylvania. I think the feeling was common to us all, for I noticed that the others kept looking over their shoulders at every sound and every shadow just as I felt myself doing. The whole place was thick with dust. The floor was seemingly inches deep except where there were recent footsteps in which on holding down my lamp I could see marks of hobnails where the dust was cracked. The walls were fluffy and heavy with dust and in the corners were masses of spider's webs whereon the dust had gathered till they looked like old tattered rags as the weight had torn them partly down. On the table in the hall was a great bunch of keys with a time-yellowed label on each. These had been used several times for on the table were several similar rents in the blanket of dust similar to that exposed when the professor lifted them. He turned to me and said you know this place Jonathan you have copied maps of it and you know it at least more than we do which is the way to the chapel. I had an idea of its direction though on my former visit I had not been able to get admission to it so I led the way and after a few wrong turnings found myself opposite a low arched oaken door ribbed with iron bands. This is the spot said the professor as he turned his lamp on a small map of the house copied from the file of my original correspondence regarding the purchase. With a little trouble we found the key on the bunch and opened the door. We were prepared for some unpleasantness for as we were opening the door of faint malodorous air seemed to exhale through the gaps but none of us ever expected such an odor as we encountered. None of the others had met the count at all at close quarters and when I had seen him he was either in the fasting stage of his existence in his rooms or when he was bloated with fresh blood in a ruined building opened the air but here the place was small and close and the longest use had made the air stagnant and foul. There was an earthy smell as of some dry miasma which came through the foul air but as to the odor itself how shall I describe it? It was not alone that it was composed of all the ills of mortality and with the pungent acrid smell of blood but it seemed as though corruption had become itself corrupt. Fah! it sickens me to think of it. Every breath exhaled by that monster seemed to have clung to the place and intensified its loasomeness. Under ordinary circumstances such a stench would have brought our enterprise to an end but this was no ordinary case and the high and terrible purpose in which we were involved gave us a strength which rose above merely physical considerations. After the involuntary shrinking consequent on the first nauseous whiff we one and all set about our work as though that loathsome place were a garden of roses. We made an accurate examination of the place the professor saying as we began the first thing is to see how many of the boxes are left. We must then examine every hole and corner and cranny and see if we cannot get some clue as to what has become of the rest. A glance was sufficient to show how many remained for the great earth chests were bulky and there was no mistaking them. There were only 29 left out of the 50. Once I got a fright for seeing Lord Godelming suddenly turn and look out of the vaulted door into the dark passage beyond but I looked too and for an instant my heart stood still. Somewhere looking out from the shadow I seem to see the highlights of the Count's evil face the ridge of the nose the red eyes the red lips the awful power. It was only for a moment for as Lord Godelming said I thought I saw a face but it was only the shadows and resumed his inquiry I turned my lamp in the direction and stepped into the passage there was no sign of anyone and as there were no corners no doors no aperture of any kind but only the solid walls of the passage there could be no hiding place even for him. I took it that fear had helped imagination and said nothing a few minutes later I saw Morris step suddenly back from a corner which he was examining we all followed his movements with our eyes for undoubtedly some nervousness was growing on us and we saw a whole mass of phosphorescence which twinkled like stars we all instinctively drew back the whole place was becoming alive with rats for a moment or two we all stood appalled all save Lord Godelming who was seemingly prepared for such an emergency rushing over to the great iron-bound oaken door which Dr Seward had described from the outside and which I had seen myself he turned the key in the lock drew the huge boats and swung the door open then taking his little silver whistle from his pocket he blew a low shrill call it was answered from behind Dr Seward's house by the helping of dogs and after about a minute three terriers came dashing round the corner of the house unconsciously we had all moved towards the door and as we moved I noticed that the dust had been much disturbed the boxes which had been taken out had been brought this way but even in the minute that had elapsed the number of the rats had vastly increased they seemed to swarm over the place all at once till the lamp light shining on their moving dark bodies and glittering bale flies made the place look like a bank of earth set with fireflies the dogs dashed on but at the threshold suddenly stopped and snarled and then simultaneously lifting their noses began to howl in the most lugubrious fashion the rats were multiplying in thousands and we moved out Lord Godelming lifted one of the dogs and carrying him in placed him on the floor the instant his feet touched the ground he seemed to recover his courage and rushed at his natural enemies they fled before him so fast that before he had shaken the life out of a score the other dogs you had by now been lifted in the same manner had but small prey the whole mass had vanished with their going it seemed as if some evil presence had departed for the dogs frisked about and barked merrily as they made sudden darts at their prostrate foes and turned them over and tossed them in the air with vicious shakes we all seemed to find our spirits rise whether it was the purifying of the deadly atmosphere by the opening of the chapel door or the relief which we experienced by finding ourselves in the open i know not but most certainly the shadow of dread seemed to slip from us like a robe and the occasion of our coming lost something of its grim significance though we did not slacken a wit in our resolution we closed the outer door and barred and locked it and bringing the dogs with us began our search of the house we found nothing throughout except dust in extraordinary proportions and all untouched saved for my own footsteps when i had made my first visit never once did the dogs exhibit any symptom of uneasiness and even when we returned to the chapel they frisked about as though they had been rabbit hunting in a summer wood the morning was quickening in the east when we emerged from the front dr van helsing had taken the key of the whole door from the bunch and locked the door in orthodox fashion putting the key into his pocket when he had done so far he said our night has been eminently successful no harm has come to us such as i feared might be and yet we have ascertained how many boxes are missing more than all do i rejoice that this our first and perhaps our most difficult and dangerous step has been accomplished without the bringing therein to our most sweet madame mina or troubling her waking or sleeping thoughts with sights and sounds and smells of horror which she might never forget one lesson too we have learned if it be allowable to argue a particularly that the brute beasts which are to the count's command are yet themselves not amenable to his spiritual power for look these rats that would come to his core just as from his castle top he summoned the wolves to your going and to that poor mother's cry though they come to him they run pel mel from the so little dogs of my friend arthur we have other matters before us other dangers other fears at 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 sake 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 is 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 netherworld i dare say it will be difficult 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 one 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 to 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 doctor seward's diary one 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 to occupy i can go alone if it may be it is a new experience to me to find a lunatic who taught 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 mademina as i 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 type written matter when our saying 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 helsig 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 helsig 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 helsig i wish you would take yourself and your idiotic brain theory somewhere else damn all thick-headed dutchman 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 does rejoice me unspeakable that she is no more to be pained no more to be worried with our terrible things though we shall much miss her help it is better so i agree with you with all my heart i answered earnestly for i did not want him to weaken in this matter mrs harker is better out of it things are quite bad enough for us all men of the world and who have been in many tight places in our time but it is no place for a woman and if she had remained in touch with the affair it would in time infallibly have wrecked her so van helsig was gone to confer with mrs harker and harker quincy and art are all out following up the clues as to the earth boxes i shall finish my round of work and we shall meet tonight mina harker's journal first october it is strange to me to be kept in the dark as i am today after jonathan's full confidence for so many years to see him manifestly avoid certain matters and those the most vital of all this morning i slept late after the fatigues of yesterday and though jonathan was late too he was the earlier he spoke to me before he went out never more sweetly or tenderly but he never mentioned a word of what had happened in the visit to the count's house and yet he must have known how terribly anxious i was poor dear fellow i suppose it must have distressed him even more than it did me they all agreed that it was best that i should not be drawn further into this awful work and i acquiesced but to think that he keeps anything from me now i am crying like a silly fool when i know it comes from my husband's great love and from the good good wishes of those other strong men that has done me good well some day jonathan will tell me all and lest it should ever be that he should think for a moment that i kept anything from him i still keep my journal as usual then if he has feared of my trust i shall show it to him with every thought of my heart put down for his dear eyes to read i feel strangely sad and low-spirited today i suppose it is the reaction from the terrible excitement last night i went to bed when the men had gone simply because they told me to i didn't feel sleepy and i did feel full of devouring anxiety i kept thinking over everything that has been ever since jonathan came to see me in london and it all seems like a horrible tragedy with fate pressing on relentlessly to some destined end everything that one does seems no matter how right it may be to bring on the very thing which is most to be deplored if i hadn't gone to whitby perhaps poor dear lucy would be with us now she hadn't taken to visiting the churchyard till i came and if she hadn't come there in the daytime with me she wouldn't have walked in her sleep and if she hadn't gone there at night in a sleep the monster couldn't have destroyed her as he did why did i ever go to whitby then now crying again i wonder what has come over me today i must hide it from jonathan for if he knew that i had been crying twice in one morning i who never cried on my own account and whom he has never caused to shed a tear the poor dear fellow would fret his heart out i shall put a bold face on and if i do feel weepy he shall never see it i suppose it is just one of the lessons that we poor women have to learn i can't quite remember how i fell asleep last night i remember hearing the sudden barking of the dogs and a lot of queer sounds like praying on a very tumultuous scale from mr. renfield's room which is somewhere under this and then there was silence over everything silence so profound that it startled me and i got up and looked out of the window all was dark and silent the black shadows thrown by the moonlight seeming full of a silent mystery of their own not a thing seem to be stirring but all to be grim and fixed as death or fate so that a thin streak of white mist that crept with almost imperceptible slowness across the grass towards the house seemed to have a sentience and a fatality of its own i think that the digression of my thoughts must have done me good for when i got back to bed i found a lethargy creeping over me i lay a while but could not quite sleep so i got out and looked out of the window again the mist was spreading and was now close up to the house so that i could see it lying thick against the wall as though it was stealing up to the windows the poor man was more loud than ever and though i could not distinguish a word he said i couldn't some way recognize in his tone some passionate and treaty on his part then there was the sound of a struggle and i knew that the attendants were dealing with him i was so frightened that i crept into bed and pulled the clothes over my head putting my fingers in my ears i was not then a bit sleepy at least so i thought but i must have fallen asleep for except dreams i do not remember anything until the morning when jonathan woke me i think that it took me an effort and a little time to realize where i was and that it was jonathan who was bending over me my dream is very peculiar and was almost typical of the way that waking thoughts become merged in or continued in dreams i thought that i was asleep and waiting for jonathan to come back i was very anxious about him and i was powerless to act my feet and my hands and my brain were weighted so that nothing could proceed at the usual pace and so i slept uneasily and thought then it began to dawn upon me that the air was heavy and dark and cold i put back the clothes from my face and found to my surprise that it was dim all around the gaslight which i had left lit for jonathan but turned down came only like a tiny red spark through the fog which had evidently grown thicker and poured into the room then it occurred to me that i'd shut the window before i had come to bed i would have got out to make certain on the point but some lead and lethargy seemed to chain my limbs and even my will i lay still and endured that was all i closed my eyes but could see still through my eyelids it is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us and how conveniently we can imagine the mist grew thicker and thicker and i could see now how it came in for i could see it like smoke or the white energy of boiling water pouring in not through the window but through the joinings of the door it got thicker and thicker till it seemed as if it became concentrated into a sort of pillar of cloud in the room through the top of which i could see the light of the gas shining like a red eye things began to whirl through my brain just as the cloudy column was now whirling in the room and through it all came the scriptural words a pillar of cloud by day and a fire by night was it indeed such spiritual guidance that was coming to me in my sleep but the pillar was composed of both the day and the night guiding for the fire was in the red eye which at the thought got a new fascination for me till as i looked the fire divided and seemed to shine on me through the fog like two red eyes such as lucy told me of in her momentary mental wandering when on the cliff the dying sunlight struck the windows of st. mary's church suddenly the horror burst upon me that it was thus that jonathan had seen those awful women growing into reality through the whirling mist in the moonlight and in my dream i must have fainted for all became black darkness the last conscious effort which imagination made was to show me a livid white face bending over me out of the mist i must be careful of such dreams for they would unseat one's reason if there were too much of them i would get dr van helsing or dr seward to prescribe something for me which would make me sleep only that i fear to alarm them such a dream at the present time would become woven into their fears for me tonight i shall strive hard to sleep naturally if i do not i shall tomorrow night get them to give me a dose of chloral that cannot hurt me for once and it will give me a good night's sleep last night tired me more than if i had not slept at all second october ten p.m last night i slept but did not dream i must have slept soundly for i was not waked by jonathan coming to bed but the sleep has not refreshed me for today i feel terribly weak and spiritless i spent all yesterday trying to read or lying down dozing in the afternoon mr. renfield asked if he might see me poor man he was very gentle and when i came away he kissed my hand and bade god bless me some way it affected me much i'm crying when i think of him this is a new weakness of which i must be careful jonathan would be miserable if he knew i had been crying he and the others were out till dinner time and they all came in tired i did what i could to brighten them up and i suppose that the effort did me good for i forgot how tired i was after dinner they sent me to bed and all went off to smoke together as they said but i knew that they wanted to tell each other of what had occurred to each during the day i could see from jonathan's manner that he had something important to communicate i was not so sleepy as i should have been so before they went i asked dr. seward to give me a little opiate of some kind as i had not slept well the night before he very kindly made me up a sleeping draught which he gave to me telling me that it would do me no harm as it was very mild i have taken it and i'm waiting for sleep which still keeps aloof i hope i have not done wrong for as sleep begins to flirt with me a new fear comes that i may have been foolish and thus depriving myself of the power of waking i might want it here come sleep good night end of chapter 19 chapter 20 of dracula this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org dracula by bram stoker chapter 20 read by mb denis sears robert barton jonathan harker's journal one october evening i found tomas snelling in his house at bethnell green but unhappily he was not in a condition to remember anything the very prospect of beer which my expected coming had opened to him had proved too much and he had begun too early on his expected debauch i learned however from his wife who seemed a decent poor soul that he was only the assistant of small it who of the two mates was the responsible person so i drove to warworth and found mr joseph small it at home and in his shirt sleeves taking a late tea out of a saucer he is a decent intelligent fellow distinctly a good reliable type of workman and with a headpiece of his own he remembered all about the incident of the boxes and from a wonderful dog ear notebook which he produced from some mysterious receptacle about the seat of his trousers and which had hieroglyphical entries in thick half obliterated pencil he gave me the destinations of the boxes there were he said six in the cartload which he took from carfax and left at 197 chicksand street mile end newtown and another six which he deposited at jamaica lane bermancy if then the count meant to scatter these ghastly refuges of his over london these places were chosen as the first of delivery so that later he might distribute more fully the systematic manner in which this was done made me think that he could not mean to confine himself to two sides of london he was now fixed on the far east of the northern shore on the east of the southern shore and on the south the north and west were surely never meant to be left out of his diabolical scheme let alone the city itself and the very heart of fashionable london in the southwest and west i went back to small it and asked him if he could tell us if any other boxes had been taken from carfax he replied well governor you've traded me very handsome i had given him half a sovereign and i'll tell you all i know i heard a man by the name of bloxham say four nights ago in the air and alms in pinches alley as how ian is made and had a rare dusty job in an old house at purfleet i'm thinking that maybe sam bloxham could tell you something i asked if he could tell me where to find him i told him that if he could get me the address it would be worth another half sovereign to him so he gulped down the rest of his tea and stood up saying that he was going to begin the search then and there at the door he stopped and said look here governor there ain't no use in me keeping you here i may find sam soon or i may but anyhow he ain't like to be in a way to tell you much tonight sam is a rare one when he starts on the booze if you can give me an envelope with a stamp on it and put your address on it or find out where sam is to be found and post it here tonight but you better be up soon after him in the morning never mind the booze the night of four this was all practical so one of the children went off with a penny to buy an envelope and a sheet of paper and to keep the change when she came back i addressed the envelope and stamped it and when small it had again faithfully promised to post the address when found i took my way to home we're on the track anyhow i am tired tonight and i want to sleep Mina is fast asleep and looks a little too pale her eyes look as though she had been crying poor dear i've no doubt it frets her to be kept in the dark and it may make her doubly anxious about me and the others but it is best as it is it is better to be disappointed and worried in such a way now than to have her nerve broken the doctors were quite right to insist on her being kept out of this dreadful business i must be firm for on me this particular burden of silence must rest i shall not ever enter on the subject with her under any circumstances indeed it may not be a hard task after all for she herself has become reticent on the subject and has not spoken of the count or his doings ever since we told her of our decision 2 october evening a long and trying and exciting day by the first post i got my directed envelope with a dirty scrap of paper enclosed on which was written with a carpenter's pencil in a sprawling hand sam bloxham cork runs four potas caught barthel street warworth ask for the depite i got the letter in bed and rose without waking meaner she looked heavy and sleepy and pale and far from well i determined not to wake her but that when i should return from this new search i would arrange for her going back to exit her i think she would be happier in her own home with her daily tasks to interest her than in being here amongst us and in ignorance i only saw dr. seward for a moment and told him where i was off to promising to come back and tell the rest so soon as i should have found out anything i drove to warworth and found with some difficulty potter's court mr. small its spelling misled me as i asked for potter's court instead of potter's court however when i had found the court i had no difficulty in discovering cork runs lodging house when i asked the man who came to the door for the depite he shook his head and said i don't know him there ain't no such a person here i never heard of him in all my blooming days don't believe there ain't nobody of that kind living here or anywhere's i took out small its letter and as i read it it seemed to me that the lesson of the spelling of the name of the court might guide me what are you i asked i'm the deputy he answered i saw at once that i was on the right track phonetic spelling had again misled me a half-crown tip put the deputies knowledge at my disposal and i learned that mr. blocksum who had slept off the remains of his beer on the previous night at cork runs had left for his work at poplar at five o'clock that morning he would not tell me where the place of work was situated but i had a vague idea that it was some kind of nofangled wearer's and with this slender clue i had to start for poplar it was twelve o'clock before i got any satisfactory hint of such a building and this i got at a coffee shop where some workmen were having their dinner one of them suggested that there was being erected at cross angel streak a new cold storage building and as this suited the condition of a newfangled wearer's i at once drove to it an interview with a surly gatekeeper and a surly a foreman both of whom were appeased with the coin of the realm put me on the track of blocksum he was sent for on my suggestion that i was willing to pay his day's wages to his foreman for the privilege of asking him a few questions on a private matter he was a smart enough fellow though rough of speech and bearing when i had promised to pay for his information and given him an earnest he told me that he had made two journeys between carfax and the house in piccadilly and had taken from this house to the latter nine great boxes main everyone's with a horse and cart hired by him for this purpose i asked him if he could tell me the number of the house in piccadilly to which he replied well governor i forgets the number but it was only a few doll from a big white church or something of a kind not long built it was a dusty old house too though nothing to the dusty into the house we took the bloomin boxes from how did you get in if both houses were empty there was the old party what engaged me and waiting in the house at perfectly he helped me to lift the boxes and put them in the drain curse me was the strongest trap i ever struck and here my old fella with a white mustache won that thing you would think he couldn't throw a shadow how this phrase thrilled through me why he took up his end of the boxes like there was pounds of tea and may a puffin and a blow in a four i could up and buy an anyhow and i'm no chicken neither how did you get into the house at piccadilly i asked he was there too he must have started off and got there for me for when i rung of the bell he came and opened the door himself and helped me carry the boxes into the hall the whole nine i asked yes there was five in the first load and four in the second it was main dry work and i don't so well remember how i got home i interrupted him were the boxes left in the hall yes it was a big all and there was nothing else in it i made one more attempt to further matters you didn't have any key never use no key nor nothing the old gent he opened the door himself and shut it again when i drove off i don't remember the last time but that was the beer and you can't remember the number of the house no sir but he didn't have no difficulty about that it's a high on with a stone front with a bow on it and i steps up to the door i know them steps haven't had to carry the boxes up with three loafers what come around to earn a copper the old gent gave him shillings and they see and they got so much they wanted more but he took one of them by the shoulder and was like to throw him down the steps till the lot of them went away cussing i thought with this description i could find the house so having paid my friend for his information started off for piccadilly i had gained a new painful experience the count could it was evident handle the earth boxes himself if so time was precious for now that he had achieved a certain amount of distribution he could by choosing his own time complete the task unobserved at piccadilly circus i discharged my cab and walked westward beyond the junior constitutional i came across the house described and was satisfied that this was the next of the layers arranged by dracula the house looked as though it had been long untenanted the windows were encrusted with dust and the shutters were up all the framework was black with time and from the iron the paint had mostly scaled away it was evident that up to lately there had been a large notice board in front of the balcony it had however been roughly torn away the uprights which had supported it still remaining behind the rails of the balcony i saw that there were some loose boards whose raw edges looked white i would have given a good deal to have been able to see the notice board intact as it would perhaps have given some clue to the ownership of the house i remembered my experience of the investigation and purchase of car facts and i could not but feel that if i could find the former owner there might be some means discovered of gaining access to the house there was at present nothing to be learned from the piccadilly side and nothing could be done so i went around to the back to see if anything could be gathered from this quarter the muse were active the piccadilly houses being mostly in occupation i asked one or two of the grooms and helpers whom i saw around if they could tell me anything about the empty house one of them said that he had heard it had lately been taken but he couldn't say from whom he told me however that up to very lately there had been a notice board of for sale up and that perhaps mitral sons and candy the house agents could tell me something as he thought he remembered seeing the name of that firm on the board i did not wish to seem too eager or to let my informant know or guess too much so thanking him in the usual manner i strolled away it was now growing dusk and the autumn night was closing in so i did not lose any time having learned the address of mitral sons and candy from a directory at the barkley i was soon at their office in sackville street the gentleman who saw me was particularly suave in manner but uncommunicative in equal proportion having once told me that the piccadilly house which throughout our interview he called a mansion was sold he considered my business has concluded when i asked who had purchased it he opened his eyes a thought wider and paused a few seconds before replying it is sold sir pardon me i said with equal politeness but i have a special reason for wishing to know who purchased it again he paused longer and raised his eyebrows still more it is sold sir was again his laconic reply surely i said you do not mind letting me know so much but i do mind he answered the affairs of their clients are absolutely safe in the hands of mitral sons and candy this was manifestly a prig of the first water and there was no use arguing with him i thought i had best meet him on his own ground so i said your clients sir are happy in having so resolute a guardian of their confidence i am myself a professional man here i handed him my card in this instance i am not prompted by curiosity i act on the part of lord godling who wishes to know something of the property which was he understood lately for sale these words put a different complexion on affairs he said i would like to oblige you if i could mr. harker and especially would i like to oblige his lordship we once carried out a small matter of renting some chambers for him when he was the honorable arthur home would if you will let me have his lordship's address i will consult the house on the subject and will in any case communicate with his lordship by tonight's post it will be a pleasure if we can so far deviate from our rules as to give the required information to his lordship i wanted to secure a friend and not to make an enemy so i thanked him gave the address at dr seward's and came away it was now dark and i was tired and hungry i got a cup of tea at the aerated bread company and came down to perfleet by the next train i found all the others at home mina was looking tired and pale but she made a gallant effort to be bright and cheerful it rung my heart to think that i had had to keep anything from her and so caused her in quietude thank god this will be the last night of her looking on at our conferences and feeling the sting of our not showing our confidence it took all my courage to hold to the wise resolution of keeping her out of our grim task she seems somehow more reconciled or else the very subject seems to have become repugnant to her for when any accidental illusion is made she actually shudders i am glad we made our resolution in time as with such a feeling as this our growing knowledge would be torture to her i could not tell the others of the day's discovery till we were alone so after dinner followed by a little music to save appearances even amongst ourselves i took mina to her room and left her to go to bed the dear girl was more affectionate with me than ever and clung to me as though she would detain me but there was much to be talked of and i came away thank god the ceasing of telling things has made no difference between us when i came down again i found the others all gathered round the fire in the study in the train i had written my diary so far and simply read it off to them as the best means of letting them get a breast of my own information when i had finished van helsing said this has been a great day's work friend jonathan doubtless we are on the track of the missing boxes if we find them all in that house then our work is near the end but if there be something missing we must search until we find them then shall we make our final coup and hunt the wretch to his real death we all sat a while and all at once mr morris spoke say how are we going to get into that house we got into the other answered lord god only quickly but art this is different we broke house at car facts but we had night in a walled park to protect us it will be a mighty different thing to commit burglary in piccadilly either by day or night i confess i don't see how we are going to get in unless that agency duck can find us a key of some sort lord godleman's brows contracted and he stood up and walked about the room by and by he stopped and said turning from one to another of us quincy's head is level this burglary business is getting serious we got off one soul right but we now have a rare job on hand unless we can find the count's key basket as nothing could well be done before morning and as it would be at least advisable to wait till lord godleman should hear from mitchell's we decided not to take any active step before breakfast time for a good while we sat and smoked discussing the matter in its various lights and bearings i took the opportunity of bringing this diary right up to the moment i am very sleepy and shall go to bed just a line meaner sleeps soundly and her breathing is regular her forehead is puckered up into little wrinkles as though she thinks even in her sleep she is still too pale but she does not look so haggard as she did this morning tomorrow will i hope mend all this she will be herself at home in exeter oh but i am sleepy doctor seward's diary one october i am puzzled afresh about corinfield his moods changed so rapidly that i find it difficult to keep touch of them and as they always mean something more than his own well-being they form a more than interesting study this morning when i went to see him after his repulse of van helsing his manner was that of a man commanding destiny he was in fact commanding destiny subjectively he did not really care for any of the things of mere earth he was in the clouds and looked down on all the weaknesses and wants of us poor mortals i thought i would improve the occasion and learn something so i asked him what about the flies these times he smiled on me and quite a superior sort of way such a smile as would have become the face of malvolio as he answered me the fly my dear sir has one striking feature its wings are typical of the aerial powers of the psychic faculties the ancients did well when they typified the soul as a butterfly i thought i would push his analogy to its utmost logically so i said quickly oh so it is a soul you are after now is it his madness foiled his reason and the puzzled look spread over his face as shaking his head with a decision which i had but seldom seen in him he said oh no no oh no i want no souls life is all i want here he brightened up i am pretty indifferent about it at present life is all right i have all i want you must get a new patient doctor if you wish to study zoophagy this puzzled me a little so i drew him on then you command life you are a god i suppose he smiled with an ineffably benign superiority oh no far be it from me to irrigate to myself the attributes of the deity i am not even concerned in his especially spiritual doings if i may state my intellectual position i am so far as concerns things purely terrestrial somewhat in the position which enoc occupied spiritually this was a poser to me i could not at the moment recall enox appositeness so i had to ask a simple question though i felt that by doing so i was lowering myself in the eyes of the lunatic and why with enoc because he walked with god i could not see the analogy but did not like to admit it so i harked back to what he had denied so you don't care about life and you don't want souls why not i put my question quickly and somewhat sternly on purpose to disconcert him the effort succeeded for an instant he unconsciously relapsed into his old servile manner bent low before me and actually fond upon me as he replied i don't want any souls indeed indeed i don't i couldn't use them if i had them they would be no manner of use to me i couldn't eat them or he suddenly stopped and the old cunning looks spread over his face like a wind sweeps on the surface of the water and doctor as to life what is it after all when you've got all you require and you know that you will never want that is all i have friends good friends like you dr seward this was said with a leer of an expressible cunning i know that i shall never lack the means of life i think that through the cloudiness of his insanity he saw some antagonism me for he at once fell back on the last refuge of such as he a dogged silence after a short time i saw that for the present it was useless to speak to him he was sulky and so i came away later in the day he sent for me ordinarily i would not have gone without special reason but just at present i am so interested in him that i would gladly make an effort besides i am glad to have anything to help pass the time harker is out following up clues and so are lord galdamming and quincy van helsing sits in my study pouring over the record prepared by the harkers he seems to think that by accurate knowledge of all details he will light up on some clue he does not wish to be disturbed in the work without cause i would have taken him with me to see the patient only i thought that after his last repulse he might not care to go again there was also another reason renfield might not speak so freely before a third person as when he and i were alone i found him sitting in the middle of the floor on his stool a pose which is generally indicative of some mental energy on his part when i came in he said at once as though the question had been waiting on his lips what about souls it was evident then that my surmise had been correct unconscious cerebration was doing its work even with the lunatic i determined to have the matter out what about them yourself i asked he did not reply for a moment but looked all around him and up and down as though he expected to find some inspiration for an answer i don't want any souls he said in a feeble apologetic way the matter seemed praying on his mind and so i determined to use it to be cruel only to be kind so i said you like life and you want life oh yes but that is all right you needn't worry about that but i asked how are we to get the life without getting the soul also this seemed to puzzle him so i followed it up a nice time you'll have some time when you're flying out here with the souls of thousands of flies and spiders and birds and cats buzzing and twittering and moaning all around you you've got their lives you know and you must put up with their souls something seemed to affect his imagination for he put his fingers to his ears and shut his eyes screwing them up tightly just as a small boy does when his face is being soaked there was something pathetic in it that touched me it also gave me a lesson for it seemed that before me was a child only a child though the features were worn and the stubble on the jaws was white it was evident that he was undergoing some process of mental disturbance and knowing how his past moods had interpreted things seemingly foreign to himself i thought that i would enter into his mind as well as i could and go with him the first step was to restore confidence so i asked him speaking pretty loud so that he would hear me through his closed ears would you like some sugar to get your flies around again he seemed to wake up all at once and shook his head with a laugh he replied not much flies are poor things after all after a pause he added but i don't want their souls buzzing around me all the same or spiders i went on blow spiders what's the use of spiders there isn't anything in them to eat or or he stopped suddenly as though reminded of a forbidden topic so so i thought to myself this is the second time he has suddenly stopped at the word drink what does it mean renfield seemed himself aware of having made a lapse for he hurried on as though to distract my attention from it i don't take any stock at all in such matters rats and mice and such small deer as shakespeare has it chicken feed of the larder they might be called i'm past all that sort of nonsense you might as well ask a man to eat molecules with a pair of chopsticks as to try to interest me about the less carnivora when i know of what is before me i see i said you want big things that you can make your teeth meet in how would you like to breakfast on an elephant what ridiculous nonsense you are talking he was getting too wide awake so i thought i would press him hard i wonder i said reflectively what an elephant's soul is like the effect i desired was obtained for he at once fell from his high horse and became a child again i don't want an elephant's soul or any soul at all he said for a few moments he sat despondently suddenly he jumped to his feet with his eyes blazing and all the signs of intense cerebral excitement to hell with you and your souls he shouted why do you plague me about souls haven't i got enough to worry and pain to distract me already without thinking of souls he looked so hostile that i thought he was in for another homicidal fit so i blew my whistle the instant however that i did so he became calm and said apologetically forgive me doctor i forgot to myself you do not need any help i am so worried in my mind that i am apt to be irritable if you only knew the problem i have to face and that i am working out you would pity and tolerate and pardon me pray do not put me in a straight wasket i want to think and i cannot think freely when my body is confined i am sure you will understand he had evidently self-control so when the attendants came i told them not to mind and they withdrew renfield watched them go when the door was closed he said with considerable dignity and sweetness doctors seward you have been very considerate towards me believe me that i am very very grateful to you i thought it well to leave him in this mood and so i came away there is certainly something to ponder over in this man's state several points seem to make what the american interviewer calls a story if one could only get them in proper order here they are will not mention drinking fears the thought of being burdened with the soul of anything has no dread of wanting life in the future despises the meaner forms of life altogether though he dreads being haunted by their souls logically all these things point one way he has assurance of some kind that he will acquire some higher life he dreads the consequence the burden of a soul then it is a human life he looks to and the assurance merciful god the count has been to him and there is some new scheme of terror afoot later i went after my round to van helsing and told him my suspicion he grew very grave and after thinking the matter over for a while asked me to take him to renfield i did so as we came to the door we heard the lunatic within singing gaily as he used to do in the time which now seems so long ago when we entered we saw with amazement that he had spread out his sugar as of old the flies lethargic with the autumn were beginning to buzz into the room we tried to make him talk of the subject of our previous conversation but he would not attend he went on with his singing just as though we had not been present he had got a scrap of paper and was folding it into a notebook we had to come away as ignorant as we went in his is a curious case indeed we must watch him tonight letter mitchell sons and candy to lord gedalming one october my lord we are at all times only too happy to meet your wishes we beg with regard to the desire of your lordship expressed by mr harker on your behalf to supply the following information concerning the sale and purchase of number 347 piccadilly the original vendors are the executors of the late mr archibald winter suffield the purchaser is a foreign nobleman count deville who affected the purchase himself paying the purchase money in notes over the counter if your lordship will pardon us using so vulgar an expression beyond this we know nothing whatever of him we are my lord your lordship's humble servants mitchell sons and candy dr seward's diary to october i placed a man in the corridor last night and told him to make an accurate note of any sound he might hear from renfield's room and gave him instructions that if there should be anything strange he was to call me after dinner when we had all gathered round the fire in the study mrs harker having gone to bed we discussed the attempts and discoveries of the day harker was the only one who had any result and we are in great hopes that his clue may be an important one before going to bed i went round to the patient's room and looked in through the observation trap he was sleeping soundly his heart rose and fell with regular respiration this morning the man on duty reported to me that a little after midnight he was restless and kept saying his prayers somewhat loudly i asked him if that was all he replied that it was all he heard there was something about his manner so suspicious that i asked him point blank if he had been asleep he denied sleep but admitted to having dosed for a while it is too bad that men cannot be trusted unless they are watched today harker is out following up his clue and art and quincy are looking after horses gedalmin thinks it will be well to have horses always in readiness for when we get the information which we seek there will be no time to lose we must sterilize all the imported earth between sunrise and sunset we shall thus catch the count at his weakest and without a refuge to fly to van helsing is off to the british museum looking up some authorities on ancient medicine the old physicians took account of things which their followers do not accept and the professor is searching for witch and demon cures which may be useful to us later i sometimes think we must all be mad and that we shall wait to sanity in straight waskets later we have met again we seem at last to be on the track and our work of tomorrow may be the beginning of the end i wonder if renfield's quiet has anything to do with this his moods have so followed the doings of the count that the coming destruction of the monster may be carried to him some subtle way if we could only get some hint as to what passed in his mind between the time of my argument with him today and his resumption of fly catching it might afford us a valuable clue he is now seemingly quiet for a spell is he that wild yell seemed to come from his room the attendant came bursting into my room and told me that renfield had somehow met with an accident he had heard him yell and when he went to him found him lying on his face on the floor all covered with blood i must go at once end of chapter 20