Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 1

Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker

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Title: Dracula's Guest

Author: Bram Stoker

Release Date: November 20, 2003 [eBook #10150] [Most recently updated: November 7, 2006]

Language: English

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Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 2

DRACULA'S GUEST

by

BRAM STOKER

First published 1914

To

MY SON

CONTENTS

Dracula's Guest 9 The Judge's House 26 The Squaw 50 The Secret of the Growing Gold 67 The Gipsy
Prophecy 84 The Coming of Abel Behenna 96 The Burial of the Rats 120 A Dream of Red Hands 152
Crooken Sands 165

PREFACE

A few months before the lamented death of my husband--I might say even as the shadow of death was over
him--he planned three series of short stories for publication, and the present volume is one of them. To his
original list of stories in this book, I have added an hitherto unpublished episode from Dracula. It was
originally excised owing to the length of the book, and may prove of interest to the many readers of what is
considered my husband's most remarkable work. The other stories have already been published in English and
American periodicals. Had my husband lived longer, he might have seen fit to revise this work, which is
mainly from the earlier years of his strenuous life. But, as fate has entrusted to me the issuing of it, I consider
it fitting and proper to let it go forth practically as it was left by him.

FLORENCE BRAM STOKER

Dracula's Guest

When we started for our drive the sun was shining brightly on Munich, and the air was full of the joyousness
of early summer. Just as we were about to depart, Herr Delbrück (the maître d'hôtel of the Quatre Saisons,
where I was staying) came down, bareheaded, to the carriage and, after wishing me a pleasant drive, said to
the coachman, still holding his hand on the handle of the carriage door:

'Remember you are back by nightfall. The sky looks bright but there is a shiver in the north wind that says
there may be a sudden storm. But I am sure you will not be late.' Here he smiled, and added, 'for you know
what night it is.'

Johann answered with an emphatic, 'Ja, mein Herr,' and, touching his hat, drove off quickly. When we had
cleared the town, I said, after signalling to him to stop:

'Tell me, Johann, what is tonight?'

He crossed himself, as he answered laconically: 'Walpurgis nacht.' Then he took out his watch, a great,
old-fashioned German silver thing as big as a turnip, and looked at it, with his eyebrows gathered together and
a little impatient shrug of his shoulders. I realised that this was his way of respectfully protesting against the
unnecessary delay, and sank back in the carriage, merely motioning him to proceed. He started off rapidly, as
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 3
if to make up for lost time. Every now and then the horses seemed to throw up their heads and sniffed the air
suspiciously. On such occasions I often looked round in alarm. The road was pretty bleak, for we were
traversing a sort of high, wind-swept plateau. As we drove, I saw a road that looked but little used, and which
seemed to dip through a little, winding valley. It looked so inviting that, even at the risk of offending him, I
called Johann to stop--and when he had pulled up, I told him I would like to drive down that road. He made all
sorts of excuses, and frequently crossed himself as he spoke. This somewhat piqued my curiosity, so I asked
him various questions. He answered fencingly, and repeatedly looked at his watch in protest. Finally I said:

'Well, Johann, I want to go down this road. I shall not ask you to come unless you like; but tell me why you do
not like to go, that is all I ask.' For answer he seemed to throw himself off the box, so quickly did he reach the
ground. Then he stretched out his hands appealingly to me, and implored me not to go. There was just enough
of English mixed with the German for me to understand the drift of his talk. He seemed always just about to
tell me something--the very idea of which evidently frightened him; but each time he pulled himself up,
saying, as he crossed himself: 'Walpurgis-Nacht!'

I tried to argue with him, but it was difficult to argue with a man when I did not know his language. The
advantage certainly rested with him, for although he began to speak in English, of a very crude and broken
kind, he always got excited and broke into his native tongue--and every time he did so, he looked at his watch.
Then the horses became restless and sniffed the air. At this he grew very pale, and, looking around in a
frightened way, he suddenly jumped forward, took them by the bridles and led them on some twenty feet. I
followed, and asked why he had done this. For answer he crossed himself, pointed to the spot we had left and
drew his carriage in the direction of the other road, indicating a cross, and said, first in German, then in
English: 'Buried him--him what killed themselves.'

I remembered the old custom of burying suicides at cross-roads: 'Ah! I see, a suicide. How interesting!' But
for the life of me I could not make out why the horses were frightened.

Whilst we were talking, we heard a sort of sound between a yelp and a bark. It was far away; but the horses
got very restless, and it took Johann all his time to quiet them. He was pale, and said, 'It sounds like a
wolf--but yet there are no wolves here now.'

'No?' I said, questioning him; 'isn't it long since the wolves were so near the city?'

'Long, long,' he answered, 'in the spring and summer; but with the snow the wolves have been here not so
long.'

Whilst he was petting the horses and trying to quiet them, dark clouds drifted rapidly across the sky. The
sunshine passed away, and a breath of cold wind seemed to drift past us. It was only a breath, however, and
more in the nature of a warning than a fact, for the sun came out brightly again. Johann looked under his lifted
hand at the horizon and said:

'The storm of snow, he comes before long time.' Then he looked at his watch again, and, straightway holding
his reins firmly--for the horses were still pawing the ground restlessly and shaking their heads--he climbed to
his box as though the time had come for proceeding on our journey.

I felt a little obstinate and did not at once get into the carriage.

'Tell me,' I said, 'about this place where the road leads,' and I pointed down.

Again he crossed himself and mumbled a prayer, before he answered, 'It is unholy.'

'What is unholy?' I enquired.

Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 4

'The village.'

'Then there is a village?'

'No, no. No one lives there hundreds of years.' My curiosity was piqued, 'But you said there was a village.'

'There was.'

'Where is it now?'

Whereupon he burst out into a long story in German and English, so mixed up that I could not quite
understand exactly what he said, but roughly I gathered that long ago, hundreds of years, men had died there
and been buried in their graves; and sounds were heard under the clay, and when the graves were opened, men
and women were found rosy with life, and their mouths red with blood. And so, in haste to save their lives
(aye, and their souls!--and here he crossed himself) those who were left fled away to other places, where the
living lived, and the dead were dead and not--not something. He was evidently afraid to speak the last words.
As he proceeded with his narration, he grew more and more excited. It seemed as if his imagination had got
hold of him, and he ended in a perfect paroxysm of fear--white-faced, perspiring, trembling and looking round
him, as if expecting that some dreadful presence would manifest itself there in the bright sunshine on the open
plain. Finally, in an agony of desperation, he cried:

'Walpurgis nacht!' and pointed to the carriage for me to get in. All my English blood rose at this, and, standing
back, I said:

'You are afraid, Johann--you are afraid. Go home; I shall return alone; the walk will do me good.' The carriage
door was open. I took from the seat my oak walking-stick--which I always carry on my holiday
excursions--and closed the door, pointing back to Munich, and said, 'Go home, Johann--Walpurgis-nacht
doesn't concern Englishmen.'

The horses were now more restive than ever, and Johann was trying to hold them in, while excitedly
imploring me not to do anything so foolish. I pitied the poor fellow, he was deeply in earnest; but all the same
I could not help laughing. His English was quite gone now. In his anxiety he had forgotten that his only means
of making me understand was to talk my language, so he jabbered away in his native German. It began to be a
little tedious. After giving the direction, 'Home!' I turned to go down the cross-road into the valley.

With a despairing gesture, Johann turned his horses towards Munich. I leaned on my stick and looked after
him. He went slowly along the road for a while: then there came over the crest of the hill a man tall and thin. I
could see so much in the distance. When he drew near the horses, they began to jump and kick about, then to
scream with terror. Johann could not hold them in; they bolted down the road, running away madly. I watched
them out of sight, then looked for the stranger, but I found that he, too, was gone.

With a light heart I turned down the side road through the deepening valley to which Johann had objected.
There was not the slightest reason, that I could see, for his objection; and I daresay I tramped for a couple of
hours without thinking of time or distance, and certainly without seeing a person or a house. So far as the
place was concerned, it was desolation itself. But I did not notice this particularly till, on turning a bend in the
road, I came upon a scattered fringe of wood; then I recognised that I had been impressed unconsciously by
the desolation of the region through which I had passed.

I sat down to rest myself, and began to look around. It struck me that it was considerably colder than it had
been at the commencement of my walk--a sort of sighing sound seemed to be around me, with, now and then,
high overhead, a sort of muffled roar. Looking upwards I noticed that great thick clouds were drifting rapidly
across the sky from North to South at a great height. There were signs of coming storm in some lofty stratum
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 5
of the air. I was a little chilly, and, thinking that it was the sitting still after the exercise of walking, I resumed
my journey.

The ground I passed over was now much more picturesque. There were no striking objects that the eye might
single out; but in all there was a charm of beauty. I took little heed of time and it was only when the deepening
twilight forced itself upon me that I began to think of how I should find my way home. The brightness of the
day had gone. The air was cold, and the drifting of clouds high overhead was more marked. They were
accompanied by a sort of far-away rushing sound, through which seemed to come at intervals that mysterious
cry which the driver had said came from a wolf. For a while I hesitated. I had said I would see the deserted
village, so on I went, and presently came on a wide stretch of open country, shut in by hills all around. Their
sides were covered with trees which spread down to the plain, dotting, in clumps, the gentler slopes and
hollows which showed here and there. I followed with my eye the winding of the road, and saw that it curved
close to one of the densest of these clumps and was lost behind it.

As I looked there came a cold shiver in the air, and the snow began to fall. I thought of the miles and miles of
bleak country I had passed, and then hurried on to seek the shelter of the wood in front. Darker and darker
grew the sky, and faster and heavier fell the snow, till the earth before and around me was a glistening white
carpet the further edge of which was lost in misty vagueness. The road was here but crude, and when on the
level its boundaries were not so marked, as when it passed through the cuttings; and in a little while I found
that I must have strayed from it, for I missed underfoot the hard surface, and my feet sank deeper in the grass
and moss. Then the wind grew stronger and blew with ever increasing force, till I was fain to run before it.
The air became icy-cold, and in spite of my exercise I began to suffer. The snow was now falling so thickly
and whirling around me in such rapid eddies that I could hardly keep my eyes open. Every now and then the
heavens were torn asunder by vivid lightning, and in the flashes I could see ahead of me a great mass of trees,
chiefly yew and cypress all heavily coated with snow.

I was soon amongst the shelter of the trees, and there, in comparative silence, I could hear the rush of the wind
high overhead. Presently the blackness of the storm had become merged in the darkness of the night.
By-and-by the storm seemed to be passing away: it now only came in fierce puffs or blasts. At such moments
the weird sound of the wolf appeared to be echoed by many similar sounds around me.

Now and again, through the black mass of drifting cloud, came a straggling ray of moonlight, which lit up the
expanse, and showed me that I was at the edge of a dense mass of cypress and yew trees. As the snow had
ceased to fall, I walked out from the shelter and began to investigate more closely. It appeared to me that,
amongst so many old foundations as I had passed, there might be still standing a house in which, though in
ruins, I could find some sort of shelter for a while. As I skirted the edge of the copse, I found that a low wall
encircled it, and following this I presently found an opening. Here the cypresses formed an alley leading up to
a square mass of some kind of building. Just as I caught sight of this, however, the drifting clouds obscured
the moon, and I passed up the path in darkness. The wind must have grown colder, for I felt myself shiver as I
walked; but there was hope of shelter, and I groped my way blindly on.

I stopped, for there was a sudden stillness. The storm had passed; and, perhaps in sympathy with nature's
silence, my heart seemed to cease to beat. But this was only momentarily; for suddenly the moonlight broke
through the clouds, showing me that I was in a graveyard, and that the square object before me was a great
massive tomb of marble, as white as the snow that lay on and all around it. With the moonlight there came a
fierce sigh of the storm, which appeared to resume its course with a long, low howl, as of many dogs or
wolves. I was awed and shocked, and felt the cold perceptibly grow upon me till it seemed to grip me by the
heart. Then while the flood of moonlight still fell on the marble tomb, the storm gave further evidence of
renewing, as though it was returning on its track. Impelled by some sort of fascination, I approached the
sepulchre to see what it was, and why such a thing stood alone in such a place. I walked around it, and read,
over the Doric door, in German:
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 6

COUNTESS DOLINGEN OF GRATZ IN STYRIA SOUGHT AND FOUND DEATH 1801

On the top of the tomb, seemingly driven through the solid marble--for the structure was composed of a few
vast blocks of stone--was a great iron spike or stake. On going to the back I saw, graven in great Russian
letters:

'The dead travel fast.'

There was something so weird and uncanny about the whole thing that it gave me a turn and made me feel
quite faint. I began to wish, for the first time, that I had taken Johann's advice. Here a thought struck me,
which came under almost mysterious circumstances and with a terrible shock. This was Walpurgis Night!

Walpurgis Night, when, according to the belief of millions of people, the devil was abroad--when the graves
were opened and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water held revel.
This very place the driver had specially shunned. This was the depopulated village of centuries ago. This was
where the suicide lay; and this was the place where I was alone--unmanned, shivering with cold in a shroud of
snow with a wild storm gathering again upon me! It took all my philosophy, all the religion I had been taught,
all my courage, not to collapse in a paroxysm of fright.

And now a perfect tornado burst upon me. The ground shook as though thousands of horses thundered across
it; and this time the storm bore on its icy wings, not snow, but great hailstones which drove with such violence
that they might have come from the thongs of Balearic slingers--hailstones that beat down leaf and branch and
made the shelter of the cypresses of no more avail than though their stems were standing-corn. At the first I
had rushed to the nearest tree; but I was soon fain to leave it and seek the only spot that seemed to afford
refuge, the deep Doric doorway of the marble tomb. There, crouching against the massive bronze door, I
gained a certain amount of protection from the beating of the hailstones, for now they only drove against me
as they ricocheted from the ground and the side of the marble.

As I leaned against the door, it moved slightly and opened inwards. The shelter of even a tomb was welcome
in that pitiless tempest, and I was about to enter it when there came a flash of forked-lightning that lit up the
whole expanse of the heavens. In the instant, as I am a living man, I saw, as my eyes were turned into the
darkness of the tomb, a beautiful woman, with rounded cheeks and red lips, seemingly sleeping on a bier. As
the thunder broke overhead, I was grasped as by the hand of a giant and hurled out into the storm. The whole
thing was so sudden that, before I could realise the shock, moral as well as physical, I found the hailstones
beating me down. At the same time I had a strange, dominating feeling that I was not alone. I looked towards
the tomb. Just then there came another blinding flash, which seemed to strike the iron stake that surmounted
the tomb and to pour through to the earth, blasting and crumbling the marble, as in a burst of flame. The dead
woman rose for a moment of agony, while she was lapped in the flame, and her bitter scream of pain was
drowned in the thundercrash. The last thing I heard was this mingling of dreadful sound, as again I was seized
in the giant-grasp and dragged away, while the hailstones beat on me, and the air around seemed reverberant
with the howling of wolves. The last sight that I remembered was a vague, white, moving mass, as if all the
graves around me had sent out the phantoms of their sheeted-dead, and that they were closing in on me
through the white cloudiness of the driving hail.

*****

Gradually there came a sort of vague beginning of consciousness; then a sense of weariness that was dreadful.
For a time I remembered nothing; but slowly my senses returned. My feet seemed positively racked with pain,
yet I could not move them. They seemed to be numbed. There was an icy feeling at the back of my neck and
all down my spine, and my ears, like my feet, were dead, yet in torment; but there was in my breast a sense of
warmth which was, by comparison, delicious. It was as a nightmare--a physical nightmare, if one may use
such an expression; for some heavy weight on my chest made it difficult for me to breathe.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 7
This period of semi-lethargy seemed to remain a long time, and as it faded away I must have slept or
swooned. Then came a sort of loathing, like the first stage of sea-sickness, and a wild desire to be free from
something--I knew not what. A vast stillness enveloped me, as though all the world were asleep or dead--only
broken by the low panting as of some animal close to me. I felt a warm rasping at my throat, then came a
consciousness of the awful truth, which chilled me to the heart and sent the blood surging up through my
brain. Some great animal was lying on me and now licking my throat. I feared to stir, for some instinct of
prudence bade me lie still; but the brute seemed to realise that there was now some change in me, for it raised
its head. Through my eyelashes I saw above me the two great flaming eyes of a gigantic wolf. Its sharp white
teeth gleamed in the gaping red mouth, and I could feel its hot breath fierce and acrid upon me.

For another spell of time I remembered no more. Then I became conscious of a low growl, followed by a yelp,
renewed again and again. Then, seemingly very far away, I heard a 'Holloa! holloa!' as of many voices calling
in unison. Cautiously I raised my head and looked in the direction whence the sound came; but the cemetery
blocked my view. The wolf still continued to yelp in a strange way, and a red glare began to move round the
grove of cypresses, as though following the sound. As the voices drew closer, the wolf yelped faster and
louder. I feared to make either sound or motion. Nearer came the red glow, over the white pall which stretched
into the darkness around me. Then all at once from beyond the trees there came at a trot a troop of horsemen
bearing torches. The wolf rose from my breast and made for the cemetery. I saw one of the horsemen (soldiers
by their caps and their long military cloaks) raise his carbine and take aim. A companion knocked up his arm,
and I heard the ball whizz over my head. He had evidently taken my body for that of the wolf. Another
sighted the animal as it slunk away, and a shot followed. Then, at a gallop, the troop rode forward--some
towards me, others following the wolf as it disappeared amongst the snow-clad cypresses.

As they drew nearer I tried to move, but was powerless, although I could see and hear all that went on around
me. Two or three of the soldiers jumped from their horses and knelt beside me. One of them raised my head,
and placed his hand over my heart.

'Good news, comrades!' he cried. 'His heart still beats!'

Then some brandy was poured down my throat; it put vigour into me, and I was able to open my eyes fully
and look around. Lights and shadows were moving among the trees, and I heard men call to one another. They
drew together, uttering frightened exclamations; and the lights flashed as the others came pouring out of the
cemetery pell-mell, like men possessed. When the further ones came close to us, those who were around me
asked them eagerly:

'Well, have you found him?'

The reply rang out hurriedly:

'No! no! Come away quick--quick! This is no place to stay, and on this of all nights!'

'What was it?' was the question, asked in all manner of keys. The answer came variously and all indefinitely
as though the men were moved by some common impulse to speak, yet were restrained by some common fear
from giving their thoughts.

'It--it--indeed!' gibbered one, whose wits had plainly given out for the moment.

'A wolf--and yet not a wolf!' another put in shudderingly.

'No use trying for him without the sacred bullet,' a third remarked in a more ordinary manner.

'Serve us right for coming out on this night! Truly we have earned our thousand marks!' were the ejaculations
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 8

of a fourth.

'There was blood on the broken marble,' another said after a pause--'the lightning never brought that there.
And for him--is he safe? Look at his throat! See, comrades, the wolf has been lying on him and keeping his
blood warm.'

The officer looked at my throat and replied:

'He is all right; the skin is not pierced. What does it all mean? We should never have found him but for the
yelping of the wolf.'

'What became of it?' asked the man who was holding up my head, and who seemed the least panic-stricken of
the party, for his hands were steady and without tremor. On his sleeve was the chevron of a petty officer.

'It went to its home,' answered the man, whose long face was pallid, and who actually shook with terror as he
glanced around him fearfully. 'There are graves enough there in which it may lie. Come, comrades--come
quickly! Let us leave this cursed spot.'

The officer raised me to a sitting posture, as he uttered a word of command; then several men placed me upon
a horse. He sprang to the saddle behind me, took me in his arms, gave the word to advance; and, turning our
faces away from the cypresses, we rode away in swift, military order.

As yet my tongue refused its office, and I was perforce silent. I must have fallen asleep; for the next thing I
remembered was finding myself standing up, supported by a soldier on each side of me. It was almost broad
daylight, and to the north a red streak of sunlight was reflected, like a path of blood, over the waste of snow.
The officer was telling the men to say nothing of what they had seen, except that they found an English
stranger, guarded by a large dog.

'Dog! that was no dog,' cut in the man who had exhibited such fear. 'I think I know a wolf when I see one.'

The young officer answered calmly: 'I said a dog.'

'Dog!' reiterated the other ironically. It was evident that his courage was rising with the sun; and, pointing to
me, he said, 'Look at his throat. Is that the work of a dog, master?'

Instinctively I raised my hand to my throat, and as I touched it I cried out in pain. The men crowded round to
look, some stooping down from their saddles; and again there came the calm voice of the young officer:

'A dog, as I said. If aught else were said we should only be laughed at.'

I was then mounted behind a trooper, and we rode on into the suburbs of Munich. Here we came across a stray
carriage, into which I was lifted, and it was driven off to the Quatre Saisons--the young officer accompanying
me, whilst a trooper followed with his horse, and the others rode off to their barracks.

When we arrived, Herr Delbrück rushed so quickly down the steps to meet me, that it was apparent he had
been watching within. Taking me by both hands he solicitously led me in. The officer saluted me and was
turning to withdraw, when I recognised his purpose, and insisted that he should come to my rooms. Over a
glass of wine I warmly thanked him and his brave comrades for saving me. He replied simply that he was
more than glad, and that Herr Delbrück had at the first taken steps to make all the searching party pleased; at
which ambiguous utterance the maître d'hôtel smiled, while the officer pleaded duty and withdrew.

'But Herr Delbrück,' I enquired, 'how and why was it that the soldiers searched for me?'
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 9

He shrugged his shoulders, as if in depreciation of his own deed, as he replied:

'I was so fortunate as to obtain leave from the commander of the regiment in which I served, to ask for
volunteers.'

'But how did you know I was lost?' I asked.

'The driver came hither with the remains of his carriage, which had been upset when the horses ran away.'

'But surely you would not send a search-party of soldiers merely on this account?'

'Oh, no!' he answered; 'but even before the coachman arrived, I had this telegram from the Boyar whose guest
you are,' and he took from his pocket a telegram which he handed to me, and I read:

Bistritz.

Be careful of my guest--his safety is most precious to me. Should aught happen to him, or if he be missed,
spare nothing to find him and ensure his safety. He is English and therefore adventurous. There are often
dangers from snow and wolves and night. Lose not a moment if you suspect harm to him. I answer your zeal
with my fortune.--Dracula.

As I held the telegram in my hand, the room seemed to whirl around me; and, if the attentive maître d'hôtel
had not caught me, I think I should have fallen. There was something so strange in all this, something so
weird and impossible to imagine, that there grew on me a sense of my being in some way the sport of opposite
forces--the mere vague idea of which seemed in a way to paralyse me. I was certainly under some form of
mysterious protection. From a distant country had come, in the very nick of time, a message that took me out
of the danger of the snow-sleep and the jaws of the wolf.

The Judge's House

When the time for his examination drew near Malcolm Malcolmson made up his mind to go somewhere to
read by himself. He feared the attractions of the seaside, and also he feared completely rural isolation, for of
old he knew it charms, and so he determined to find some unpretentious little town where there would be
nothing to distract him. He refrained from asking suggestions from any of his friends, for he argued that each
would recommend some place of which he had knowledge, and where he had already acquaintances. As
Malcolmson wished to avoid friends he had no wish to encumber himself with the attention of friends' friends,
and so he determined to look out for a place for himself. He packed a portmanteau with some clothes and all
the books he required, and then took ticket for the first name on the local time-table which he did not know.

When at the end of three hours' journey he alighted at Benchurch, he felt satisfied that he had so far
obliterated his tracks as to be sure of having a peaceful opportunity of pursuing his studies. He went straight to
the one inn which the sleepy little place contained, and put up for the night. Benchurch was a market town,
and once in three weeks was crowded to excess, but for the remainder of the twenty-one days it was as
attractive as a desert, Malcolmson looked around the day after his arrival to try to find quarters more isolated
than even so quiet an inn as 'The Good Traveller' afforded. There was only one place which took his fancy,
and it certainly satisfied his wildest ideas regarding quiet; in fact, quiet was not the proper word to apply to
it--desolation was the only term conveying any suitable idea of its isolation. It was an old rambling,
heavy-built house of the Jacobean style, with heavy gables and windows, unusually small, and set higher than
was customary in such houses, and was surrounded with a high brick wall massively built. Indeed, on
examination, it looked more like a fortified house than an ordinary dwelling. But all these things pleased
Malcolmson. 'Here,' he thought, 'is the very spot I have been looking for, and if I can get opportunity of using
it I shall be happy.' His joy was increased when he realised beyond doubt that it was not at present inhabited.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 10

From the post-office he got the name of the agent, who was rarely surprised at the application to rent a part of
the old house. Mr. Carnford, the local lawyer and agent, was a genial old gentleman, and frankly confessed his
delight at anyone being willing to live in the house.

'To tell you the truth,' said he, 'I should be only too happy, on behalf of the owners, to let anyone have the
house rent free for a term of years if only to accustom the people here to see it inhabited. It has been so long
empty that some kind of absurd prejudice has grown up about it, and this can be best put down by its
occupation--if only,' he added with a sly glance at Malcolmson, 'by a scholar like yourself, who wants its quiet
for a time.'

Malcolmson thought it needless to ask the agent about the 'absurd prejudice'; he knew he would get more
information, if he should require it, on that subject from other quarters. He paid his three months' rent, got a
receipt, and the name of an old woman who would probably undertake to 'do' for him, and came away with
the keys in his pocket. He then went to the landlady of the inn, who was a cheerful and most kindly person,
and asked her advice as to such stores and provisions as he would be likely to require. She threw up her hands
in amazement when he told her where he was going to settle himself.

'Not in the Judge's House!' she said, and grew pale as she spoke. He explained the locality of the house, saying
that he did not know its name. When he had finished she answered:

'Aye, sure enough--sure enough the very place! It is the Judge's House sure enough.' He asked her to tell him
about the place, why so called, and what there was against it. She told him that it was so called locally because
it had been many years before--how long she could not say, as she was herself from another part of the
country, but she thought it must have been a hundred years or more--the abode of a judge who was held in
great terror on account of his harsh sentences and his hostility to prisoners at Assizes. As to what there was
against the house itself she could not tell. She had often asked, but no one could inform her; but there was a
general feeling that there was something, and for her own part she would not take all the money in
Drinkwater's Bank and stay in the house an hour by herself. Then she apologised to Malcolmson for her
disturbing talk.

'It is too bad of me, sir, and you--and a young gentlemen, too--if you will pardon me saying it, going to live
there all alone. If you were my boy--and you'll excuse me for saying it--you wouldn't sleep there a night, not if
I had to go there myself and pull the big alarm bell that's on the roof!' The good creature was so manifestly in
earnest, and was so kindly in her intentions, that Malcolmson, although amused, was touched. He told her
kindly how much he appreciated her interest in him, and added:

'But, my dear Mrs. Witham, indeed you need not be concerned about me! A man who is reading for the
Mathematical Tripos has too much to think of to be disturbed by any of these mysterious "somethings", and
his work is of too exact and prosaic a kind to allow of his having any corner in his mind for mysteries of any
kind. Harmonical Progression, Permutations and Combinations, and Elliptic Functions have sufficient
mysteries for me!' Mrs. Witham kindly undertook to see after his commissions, and he went himself to look
for the old woman who had been recommended to him. When he returned to the Judge's House with her, after
an interval of a couple of hours, he found Mrs. Witham herself waiting with several men and boys carrying
parcels, and an upholsterer's man with a bed in a car, for she said, though tables and chairs might be all very
well, a bed that hadn't been aired for mayhap fifty years was not proper for young bones to lie on. She was
evidently curious to see the inside of the house; and though manifestly so afraid of the 'somethings' that at the
slightest sound she clutched on to Malcolmson, whom she never left for a moment, went over the whole place.

After his examination of the house, Malcolmson decided to take up his abode in the great dining-room, which
was big enough to serve for all his requirements; and Mrs. Witham, with the aid of the charwoman, Mrs.
Dempster, proceeded to arrange matters. When the hampers were brought in and unpacked, Malcolmson saw
that with much kind forethought she had sent from her own kitchen sufficient provisions to last for a few days.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 11

Before going she expressed all sorts of kind wishes; and at the door turned and said:

'And perhaps, sir, as the room is big and draughty it might be well to have one of those big screens put round
your bed at night--though, truth to tell, I would die myself if I were to be so shut in with all kinds of--of
"things", that put their heads round the sides, or over the top, and look on me!' The image which she had
called up was too much for her nerves, and she fled incontinently.

Mrs. Dempster sniffed in a superior manner as the landlady disappeared, and remarked that for her own part
she wasn't afraid of all the bogies in the kingdom.

'I'll tell you what it is, sir,' she said; 'bogies is all kinds and sorts of things--except bogies! Rats and mice, and
beetles; and creaky doors, and loose slates, and broken panes, and stiff drawer handles, that stay out when you
pull them and then fall down in the middle of the night. Look at the wainscot of the room! It is old--hundreds
of years old! Do you think there's no rats and beetles there! And do you imagine, sir, that you won't see none
of them? Rats is bogies, I tell you, and bogies is rats; and don't you get to think anything else!'

'Mrs. Dempster,' said Malcolmson gravely, making her a polite bow, 'you know more than a Senior Wrangler!
And let me say, that, as a mark of esteem for your indubitable soundness of head and heart, I shall, when I go,
give you possession of this house, and let you stay here by yourself for the last two months of my tenancy, for
four weeks will serve my purpose.'

'Thank you kindly, sir!' she answered, 'but I couldn't sleep away from home a night. I am in Greenhow's
Charity, and if I slept a night away from my rooms I should lose all I have got to live on. The rules is very
strict; and there's too many watching for a vacancy for me to run any risks in the matter. Only for that, sir, I'd
gladly come here and attend on you altogether during your stay.'

'My good woman,' said Malcolmson hastily, 'I have come here on purpose to obtain solitude; and believe me
that I am grateful to the late Greenhow for having so organised his admirable charity--whatever it is--that I am
perforce denied the opportunity of suffering from such a form of temptation! Saint Anthony himself could not
be more rigid on the point!'

The old woman laughed harshly. 'Ah, you young gentlemen,' she said, 'you don't fear for naught; and belike
you'll get all the solitude you want here.' She set to work with her cleaning; and by nightfall, when
Malcolmson returned from his walk--he always had one of his books to study as he walked--he found the
room swept and tidied, a fire burning in the old hearth, the lamp lit, and the table spread for supper with Mrs.
Witham's excellent fare. 'This is comfort, indeed,' he said, as he rubbed his hands.

When he had finished his supper, and lifted the tray to the other end of the great oak dining-table, he got out
his books again, put fresh wood on the fire, trimmed his lamp, and set himself down to a spell of real hard
work. He went on without pause till about eleven o'clock, when he knocked off for a bit to fix his fire and
lamp, and to make himself a cup of tea. He had always been a tea-drinker, and during his college life had sat
late at work and had taken tea late. The rest was a great luxury to him, and he enjoyed it with a sense of
delicious, voluptuous ease. The renewed fire leaped and sparkled, and threw quaint shadows through the great
old room; and as he sipped his hot tea he revelled in the sense of isolation from his kind. Then it was that he
began to notice for the first time what a noise the rats were making.

'Surely,' he thought, 'they cannot have been at it all the time I was reading. Had they been, I must have noticed
it!' Presently, when the noise increased, he satisfied himself that it was really new. It was evident that at first
the rats had been frightened at the presence of a stranger, and the light of fire and lamp; but that as the time
went on they had grown bolder and were now disporting themselves as was their wont.

How busy they were! and hark to the strange noises! Up and down behind the old wainscot, over the ceiling
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 12
and under the floor they raced, and gnawed, and scratched! Malcolmson smiled to himself as he recalled to
mind the saying of Mrs. Dempster, 'Bogies is rats, and rats is bogies!' The tea began to have its effect of
intellectual and nervous stimulus, he saw with joy another long spell of work to be done before the night was
past, and in the sense of security which it gave him, he allowed himself the luxury of a good look round the
room. He took his lamp in one hand, and went all around, wondering that so quaint and beautiful an old house
had been so long neglected. The carving of the oak on the panels of the wainscot was fine, and on and round
the doors and windows it was beautiful and of rare merit. There were some old pictures on the walls, but they
were coated so thick with dust and dirt that he could not distinguish any detail of them, though he held his
lamp as high as he could over his head. Here and there as he went round he saw some crack or hole blocked
for a moment by the face of a rat with its bright eyes glittering in the light, but in an instant it was gone, and a
squeak and a scamper followed. The thing that most struck him, however, was the rope of the great alarm bell
on the roof, which hung down in a corner of the room on the right-hand side of the fireplace. He pulled up
close to the hearth a great high-backed carved oak chair, and sat down to his last cup of tea. When this was
done he made up the fire, and went back to his work, sitting at the corner of the table, having the fire to his
left. For a little while the rats disturbed him somewhat with their perpetual scampering, but he got accustomed
to the noise as one does to the ticking of a clock or to the roar of moving water; and he became so immersed
in his work that everything in the world, except the problem which he was trying to solve, passed away from
him.

He suddenly looked up, his problem was still unsolved, and there was in the air that sense of the hour before
the dawn, which is so dread to doubtful life. The noise of the rats had ceased. Indeed it seemed to him that it
must have ceased but lately and that it was the sudden cessation which had disturbed him. The fire had fallen
low, but still it threw out a deep red glow. As he looked he started in spite of his sang froid.

There on the great high-backed carved oak chair by the right side of the fireplace sat an enormous rat, steadily
glaring at him with baleful eyes. He made a motion to it as though to hunt it away, but it did not stir. Then he
made the motion of throwing something. Still it did not stir, but showed its great white teeth angrily, and its
cruel eyes shone in the lamplight with an added vindictiveness.

Malcolmson felt amazed, and seizing the poker from the hearth ran at it to kill it. Before, however, he could
strike it, the rat, with a squeak that sounded like the concentration of hate, jumped upon the floor, and, running
up the rope of the alarm bell, disappeared in the darkness beyond the range of the green-shaded lamp.
Instantly, strange to say, the noisy scampering of the rats in the wainscot began again.

By this time Malcolmson's mind was quite off the problem; and as a shrill cock-crow outside told him of the
approach of morning, he went to bed and to sleep.

He slept so sound that he was not even waked by Mrs. Dempster coming in to make up his room. It was only
when she had tidied up the place and got his breakfast ready and tapped on the screen which closed in his bed
that he woke. He was a little tired still after his night's hard work, but a strong cup of tea soon freshened him
up and, taking his book, he went out for his morning walk, bringing with him a few sandwiches lest he should
not care to return till dinner time. He found a quiet walk between high elms some way outside the town, and
here he spent the greater part of the day studying his Laplace. On his return he looked in to see Mrs. Witham
and to thank her for her kindness. When she saw him coming through the diamond-paned bay window of her
sanctum she came out to meet him and asked him in. She looked at him searchingly and shook her head as she
said:

'You must not overdo it, sir. You are paler this morning than you should be. Too late hours and too hard work
on the brain isn't good for any man! But tell me, sir, how did you pass the night? Well, I hope? But my heart!
sir, I was glad when Mrs. Dempster told me this morning that you were all right and sleeping sound when she
went in.'
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 13

'Oh, I was all right,' he answered smiling, 'the "somethings" didn't worry me, as yet. Only the rats; and they
had a circus, I tell you, all over the place. There was one wicked looking old devil that sat up on my own chair
by the fire, and wouldn't go till I took the poker to him, and then he ran up the rope of the alarm bell and got
to somewhere up the wall or the ceiling--I couldn't see where, it was so dark.'

'Mercy on us,' said Mrs. Witham, 'an old devil, and sitting on a chair by the fireside! Take care, sir! take care!
There's many a true word spoken in jest.'

'How do you mean? Pon my word I don't understand.'

'An old devil! The old devil, perhaps. There! sir, you needn't laugh,' for Malcolmson had broken into a hearty
peal. 'You young folks thinks it easy to laugh at things that makes older ones shudder. Never mind, sir! never
mind! Please God, you'll laugh all the time. It's what I wish you myself!' and the good lady beamed all over in
sympathy with his enjoyment, her fears gone for a moment.

'Oh, forgive me!' said Malcolmson presently. 'Don't think me rude; but the idea was too much for me--that the
old devil himself was on the chair last night!' And at the thought he laughed again. Then he went home to
dinner.

This evening the scampering of the rats began earlier; indeed it had been going on before his arrival, and only
ceased whilst his presence by its freshness disturbed them. After dinner he sat by the fire for a while and had a
smoke; and then, having cleared his table, began to work as before. Tonight the rats disturbed him more than
they had done on the previous night. How they scampered up and down and under and over! How they
squeaked, and scratched, and gnawed! How they, getting bolder by degrees, came to the mouths of their holes
and to the chinks and cracks and crannies in the wainscoting till their eyes shone like tiny lamps as the
firelight rose and fell. But to him, now doubtless accustomed to them, their eyes were not wicked; only their
playfulness touched him. Sometimes the boldest of them made sallies out on the floor or along the mouldings
of the wainscot. Now and again as they disturbed him Malcolmson made a sound to frighten them, smiting the
table with his hand or giving a fierce 'Hsh, hsh,' so that they fled straightway to their holes.

And so the early part of the night wore on; and despite the noise Malcolmson got more and more immersed in
his work.

All at once he stopped, as on the previous night, being overcome by a sudden sense of silence. There was not
the faintest sound of gnaw, or scratch, or squeak. The silence was as of the grave. He remembered the odd
occurrence of the previous night, and instinctively he looked at the chair standing close by the fireside. And
then a very odd sensation thrilled through him.

There, on the great old high-backed carved oak chair beside the fireplace sat the same enormous rat, steadily
glaring at him with baleful eyes.

Instinctively he took the nearest thing to his hand, a book of logarithms, and flung it at it. The book was badly
aimed and the rat did not stir, so again the poker performance of the previous night was repeated; and again
the rat, being closely pursued, fled up the rope of the alarm bell. Strangely too, the departure of this rat was
instantly followed by the renewal of the noise made by the general rat community. On this occasion, as on the
previous one, Malcolmson could not see at what part of the room the rat disappeared, for the green shade of
his lamp left the upper part of the room in darkness, and the fire had burned low.

On looking at his watch he found it was close on midnight; and, not sorry for the divertissement, he made up
his fire and made himself his nightly pot of tea. He had got through a good spell of work, and thought himself
entitled to a cigarette; and so he sat on the great oak chair before the fire and enjoyed it. Whilst smoking he
began to think that he would like to know where the rat disappeared to, for he had certain ideas for the
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 14
morrow not entirely disconnected with a rat-trap. Accordingly he lit another lamp and placed it so that it
would shine well into the right-hand corner of the wall by the fireplace. Then he got all the books he had with
him, and placed them handy to throw at the vermin. Finally he lifted the rope of the alarm bell and placed the
end of it on the table, fixing the extreme end under the lamp. As he handled it he could not help noticing how
pliable it was, especially for so strong a rope, and one not in use. 'You could hang a man with it,' he thought to
himself. When his preparations were made he looked around, and said complacently:

'There now, my friend, I think we shall learn something of you this time!' He began his work again, and
though as before somewhat disturbed at first by the noise of the rats, soon lost himself in his propositions and
problems.

Again he was called to his immediate surroundings suddenly. This time it might not have been the sudden
silence only which took his attention; there was a slight movement of the rope, and the lamp moved. Without
stirring, he looked to see if his pile of books was within range, and then cast his eye along the rope. As he
looked he saw the great rat drop from the rope on the oak arm-chair and sit there glaring at him. He raised a
book in his right hand, and taking careful aim, flung it at the rat. The latter, with a quick movement, sprang
aside and dodged the missile. He then took another book, and a third, and flung them one after another at the
rat, but each time unsuccessfully. At last, as he stood with a book poised in his hand to throw, the rat squeaked
and seemed afraid. This made Malcolmson more than ever eager to strike, and the book flew and struck the rat
a resounding blow. It gave a terrified squeak, and turning on his pursuer a look of terrible malevolence, ran up
the chair-back and made a great jump to the rope of the alarm bell and ran up it like lightning. The lamp
rocked under the sudden strain, but it was a heavy one and did not topple over. Malcolmson kept his eyes on
the rat, and saw it by the light of the second lamp leap to a moulding of the wainscot and disappear through a
hole in one of the great pictures which hung on the wall, obscured and invisible through its coating of dirt and
dust.

'I shall look up my friend's habitation in the morning,' said the student, as he went over to collect his books.
'The third picture from the fireplace; I shall not forget.' He picked up the books one by one, commenting on
them as he lifted them. 'Conic Sections he does not mind, nor Cycloidal Oscillations, nor the Principia, nor
Quaternions, nor Thermodynamics. Now for the book that fetched him!' Malcolmson took it up and looked at
it. As he did so he started, and a sudden pallor overspread his face. He looked round uneasily and shivered
slightly, as he murmured to himself:

'The Bible my mother gave me! What an odd coincidence.' He sat down to work again, and the rats in the
wainscot renewed their gambols. They did not disturb him, however; somehow their presence gave him a
sense of companionship. But he could not attend to his work, and after striving to master the subject on which
he was engaged gave it up in despair, and went to bed as the first streak of dawn stole in through the eastern
window.

He slept heavily but uneasily, and dreamed much; and when Mrs. Dempster woke him late in the morning he
seemed ill at ease, and for a few minutes did not seem to realise exactly where he was. His first request rather
surprised the servant.

'Mrs. Dempster, when I am out to-day I wish you would get the steps and dust or wash those
pictures--specially that one the third from the fireplace--I want to see what they are.'

Late in the afternoon Malcolmson worked at his books in the shaded walk, and the cheerfulness of the
previous day came back to him as the day wore on, and he found that his reading was progressing well. He
had worked out to a satisfactory conclusion all the problems which had as yet baffled him, and it was in a state
of jubilation that he paid a visit to Mrs. Witham at 'The Good Traveller'. He found a stranger in the cosy
sitting-room with the landlady, who was introduced to him as Dr. Thornhill. She was not quite at ease, and
this, combined with the doctor's plunging at once into a series of questions, made Malcolmson come to the
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 15

conclusion that his presence was not an accident, so without preliminary he said:

'Dr. Thornhill, I shall with pleasure answer you any question you may choose to ask me if you will answer me
one question first.'

The doctor seemed surprised, but he smiled and answered at once, 'Done! What is it?'

'Did Mrs. Witham ask you to come here and see me and advise me?'

Dr. Thornhill for a moment was taken aback, and Mrs. Witham got fiery red and turned away; but the doctor
was a frank and ready man, and he answered at once and openly.

'She did: but she didn't intend you to know it. I suppose it was my clumsy haste that made you suspect. She
told me that she did not like the idea of your being in that house all by yourself, and that she thought you took
too much strong tea. In fact, she wants me to advise you if possible to give up the tea and the very late hours. I
was a keen student in my time, so I suppose I may take the liberty of a college man, and without offence,
advise you not quite as a stranger.'

Malcolmson with a bright smile held out his hand. 'Shake! as they say in America,' he said. 'I must thank you
for your kindness and Mrs. Witham too, and your kindness deserves a return on my part. I promise to take no
more strong tea--no tea at all till you let me--and I shall go to bed tonight at one o'clock at latest. Will that do?'

'Capital,' said the doctor. 'Now tell us all that you noticed in the old house,' and so Malcolmson then and there
told in minute detail all that had happened in the last two nights. He was interrupted every now and then by
some exclamation from Mrs. Witham, till finally when he told of the episode of the Bible the landlady's
pent-up emotions found vent in a shriek; and it was not till a stiff glass of brandy and water had been
administered that she grew composed again. Dr. Thornhill listened with a face of growing gravity, and when
the narrative was complete and Mrs. Witham had been restored he asked:

'The rat always went up the rope of the alarm bell?'

'Always.'

'I suppose you know,' said the Doctor after a pause, 'what the rope is?'

'No!'

'It is,' said the Doctor slowly, 'the very rope which the hangman used for all the victims of the Judge's judicial
rancour!' Here he was interrupted by another scream from Mrs. Witham, and steps had to be taken for her
recovery. Malcolmson having looked at his watch, and found that it was close to his dinner hour, had gone
home before her complete recovery.

When Mrs. Witham was herself again she almost assailed the Doctor with angry questions as to what he
meant by putting such horrible ideas into the poor young man's mind. 'He has quite enough there already to
upset him,' she added. Dr. Thornhill replied:

'My dear madam, I had a distinct purpose in it! I wanted to draw his attention to the bell rope, and to fix it
there. It may be that he is in a highly overwrought state, and has been studying too much, although I am
bound to say that he seems as sound and healthy a young man, mentally and bodily, as ever I saw--but then
the rats--and that suggestion of the devil.' The doctor shook his head and went on. 'I would have offered to go
and stay the first night with him but that I felt sure it would have been a cause of offence. He may get in the
night some strange fright or hallucination; and if he does I want him to pull that rope. All alone as he is it will
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 16

give us warning, and we may reach him in time to be of service. I shall be sitting up pretty late tonight and
shall keep my ears open. Do not be alarmed if Benchurch gets a surprise before morning.'

'Oh, Doctor, what do you mean? What do you mean?'

'I mean this; that possibly--nay, more probably--we shall hear the great alarm bell from the Judge's House
tonight,' and the Doctor made about as effective an exit as could be thought of.

When Malcolmson arrived home he found that it was a little after his usual time, and Mrs. Dempster had gone
away--the rules of Greenhow's Charity were not to be neglected. He was glad to see that the place was bright
and tidy with a cheerful fire and a well-trimmed lamp. The evening was colder than might have been expected
in April, and a heavy wind was blowing with such rapidly-increasing strength that there was every promise of
a storm during the night. For a few minutes after his entrance the noise of the rats ceased; but so soon as they
became accustomed to his presence they began again. He was glad to hear them, for he felt once more the
feeling of companionship in their noise, and his mind ran back to the strange fact that they only ceased to
manifest themselves when that other--the great rat with the baleful eyes--came upon the scene. The
reading-lamp only was lit and its green shade kept the ceiling and the upper part of the room in darkness, so
that the cheerful light from the hearth spreading over the floor and shining on the white cloth laid over the end
of the table was warm and cheery. Malcolmson sat down to his dinner with a good appetite and a buoyant
spirit. After his dinner and a cigarette he sat steadily down to work, determined not to let anything disturb
him, for he remembered his promise to the doctor, and made up his mind to make the best of the time at his
disposal.

For an hour or so he worked all right, and then his thoughts began to wander from his books. The actual
circumstances around him, the calls on his physical attention, and his nervous susceptibility were not to be
denied. By this time the wind had become a gale, and the gale a storm. The old house, solid though it was,
seemed to shake to its foundations, and the storm roared and raged through its many chimneys and its queer
old gables, producing strange, unearthly sounds in the empty rooms and corridors. Even the great alarm bell
on the roof must have felt the force of the wind, for the rope rose and fell slightly, as though the bell were
moved a little from time to time and the limber rope fell on the oak floor with a hard and hollow sound.

As Malcolmson listened to it he bethought himself of the doctor's words, 'It is the rope which the hangman
used for the victims of the Judge's judicial rancour,' and he went over to the corner of the fireplace and took it
in his hand to look at it. There seemed a sort of deadly interest in it, and as he stood there he lost himself for a
moment in speculation as to who these victims were, and the grim wish of the Judge to have such a ghastly
relic ever under his eyes. As he stood there the swaying of the bell on the roof still lifted the rope now and
again; but presently there came a new sensation--a sort of tremor in the rope, as though something was
moving along it.

Looking up instinctively Malcolmson saw the great rat coming slowly down towards him, glaring at him
steadily. He dropped the rope and started back with a muttered curse, and the rat turning ran up the rope again
and disappeared, and at the same instant Malcolmson became conscious that the noise of the rats, which had
ceased for a while, began again.

All this set him thinking, and it occurred to him that he had not investigated the lair of the rat or looked at the
pictures, as he had intended. He lit the other lamp without the shade, and, holding it up went and stood
opposite the third picture from the fireplace on the right-hand side where he had seen the rat disappear on the
previous night.

At the first glance he started back so suddenly that he almost dropped the lamp, and a deadly pallor
overspread his face. His knees shook, and heavy drops of sweat came on his forehead, and he trembled like an
aspen. But he was young and plucky, and pulled himself together, and after the pause of a few seconds
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 17

stepped forward again, raised the lamp, and examined the picture which had been dusted and washed, and
now stood out clearly.

It was of a judge dressed in his robes of scarlet and ermine. His face was strong and merciless, evil, crafty,
and vindictive, with a sensual mouth, hooked nose of ruddy colour, and shaped like the beak of a bird of prey.
The rest of the face was of a cadaverous colour. The eyes were of peculiar brilliance and with a terribly
malignant expression. As he looked at them, Malcolmson grew cold, for he saw there the very counterpart of
the eyes of the great rat. The lamp almost fell from his hand, he saw the rat with its baleful eyes peering out
through the hole in the corner of the picture, and noted the sudden cessation of the noise of the other rats.
However, he pulled himself together, and went on with his examination of the picture.

The Judge was seated in a great high-backed carved oak chair, on the right-hand side of a great stone fireplace
where, in the corner, a rope hung down from the ceiling, its end lying coiled on the floor. With a feeling of
something like horror, Malcolmson recognised the scene of the room as it stood, and gazed around him in an
awestruck manner as though he expected to find some strange presence behind him. Then he looked over to
the corner of the fireplace--and with a loud cry he let the lamp fall from his hand.

There, in the Judge's arm-chair, with the rope hanging behind, sat the rat with the Judge's baleful eyes, now
intensified and with a fiendish leer. Save for the howling of the storm without there was silence.

The fallen lamp recalled Malcolmson to himself. Fortunately it was of metal, and so the oil was not spilt.
However, the practical need of attending to it settled at once his nervous apprehensions. When he had turned it
out, he wiped his brow and thought for a moment.

'This will not do,' he said to himself. 'If I go on like this I shall become a crazy fool. This must stop! I
promised the doctor I would not take tea. Faith, he was pretty right! My nerves must have been getting into a
queer state. Funny I did not notice it. I never felt better in my life. However, it is all right now, and I shall not
be such a fool again.'

Then he mixed himself a good stiff glass of brandy and water and resolutely sat down to his work.

It was nearly an hour when he looked up from his book, disturbed by the sudden stillness. Without, the wind
howled and roared louder than ever, and the rain drove in sheets against the windows, beating like hail on the
glass; but within there was no sound whatever save the echo of the wind as it roared in the great chimney, and
now and then a hiss as a few raindrops found their way down the chimney in a lull of the storm. The fire had
fallen low and had ceased to flame, though it threw out a red glow. Malcolmson listened attentively, and
presently heard a thin, squeaking noise, very faint. It came from the corner of the room where the rope hung
down, and he thought it was the creaking of the rope on the floor as the swaying of the bell raised and lowered
it. Looking up, however, he saw in the dim light the great rat clinging to the rope and gnawing it. The rope
was already nearly gnawed through--he could see the lighter colour where the strands were laid bare. As he
looked the job was completed, and the severed end of the rope fell clattering on the oaken floor, whilst for an
instant the great rat remained like a knob or tassel at the end of the rope, which now began to sway to and fro.
Malcolmson felt for a moment another pang of terror as he thought that now the possibility of calling the outer
world to his assistance was cut off, but an intense anger took its place, and seizing the book he was reading he
hurled it at the rat. The blow was well aimed, but before the missile could reach him the rat dropped off and
struck the floor with a soft thud. Malcolmson instantly rushed over towards him, but it darted away and
disappeared in the darkness of the shadows of the room. Malcolmson felt that his work was over for the night,
and determined then and there to vary the monotony of the proceedings by a hunt for the rat, and took off the
green shade of the lamp so as to insure a wider spreading light. As he did so the gloom of the upper part of the
room was relieved, and in the new flood of light, great by comparison with the previous darkness, the pictures
on the wall stood out boldly. From where he stood, Malcolmson saw right opposite to him the third picture on
the wall from the right of the fireplace. He rubbed his eyes in surprise, and then a great fear began to come
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 18

upon him.

In the centre of the picture was a great irregular patch of brown canvas, as fresh as when it was stretched on
the frame. The background was as before, with chair and chimney-corner and rope, but the figure of the Judge
had disappeared.

Malcolmson, almost in a chill of horror, turned slowly round, and then he began to shake and tremble like a
man in a palsy. His strength seemed to have left him, and he was incapable of action or movement, hardly
even of thought. He could only see and hear.

There, on the great high-backed carved oak chair sat the Judge in his robes of scarlet and ermine, with his
baleful eyes glaring vindictively, and a smile of triumph on the resolute, cruel mouth, as he lifted with his
hands a black cap. Malcolmson felt as if the blood was running from his heart, as one does in moments of
prolonged suspense. There was a singing in his ears. Without, he could hear the roar and howl of the tempest,
and through it, swept on the storm, came the striking of midnight by the great chimes in the market place. He
stood for a space of time that seemed to him endless still as a statue, and with wide-open, horror-struck eyes,
breathless. As the clock struck, so the smile of triumph on the Judge's face intensified, and at the last stroke of
midnight he placed the black cap on his head.

Slowly and deliberately the Judge rose from his chair and picked up the piece of the rope of the alarm bell
which lay on the floor, drew it through his hands as if he enjoyed its touch, and then deliberately began to
knot one end of it, fashioning it into a noose. This he tightened and tested with his foot, pulling hard at it till
he was satisfied and then making a running noose of it, which he held in his hand. Then he began to move
along the table on the opposite side to Malcolmson keeping his eyes on him until he had passed him, when
with a quick movement he stood in front of the door. Malcolmson then began to feel that he was trapped, and
tried to think of what he should do. There was some fascination in the Judge's eyes, which he never took off
him, and he had, perforce, to look. He saw the Judge approach--still keeping between him and the door--and
raise the noose and throw it towards him as if to entangle him. With a great effort he made a quick movement
to one side, and saw the rope fall beside him, and heard it strike the oaken floor. Again the Judge raised the
noose and tried to ensnare him, ever keeping his baleful eyes fixed on him, and each time by a mighty effort
the student just managed to evade it. So this went on for many times, the Judge seeming never discouraged
nor discomposed at failure, but playing as a cat does with a mouse. At last in despair, which had reached its
climax, Malcolmson cast a quick glance round him. The lamp seemed to have blazed up, and there was a
fairly good light in the room. At the many rat-holes and in the chinks and crannies of the wainscot he saw the
rats' eyes; and this aspect, that was purely physical, gave him a gleam of comfort. He looked around and saw
that the rope of the great alarm bell was laden with rats. Every inch of it was covered with them, and more and
more were pouring through the small circular hole in the ceiling whence it emerged, so that with their weight
the bell was beginning to sway.

Hark! it had swayed till the clapper had touched the bell. The sound was but a tiny one, but the bell was only
beginning to sway, and it would increase.

At the sound the Judge, who had been keeping his eyes fixed on Malcolmson, looked up, and a scowl of
diabolical anger overspread his face. His eyes fairly glowed like hot coals, and he stamped his foot with a
sound that seemed to make the house shake. A dreadful peal of thunder broke overhead as he raised the rope
again, whilst the rats kept running up and down the rope as though working against time. This time, instead of
throwing it, he drew close to his victim, and held open the noose as he approached. As he came closer there
seemed something paralysing in his very presence, and Malcolmson stood rigid as a corpse. He felt the
Judge's icy fingers touch his throat as he adjusted the rope. The noose tightened--tightened. Then the Judge,
taking the rigid form of the student in his arms, carried him over and placed him standing in the oak chair, and
stepping up beside him, put his hand up and caught the end of the swaying rope of the alarm bell. As he raised
his hand the rats fled squeaking, and disappeared through the hole in the ceiling. Taking the end of the noose
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 19

which was round Malcolmson's neck he tied it to the hanging-bell rope, and then descending pulled away the
chair.

*****

When the alarm bell of the Judge's House began to sound a crowd soon assembled. Lights and torches of
various kinds appeared, and soon a silent crowd was hurrying to the spot. They knocked loudly at the door,
but there was no reply. Then they burst in the door, and poured into the great dining-room, the doctor at the
head.

There at the end of the rope of the great alarm bell hung the body of the student, and on the face of the Judge
in the picture was a malignant smile.

The Squaw

Nurnberg at the time was not so much exploited as it has been since then. Irving had not been playing Faust,
and the very name of the old town was hardly known to the great bulk of the travelling public. My wife and I
being in the second week of our honeymoon, naturally wanted someone else to join our party, so that when
the cheery stranger, Elias P. Hutcheson, hailing from Isthmian City, Bleeding Gulch, Maple Tree County,
Neb. turned up at the station at Frankfort, and casually remarked that he was going on to see the most all-fired
old Methuselah of a town in Yurrup, and that he guessed that so much travelling alone was enough to send an
intelligent, active citizen into the melancholy ward of a daft house, we took the pretty broad hint and
suggested that we should join forces. We found, on comparing notes afterwards, that we had each intended to
speak with some diffidence or hesitation so as not to appear too eager, such not being a good compliment to
the success of our married life; but the effect was entirely marred by our both beginning to speak at the same
instant--stopping simultaneously and then going on together again. Anyhow, no matter how, it was done; and
Elias P. Hutcheson became one of our party. Straightway Amelia and I found the pleasant benefit; instead of
quarrelling, as we had been doing, we found that the restraining influence of a third party was such that we
now took every opportunity of spooning in odd corners. Amelia declares that ever since she has, as the result
of that experience, advised all her friends to take a friend on the honeymoon. Well, we 'did' Nurnberg
together, and much enjoyed the racy remarks of our Transatlantic friend, who, from his quaint speech and his
wonderful stock of adventures, might have stepped out of a novel. We kept for the last object of interest in the
city to be visited the Burg, and on the day appointed for the visit strolled round the outer wall of the city by
the eastern side.

The Burg is seated on a rock dominating the town and an immensely deep fosse guards it on the northern side.
Nurnberg has been happy in that it was never sacked; had it been it would certainly not be so spick and span
perfect as it is at present. The ditch has not been used for centuries, and now its base is spread with
tea-gardens and orchards, of which some of the trees are of quite respectable growth. As we wandered round
the wall, dawdling in the hot July sunshine, we often paused to admire the views spread before us, and in
especial the great plain covered with towns and villages and bounded with a blue line of hills, like a landscape
of Claude Lorraine. From this we always turned with new delight to the city itself, with its myriad of quaint
old gables and acre-wide red roofs dotted with dormer windows, tier upon tier. A little to our right rose the
towers of the Burg, and nearer still, standing grim, the Torture Tower, which was, and is, perhaps, the most
interesting place in the city. For centuries the tradition of the Iron Virgin of Nurnberg has been handed down
as an instance of the horrors of cruelty of which man is capable; we had long looked forward to seeing it; and
here at last was its home.

In one of our pauses we leaned over the wall of the moat and looked down. The garden seemed quite fifty or
sixty feet below us, and the sun pouring into it with an intense, moveless heat like that of an oven. Beyond
rose the grey, grim wall seemingly of endless height, and losing itself right and left in the angles of bastion
and counterscarp. Trees and bushes crowned the wall, and above again towered the lofty houses on whose
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 20

massive beauty Time has only set the hand of approval. The sun was hot and we were lazy; time was our own,
and we lingered, leaning on the wall. Just below us was a pretty sight--a great black cat lying stretched in the
sun, whilst round her gambolled prettily a tiny black kitten. The mother would wave her tail for the kitten to
play with, or would raise her feet and push away the little one as an encouragement to further play. They were
just at the foot of the wall, and Elias P. Hutcheson, in order to help the play, stooped and took from the walk a
moderate sized pebble.

'See!' he said, 'I will drop it near the kitten, and they will both wonder where it came from.'

'Oh, be careful,' said my wife; 'you might hit the dear little thing!'

'Not me, ma'am,' said Elias P. 'Why, I'm as tender as a Maine cherry-tree. Lor, bless ye. I wouldn't hurt the
poor pooty little critter more'n I'd scalp a baby. An' you may bet your variegated socks on that! See, I'll drop it
fur away on the outside so's not to go near her!' Thus saying, he leaned over and held his arm out at full length
and dropped the stone. It may be that there is some attractive force which draws lesser matters to greater; or
more probably that the wall was not plump but sloped to its base--we not noticing the inclination from above;
but the stone fell with a sickening thud that came up to us through the hot air, right on the kitten's head, and
shattered out its little brains then and there. The black cat cast a swift upward glance, and we saw her eyes like
green fire fixed an instant on Elias P. Hutcheson; and then her attention was given to the kitten, which lay still
with just a quiver of her tiny limbs, whilst a thin red stream trickled from a gaping wound. With a muffled
cry, such as a human being might give, she bent over the kitten licking its wounds and moaning. Suddenly she
seemed to realise that it was dead, and again threw her eyes up at us. I shall never forget the sight, for she
looked the perfect incarnation of hate. Her green eyes blazed with lurid fire, and the white, sharp teeth seemed
to almost shine through the blood which dabbled her mouth and whiskers. She gnashed her teeth, and her
claws stood out stark and at full length on every paw. Then she made a wild rush up the wall as if to reach us,
but when the momentum ended fell back, and further added to her horrible appearance for she fell on the
kitten, and rose with her black fur smeared with its brains and blood. Amelia turned quite faint, and I had to
lift her back from the wall. There was a seat close by in shade of a spreading plane-tree, and here I placed her
whilst she composed herself. Then I went back to Hutcheson, who stood without moving, looking down on
the angry cat below.

As I joined him, he said:

'Wall, I guess that air the savagest beast I ever see--'cept once when an Apache squaw had an edge on a
half-breed what they nicknamed "Splinters" 'cos of the way he fixed up her papoose which he stole on a raid
just to show that he appreciated the way they had given his mother the fire torture. She got that kinder look so
set on her face that it jest seemed to grow there. She followed Splinters mor'n three year till at last the braves
got him and handed him over to her. They did say that no man, white or Injun, had ever been so long a-dying
under the tortures of the Apaches. The only time I ever see her smile was when I wiped her out. I kem on the
camp just in time to see Splinters pass in his checks, and he wasn't sorry to go either. He was a hard citizen,
and though I never could shake with him after that papoose business--for it was bitter bad, and he should have
been a white man, for he looked like one--I see he had got paid out in full. Durn me, but I took a piece of his
hide from one of his skinnin' posts an' had it made into a pocket-book. It's here now!' and he slapped the breast
pocket of his coat.

Whilst he was speaking the cat was continuing her frantic efforts to get up the wall. She would take a run back
and then charge up, sometimes reaching an incredible height. She did not seem to mind the heavy fall which
she get each time but started with renewed vigour; and at every tumble her appearance became more horrible.
Hutcheson was a kind-hearted man--my wife and I had both noticed little acts of kindness to animals as well
as to persons--and he seemed concerned at the state of fury to which the cat had wrought herself.

'Wall, now!' he said, 'I du declare that that poor critter seems quite desperate. There! there! poor thing, it was
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 21

all an accident--though that won't bring back your little one to you. Say! I wouldn't have had such a thing
happen for a thousand! Just shows what a clumsy fool of a man can do when he tries to play! Seems I'm too
darned slipperhanded to even play with a cat. Say Colonel!' it was a pleasant way he had to bestow titles
freely--'I hope your wife don't hold no grudge against me on account of this unpleasantness? Why, I wouldn't
have had it occur on no account.'

He came over to Amelia and apologised profusely, and she with her usual kindness of heart hastened to assure
him that she quite understood that it was an accident. Then we all went again to the wall and looked over.

The cat missing Hutcheson's face had drawn back across the moat, and was sitting on her haunches as though
ready to spring. Indeed, the very instant she saw him she did spring, and with a blind unreasoning fury, which
would have been grotesque, only that it was so frightfully real. She did not try to run up the wall, but simply
launched herself at him as though hate and fury could lend her wings to pass straight through the great
distance between them. Amelia, womanlike, got quite concerned, and said to Elias P. in a warning voice:

'Oh! you must be very careful. That animal would try to kill you if she were here; her eyes look like positive
murder.'

He laughed out jovially. 'Excuse me, ma'am,' he said, 'but I can't help laughin'. Fancy a man that has fought
grizzlies an' Injuns bein' careful of bein' murdered by a cat!'

When the cat heard him laugh, her whole demeanour seemed to change. She no longer tried to jump or run up
the wall, but went quietly over, and sitting again beside the dead kitten began to lick and fondle it as though it
were alive.

'See!' said I, 'the effect of a really strong man. Even that animal in the midst of her fury recognises the voice of
a master, and bows to him!'

'Like a squaw!' was the only comment of Elias P. Hutcheson, as we moved on our way round the city fosse.
Every now and then we looked over the wall and each time saw the cat following us. At first she had kept
going back to the dead kitten, and then as the distance grew greater took it in her mouth and so followed.
After a while, however, she abandoned this, for we saw her following all alone; she had evidently hidden the
body somewhere. Amelia's alarm grew at the cat's persistence, and more than once she repeated her warning;
but the American always laughed with amusement, till finally, seeing that she was beginning to be worried, he
said:

'I say, ma'am, you needn't be skeered over that cat. I go heeled, I du!' Here he slapped his pistol pocket at the
back of his lumbar region. 'Why sooner'n have you worried, I'll shoot the critter, right here, an' risk the police
interferin' with a citizen of the United States for carryin' arms contrairy to reg'lations!' As he spoke he looked
over the wall, but the cat on seeing him, retreated, with a growl, into a bed of tall flowers, and was hidden. He
went on: 'Blest if that ar critter ain't got more sense of what's good for her than most Christians. I guess we've
seen the last of her! You bet, she'll go back now to that busted kitten and have a private funeral of it, all to
herself!'

Amelia did not like to say more, lest he might, in mistaken kindness to her, fulfil his threat of shooting the cat:
and so we went on and crossed the little wooden bridge leading to the gateway whence ran the steep paved
roadway between the Burg and the pentagonal Torture Tower. As we crossed the bridge we saw the cat again
down below us. When she saw us her fury seemed to return, and she made frantic efforts to get up the steep
wall. Hutcheson laughed as he looked down at her, and said:

'Goodbye, old girl. Sorry I injured your feelin's, but you'll get over it in time! So long!' And then we passed
through the long, dim archway and came to the gate of the Burg.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 22
When we came out again after our survey of this most beautiful old place which not even the well-intentioned
efforts of the Gothic restorers of forty years ago have been able to spoil--though their restoration was then
glaring white--we seemed to have quite forgotten the unpleasant episode of the morning. The old lime tree
with its great trunk gnarled with the passing of nearly nine centuries, the deep well cut through the heart of the
rock by those captives of old, and the lovely view from the city wall whence we heard, spread over almost a
full quarter of an hour, the multitudinous chimes of the city, had all helped to wipe out from our minds the
incident of the slain kitten.

We were the only visitors who had entered the Torture Tower that morning--so at least said the old
custodian--and as we had the place all to ourselves were able to make a minute and more satisfactory survey
than would have otherwise been possible. The custodian, looking to us as the sole source of his gains for the
day, was willing to meet our wishes in any way. The Torture Tower is truly a grim place, even now when
many thousands of visitors have sent a stream of life, and the joy that follows life, into the place; but at the
time I mention it wore its grimmest and most gruesome aspect. The dust of ages seemed to have settled on it,
and the darkness and the horror of its memories seem to have become sentient in a way that would have
satisfied the Pantheistic souls of Philo or Spinoza. The lower chamber where we entered was seemingly, in its
normal state, filled with incarnate darkness; even the hot sunlight streaming in through the door seemed to be
lost in the vast thickness of the walls, and only showed the masonry rough as when the builder's scaffolding
had come down, but coated with dust and marked here and there with patches of dark stain which, if walls
could speak, could have given their own dread memories of fear and pain. We were glad to pass up the dusty
wooden staircase, the custodian leaving the outer door open to light us somewhat on our way; for to our eyes
the one long-wick'd, evil-smelling candle stuck in a sconce on the wall gave an inadequate light. When we
came up through the open trap in the corner of the chamber overhead, Amelia held on to me so tightly that I
could actually feel her heart beat. I must say for my own part that I was not surprised at her fear, for this room
was even more gruesome than that below. Here there was certainly more light, but only just sufficient to
realise the horrible surroundings of the place. The builders of the tower had evidently intended that only they
who should gain the top should have any of the joys of light and prospect. There, as we had noticed from
below, were ranges of windows, albeit of mediaeval smallness, but elsewhere in the tower were only a very
few narrow slits such as were habitual in places of mediaeval defence. A few of these only lit the chamber,
and these so high up in the wall that from no part could the sky be seen through the thickness of the walls. In
racks, and leaning in disorder against the walls, were a number of headsmen's swords, great double-handed
weapons with broad blade and keen edge. Hard by were several blocks whereon the necks of the victims had
lain, with here and there deep notches where the steel had bitten through the guard of flesh and shored into the
wood. Round the chamber, placed in all sorts of irregular ways, were many implements of torture which made
one's heart ache to see--chairs full of spikes which gave instant and excruciating pain; chairs and couches with
dull knobs whose torture was seemingly less, but which, though slower, were equally efficacious; racks, belts,
boots, gloves, collars, all made for compressing at will; steel baskets in which the head could be slowly
crushed into a pulp if necessary; watchmen's hooks with long handle and knife that cut at resistance--this a
speciality of the old Nurnberg police system; and many, many other devices for man's injury to man. Amelia
grew quite pale with the horror of the things, but fortunately did not faint, for being a little overcome she sat
down on a torture chair, but jumped up again with a shriek, all tendency to faint gone. We both pretended that
it was the injury done to her dress by the dust of the chair, and the rusty spikes which had upset her, and Mr.
Hutcheson acquiesced in accepting the explanation with a kind-hearted laugh.

But the central object in the whole of this chamber of horrors was the engine known as the Iron Virgin, which
stood near the centre of the room. It was a rudely-shaped figure of a woman, something of the bell order, or,
to make a closer comparison, of the figure of Mrs. Noah in the children's Ark, but without that slimness of
waist and perfect rondeur of hip which marks the aesthetic type of the Noah family. One would hardly have
recognised it as intended for a human figure at all had not the founder shaped on the forehead a rude
semblance of a woman's face. This machine was coated with rust without, and covered with dust; a rope was
fastened to a ring in the front of the figure, about where the waist should have been, and was drawn through a
pulley, fastened on the wooden pillar which sustained the flooring above. The custodian pulling this rope
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 23
showed that a section of the front was hinged like a door at one side; we then saw that the engine was of
considerable thickness, leaving just room enough inside for a man to be placed. The door was of equal
thickness and of great weight, for it took the custodian all his strength, aided though he was by the contrivance
of the pulley, to open it. This weight was partly due to the fact that the door was of manifest purpose hung so
as to throw its weight downwards, so that it might shut of its own accord when the strain was released. The
inside was honeycombed with rust--nay more, the rust alone that comes through time would hardly have eaten
so deep into the iron walls; the rust of the cruel stains was deep indeed! It was only, however, when we came
to look at the inside of the door that the diabolical intention was manifest to the full. Here were several long
spikes, square and massive, broad at the base and sharp at the points, placed in such a position that when the
door should close the upper ones would pierce the eyes of the victim, and the lower ones his heart and vitals.
The sight was too much for poor Amelia, and this time she fainted dead off, and I had to carry her down the
stairs, and place her on a bench outside till she recovered. That she felt it to the quick was afterwards shown
by the fact that my eldest son bears to this day a rude birthmark on his breast, which has, by family consent,
been accepted as representing the Nurnberg Virgin.

When we got back to the chamber we found Hutcheson still opposite the Iron Virgin; he had been evidently
philosophising, and now gave us the benefit of his thought in the shape of a sort of exordium.

'Wall, I guess I've been learnin' somethin' here while madam has been gettin' over her faint. 'Pears to me that
we're a long way behind the times on our side of the big drink. We uster think out on the plains that the Injun
could give us points in tryin' to make a man uncomfortable; but I guess your old mediaeval law-and-order
party could raise him every time. Splinters was pretty good in his bluff on the squaw, but this here young miss
held a straight flush all high on him. The points of them spikes air sharp enough still, though even the edges
air eaten out by what uster be on them. It'd be a good thing for our Indian section to get some specimens of
this here play-toy to send round to the Reservations jest to knock the stuffin' out of the bucks, and the squaws
too, by showing them as how old civilisation lays over them at their best. Guess but I'll get in that box a
minute jest to see how it feels!'

'Oh no! no!' said Amelia. 'It is too terrible!'

'Guess, ma'am, nothin's too terrible to the explorin' mind. I've been in some queer places in my time. Spent a
night inside a dead horse while a prairie fire swept over me in Montana Territory--an' another time slept inside
a dead buffler when the Comanches was on the war path an' I didn't keer to leave my kyard on them. I've been
two days in a caved-in tunnel in the Billy Broncho gold mine in New Mexico, an' was one of the four shut up
for three parts of a day in the caisson what slid over on her side when we was settin' the foundations of the
Buffalo Bridge. I've not funked an odd experience yet, an' I don't propose to begin now!'

We saw that he was set on the experiment, so I said: 'Well, hurry up, old man, and get through it quick!'

'All right, General,' said he, 'but I calculate we ain't quite ready yet. The gentlemen, my predecessors, what
stood in that thar canister, didn't volunteer for the office--not much! And I guess there was some ornamental
tyin' up before the big stroke was made. I want to go into this thing fair and square, so I must get fixed up
proper first. I dare say this old galoot can rise some string and tie me up accordin' to sample?'

This was said interrogatively to the old custodian, but the latter, who understood the drift of his speech,
though perhaps not appreciating to the full the niceties of dialect and imagery, shook his head. His protest
was, however, only formal and made to be overcome. The American thrust a gold piece into his hand, saying:
'Take it, pard! it's your pot; and don't be skeer'd. This ain't no necktie party that you're asked to assist in!' He
produced some thin frayed rope and proceeded to bind our companion with sufficient strictness for the
purpose. When the upper part of his body was bound, Hutcheson said:

'Hold on a moment, Judge. Guess I'm too heavy for you to tote into the canister. You jest let me walk in, and
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 24

then you can wash up regardin' my legs!'

Whilst speaking he had backed himself into the opening which was just enough to hold him. It was a close fit
and no mistake. Amelia looked on with fear in her eyes, but she evidently did not like to say anything. Then
the custodian completed his task by tying the American's feet together so that he was now absolutely helpless
and fixed in his voluntary prison. He seemed to really enjoy it, and the incipient smile which was habitual to
his face blossomed into actuality as he said:

'Guess this here Eve was made out of the rib of a dwarf! There ain't much room for a full-grown citizen of the
United States to hustle. We uster make our coffins more roomier in Idaho territory. Now, Judge, you jest
begin to let this door down, slow, on to me. I want to feel the same pleasure as the other jays had when those
spikes began to move toward their eyes!'

'Oh no! no! no!' broke in Amelia hysterically. 'It is too terrible! I can't bear to see it!--I can't! I can't!' But the
American was obdurate. 'Say, Colonel,' said he, 'why not take Madame for a little promenade? I wouldn't hurt
her feelin's for the world; but now that I am here, havin' kem eight thousand miles, wouldn't it be too hard to
give up the very experience I've been pinin' an' pantin' fur? A man can't get to feel like canned goods every
time! Me and the Judge here'll fix up this thing in no time, an' then you'll come back, an' we'll all laugh
together!'

Once more the resolution that is born of curiosity triumphed, and Amelia stayed holding tight to my arm and
shivering whilst the custodian began to slacken slowly inch by inch the rope that held back the iron door.
Hutcheson's face was positively radiant as his eyes followed the first movement of the spikes.

'Wall!' he said, 'I guess I've not had enjoyment like this since I left Noo York. Bar a scrap with a French sailor
at Wapping--an' that warn't much of a picnic neither--I've not had a show fur real pleasure in this dod-rotted
Continent, where there ain't no b'ars nor no Injuns, an' wheer nary man goes heeled. Slow there, Judge! Don't
you rush this business! I want a show for my money this game--I du!'

The custodian must have had in him some of the blood of his predecessors in that ghastly tower, for he
worked the engine with a deliberate and excruciating slowness which after five minutes, in which the outer
edge of the door had not moved half as many inches, began to overcome Amelia. I saw her lips whiten, and
felt her hold upon my arm relax. I looked around an instant for a place whereon to lay her, and when I looked
at her again found that her eye had become fixed on the side of the Virgin. Following its direction I saw the
black cat crouching out of sight. Her green eyes shone like danger lamps in the gloom of the place, and their
colour was heightened by the blood which still smeared her coat and reddened her mouth. I cried out:

'The cat! look out for the cat!' for even then she sprang out before the engine. At this moment she looked like
a triumphant demon. Her eyes blazed with ferocity, her hair bristled out till she seemed twice her normal size,
and her tail lashed about as does a tiger's when the quarry is before it. Elias P. Hutcheson when he saw her
was amused, and his eyes positively sparkled with fun as he said:

'Darned if the squaw hain't got on all her war paint! Jest give her a shove off if she comes any of her tricks on
me, for I'm so fixed everlastingly by the boss, that durn my skin if I can keep my eyes from her if she wants
them! Easy there, Judge! don't you slack that ar rope or I'm euchered!'

At this moment Amelia completed her faint, and I had to clutch hold of her round the waist or she would have
fallen to the floor. Whilst attending to her I saw the black cat crouching for a spring, and jumped up to turn the
creature out.

But at that instant, with a sort of hellish scream, she hurled herself, not as we expected at Hutcheson, but
straight at the face of the custodian. Her claws seemed to be tearing wildly as one sees in the Chinese
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 25

drawings of the dragon rampant, and as I looked I saw one of them light on the poor man's eye, and actually
tear through it and down his cheek, leaving a wide band of red where the blood seemed to spurt from every
vein.

With a yell of sheer terror which came quicker than even his sense of pain, the man leaped back, dropping as
he did so the rope which held back the iron door. I jumped for it, but was too late, for the cord ran like
lightning through the pulley-block, and the heavy mass fell forward from its own weight.

As the door closed I caught a glimpse of our poor companion's face. He seemed frozen with terror. His eyes
stared with a horrible anguish as if dazed, and no sound came from his lips.

And then the spikes did their work. Happily the end was quick, for when I wrenched open the door they had
pierced so deep that they had locked in the bones of the skull through which they had crushed, and actually
tore him--it--out of his iron prison till, bound as he was, he fell at full length with a sickly thud upon the floor,
the face turning upward as he fell.

I rushed to my wife, lifted her up and carried her out, for I feared for her very reason if she should wake from
her faint to such a scene. I laid her on the bench outside and ran back. Leaning against the wooden column
was the custodian moaning in pain whilst he held his reddening handkerchief to his eyes. And sitting on the
head of the poor American was the cat, purring loudly as she licked the blood which trickled through the
gashed socket of his eyes.

I think no one will call me cruel because I seized one of the old executioner's swords and shore her in two as
she sat.

The Secret of the Growing Gold

When Margaret Delandre went to live at Brent's Rock the whole neighbourhood awoke to the pleasure of an
entirely new scandal. Scandals in connection with either the Delandre family or the Brents of Brent's Rock,
were not few; and if the secret history of the county had been written in full both names would have been
found well represented. It is true that the status of each was so different that they might have belonged to
different continents--or to different worlds for the matter of that--for hitherto their orbits had never crossed.
The Brents were accorded by the whole section of the country a unique social dominance, and had ever held
themselves as high above the yeoman class to which Margaret Delandre belonged, as a blue-blooded Spanish
hidalgo out-tops his peasant tenantry.

The Delandres had an ancient record and were proud of it in their way as the Brents were of theirs. But the
family had never risen above yeomanry; and although they had been once well-to-do in the good old times of
foreign wars and protection, their fortunes had withered under the scorching of the free trade sun and the
'piping times of peace.' They had, as the elder members used to assert, 'stuck to the land', with the result that
they had taken root in it, body and soul. In fact, they, having chosen the life of vegetables, had flourished as
vegetation does--blossomed and thrived in the good season and suffered in the bad. Their holding, Dander's
Croft, seemed to have been worked out, and to be typical of the family which had inhabited it. The latter had
declined generation after generation, sending out now and again some abortive shoot of unsatisfied energy in
the shape of a soldier or sailor, who had worked his way to the minor grades of the services and had there
stopped, cut short either from unheeding gallantry in action or from that destroying cause to men without
breeding or youthful care--the recognition of a position above them which they feel unfitted to fill. So, little
by little, the family dropped lower and lower, the men brooding and dissatisfied, and drinking themselves into
the grave, the women drudging at home, or marrying beneath them--or worse. In process of time all
disappeared, leaving only two in the Croft, Wykham Delandre and his sister Margaret. The man and woman
seemed to have inherited in masculine and feminine form respectively the evil tendency of their race, sharing
in common the principles, though manifesting them in different ways, of sullen passion, voluptuousness and
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 26

recklessness.

The history of the Brents had been something similar, but showing the causes of decadence in their
aristocratic and not their plebeian forms. They, too, had sent their shoots to the wars; but their positions had
been different and they had often attained honour--for without flaw they were gallant, and brave deeds were
done by them before the selfish dissipation which marked them had sapped their vigour.

The present head of the family--if family it could now be called when one remained of the direct line--was
Geoffrey Brent. He was almost a type of worn out race, manifesting in some ways its most brilliant qualities,
and in others its utter degradation. He might be fairly compared with some of those antique Italian nobles
whom the painters have preserved to us with their courage, their unscrupulousness, their refinement of lust
and cruelty--the voluptuary actual with the fiend potential. He was certainly handsome, with that dark,
aquiline, commanding beauty which women so generally recognise as dominant. With men he was distant and
cold; but such a bearing never deters womankind. The inscrutable laws of sex have so arranged that even a
timid woman is not afraid of a fierce and haughty man. And so it was that there was hardly a woman of any
kind or degree, who lived within view of Brent's Rock, who did not cherish some form of secret admiration
for the handsome wastrel. The category was a wide one, for Brent's Rock rose up steeply from the midst of a
level region and for a circuit of a hundred miles it lay on the horizon, with its high old towers and steep roofs
cutting the level edge of wood and hamlet, and far-scattered mansions.

So long as Geoffrey Brent confined his dissipations to London and Paris and Vienna--anywhere out of sight
and sound of his home--opinion was silent. It is easy to listen to far off echoes unmoved, and we can treat
them with disbelief, or scorn, or disdain, or whatever attitude of coldness may suit our purpose. But when the
scandal came close home it was another matter; and the feelings of independence and integrity which is in
people of every community which is not utterly spoiled, asserted itself and demanded that condemnation
should be expressed. Still there was a certain reticence in all, and no more notice was taken of the existing
facts than was absolutely necessary. Margaret Delandre bore herself so fearlessly and so openly--she accepted
her position as the justified companion of Geoffrey Brent so naturally that people came to believe that she was
secretly married to him, and therefore thought it wiser to hold their tongues lest time should justify her and
also make her an active enemy.

The one person who, by his interference, could have settled all doubts was debarred by circumstances from
interfering in the matter. Wykham Delandre had quarrelled with his sister--or perhaps it was that she had
quarrelled with him--and they were on terms not merely of armed neutrality but of bitter hatred. The quarrel
had been antecedent to Margaret going to Brent's Rock. She and Wykham had almost come to blows. There
had certainly been threats on one side and on the other; and in the end Wykham, overcome with passion, had
ordered his sister to leave his house. She had risen straightway, and, without waiting to pack up even her own
personal belongings, had walked out of the house. On the threshold she had paused for a moment to hurl a
bitter threat at Wykham that he would rue in shame and despair to the last hour of his life his act of that day.
Some weeks had since passed; and it was understood in the neighbourhood that Margaret had gone to London,
when she suddenly appeared driving out with Geoffrey Brent, and the entire neighbourhood knew before
nightfall that she had taken up her abode at the Rock. It was no subject of surprise that Brent had come back
unexpectedly, for such was his usual custom. Even his own servants never knew when to expect him, for there
was a private door, of which he alone had the key, by which he sometimes entered without anyone in the
house being aware of his coming. This was his usual method of appearing after a long absence.

Wykham Delandre was furious at the news. He vowed vengeance--and to keep his mind level with his passion
drank deeper than ever. He tried several times to see his sister, but she contemptuously refused to meet him.
He tried to have an interview with Brent and was refused by him also. Then he tried to stop him in the road,
but without avail, for Geoffrey was not a man to be stopped against his will. Several actual encounters took
place between the two men, and many more were threatened and avoided. At last Wykham Delandre settled
down to a morose, vengeful acceptance of the situation.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 27
Neither Margaret nor Geoffrey was of a pacific temperament, and it was not long before there began to be
quarrels between them. One thing would lead to another, and wine flowed freely at Brent's Rock. Now and
again the quarrels would assume a bitter aspect, and threats would be exchanged in uncompromising language
that fairly awed the listening servants. But such quarrels generally ended where domestic altercations do, in
reconciliation, and in a mutual respect for the fighting qualities proportionate to their manifestation. Fighting
for its own sake is found by a certain class of persons, all the world over, to be a matter of absorbing interest,
and there is no reason to believe that domestic conditions minimise its potency. Geoffrey and Margaret made
occasional absences from Brent's Rock, and on each of these occasions Wykham Delandre also absented
himself; but as he generally heard of the absence too late to be of any service, he returned home each time in a
more bitter and discontented frame of mind than before.

At last there came a time when the absence from Brent's Rock became longer than before. Only a few days
earlier there had been a quarrel, exceeding in bitterness anything which had gone before; but this, too, had
been made up, and a trip on the Continent had been mentioned before the servants. After a few days Wykham
Delandre also went away, and it was some weeks before he returned. It was noticed that he was full of some
new importance--satisfaction, exaltation--they hardly knew how to call it. He went straightway to Brent's
Rock, and demanded to see Geoffrey Brent, and on being told that he had not yet returned, said, with a grim
decision which the servants noted:

'I shall come again. My news is solid--it can wait!' and turned away. Week after week went by, and month
after month; and then there came a rumour, certified later on, that an accident had occurred in the Zermatt
valley. Whilst crossing a dangerous pass the carriage containing an English lady and the driver had fallen over
a precipice, the gentleman of the party, Mr. Geoffrey Brent, having been fortunately saved as he had been
walking up the hill to ease the horses. He gave information, and search was made. The broken rail, the
excoriated roadway, the marks where the horses had struggled on the decline before finally pitching over into
the torrent--all told the sad tale. It was a wet season, and there had been much snow in the winter, so that the
river was swollen beyond its usual volume, and the eddies of the stream were packed with ice. All search was
made, and finally the wreck of the carriage and the body of one horse were found in an eddy of the river. Later
on the body of the driver was found on the sandy, torrent-swept waste near Täsch; but the body of the lady,
like that of the other horse, had quite disappeared, and was--what was left of it by that time--whirling amongst
the eddies of the Rhone on its way down to the Lake of Geneva.

Wykham Delandre made all the enquiries possible, but could not find any trace of the missing woman. He
found, however, in the books of the various hotels the name of 'Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Brent'. And he had a
stone erected at Zermatt to his sister's memory, under her married name, and a tablet put up in the church at
Bretten, the parish in which both Brent's Rock and Dander's Croft were situated.

There was a lapse of nearly a year, after the excitement of the matter had worn away, and the whole
neighbourhood had gone on its accustomed way. Brent was still absent, and Delandre more drunken, more
morose, and more revengeful than before.

Then there was a new excitement. Brent's Rock was being made ready for a new mistress. It was officially
announced by Geoffrey himself in a letter to the Vicar, that he had been married some months before to an
Italian lady, and that they were then on their way home. Then a small army of workmen invaded the house;
and hammer and plane sounded, and a general air of size and paint pervaded the atmosphere. One wing of the
old house, the south, was entirely re-done; and then the great body of the workmen departed, leaving only
materials for the doing of the old hall when Geoffrey Brent should have returned, for he had directed that the
decoration was only to be done under his own eyes. He had brought with him accurate drawings of a hall in
the house of his bride's father, for he wished to reproduce for her the place to which she had been accustomed.
As the moulding had all to be re-done, some scaffolding poles and boards were brought in and laid on one
side of the great hall, and also a great wooden tank or box for mixing the lime, which was laid in bags beside
it.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 28
When the new mistress of Brent's Rock arrived the bells of the church rang out, and there was a general
jubilation. She was a beautiful creature, full of the poetry and fire and passion of the South; and the few
English words which she had learned were spoken in such a sweet and pretty broken way that she won the
hearts of the people almost as much by the music of her voice as by the melting beauty of her dark eyes.

Geoffrey Brent seemed more happy than he had ever before appeared; but there was a dark, anxious look on
his face that was new to those who knew him of old, and he started at times as though at some noise that was
unheard by others.

And so months passed and the whisper grew that at last Brent's Rock was to have an heir. Geoffrey was very
tender to his wife, and the new bond between them seemed to soften him. He took more interest in his tenants
and their needs than he had ever done; and works of charity on his part as well as on his sweet young wife's
were not lacking. He seemed to have set all his hopes on the child that was coming, and as he looked deeper
into the future the dark shadow that had come over his face seemed to die gradually away.

All the time Wykham Delandre nursed his revenge. Deep in his heart had grown up a purpose of vengeance
which only waited an opportunity to crystallise and take a definite shape. His vague idea was somehow
centred in the wife of Brent, for he knew that he could strike him best through those he loved, and the coming
time seemed to hold in its womb the opportunity for which he longed. One night he sat alone in the
living-room of his house. It had once been a handsome room in its way, but time and neglect had done their
work and it was now little better than a ruin, without dignity or picturesqueness of any kind. He had been
drinking heavily for some time and was more than half stupefied. He thought he heard a noise as of someone
at the door and looked up. Then he called half savagely to come in; but there was no response. With a
muttered blasphemy he renewed his potations. Presently he forgot all around him, sank into a daze, but
suddenly awoke to see standing before him someone or something like a battered, ghostly edition of his sister.
For a few moments there came upon him a sort of fear. The woman before him, with distorted features and
burning eyes seemed hardly human, and the only thing that seemed a reality of his sister, as she had been, was
her wealth of golden hair, and this was now streaked with grey. She eyed her brother with a long, cold stare;
and he, too, as he looked and began to realise the actuality of her presence, found the hatred of her which he
had had, once again surging up in his heart. All the brooding passion of the past year seemed to find a voice at
once as he asked her:

'Why are you here? You're dead and buried.'

'I am here, Wykham Delandre, for no love of you, but because I hate another even more than I do you!' A
great passion blazed in her eyes.

'Him?' he asked, in so fierce a whisper that even the woman was for an instant startled till she regained her
calm.

'Yes, him!' she answered. 'But make no mistake, my revenge is my own; and I merely use you to help me to
it.' Wykham asked suddenly:

'Did he marry you?'

The woman's distorted face broadened out in a ghastly attempt at a smile. It was a hideous mockery, for the
broken features and seamed scars took strange shapes and strange colours, and queer lines of white showed
out as the straining muscles pressed on the old cicatrices.

'So you would like to know! It would please your pride to feel that your sister was truly married! Well, you
shall not know. That was my revenge on you, and I do not mean to change it by a hair's breadth. I have come
here tonight simply to let you know that I am alive, so that if any violence be done me where I am going there
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 29
may be a witness.'

'Where are you going?' demanded her brother.

'That is my affair! and I have not the least intention of letting you know!' Wykham stood up, but the drink was
on him and he reeled and fell. As he lay on the floor he announced his intention of following his sister; and
with an outburst of splenetic humour told her that he would follow her through the darkness by the light of her
hair, and of her beauty. At this she turned on him, and said that there were others beside him that would rue
her hair and her beauty too. 'As he will,' she hissed; 'for the hair remains though the beauty be gone. When he
withdrew the lynch-pin and sent us over the precipice into the torrent, he had little thought of my beauty.
Perhaps his beauty would be scarred like mine were he whirled, as I was, among the rocks of the Visp, and
frozen on the ice pack in the drift of the river. But let him beware! His time is coming!' and with a fierce
gesture she flung open the door and passed out into the night.

*****

Later on that night, Mrs. Brent, who was but half-asleep, became suddenly awake and spoke to her husband:

'Geoffrey, was not that the click of a lock somewhere below our window?'

But Geoffrey--though she thought that he, too, had started at the noise--seemed sound asleep, and breathed
heavily. Again Mrs. Brent dozed; but this time awoke to the fact that her husband had arisen and was partially
dressed. He was deadly pale, and when the light of the lamp which he had in his hand fell on his face, she was
frightened at the look in his eyes.

'What is it, Geoffrey? What dost thou?' she asked.

'Hush! little one,' he answered, in a strange, hoarse voice. 'Go to sleep. I am restless, and wish to finish some
work I left undone.'

'Bring it here, my husband,' she said; 'I am lonely and I fear when thou art away.'

For reply he merely kissed her and went out, closing the door behind him. She lay awake for awhile, and then
nature asserted itself, and she slept.

Suddenly she started broad awake with the memory in her ears of a smothered cry from somewhere not far
off. She jumped up and ran to the door and listened, but there was no sound. She grew alarmed for her
husband, and called out: 'Geoffrey! Geoffrey!'

After a few moments the door of the great hall opened, and Geoffrey appeared at it, but without his lamp.

'Hush!' he said, in a sort of whisper, and his voice was harsh and stern. 'Hush! Get to bed! I am working, and
must not be disturbed. Go to sleep, and do not wake the house!'

With a chill in her heart--for the harshness of her husband's voice was new to her--she crept back to bed and
lay there trembling, too frightened to cry, and listened to every sound. There was a long pause of silence, and
then the sound of some iron implement striking muffled blows! Then there came a clang of a heavy stone
falling, followed by a muffled curse. Then a dragging sound, and then more noise of stone on stone. She lay
all the while in an agony of fear, and her heart beat dreadfully. She heard a curious sort of scraping sound; and
then there was silence. Presently the door opened gently, and Geoffrey appeared. His wife pretended to be
asleep; but through her eyelashes she saw him wash from his hands something white that looked like lime.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 30
In the morning he made no allusion to the previous night, and she was afraid to ask any question.

From that day there seemed some shadow over Geoffrey Brent. He neither ate nor slept as he had been
accustomed, and his former habit of turning suddenly as though someone were speaking from behind him
revived. The old hall seemed to have some kind of fascination for him. He used to go there many times in the
day, but grew impatient if anyone, even his wife, entered it. When the builder's foreman came to inquire about
continuing his work Geoffrey was out driving; the man went into the hall, and when Geoffrey returned the
servant told him of his arrival and where he was. With a frightful oath he pushed the servant aside and hurried
up to the old hall. The workman met him almost at the door; and as Geoffrey burst into the room he ran
against him. The man apologised:

'Beg pardon, sir, but I was just going out to make some enquiries. I directed twelve sacks of lime to be sent
here, but I see there are only ten.'

'Damn the ten sacks and the twelve too!' was the ungracious and incomprehensible rejoinder.

The workman looked surprised, and tried to turn the conversation.

'I see, sir, there is a little matter which our people must have done; but the governor will of course see it set
right at his own cost.'

'What do you mean?'

'That 'ere 'arth-stone, sir: Some idiot must have put a scaffold pole on it and cracked it right down the middle,
and it's thick enough you'd think to stand hanythink.' Geoffrey was silent for quite a minute, and then said in a
constrained voice and with much gentler manner:

'Tell your people that I am not going on with the work in the hall at present. I want to leave it as it is for a
while longer.'

'All right sir. I'll send up a few of our chaps to take away these poles and lime bags and tidy the place up a bit.'

'No! No!' said Geoffrey, 'leave them where they are. I shall send and tell you when you are to get on with the
work.' So the foreman went away, and his comment to his master was:

'I'd send in the bill, sir, for the work already done. 'Pears to me that money's a little shaky in that quarter.'

Once or twice Delandre tried to stop Brent on the road, and, at last, finding that he could not attain his object
rode after the carriage, calling out:

'What has become of my sister, your wife?' Geoffrey lashed his horses into a gallop, and the other, seeing
from his white face and from his wife's collapse almost into a faint that his object was attained, rode away
with a scowl and a laugh.

That night when Geoffrey went into the hall he passed over to the great fireplace, and all at once started back
with a smothered cry. Then with an effort he pulled himself together and went away, returning with a light. He
bent down over the broken hearth-stone to see if the moonlight falling through the storied window had in any
way deceived him. Then with a groan of anguish he sank to his knees.

There, sure enough, through the crack in the broken stone were protruding a multitude of threads of golden
hair just tinged with grey!
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 31
He was disturbed by a noise at the door, and looking round, saw his wife standing in the doorway. In the
desperation of the moment he took action to prevent discovery, and lighting a match at the lamp, stooped
down and burned away the hair that rose through the broken stone. Then rising nonchalantly as he could, he
pretended surprise at seeing his wife beside him.

For the next week he lived in an agony; for, whether by accident or design, he could not find himself alone in
the hall for any length of time. At each visit the hair had grown afresh through the crack, and he had to watch
it carefully lest his terrible secret should be discovered. He tried to find a receptacle for the body of the
murdered woman outside the house, but someone always interrupted him; and once, when he was coming out
of the private doorway, he was met by his wife, who began to question him about it, and manifested surprise
that she should not have before noticed the key which he now reluctantly showed her. Geoffrey dearly and
passionately loved his wife, so that any possibility of her discovering his dread secrets, or even of doubting
him, filled him with anguish; and after a couple of days had passed, he could not help coming to the
conclusion that, at least, she suspected something.

That very evening she came into the hall after her drive and found him there sitting moodily by the deserted
fireplace. She spoke to him directly.

'Geoffrey, I have been spoken to by that fellow Delandre, and he says horrible things. He tells to me that a
week ago his sister returned to his house, the wreck and ruin of her former self, with only her golden hair as of
old, and announced some fell intention. He asked me where she is--and oh, Geoffrey, she is dead, she is dead!
So how can she have returned? Oh! I am in dread, and I know not where to turn!'

For answer, Geoffrey burst into a torrent of blasphemy which made her shudder. He cursed Delandre and his
sister and all their kind, and in especial he hurled curse after curse on her golden hair.

'Oh, hush! hush!' she said, and was then silent, for she feared her husband when she saw the evil effect of his
humour. Geoffrey in the torrent of his anger stood up and moved away from the hearth; but suddenly stopped
as he saw a new look of terror in his wife's eyes. He followed their glance, and then he too, shuddered--for
there on the broken hearth-stone lay a golden streak as the point of the hair rose though the crack.

'Look, look!' she shrieked. 'Is it some ghost of the dead! Come away--come away!' and seizing her husband by
the wrist with the frenzy of madness, she pulled him from the room.

That night she was in a raging fever. The doctor of the district attended her at once, and special aid was
telegraphed for to London. Geoffrey was in despair, and in his anguish at the danger of his young wife almost
forgot his own crime and its consequences. In the evening the doctor had to leave to attend to others; but he
left Geoffrey in charge of his wife. His last words were:

'Remember, you must humour her till I come in the morning, or till some other doctor has her case in hand.
What you have to dread is another attack of emotion. See that she is kept warm. Nothing more can be done.'

Late in the evening, when the rest of the household had retired, Geoffrey's wife got up from her bed and called
to her husband.

'Come!' she said. 'Come to the old hall! I know where the gold comes from! I want to see it grow!'

Geoffrey would fain have stopped her, but he feared for her life or reason on the one hand, and lest in a
paroxysm she should shriek out her terrible suspicion, and seeing that it was useless to try to prevent her,
wrapped a warm rug around her and went with her to the old hall. When they entered, she turned and shut the
door and locked it.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 32

'We want no strangers amongst us three tonight!' she whispered with a wan smile.

'We three! nay we are but two,' said Geoffrey with a shudder; he feared to say more.

'Sit here,' said his wife as she put out the light. 'Sit here by the hearth and watch the gold growing. The silver
moonlight is jealous! See, it steals along the floor towards the gold--our gold!' Geoffrey looked with growing
horror, and saw that during the hours that had passed the golden hair had protruded further through the broken
hearth-stone. He tried to hide it by placing his feet over the broken place; and his wife, drawing her chair
beside him, leant over and laid her head on his shoulder.

'Now do not stir, dear,' she said; 'let us sit still and watch. We shall find the secret of the growing gold!' He
passed his arm round her and sat silent; and as the moonlight stole along the floor she sank to sleep.

He feared to wake her; and so sat silent and miserable as the hours stole away.

Before his horror-struck eyes the golden-hair from the broken stone grew and grew; and as it increased, so his
heart got colder and colder, till at last he had not power to stir, and sat with eyes full of terror watching his
doom.

*****

In the morning when the London doctor came, neither Geoffrey nor his wife could be found. Search was made
in all the rooms, but without avail. As a last resource the great door of the old hall was broken open, and those
who entered saw a grim and sorry sight.

There by the deserted hearth Geoffrey Brent and his young wife sat cold and white and dead. Her face was
peaceful, and her eyes were closed in sleep; but his face was a sight that made all who saw it shudder, for
there was on it a look of unutterable horror. The eyes were open and stared glassily at his feet, which were
twined with tresses of golden hair, streaked with grey, which came through the broken hearth-stone.

The Gipsy Prophecy

'I really think,' said the Doctor, 'that, at any rate, one of us should go and try whether or not the thing is an
imposture.'

'Good!' said Considine. 'After dinner we will take our cigars and stroll over to the camp.'

Accordingly, when the dinner was over, and the La Tour finished, Joshua Considine and his friend, Dr
Burleigh, went over to the east side of the moor, where the gipsy encampment lay. As they were leaving,
Mary Considine, who had walked as far as the end of the garden where it opened into the laneway, called after
her husband:

'Mind, Joshua, you are to give them a fair chance, but don't give them any clue to a fortune--and don't you get
flirting with any of the gipsy maidens--and take care to keep Gerald out of harm.'

For answer Considine held up his hand, as if taking a stage oath, and whistled the air of the old song, 'The
Gipsy Countess.' Gerald joined in the strain, and then, breaking into merry laughter, the two men passed along
the laneway to the common, turning now and then to wave their hands to Mary, who leaned over the gate, in
the twilight, looking after them.

It was a lovely evening in the summer; the very air was full of rest and quiet happiness, as though an outward
type of the peacefulness and joy which made a heaven of the home of the young married folk. Considine's life
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 33
had not been an eventful one. The only disturbing element which he had ever known was in his wooing of
Mary Winston, and the long-continued objection of her ambitious parents, who expected a brilliant match for
their only daughter. When Mr. and Mrs. Winston had discovered the attachment of the young barrister, they
had tried to keep the young people apart by sending their daughter away for a long round of visits, having
made her promise not to correspond with her lover during her absence. Love, however, had stood the test.
Neither absence nor neglect seemed to cool the passion of the young man, and jealousy seemed a thing
unknown to his sanguine nature; so, after a long period of waiting, the parents had given in, and the young
folk were married.

They had been living in the cottage a few months, and were just beginning to feel at home. Gerald Burleigh,
Joshua's old college chum, and himself a sometime victim of Mary's beauty, had arrived a week before, to stay
with them for as long a time as he could tear himself away from his work in London.

When her husband had quite disappeared Mary went into the house, and, sitting down at the piano, gave an
hour to Mendelssohn.

It was but a short walk across the common, and before the cigars required renewing the two men had reached
the gipsy camp. The place was as picturesque as gipsy camps--when in villages and when business is
good--usually are. There were some few persons round the fire, investing their money in prophecy, and a large
number of others, poorer or more parsimonious, who stayed just outside the bounds but near enough to see all
that went on.

As the two gentlemen approached, the villagers, who knew Joshua, made way a little, and a pretty, keen-eyed
gipsy girl tripped up and asked to tell their fortunes. Joshua held out his hand, but the girl, without seeming to
see it, stared at his face in a very odd manner. Gerald nudged him:

'You must cross her hand with silver,' he said. 'It is one of the most important parts of the mystery.' Joshua
took from his pocket a half-crown and held it out to her, but, without looking at it, she answered:

'You have to cross the gipsy's hand with gold.'

Gerald laughed. 'You are at a premium as a subject,' he said. Joshua was of the kind of man--the universal
kind--who can tolerate being stared at by a pretty girl; so, with some little deliberation, he answered:

'All right; here you are, my pretty girl; but you must give me a real good fortune for it,' and he handed her a
half sovereign, which she took, saying:

'It is not for me to give good fortune or bad, but only to read what the Stars have said.' She took his right hand
and turned it palm upward; but the instant her eyes met it she dropped it as though it had been red hot, and,
with a startled look, glided swiftly away. Lifting the curtain of the large tent, which occupied the centre of the
camp, she disappeared within.

'Sold again!' said the cynical Gerald. Joshua stood a little amazed, and not altogether satisfied. They both
watched the large tent. In a few moments there emerged from the opening not the young girl, but a stately
looking woman of middle age and commanding presence.

The instant she appeared the whole camp seemed to stand still. The clamour of tongues, the laughter and noise
of the work were, for a second or two, arrested, and every man or woman who sat, or crouched, or lay, stood
up and faced the imperial looking gipsy.

'The Queen, of course,' murmured Gerald. 'We are in luck tonight.' The gipsy Queen threw a searching glance
around the camp, and then, without hesitating an instant, came straight over and stood before Joshua.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 34

'Hold out your hand,' she said in a commanding tone.

Again Gerald spoke, sotto voce: 'I have not been spoken to in that way since I was at school.'

'Your hand must be crossed with gold.'

'A hundred per cent. at this game,' whispered Gerald, as Joshua laid another half sovereign on his upturned
palm.

The gipsy looked at the hand with knitted brows; then suddenly looking up into his face, said:

'Have you a strong will--have you a true heart that can be brave for one you love?'

'I hope so; but I am afraid I have not vanity enough to say "yes".'

'Then I will answer for you; for I read resolution in your face--resolution desperate and determined if need be.
You have a wife you love?'

'Yes,' emphatically.

'Then leave her at once--never see her face again. Go from her now, while love is fresh and your heart is free
from wicked intent. Go quick--go far, and never see her face again!'

Joshua drew away his hand quickly, and said, 'Thank you!' stiffly but sarcastically, as he began to move away.

'I say!' said Gerald, 'you're not going like that, old man; no use in being indignant with the Stars or their
prophet--and, moreover, your sovereign--what of it? At least, hear the matter out.'

'Silence, ribald!' commanded the Queen, 'you know not what you do. Let him go--and go ignorant, if he will
not be warned.'

Joshua immediately turned back. 'At all events, we will see this thing out,' he said. 'Now, madam, you have
given me advice, but I paid for a fortune.'

'Be warned!' said the gipsy. 'The Stars have been silent for long; let the mystery still wrap them round.'

'My dear madam, I do not get within touch of a mystery every day, and I prefer for my money knowledge
rather than ignorance. I can get the latter commodity for nothing when I want any of it.'

Gerald echoed the sentiment. 'As for me I have a large and unsaleable stock on hand.'

The gipsy Queen eyed the two men sternly, and then said: 'As you wish. You have chosen for yourself, and
have met warning with scorn, and appeal with levity. On your own heads be the doom!'

'Amen!' said Gerald.

With an imperious gesture the Queen took Joshua's hand again, and began to tell his fortune.

'I see here the flowing of blood; it will flow before long; it is running in my sight. It flows through the broken
circle of a severed ring.'

'Go on!' said Joshua, smiling. Gerald was silent.

Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 35

'Must I speak plainer?'

'Certainly; we commonplace mortals want something definite. The Stars are a long way off, and their words
get somewhat dulled in the message.'

The gipsy shuddered, and then spoke impressively. 'This is the hand of a murderer--the murderer of his wife!'
She dropped the hand and turned away.

Joshua laughed. 'Do you know,' said he, 'I think if I were you I should prophesy some jurisprudence into my
system. For instance, you say "this hand is the hand of a murderer." Well, whatever it may be in the future--or
potentially--it is at present not one. You ought to give your prophecy in such terms as "the hand which will be
a murderer's", or, rather, "the hand of one who will be the murderer of his wife". The Stars are really not good
on technical questions.'

The gipsy made no reply of any kind, but, with drooping head and despondent mien, walked slowly to her
tent, and, lifting the curtain, disappeared.

Without speaking the two men turned homewards, and walked across the moor. Presently, after some little
hesitation, Gerald spoke.

'Of course, old man, this is all a joke; a ghastly one, but still a joke. But would it not be well to keep it to
ourselves?'

'How do you mean?'

'Well, not tell your wife. It might alarm her.'

'Alarm her! My dear Gerald, what are you thinking of? Why, she would not be alarmed or afraid of me if all
the gipsies that ever didn't come from Bohemia agreed that I was to murder her, or even to have a hard
thought of her, whilst so long as she was saying "Jack Robinson."'

Gerald remonstrated. 'Old fellow, women are superstitious--far more than we men are; and, also they are
blessed--or cursed--with a nervous system to which we are strangers. I see too much of it in my work not to
realise it. Take my advice and do not let her know, or you will frighten her.'

Joshua's lips unconsciously hardened as he answered: 'My dear fellow, I would not have a secret from my
wife. Why, it would be the beginning of a new order of things between us. We have no secrets from each
other. If we ever have, then you may begin to look out for something odd between us.'

'Still,' said Gerald, 'at the risk of unwelcome interference, I say again be warned in time.'

'The gipsy's very words,' said Joshua. 'You and she seem quite of one accord. Tell me, old man, is this a
put-up thing? You told me of the gipsy camp--did you arrange it all with Her Majesty?' This was said with an
air of bantering earnestness. Gerald assured him that he only heard of the camp that morning; but he made fun
of every answer of his friend, and, in the process of this raillery, the time passed, and they entered the cottage.

Mary was sitting at the piano but not playing. The dim twilight had waked some very tender feelings in her
breast, and her eyes were full of gentle tears. When the men came in she stole over to her husband's side and
kissed him. Joshua struck a tragic attitude.

'Mary,' he said in a deep voice, 'before you approach me, listen to the words of Fate. The Stars have spoken
and the doom is sealed.'
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 36

'What is it, dear? Tell me the fortune, but do not frighten me.'

'Not at all, my dear; but there is a truth which it is well that you should know. Nay, it is necessary so that all
your arrangements can be made beforehand, and everything be decently done and in order.'

'Go on, dear; I am listening.'

'Mary Considine, your effigy may yet be seen at Madame Tussaud's. The juris-imprudent Stars have
announced their fell tidings that this hand is red with blood--your blood. Mary! Mary! my God!' He sprang
forward, but too late to catch her as she fell fainting on the floor.

'I told you,' said Gerald. 'You don't know them as well as I do.'

After a little while Mary recovered from her swoon, but only to fall into strong hysterics, in which she
laughed and wept and raved and cried, 'Keep him from me--from me, Joshua, my husband,' and many other
words of entreaty and of fear.

Joshua Considine was in a state of mind bordering on agony, and when at last Mary became calm he knelt by
her and kissed her feet and hands and hair and called her all the sweet names and said all the tender things his
lips could frame. All that night he sat by her bedside and held her hand. Far through the night and up to the
early morning she kept waking from sleep and crying out as if in fear, till she was comforted by the
consciousness that her husband was watching beside her.

Breakfast was late the next morning, but during it Joshua received a telegram which required him to drive
over to Withering, nearly twenty miles. He was loth to go; but Mary would not hear of his remaining, and so
before noon he drove off in his dog-cart alone.

When he was gone Mary retired to her room. She did not appear at lunch, but when afternoon tea was served
on the lawn under the great weeping willow, she came to join her guest. She was looking quite recovered from
her illness of the evening before. After some casual remarks, she said to Gerald: 'Of course it was very silly
about last night, but I could not help feeling frightened. Indeed I would feel so still if I let myself think of it.
But, after all these people may only imagine things, and I have got a test that can hardly fail to show that the
prediction is false--if indeed it be false,' she added sadly.

'What is your plan?' asked Gerald.

'I shall go myself to the gipsy camp, and have my fortune told by the Queen.'

'Capital. May I go with you?'

'Oh, no! That would spoil it. She might know you and guess at me, and suit her utterance accordingly. I shall
go alone this afternoon.'

When the afternoon was gone Mary Considine took her way to the gipsy encampment. Gerald went with her
as far as the near edge of the common, and returned alone.

Half-an-hour had hardly elapsed when Mary entered the drawing-room, where he lay on a sofa reading. She
was ghastly pale and was in a state of extreme excitement. Hardly had she passed over the threshold when she
collapsed and sank moaning on the carpet. Gerald rushed to aid her, but by a great effort she controlled herself
and motioned him to be silent. He waited, and his ready attention to her wish seemed to be her best help, for,
in a few minutes, she had somewhat recovered, and was able to tell him what had passed.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 37

'When I got to the camp,' she said, 'there did not seem to be a soul about, I went into the centre and stood
there. Suddenly a tall woman stood beside me. "Something told me I was wanted!" she said. I held out my
hand and laid a piece of silver on it. She took from her neck a small golden trinket and laid it there also; and
then, seizing the two, threw them into the stream that ran by. Then she took my hand in hers and spoke:
"Naught but blood in this guilty place," and turned away. I caught hold of her and asked her to tell me more.
After some hesitation, she said: "Alas! alas! I see you lying at your husband's feet, and his hands are red with
blood".'

Gerald did not feel at all at ease, and tried to laugh it off. 'Surely,' he said, 'this woman has a craze about
murder.'

'Do not laugh,' said Mary, 'I cannot bear it,' and then, as if with a sudden impulse, she left the room.

Not long after Joshua returned, bright and cheery, and as hungry as a hunter after his long drive. His presence
cheered his wife, who seemed much brighter, but she did not mention the episode of the visit to the gipsy
camp, so Gerald did not mention it either. As if by tacit consent the subject was not alluded to during the
evening. But there was a strange, settled look on Mary's face, which Gerald could not but observe.

In the morning Joshua came down to breakfast later than usual. Mary had been up and about the house from
an early hour; but as the time drew on she seemed to get a little nervous and now and again threw around an
anxious look.

Gerald could not help noticing that none of those at breakfast could get on satisfactorily with their food. It was
not altogether that the chops were tough, but that the knives were all so blunt. Being a guest, he, of course,
made no sign; but presently saw Joshua draw his thumb across the edge of his knife in an unconscious sort of
way. At the action Mary turned pale and almost fainted.

After breakfast they all went out on the lawn. Mary was making up a bouquet, and said to her husband, 'Get
me a few of the tea-roses, dear.'

Joshua pulled down a cluster from the front of the house. The stem bent, but was too tough to break. He put
his hand in his pocket to get his knife; but in vain. 'Lend me your knife, Gerald,' he said. But Gerald had not
got one, so he went into the breakfast room and took one from the table. He came out feeling its edge and
grumbling. 'What on earth has happened to all the knives--the edges seem all ground off?' Mary turned away
hurriedly and entered the house.

Joshua tried to sever the stalk with the blunt knife as country cooks sever the necks of fowl--as schoolboys cut
twine. With a little effort he finished the task. The cluster of roses grew thick, so he determined to gather a
great bunch.

He could not find a single sharp knife in the sideboard where the cutlery was kept, so he called Mary, and
when she came, told her the state of things. She looked so agitated and so miserable that he could not help
knowing the truth, and, as if astounded and hurt, asked her:

'Do you mean to say that you have done it?'

She broke in, 'Oh, Joshua, I was so afraid.'

He paused, and a set, white look came over his face. 'Mary!' said he, 'is this all the trust you have in me? I
would not have believed it.'

'Oh, Joshua! Joshua!' she cried entreatingly, 'forgive me,' and wept bitterly.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 38

Joshua thought a moment and then said: 'I see how it is. We shall better end this or we shall all go mad.'

He ran into the drawing-room.

'Where are you going?' almost screamed Mary.

Gerald saw what he meant--that he would not be tied to blunt instruments by the force of a superstition, and
was not surprised when he saw him come out through the French window, bearing in his hand a large
Ghourka knife, which usually lay on the centre table, and which his brother had sent him from Northern India.
It was one of those great hunting-knives which worked such havoc, at close quarters with the enemies of the
loyal Ghourkas during the mutiny, of great weight but so evenly balanced in the hand as to seem light, and
with an edge like a razor. With one of these knives a Ghourka can cut a sheep in two.

When Mary saw him come out of the room with the weapon in his hand she screamed in an agony of fright,
and the hysterics of last night were promptly renewed.

Joshua ran toward her, and, seeing her falling, threw down the knife and tried to catch her.

However, he was just a second too late, and the two men cried out in horror simultaneously as they saw her
fall upon the naked blade.

When Gerald rushed over he found that in falling her left hand had struck the blade, which lay partly upwards
on the grass. Some of the small veins were cut through, and the blood gushed freely from the wound. As he
was tying it up he pointed out to Joshua that the wedding ring was severed by the steel.

They carried her fainting to the house. When, after a while, she came out, with her arm in a sling, she was
peaceful in her mind and happy. She said to her husband:

'The gipsy was wonderfully near the truth; too near for the real thing ever to occur now, dear.'

Joshua bent over and kissed the wounded hand.

The Coming of Abel Behenna

The little Cornish port of Pencastle was bright in the early April, when the sun had seemingly come to stay
after a long and bitter winter. Boldly and blackly the rock stood out against a background of shaded blue,
where the sky fading into mist met the far horizon. The sea was of true Cornish hue--sapphire, save where it
became deep emerald green in the fathomless depths under the cliffs, where the seal caves opened their grim
jaws. On the slopes the grass was parched and brown. The spikes of furze bushes were ashy grey, but the
golden yellow of their flowers streamed along the hillside, dipping out in lines as the rock cropped up, and
lessening into patches and dots till finally it died away all together where the sea winds swept round the
jutting cliffs and cut short the vegetation as though with an ever-working aerial shears. The whole hillside,
with its body of brown and flashes of yellow, was just like a colossal yellow-hammer.

The little harbour opened from the sea between towering cliffs, and behind a lonely rock, pierced with many
caves and blow-holes through which the sea in storm time sent its thunderous voice, together with a fountain
of drifting spume. Hence, it wound westwards in a serpentine course, guarded at its entrance by two little
curving piers to left and right. These were roughly built of dark slates placed endways and held together with
great beams bound with iron bands. Thence, it flowed up the rocky bed of the stream whose winter torrents
had of old cut out its way amongst the hills. This stream was deep at first, with here and there, where it
widened, patches of broken rock exposed at low water, full of holes where crabs and lobsters were to be found
at the ebb of the tide. From amongst the rocks rose sturdy posts, used for warping in the little coasting vessels
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 39
which frequented the port. Higher up, the stream still flowed deeply, for the tide ran far inland, but always
calmly for all the force of the wildest storm was broken below. Some quarter mile inland the stream was deep
at high water, but at low tide there were at each side patches of the same broken rock as lower down, through
the chinks of which the sweet water of the natural stream trickled and murmured after the tide had ebbed
away. Here, too, rose mooring posts for the fishermen's boats. At either side of the river was a row of cottages
down almost on the level of high tide. They were pretty cottages, strongly and snugly built, with trim narrow
gardens in front, full of old-fashioned plants, flowering currants, coloured primroses, wallflower, and
stonecrop. Over the fronts of many of them climbed clematis and wisteria. The window sides and door posts
of all were as white as snow, and the little pathway to each was paved with light coloured stones. At some of
the doors were tiny porches, whilst at others were rustic seats cut from tree trunks or from old barrels; in
nearly every case the window ledges were filled with boxes or pots of flowers or foliage plants.

Two men lived in cottages exactly opposite each other across the stream. Two men, both young, both
good-looking, both prosperous, and who had been companions and rivals from their boyhood. Abel Behenna
was dark with the gypsy darkness which the Phoenician mining wanderers left in their track; Eric
Sanson--which the local antiquarian said was a corruption of Sagamanson--was fair, with the ruddy hue which
marked the path of the wild Norseman. These two seemed to have singled out each other from the very
beginning to work and strive together, to fight for each other and to stand back to back in all endeavours. They
had now put the coping-stone on their Temple of Unity by falling in love with the same girl. Sarah Trefusis
was certainly the prettiest girl in Pencastle, and there was many a young man who would gladly have tried his
fortune with her, but that there were two to contend against, and each of these the strongest and most resolute
man in the port--except the other. The average young man thought that this was very hard, and on account of
it bore no good will to either of the three principals: whilst the average young woman who had, lest worse
should befall, to put up with the grumbling of her sweetheart, and the sense of being only second best which it
implied, did not either, be sure, regard Sarah with friendly eye. Thus it came, in the course of a year or so, for
rustic courtship is a slow process, that the two men and woman found themselves thrown much together. They
were all satisfied, so it did not matter, and Sarah, who was vain and something frivolous, took care to have her
revenge on both men and women in a quiet way. When a young woman in her 'walking out' can only boast
one not-quite-satisfied young man, it is no particular pleasure to her to see her escort cast sheep's eyes at a
better-looking girl supported by two devoted swains.

At length there came a time which Sarah dreaded, and which she had tried to keep distant--the time when she
had to make her choice between the two men. She liked them both, and, indeed, either of them might have
satisfied the ideas of even a more exacting girl. But her mind was so constituted that she thought more of what
she might lose, than of what she might gain; and whenever she thought she had made up her mind she became
instantly assailed with doubts as to the wisdom of her choice. Always the man whom she had presumably lost
became endowed afresh with a newer and more bountiful crop of advantages than had ever arisen from the
possibility of his acceptance. She promised each man that on her birthday she would give him his answer, and
that day, the 11th of April, had now arrived. The promises had been given singly and confidentially, but each
was given to a man who was not likely to forget. Early in the morning she found both men hovering round her
door. Neither had taken the other into his confidence, and each was simply seeking an early opportunity of
getting his answer, and advancing his suit if necessary. Damon, as a rule, does not take Pythias with him when
making a proposal; and in the heart of each man his own affairs had a claim far above any requirements of
friendship. So, throughout the day, they kept seeing each other out. The position was doubtless somewhat
embarrassing to Sarah, and though the satisfaction of her vanity that she should be thus adored was very
pleasing, yet there were moments when she was annoyed with both men for being so persistent. Her only
consolation at such moments was that she saw, through the elaborate smiles of the other girls when in passing
they noticed her door thus doubly guarded, the jealousy which filled their hearts. Sarah's mother was a person
of commonplace and sordid ideas, and, seeing all along the state of affairs, her one intention, persistently
expressed to her daughter in the plainest words, was to so arrange matters that Sarah should get all that was
possible out of both men. With this purpose she had cunningly kept herself as far as possible in the
background in the matter of her daughter's wooings, and watched in silence. At first Sarah had been indignant
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 40

with her for her sordid views; but, as usual, her weak nature gave way before persistence, and she had now got
to the stage of acceptance. She was not surprised when her mother whispered to her in the little yard behind
the house:--

'Go up the hillside for a while; I want to talk to these two. They're both red-hot for ye, and now's the time to
get things fixed!' Sarah began a feeble remonstrance, but her mother cut her short.

'I tell ye, girl, that my mind is made up! Both these men want ye, and only one can have ye, but before ye
choose it'll be so arranged that ye'll have all that both have got! Don't argy, child! Go up the hillside, and
when ye come back I'll have it fixed--I see a way quite easy!' So Sarah went up the hillside through the narrow
paths between the golden furze, and Mrs. Trefusis joined the two men in the living-room of the little house.

She opened the attack with the desperate courage which is in all mothers when they think for their children,
howsoever mean the thoughts may be.

'Ye two men, ye're both in love with my Sarah!'

Their bashful silence gave consent to the barefaced proposition. She went on.

'Neither of ye has much!' Again they tacitly acquiesced in the soft impeachment.

'I don't know that either of ye could keep a wife!' Though neither said a word their looks and bearing
expressed distinct dissent. Mrs. Trefusis went on:

'But if ye'd put what ye both have together ye'd make a comfortable home for one of ye--and Sarah!' She eyed
the men keenly, with her cunning eyes half shut, as she spoke; then satisfied from her scrutiny that the idea
was accepted she went on quickly, as if to prevent argument:

'The girl likes ye both, and mayhap it's hard for her to choose. Why don't ye toss up for her? First put your
money together--ye've each got a bit put by, I know. Let the lucky man take the lot and trade with it a bit, and
then come home and marry her. Neither of ye's afraid, I suppose! And neither of ye'll say that he won't do that
much for the girl that ye both say ye love!'

Abel broke the silence:

'It don't seem the square thing to toss for the girl! She wouldn't like it herself, and it doesn't seem--seem
respectful like to her--' Eric interrupted. He was conscious that his chance was not so good as Abel's in case
Sarah should wish to choose between them:

'Are ye afraid of the hazard?'

'Not me!' said Abel, boldly. Mrs. Trefusis, seeing that her idea was beginning to work, followed up the
advantage.

'It is settled that ye put yer money together to make a home for her, whether ye toss for her or leave it for her
to choose?'

'Yes,' said Eric quickly, and Abel agreed with equal sturdiness. Mrs. Trefusis' little cunning eyes twinkled.
She heard Sarah's step in the yard, and said:

'Well! here she comes, and I leave it to her.' And she went out.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 41
During her brief walk on the hillside Sarah had been trying to make up her mind. She was feeling almost
angry with both men for being the cause of her difficulty, and as she came into the room said shortly:

'I want to have a word with you both--come to the Flagstaff Rock, where we can be alone.' She took her hat
and went out of the house up the winding path to the steep rock crowned with a high flagstaff, where once the
wreckers' fire basket used to burn. This was the rock which formed the northern jaw of the little harbour.
There was only room on the path for two abreast, and it marked the state of things pretty well when, by a sort
of implied arrangement, Sarah went first, and the two men followed, walking abreast and keeping step. By
this time, each man's heart was boiling with jealousy. When they came to the top of the rock, Sarah stood
against the flagstaff, and the two young men stood opposite her. She had chosen her position with knowledge
and intention, for there was no room for anyone to stand beside her. They were all silent for a while; then
Sarah began to laugh and said:--

'I promised the both of you to give you an answer to-day. I've been thinking and thinking and thinking, till I
began to get angry with you both for plaguing me so; and even now I don't seem any nearer than ever I was to
making up my mind.' Eric said suddenly:

'Let us toss for it, lass!' Sarah showed no indignation whatever at the proposition; her mother's eternal
suggestion had schooled her to the acceptance of something of the kind, and her weak nature made it easy to
her to grasp at any way out of the difficulty. She stood with downcast eyes idly picking at the sleeve of her
dress, seeming to have tacitly acquiesced in the proposal. Both men instinctively realising this pulled each a
coin from his pocket, spun it in the air, and dropped his other hand over the palm on which it lay. For a few
seconds they remained thus, all silent; then Abel, who was the more thoughtful of the men, spoke:

'Sarah! is this good?' As he spoke he removed the upper hand from the coin and placed the latter back in his
pocket. Sarah was nettled.

'Good or bad, it's good enough for me! Take it or leave it as you like,' she said, to which he replied quickly:

'Nay lass! Aught that concerns you is good enow for me. I did but think of you lest you might have pain or
disappointment hereafter. If you love Eric better nor me, in God's name say so, and I think I'm man enow to
stand aside. Likewise, if I'm the one, don't make us both miserable for life!' Face to face with a difficulty,
Sarah's weak nature proclaimed itself; she put her hands before her face and began to cry, saying--

'It was my mother. She keeps telling me!' The silence which followed was broken by Eric, who said hotly to
Abel:

'Let the lass alone, can't you? If she wants to choose this way, let her. It's good enough for me--and for you,
too! She's said it now, and must abide by it!' Hereupon Sarah turned upon him in sudden fury, and cried:

'Hold your tongue! what is it to you, at any rate?' and she resumed her crying. Eric was so flabbergasted that
he had not a word to say, but stood looking particularly foolish, with his mouth open and his hands held out
with the coin still between them. All were silent till Sarah, taking her hands from her face laughed hysterically
and said:

'As you two can't make up your minds, I'm going home!' and she turned to go.

'Stop,' said Abel, in an authoritative voice. 'Eric, you hold the coin, and I'll cry. Now, before we settle it, let us
clearly understand: the man who wins takes all the money that we both have got, brings it to Bristol and ships
on a voyage and trades with it. Then he comes back and marries Sarah, and they two keep all, whatever there
may be, as the result of the trading. Is this what we understand?'
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 42

'Yes,' said Eric.

'I'll marry him on my next birthday,' said Sarah. Having said it the intolerably mercenary spirit of her action
seemed to strike her, and impulsively she turned away with a bright blush. Fire seemed to sparkle in the eyes
of both men. Said Eric: 'A year so be! The man that wins is to have one year.'

'Toss!' cried Abel, and the coin spun in the air. Eric caught it, and again held it between his outstretched
hands.

'Heads!' cried Abel, a pallor sweeping over his face as he spoke. As he leaned forward to look Sarah leaned
forward too, and their heads almost touched. He could feel her hair blowing on his cheek, and it thrilled
through him like fire. Eric lifted his upper hand; the coin lay with its head up. Abel stepped forward and took
Sarah in his arms. With a curse Eric hurled the coin far into the sea. Then he leaned against the flagstaff and
scowled at the others with his hands thrust deep into his pockets. Abel whispered wild words of passion and
delight into Sarah's ears, and as she listened she began to believe that fortune had rightly interpreted the
wishes of her secret heart, and that she loved Abel best.

Presently Abel looked up and caught sight of Eric's face as the last ray of sunset struck it. The red light
intensified the natural ruddiness of his complexion, and he looked as though he were steeped in blood. Abel
did not mind his scowl, for now that his own heart was at rest he could feel unalloyed pity for his friend. He
stepped over meaning to comfort him, and held out his hand, saying:

'It was my chance, old lad. Don't grudge it me. I'll try to make Sarah a happy woman, and you shall be a
brother to us both!'

'Brother be damned!' was all the answer Eric made, as he turned away. When he had gone a few steps down
the rocky path he turned and came back. Standing before Abel and Sarah, who had their arms round each
other, he said:

'You have a year. Make the most of it! And be sure you're in time to claim your wife! Be back to have your
banns up in time to be married on the 11th April. If you're not, I tell you I shall have my banns up, and you
may get back too late.'

'What do you mean, Eric? You are mad!'

'No more mad than you are, Abel Behenna. You go, that's your chance! I stay, that's mine! I don't mean to let
the grass grow under my feet. Sarah cared no more for you than for me five minutes ago, and she may come
back to that five minutes after you're gone! You won by a point only--the game may change.'

'The game won't change!' said Abel shortly. 'Sarah, you'll be true to me? You won't marry till I return?'

'For a year!' added Eric, quickly, 'that's the bargain.'

'I promise for the year,' said Sarah. A dark look came over Abel's face, and he was about to speak, but he
mastered himself and smiled.

'I mustn't be too hard or get angry tonight! Come, Eric! we played and fought together. I won fairly. I played
fairly all the game of our wooing! You know that as well as I do; and now when I am going away, I shall look
to my old and true comrade to help me when I am gone!'

'I'll help you none,' said Eric, 'so help me God!'

Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 43

'It was God helped me,' said Abel simply.

'Then let Him go on helping you,' said Eric angrily. 'The Devil is good enough for me!' and without another
word he rushed down the steep path and disappeared behind the rocks.

When he had gone Abel hoped for some tender passage with Sarah, but the first remark she made chilled him.

'How lonely it all seems without Eric!' and this note sounded till he had left her at home--and after.

Early on the next morning Abel heard a noise at his door, and on going out saw Eric walking rapidly away: a
small canvas bag full of gold and silver lay on the threshold; on a small slip of paper pinned to it was written:

'Take the money and go. I stay. God for you! The Devil for me! Remember the 11th of April.--ERIC
SANSON.' That afternoon Abel went off to Bristol, and a week later sailed on the Star of the Sea bound for
Pahang. His money--including that which had been Eric's--was on board in the shape of a venture of cheap
toys. He had been advised by a shrewd old mariner of Bristol whom he knew, and who knew the ways of the
Chersonese, who predicted that every penny invested would be returned with a shilling to boot.

As the year wore on Sarah became more and more disturbed in her mind. Eric was always at hand to make
love to her in his own persistent, masterful manner, and to this she did not object. Only one letter came from
Abel, to say that his venture had proved successful, and that he had sent some two hundred pounds to the bank
at Bristol, and was trading with fifty pounds still remaining in goods for China, whither the Star of the Sea
was bound and whence she would return to Bristol. He suggested that Eric's share of the venture should be
returned to him with his share of the profits. This proposition was treated with anger by Eric, and as simply
childish by Sarah's mother.

More than six months had since then elapsed, but no other letter had come, and Eric's hopes which had been
dashed down by the letter from Pahang, began to rise again. He perpetually assailed Sarah with an 'if!' If Abel
did not return, would she then marry him? If the 11th April went by without Abel being in the port, would she
give him over? If Abel had taken his fortune, and married another girl on the head of it, would she marry him,
Eric, as soon as the truth were known? And so on in an endless variety of possibilities. The power of the
strong will and the determined purpose over the woman's weaker nature became in time manifest. Sarah began
to lose her faith in Abel and to regard Eric as a possible husband; and a possible husband is in a woman's eye
different to all other men. A new affection for him began to arise in her breast, and the daily familiarities of
permitted courtship furthered the growing affection. Sarah began to regard Abel as rather a rock in the road of
her life, and had it not been for her mother's constantly reminding her of the good fortune already laid by in
the Bristol Bank she would have tried to have shut her eyes altogether to the fact of Abel's existence.

The 11th April was Saturday, so that in order to have the marriage on that day it would be necessary that the
banns should be called on Sunday, 22nd March. From the beginning of that month Eric kept perpetually on
the subject of Abel's absence, and his outspoken opinion that the latter was either dead or married began to
become a reality to the woman's mind. As the first half of the month wore on Eric became more jubilant, and
after church on the 15th he took Sarah for a walk to the Flagstaff Rock. There he asserted himself strongly:

'I told Abel, and you too, that if he was not here to put up his banns in time for the eleventh, I would put up
mine for the twelfth. Now the time has come when I mean to do it. He hasn't kept his word'--here Sarah struck
in out of her weakness and indecision:

'He hasn't broken it yet!' Eric ground his teeth with anger.

'If you mean to stick up for him,' he said, as he smote his hands savagely on the flagstaff, which sent forth a
shivering murmur, 'well and good. I'll keep my part of the bargain. On Sunday I shall give notice of the banns,
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 44

and you can deny them in the church if you will. If Abel is in Pencastle on the eleventh, he can have them
cancelled, and his own put up; but till then, I take my course, and woe to anyone who stands in my way!' With
that he flung himself down the rocky pathway, and Sarah could not but admire his Viking strength and spirit,
as, crossing the hill, he strode away along the cliffs towards Bude.

During the week no news was heard of Abel, and on Saturday Eric gave notice of the banns of marriage
between himself and Sarah Trefusis. The clergyman would have remonstrated with him, for although nothing
formal had been told to the neighbours, it had been understood since Abel's departure that on his return he was
to marry Sarah; but Eric would not discuss the question.

'It is a painful subject, sir,' he said with a firmness which the parson, who was a very young man, could not
but be swayed by. 'Surely there is nothing against Sarah or me. Why should there be any bones made about
the matter?' The parson said no more, and on the next day he read out the banns for the first time amidst an
audible buzz from the congregation. Sarah was present, contrary to custom, and though she blushed furiously
enjoyed her triumph over the other girls whose banns had not yet come. Before the week was over she began
to make her wedding dress. Eric used to come and look at her at work and the sight thrilled through him. He
used to say all sorts of pretty things to her at such times, and there were to both delicious moments of
love-making.

The banns were read a second time on the 29th, and Eric's hope grew more and more fixed though there were
to him moments of acute despair when he realised that the cup of happiness might be dashed from his lips at
any moment, right up to the last. At such times he was full of passion--desperate and remorseless--and he
ground his teeth and clenched his hands in a wild way as though some taint of the old Berserker fury of his
ancestors still lingered in his blood. On the Thursday of that week he looked in on Sarah and found her, amid
a flood of sunshine, putting finishing touches to her white wedding gown. His own heart was full of gaiety,
and the sight of the woman who was so soon to be his own so occupied, filled him with a joy unspeakable,
and he felt faint with languorous ecstasy. Bending over he kissed Sarah on the mouth, and then whispered in
her rosy ear--

'Your wedding dress, Sarah! And for me!' As he drew back to admire her she looked up saucily, and said to
him--

'Perhaps not for you. There is more than a week yet for Abel!' and then cried out in dismay, for with a wild
gesture and a fierce oath Eric dashed out of the house, banging the door behind him. The incident disturbed
Sarah more than she could have thought possible, for it awoke all her fears and doubts and indecision afresh.
She cried a little, and put by her dress, and to soothe herself went out to sit for a while on the summit of the
Flagstaff Rock. When she arrived she found there a little group anxiously discussing the weather. The sea was
calm and the sun bright, but across the sea were strange lines of darkness and light, and close in to shore the
rocks were fringed with foam, which spread out in great white curves and circles as the currents drifted. The
wind had backed, and came in sharp, cold puffs. The blow-hole, which ran under the Flagstaff Rock, from the
rocky bay without to the harbour within, was booming at intervals, and the seagulls were screaming
ceaselessly as they wheeled about the entrance of the port.

'It looks bad,' she heard an old fisherman say to the coastguard. 'I seen it just like this once before, when the
East Indiaman Coromandel went to pieces in Dizzard Bay!' Sarah did not wait to hear more. She was of a
timid nature where danger was concerned, and could not bear to hear of wrecks and disasters. She went home
and resumed the completion of her dress, secretly determined to appease Eric when she should meet him with
a sweet apology--and to take the earliest opportunity of being even with him after her marriage. The old
fisherman's weather prophecy was justified. That night at dusk a wild storm came on. The sea rose and lashed
the western coasts from Skye to Scilly and left a tale of disaster everywhere. The sailors and fishermen of
Pencastle all turned out on the rocks and cliffs and watched eagerly. Presently, by a flash of lightning, a 'ketch'
was seen drifting under only a jib about half-a-mile outside the port. All eyes and all glasses were
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 45
concentrated on her, waiting for the next flash, and when it came a chorus went up that it was the Lovely
Alice, trading between Bristol and Penzance, and touching at all the little ports between. 'God help them!' said
the harbour-master, 'for nothing in this world can save them when they are between Bude and Tintagel and the
wind on shore!' The coastguards exerted themselves, and, aided by brave hearts and willing hands, they
brought the rocket apparatus up on the summit of the Flagstaff Rock. Then they burned blue lights so that
those on board might see the harbour opening in case they could make any effort to reach it. They worked
gallantly enough on board; but no skill or strength of man could avail. Before many minutes were over the
Lovely Alice rushed to her doom on the great island rock that guarded the mouth of the port. The screams of
those on board were faintly borne on the tempest as they flung themselves into the sea in a last chance for life.
The blue lights were kept burning, and eager eyes peered into the depths of the waters in case any face could
be seen; and ropes were held ready to fling out in aid. But never a face was seen, and the willing arms rested
idle. Eric was there amongst his fellows. His old Icelandic origin was never more apparent than in that wild
hour. He took a rope, and shouted in the ear of the harbour-master:

'I shall go down on the rock over the seal cave. The tide is running up, and someone may drift in there!'

'Keep back, man!' came the answer. 'Are you mad? One slip on that rock and you are lost: and no man could
keep his feet in the dark on such a place in such a tempest!'

'Not a bit,' came the reply. 'You remember how Abel Behenna saved me there on a night like this when my
boat went on the Gull Rock. He dragged me up from the deep water in the seal cave, and now someone may
drift in there again as I did,' and he was gone into the darkness. The projecting rock hid the light on the
Flagstaff Rock, but he knew his way too well to miss it. His boldness and sureness of foot standing to him, he
shortly stood on the great round-topped rock cut away beneath by the action of the waves over the entrance of
the seal cave, where the water was fathomless. There he stood in comparative safety, for the concave shape of
the rock beat back the waves with their own force, and though the water below him seemed to boil like a
seething cauldron, just beyond the spot there was a space of almost calm. The rock, too, seemed here to shut
off the sound of the gale, and he listened as well as watched. As he stood there ready, with his coil of rope
poised to throw, he thought he heard below him, just beyond the whirl of the water, a faint, despairing cry. He
echoed it with a shout that rang into the night Then he waited for the flash of lightning, and as it passed flung
his rope out into the darkness where he had seen a face rising through the swirl of the foam. The rope was
caught, for he felt a pull on it, and he shouted again in his mighty voice:

'Tie it round your waist, and I shall pull you up.' Then when he felt that it was fast he moved along the rock to
the far side of the sea cave, where the deep water was something stiller, and where he could get foothold
secure enough to drag the rescued man on the overhanging rock. He began to pull, and shortly he knew from
the rope taken in that the man he was now rescuing must soon be close to the top of the rock. He steadied
himself for a moment, and drew a long breath, that he might at the next effort complete the rescue. He had just
bent his back to the work when a flash of lightning revealed to each other the two men--the rescuer and the
rescued.

Eric Sanson and Abel Behenna were face to face--and none knew of the meeting save themselves; and God.

On the instant a wave of passion swept through Eric's heart. All his hopes were shattered, and with the hatred
of Cain his eyes looked out. He saw in the instant of recognition the joy in Abel's face that his was the hand to
succour him, and this intensified his hate. Whilst the passion was on him he started back, and the rope ran out
between his hands. His moment of hate was followed by an impulse of his better manhood, but it was too late.

Before he could recover himself, Abel encumbered with the rope that should have aided him, was plunged
with a despairing cry back into the darkness of the devouring sea.

Then, feeling all the madness and the doom of Cain upon him, Eric rushed back over the rocks, heedless of
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 46

the danger and eager only for one thing--to be amongst other people whose living noises would shut out that
last cry which seemed to ring still in his ears. When he regained the Flagstaff Rock the men surrounded him,
and through the fury of the storm he heard the harbour-master say:--

'We feared you were lost when we heard a cry! How white you are! Where is your rope? Was there anyone
drifted in?'

'No one,' he shouted in answer, for he felt that he could never explain that he had let his old comrade slip back
into the sea, and at the very place and under the very circumstances in which that comrade had saved his own
life. He hoped by one bold lie to set the matter at rest for ever. There was no one to bear witness--and if he
should have to carry that still white face in his eyes and that despairing cry in his ears for evermore--at least
none should know of it. 'No one,' he cried, more loudly still. 'I slipped on the rock, and the rope fell into the
sea!' So saying he left them, and, rushing down the steep path, gained his own cottage and locked himself
within.

The remainder of that night he passed lying on his bed--dressed and motionless--staring upwards, and seeming
to see through the darkness a pale face gleaming wet in the lightning, with its glad recognition turning to
ghastly despair, and to hear a cry which never ceased to echo in his soul.

In the morning the storm was over and all was smiling again, except that the sea was still boisterous with its
unspent fury. Great pieces of wreck drifted into the port, and the sea around the island rock was strewn with
others. Two bodies also drifted into the harbour--one the master of the wrecked ketch, the other a strange
seaman whom no one knew.

Sarah saw nothing of Eric till the evening, and then he only looked in for a minute. He did not come into the
house, but simply put his head in through the open window.

'Well, Sarah,' he called out in a loud voice, though to her it did not ring truly, 'is the wedding dress done?
Sunday week, mind! Sunday week!'

Sarah was glad to have the reconciliation so easy; but, womanlike, when she saw the storm was over and her
own fears groundless, she at once repeated the cause of offence.

'Sunday so be it,' she said without looking up, 'if Abel isn't there on Saturday!' Then she looked up saucily,
though her heart was full of fear of another outburst on the part of her impetuous lover. But the window was
empty; Eric had taken himself off, and with a pout she resumed her work. She saw Eric no more till Sunday
afternoon, after the banns had been called the third time, when he came up to her before all the people with an
air of proprietorship which half-pleased and half-annoyed her.

'Not yet, mister!' she said, pushing him away, as the other girls giggled. 'Wait till Sunday next, if you
please--the day after Saturday!' she added, looking at him saucily. The girls giggled again, and the young men
guffawed. They thought it was the snub that touched him so that he became as white as a sheet as he turned
away. But Sarah, who knew more than they did, laughed, for she saw triumph through the spasm of pain that
overspread his face.

The week passed uneventfully; however, as Saturday drew nigh Sarah had occasional moments of anxiety,
and as to Eric he went about at night-time like a man possessed. He restrained himself when others were by,
but now and again he went down amongst the rocks and caves and shouted aloud. This seemed to relieve him
somewhat, and he was better able to restrain himself for some time after. All Saturday he stayed in his own
house and never left it. As he was to be married on the morrow, the neighbours thought it was shyness on his
part, and did not trouble or notice him. Only once was he disturbed, and that was when the chief boatman
came to him and sat down, and after a pause said:
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 47
'Eric, I was over in Bristol yesterday. I was in the ropemaker's getting a coil to replace the one you lost the
night of the storm, and there I saw Michael Heavens of this place, who is a salesman there. He told me that
Abel Behenna had come home the week ere last on the Star of the Sea from Canton, and that he had lodged a
sight of money in the Bristol Bank in the name of Sarah Behenna. He told Michael so himself--and that he had
taken passage on the Lovely Alice to Pencastle. 'Bear up, man,' for Eric had with a groan dropped his head on
his knees, with his face between his hands. 'He was your old comrade, I know, but you couldn't help him. He
must have gone down with the rest that awful night. I thought I'd better tell you, lest it might come some other
way, and you might keep Sarah Trefusis from being frightened. They were good friends once, and women
take these things to heart. It would not do to let her be pained with such a thing on her wedding day!' Then he
rose and went away, leaving Eric still sitting disconsolately with his head on his knees.

'Poor fellow!' murmured the chief boatman to himself; 'he takes it to heart. Well, well! right enough! They
were true comrades once, and Abel saved him!'

The afternoon of that day, when the children had left school, they strayed as usual on half-holidays along' the
quay and the paths by the cliffs. Presently some of them came running in a state of great excitement to the
harbour, where a few men were unloading a coal ketch, and a great many were superintending the operation.
One of the children called out:

'There is a porpoise in the harbour mouth! We saw it come through the blow-hole! It had a long tail, and was
deep under the water!'

'It was no porpoise,' said another; 'it was a seal; but it had a long tail! It came out of the seal cave!' The other
children bore various testimony, but on two points they were unanimous--it, whatever 'it' was, had come
through the blow-hole deep under the water, and had a long, thin tail--a tail so long that they could not see the
end of it. There was much unmerciful chaffing of the children by the men on this point, but as it was evident
that they had seen something, quite a number of persons, young and old, male and female, went along the high
paths on either side of the harbour mouth to catch a glimpse of this new addition to the fauna of the sea, a
long-tailed porpoise or seal. The tide was now coming in. There was a slight breeze, and the surface of the
water was rippled so that it was only at moments that anyone could see clearly into the deep water. After a
spell of watching a woman called out that she saw something moving up the channel, just below where she
was standing. There was a stampede to the spot, but by the time the crowd had gathered the breeze had
freshened, and it was impossible to see with any distinctness below the surface of the water. On being
questioned the woman described what she had seen, but in such an incoherent way that the whole thing was
put down as an effect of imagination; had it not been for the children's report she would not have been
credited at all. Her semi-hysterical statement that what she saw was 'like a pig with the entrails out' was only
thought anything of by an old coastguard, who shook his head but did not make any remark. For the
remainder of the daylight this man was seen always on the bank, looking into the water, but always with
disappointment manifest on his face.

Eric arose early on the next morning--he had not slept all night, and it was a relief to him to move about in the
light. He shaved himself with a hand that did not tremble, and dressed himself in his wedding clothes. There
was a haggard look on his face, and he seemed as though he had grown years older in the last few days. Still
there was a wild, uneasy light of triumph in his eyes, and he kept murmuring to himself over and over again:

'This is my wedding-day! Abel cannot claim her now--living or dead!--living or dead! Living or dead!' He sat
in his arm-chair, waiting with an uncanny quietness for the church hour to arrive. When the bell began to ring
he arose and passed out of his house, closing the door behind him. He looked at the river and saw the tide had
just turned. In the church he sat with Sarah and her mother, holding Sarah's hand tightly in his all the time, as
though he feared to lose her. When the service was over they stood up together, and were married in the
presence of the entire congregation; for no one left the church. Both made the responses clearly--Eric's being
even on the defiant side. When the wedding was over Sarah took her husband's arm, and they walked away
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 48

together, the boys and younger girls being cuffed by their elders into a decorous behaviour, for they would
fain have followed close behind their heels.

The way from the church led down to the back of Eric's cottage, a narrow passage being between it and that of
his next neighbour. When the bridal couple had passed through this the remainder of the congregation, who
had followed them at a little distance, were startled by a long, shrill scream from the bride. They rushed
through the passage and found her on the bank with wild eyes, pointing to the river bed opposite Eric Sanson's
door.

The falling tide had deposited there the body of Abel Behenna stark upon the broken rocks. The rope trailing
from its waist had been twisted by the current round the mooring post, and had held it back whilst the tide had
ebbed away from it. The right elbow had fallen in a chink in the rock, leaving the hand outstretched toward
Sarah, with the open palm upward as though it were extended to receive hers, the pale drooping fingers open
to the clasp.

All that happened afterwards was never quite known to Sarah Sanson. Whenever she would try to recollect
there would become a buzzing in her ears and a dimness in her eyes, and all would pass away. The only thing
that she could remember of it all--and this she never forgot--was Eric's breathing heavily, with his face whiter
than that of the dead man, as he muttered under his breath:

'Devil's help! Devil's faith! Devil's price!'

The Burial of the Rats

Leaving Paris by the Orleans road, cross the Enceinte, and, turning to the right, you find yourself in a
somewhat wild and not at all savoury district. Right and left, before and behind, on every side rise great heaps
of dust and waste accumulated by the process of time.

Paris has its night as well as its day life, and the sojourner who enters his hotel in the Rue de Rivoli or the Rue
St. Honore late at night or leaves it early in the morning, can guess, in coming near Montrouge--if he has not
done so already--the purpose of those great waggons that look like boilers on wheels which he finds halting
everywhere as he passes.

Every city has its peculiar institutions created out of its own needs; and one of the most notable institutions of
Paris is its rag-picking population. In the early morning--and Parisian life commences at an early hour--may
be seen in most streets standing on the pathway opposite every court and alley and between every few houses,
as still in some American cities, even in parts of New York, large wooden boxes into which the domestics or
tenement-holders empty the accumulated dust of the past day. Round these boxes gather and pass on, when
the work is done, to fresh fields of labour and pastures new, squalid hungry-looking men and women, the
implements of whose craft consist of a coarse bag or basket slung over the shoulder and a little rake with
which they turn over and probe and examine in the minutest manner the dustbins. They pick up and deposit in
their baskets, by aid of their rakes, whatever they may find, with the same facility as a Chinaman uses his
chopsticks.

Paris is a city of centralisation--and centralisation and classification are closely allied. In the early times, when
centralisation is becoming a fact, its forerunner is classification. All things which are similar or analogous
become grouped together, and from the grouping of groups rises one whole or central point. We see radiating
many long arms with innumerable tentaculae, and in the centre rises a gigantic head with a comprehensive
brain and keen eyes to look on every side and ears sensitive to hear--and a voracious mouth to swallow.

Other cities resemble all the birds and beasts and fishes whose appetites and digestions are normal. Paris alone
is the analogical apotheosis of the octopus. Product of centralisation carried to an ad absurdum, it fairly
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 49

represents the devil fish; and in no respects is the resemblance more curious than in the similarity of the
digestive apparatus.

Those intelligent tourists who, having surrendered their individuality into the hands of Messrs. Cook or Gaze,
'do' Paris in three days, are often puzzled to know how it is that the dinner which in London would cost about
six shillings, can be had for three francs in a café in the Palais Royal. They need have no more wonder if they
will but consider the classification which is a theoretic speciality of Parisian life, and adopt all round the fact
from which the chiffonier has his genesis.

The Paris of 1850 was not like the Paris of to-day, and those who see the Paris of Napoleon and Baron
Hausseman can hardly realise the existence of the state of things forty-five years ago.

Amongst other things, however, which have not changed are those districts where the waste is gathered. Dust
is dust all the world over, in every age, and the family likeness of dust-heaps is perfect. The traveller,
therefore, who visits the environs of Montrouge can go go back in fancy without difficulty to the year 1850.

In this year I was making a prolonged stay in Paris. I was very much in love with a young lady who, though
she returned my passion, so far yielded to the wishes of her parents that she had promised not to see me or to
correspond with me for a year. I, too, had been compelled to accede to these conditions under a vague hope of
parental approval. During the term of probation I had promised to remain out of the country and not to write
to my dear one until the expiration of the year.

Naturally the time went heavily with me. There was not one of my own family or circle who could tell me of
Alice, and none of her own folk had, I am sorry to say, sufficient generosity to send me even an occasional
word of comfort regarding her health and well-being. I spent six months wandering about Europe, but as I
could find no satisfactory distraction in travel, I determined to come to Paris, where, at least, I would be
within easy hail of London in case any good fortune should call me thither before the appointed time. That
'hope deferred maketh the heart sick' was never better exemplified than in my case, for in addition to the
perpetual longing to see the face I loved there was always with me a harrowing anxiety lest some accident
should prevent me showing Alice in due time that I had, throughout the long period of probation, been faithful
to her trust and my own love. Thus, every adventure which I undertook had a fierce pleasure of its own, for it
was fraught with possible consequences greater than it would have ordinarily borne.

Like all travellers I exhausted the places of most interest in the first month of my stay, and was driven in the
second month to look for amusement whithersoever I might. Having made sundry journeys to the
better-known suburbs, I began to see that there was a terra incognita, in so far as the guide book was
concerned, in the social wilderness lying between these attractive points. Accordingly I began to systematise
my researches, and each day took up the thread of my exploration at the place where I had on the previous day
dropped it.

In the process of time my wanderings led me near Montrouge, and I saw that hereabouts lay the Ultima Thule
of social exploration--a country as little known as that round the source of the White Nile. And so I
determined to investigate philosophically the chiffonier--his habitat, his life, and his means of life.

The job was an unsavoury one, difficult of accomplishment, and with little hope of adequate reward.
However, despite reason, obstinacy prevailed, and I entered into my new investigation with a keener energy
than I could have summoned to aid me in any investigation leading to any end, valuable or worthy.

One day, late in a fine afternoon, toward the end of September, I entered the holy of holies of the city of dust.
The place was evidently the recognised abode of a number of chiffoniers, for some sort of arrangement was
manifested in the formation of the dust heaps near the road. I passed amongst these heaps, which stood like
orderly sentries, determined to penetrate further and trace dust to its ultimate location.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 50
As I passed along I saw behind the dust heaps a few forms that flitted to and fro, evidently watching with
interest the advent of any stranger to such a place. The district was like a small Switzerland, and as I went
forward my tortuous course shut out the path behind me.

Presently I got into what seemed a small city or community of chiffoniers. There were a number of shanties or
huts, such as may be met with in the remote parts of the Bog of Allan--rude places with wattled walls,
plastered with mud and roofs of rude thatch made from stable refuse--such places as one would not like to
enter for any consideration, and which even in water-colour could only look picturesque if judiciously treated.
In the midst of these huts was one of the strangest adaptations--I cannot say habitations--I had ever seen. An
immense old wardrobe, the colossal remnant of some boudoir of Charles VII, or Henry II, had been converted
into a dwelling-house. The double doors lay open, so that the entire ménage was open to public view. In the
open half of the wardrobe was a common sitting-room of some four feet by six, in which sat, smoking their
pipes round a charcoal brazier, no fewer than six old soldiers of the First Republic, with their uniforms torn
and worn threadbare. Evidently they were of the mauvais sujet class; their bleary eyes and limp jaws told
plainly of a common love of absinthe; and their eyes had that haggard, worn look of slumbering ferocity
which follows hard in the wake of drink. The other side stood as of old, with its shelves intact, save that they
were cut to half their depth, and in each shelf of which there were six, was a bed made with rags and straw.
The half-dozen of worthies who inhabited this structure looked at me curiously as I passed; and when I looked
back after going a little way I saw their heads together in a whispered conference. I did not like the look of
this at all, for the place was very lonely, and the men looked very, very villainous. However, I did not see any
cause for fear, and went on my way, penetrating further and further into the Sahara. The way was tortuous to a
degree, and from going round in a series of semi-circles, as one goes in skating with the Dutch roll, I got
rather confused with regard to the points of the compass.

When I had penetrated a little way I saw, as I turned the corner of a half-made heap, sitting on a heap of straw
an old soldier with threadbare coat.

'Hallo!' said I to myself; 'the First Republic is well represented here in its soldiery.'

As I passed him the old man never even looked up at me, but gazed on the ground with stolid persistency.
Again I remarked to myself: 'See what a life of rude warfare can do! This old man's curiosity is a thing of the
past.'

When I had gone a few steps, however, I looked back suddenly, and saw that curiosity was not dead, for the
veteran had raised his head and was regarding me with a very queer expression. He seemed to me to look very
like one of the six worthies in the press. When he saw me looking he dropped his head; and without thinking
further of him I went on my way, satisfied that there was a strange likeness between these old warriors.

Presently I met another old soldier in a similar manner. He, too, did not notice me whilst I was passing.

By this time it was getting late in the afternoon, and I began to think of retracing my steps. Accordingly I
turned to go back, but could see a number of tracks leading between different mounds and could not ascertain
which of them I should take. In my perplexity I wanted to see someone of whom to ask the way, but could see
no one. I determined to go on a few mounds further and so try to see someone--not a veteran.

I gained my object, for after going a couple of hundred yards I saw before me a single shanty such as I had
seen before--with, however, the difference that this was not one for living in, but merely a roof with three
walls open in front. From the evidences which the neighbourhood exhibited I took it to be a place for sorting.
Within it was an old woman wrinkled and bent with age; I approached her to ask the way.

She rose as I came close and I asked her my way. She immediately commenced a conversation; and it
occurred to me that here in the very centre of the Kingdom of Dust was the place to gather details of the
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 51
history of Parisian rag-picking--particularly as I could do so from the lips of one who looked like the oldest
inhabitant.

I began my inquiries, and the old woman gave me most interesting answers--she had been one of the ceteuces
who sat daily before the guillotine and had taken an active part among the women who signalised themselves
by their violence in the revolution. While we were talking she said suddenly: 'But m'sieur must be tired
standing,' and dusted a rickety old stool for me to sit down. I hardly liked to do so for many reasons; but the
poor old woman was so civil that I did not like to run the risk of hurting her by refusing, and moreover the
conversation of one who had been at the taking of the Bastille was so interesting that I sat down and so our
conversation went on.

While we were talking an old man--older and more bent and wrinkled even than the woman--appeared from
behind the shanty. 'Here is Pierre,' said she. 'M'sieur can hear stories now if he wishes, for Pierre was in
everything, from the Bastille to Waterloo.' The old man took another stool at my request and we plunged into
a sea of revolutionary reminiscences. This old man, albeit clothed like a scarecrow, was like any one of the six
veterans.

I was now sitting in the centre of the low hut with the woman on my left hand and the man on my right, each
of them being somewhat in front of me. The place was full of all sorts of curious objects of lumber, and of
many things that I wished far away. In one corner was a heap of rags which seemed to move from the number
of vermin it contained, and in the other a heap of bones whose odour was something shocking. Every now and
then, glancing at the heaps, I could see the gleaming eyes of some of the rats which infested the place. These
loathsome objects were bad enough, but what looked even more dreadful was an old butcher's axe with an
iron handle stained with clots of blood leaning up against the wall on the right hand side. Still, these things did
not give me much concern. The talk of the two old people was so fascinating that I stayed on and on, till the
evening came and the dust heaps threw dark shadows over the vales between them.

After a time I began to grow uneasy. I could not tell how or why, but somehow I did not feel satisfied.
Uneasiness is an instinct and means warning. The psychic faculties are often the sentries of the intellect, and
when they sound alarm the reason begins to act, although perhaps not consciously.

This was so with me. I began to bethink me where I was and by what surrounded, and to wonder how I should
fare in case I should be attacked; and then the thought suddenly burst upon me, although without any overt
cause, that I was in danger. Prudence whispered: 'Be still and make no sign,' and so I was still and made no
sign, for I knew that four cunning eyes were on me. 'Four eyes--if not more.' My God, what a horrible
thought! The whole shanty might be surrounded on three sides with villains! I might be in the midst of a band
of such desperadoes as only half a century of periodic revolution can produce.

With a sense of danger my intellect and observation quickened, and I grew more watchful than was my wont.
I noticed that the old woman's eyes were constantly wandering towards my hands. I looked at them too, and
saw the cause--my rings. On my left little finger I had a large signet and on the right a good diamond.

I thought that if there was any danger my first care was to avert suspicion. Accordingly I began to work the
conversation round to rag-picking--to the drains--of the things found there; and so by easy stages to jewels.
Then, seizing a favourable opportunity, I asked the old woman if she knew anything of such things. She
answered that she did, a little. I held out my right hand, and, showing her the diamond, asked her what she
thought of that. She answered that her eyes were bad, and stooped over my hand. I said as nonchalantly as I
could: 'Pardon me! You will see better thus!' and taking it off handed it to her. An unholy light came into her
withered old face, as she touched it. She stole one glance at me swift and keen as a flash of lightning.

She bent over the ring for a moment, her face quite concealed as though examining it. The old man looked
straight out of the front of the shanty before him, at the same time fumbling in his pockets and producing a
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 52
screw of tobacco in a paper and a pipe, which he proceeded to fill. I took advantage of the pause and the
momentary rest from the searching eyes on my face to look carefully round the place, now dim and shadowy
in the gloaming. There still lay all the heaps of varied reeking foulness; there the terrible blood-stained axe
leaning against the wall in the right hand corner, and everywhere, despite the gloom, the baleful glitter of the
eyes of the rats. I could see them even through some of the chinks of the boards at the back low down close to
the ground. But stay! these latter eyes seemed more than usually large and bright and baleful!

For an instant my heart stood still, and I felt in that whirling condition of mind in which one feels a sort of
spiritual drunkenness, and as though the body is only maintained erect in that there is no time for it to fall
before recovery. Then, in another second, I was calm--coldly calm, with all my energies in full vigour, with a
self-control which I felt to be perfect and with all my feeling and instincts alert.

Now I knew the full extent of my danger: I was watched and surrounded by desperate people! I could not even
guess at how many of them were lying there on the ground behind the shanty, waiting for the moment to
strike. I knew that I was big and strong, and they knew it, too. They knew also, as I did, that I was an
Englishman and would make a fight for it; and so we waited. I had, I felt, gained an advantage in the last few
seconds, for I knew my danger and understood the situation. Now, I thought, is the test of my courage--the
enduring test: the fighting test may come later!

The old woman raised her head and said to me in a satisfied kind of way:

'A very fine ring, indeed--a beautiful ring! Oh, me! I once had such rings, plenty of them, and bracelets and
earrings! Oh! for in those fine days I led the town a dance! But they've forgotten me now! They've forgotten
me! They? Why they never heard of me! Perhaps their grandfathers remember me, some of them!' and she
laughed a harsh, croaking laugh. And then I am bound to say that she astonished me, for she handed me back
the ring with a certain suggestion of old-fashioned grace which was not without its pathos.

The old man eyed her with a sort of sudden ferocity, half rising from his stool, and said to me suddenly and
hoarsely:

'Let me see!'

I was about to hand the ring when the old woman said:

'No! no, do not give it to Pierre! Pierre is eccentric. He loses things; and such a pretty ring!'

'Cat!' said the old man, savagely. Suddenly the old woman said, rather more loudly than was necessary:

'Wait! I shall tell you something about a ring.' There was something in the sound of her voice that jarred upon
me. Perhaps it was my hyper-sensitiveness, wrought up as I was to such a pitch of nervous excitement, but I
seemed to think that she was not addressing me. As I stole a glance round the place I saw the eyes of the rats
in the bone heaps, but missed the eyes along the back. But even as I looked I saw them again appear. The old
woman's 'Wait!' had given me a respite from attack, and the men had sunk back to their reclining posture.

'I once lost a ring--a beautiful diamond hoop that had belonged to a queen, and which was given to me by a
farmer of the taxes, who afterwards cut his throat because I sent him away. I thought it must have been stolen,
and taxed my people; but I could get no trace. The police came and suggested that it had found its way to the
drain. We descended--I in my fine clothes, for I would not trust them with my beautiful ring! I know more of
the drains since then, and of rats, too! but I shall never forget the horror of that place--alive with blazing eyes,
a wall of them just outside the light of our torches. Well, we got beneath my house. We searched the outlet of
the drain, and there in the filth found my ring, and we came out.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 53
'But we found something else also before we came! As we were coming toward the opening a lot of sewer
rats--human ones this time--came towards us. They told the police that one of their number had gone into the
drain, but had not returned. He had gone in only shortly before we had, and, if lost, could hardly be far off.
They asked help to seek him, so we turned back. They tried to prevent me going, but I insisted. It was a new
excitement, and had I not recovered my ring? Not far did we go till we came on something. There was but
little water, and the bottom of the drain was raised with brick, rubbish, and much matter of the kind. He had
made a fight for it, even when his torch had gone out. But they were too many for him! They had not been
long about it! The bones were still warm; but they were picked clean. They had even eaten their own dead
ones and there were bones of rats as well as of the man. They took it cool enough those other--the human
ones--and joked of their comrade when they found him dead, though they would have helped him living. Bah!
what matters it--life or death?'

'And had you no fear?' I asked her.

'Fear!' she said with a laugh. 'Me have fear? Ask Pierre! But I was younger then, and, as I came through that
horrible drain with its wall of greedy eyes, always moving with the circle of the light from the torches, I did
not feel easy. I kept on before the men, though! It is a way I have! I never let the men get it before me. All I
want is a chance and a means! And they ate him up--took every trace away except the bones; and no one knew
it, nor no sound of him was ever heard!' Here she broke into a chuckling fit of the ghastliest merriment which
it was ever my lot to hear and see. A great poetess describes her heroine singing: 'Oh! to see or hear her
singing! Scarce I know which is the divinest.'

And I can apply the same idea to the old crone--in all save the divinity, for I scarce could tell which was the
most hellish--the harsh, malicious, satisfied, cruel laugh, or the leering grin, and the horrible square opening
of the mouth like a tragic mask, and the yellow gleam of the few discoloured teeth in the shapeless gums. In
that laugh and with that grin and the chuckling satisfaction I knew as well as if it had been spoken to me in
words of thunder that my murder was settled, and the murderers only bided the proper time for its
accomplishment. I could read between the lines of her gruesome story the commands to her accomplices.
'Wait,' she seemed to say, 'bide your time. I shall strike the first blow. Find the weapon for me, and I shall
make the opportunity! He shall not escape! Keep him quiet, and then no one will be wiser. There will be no
outcry, and the rats will do their work!'

It was growing darker and darker; the night was coming. I stole a glance round the shanty, still all the same!
The bloody axe in the corner, the heaps of filth, and the eyes on the bone heaps and in the crannies of the
floor.

Pierre had been still ostensibly filling his pipe; he now struck a light and began to puff away at it. The old
woman said:

'Dear heart, how dark it is! Pierre, like a good lad, light the lamp!'

Pierre got up and with the lighted match in his hand touched the wick of a lamp which hung at one side of the
entrance to the shanty, and which had a reflector that threw the light all over the place. It was evidently that
which was used for their sorting at night.

'Not that, stupid! Not that! the lantern!' she called out to him.

He immediately blew it out, saying: 'All right, mother I'll find it,' and he hustled about the left corner of the
room--the old woman saying through the darkness:

The lantern! the lantern! Oh! That is the light that is most useful to us poor folks. The lantern was the friend of
the revolution! It is the friend of the chiffonier! It helps us when all else fails.'
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 54

Hardly had she said the word when there was a kind of creaking of the whole place, and something was
steadily dragged over the roof.

Again I seemed to read between the lines of her words. I knew the lesson of the lantern.

'One of you get on the roof with a noose and strangle him as he passes out if we fail within.'

As I looked out of the opening I saw the loop of a rope outlined black against the lurid sky. I was now, indeed,
beset!

Pierre was not long in finding the lantern. I kept my eyes fixed through the darkness on the old woman. Pierre
struck his light, and by its flash I saw the old woman raise from the ground beside her where it had
mysteriously appeared, and then hide in the folds of her gown, a long sharp knife or dagger. It seemed to be
like a butcher's sharpening iron fined to a keen point.

The lantern was lit.

'Bring it here, Pierre,' she said. 'Place it in the doorway where we can see it. See how nice it is! It shuts out the
darkness from us; it is just right!'

Just right for her and her purposes! It threw all its light on my face, leaving in gloom the faces of both Pierre
and the woman, who sat outside of me on each side.

I felt that the time of action was approaching, but I knew now that the first signal and movement would come
from the woman, and so watched her.

I was all unarmed, but I had made up my mind what to do. At the first movement I would seize the butcher's
axe in the right-hand corner and fight my way out. At least, I would die hard. I stole a glance round to fix its
exact locality so that I could not fail to seize it at the first effort, for then, if ever, time and accuracy would be
precious.

Good God! It was gone! All the horror of the situation burst upon me; but the bitterest thought of all was that
if the issue of the terrible position should be against me Alice would infallibly suffer. Either she would believe
me false--and any lover, or any one who has ever been one, can imagine the bitterness of the thought--or else
she would go on loving long after I had been lost to her and to the world, so that her life would be broken and
embittered, shattered with disappointment and despair. The very magnitude of the pain braced me up and
nerved me to bear the dread scrutiny of the plotters.

I think I did not betray myself. The old woman was watching me as a cat does a mouse; she had her right hand
hidden in the folds of her gown, clutching, I knew, that long, cruel-looking dagger. Had she seen any
disappointment in my face she would, I felt, have known that the moment had come, and would have sprung
on me like a tigress, certain of taking me unprepared.

I looked out into the night, and there I saw new cause for danger. Before and around the hut were at a little
distance some shadowy forms; they were quite still, but I knew that they were all alert and on guard. Small
chance for me now in that direction.

Again I stole a glance round the place. In moments of great excitement and of great danger, which is
excitement, the mind works very quickly, and the keenness of the faculties which depend on the mind grows
in proportion. I now felt this. In an instant I took in the whole situation. I saw that the axe had been taken
through a small hole made in one of the rotten boards. How rotten they must be to allow of such a thing being
done without a particle of noise.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 55

The hut was a regular murder-trap, and was guarded all around. A garroter lay on the roof ready to entangle
me with his noose if I should escape the dagger of the old hag. In front the way was guarded by I know not
how many watchers. And at the back was a row of desperate men--I had seen their eyes still through the crack
in the boards of the floor, when last I looked--as they lay prone waiting for the signal to start erect. If it was to
be ever, now for it!

As nonchalantly as I could I turned slightly on my stool so as to get my right leg well under me. Then with a
sudden jump, turning my head, and guarding it with my hands, and with the fighting instinct of the knights of
old, I breathed my lady's name, and hurled myself against the back wall of the hut.

Watchful as they were, the suddenness of my movement surprised both Pierre and the old woman. As I
crashed through the rotten timbers I saw the old woman rise with a leap like a tiger and heard her low gasp of
baffled rage. My feet lit on something that moved, and as I jumped away I knew that I had stepped on the
back of one of the row of men lying on their faces outside the hut. I was torn with nails and splinters, but
otherwise unhurt. Breathless I rushed up the mound in front of me, hearing as I went the dull crash of the
shanty as it collapsed into a mass.

It was a nightmare climb. The mound, though but low, was awfully steep, and with each step I took the mass
of dust and cinders tore down with me and gave way under my feet. The dust rose and choked me; it was
sickening, foetid, awful; but my climb was, I felt, for life or death, and I struggled on. The seconds seemed
hours; but the few moments I had in starting, combined with my youth and strength, gave me a great
advantage, and, though several forms struggled after me in deadly silence which was more dreadful than any
sound, I easily reached the top. Since then I have climbed the cone of Vesuvius, and as I struggled up that
dreary steep amid the sulphurous fumes the memory of that awful night at Montrouge came back to me so
vividly that I almost grew faint.

The mound was one of the tallest in the region of dust, and as I struggled to the top, panting for breath and
with my heart beating like a sledge-hammer, I saw away to my left the dull red gleam of the sky, and nearer
still the flashing of lights. Thank God! I knew where I was now and where lay the road to Paris!

For two or three seconds I paused and looked back. My pursuers were still well behind me, but struggling up
resolutely, and in deadly silence. Beyond, the shanty was a wreck--a mass of timber and moving forms. I
could see it well, for flames were already bursting out; the rags and straw had evidently caught fire from the
lantern. Still silence there! Not a sound! These old wretches could die game, anyhow.

I had no time for more than a passing glance, for as I cast an eye round the mound preparatory to making my
descent I saw several dark forms rushing round on either side to cut me off on my way. It was now a race for
life. They were trying to head me on my way to Paris, and with the instinct of the moment I dashed down to
the right-hand side. I was just in time, for, though I came as it seemed to me down the steep in a few steps, the
wary old men who were watching me turned back, and one, as I rushed by into the opening between the two
mounds in front, almost struck me a blow with that terrible butcher's axe. There could surely not be two such
weapons about!

Then began a really horrible chase. I easily ran ahead of the old men, and even when some younger ones and a
few women joined in the hunt I easily distanced them. But I did not know the way, and I could not even guide
myself by the light in the sky, for I was running away from it. I had heard that, unless of conscious purpose,
hunted men turn always to the left, and so I found it now; and so, I suppose, knew also my pursuers, who were
more animals than men, and with cunning or instinct had found out such secrets for themselves: for on
finishing a quick spurt, after which I intended to take a moment's breathing space, I suddenly saw ahead of me
two or three forms swiftly passing behind a mound to the right.

I was in the spider's web now indeed! But with the thought of this new danger came the resource of the
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 56

hunted, and so I darted down the next turning to the right. I continued in this direction for some hundred
yards, and then, making a turn to the left again, felt certain that I had, at any rate, avoided the danger of being
surrounded.

But not of pursuit, for on came the rabble after me, steady, dogged, relentless, and still in grim silence.

In the greater darkness the mounds seemed now to be somewhat smaller than before, although--for the night
was closing--they looked bigger in proportion. I was now well ahead of my pursuers, so I made a dart up the
mound in front.

Oh joy of joys! I was close to the edge of this inferno of dustheaps. Away behind me the red light of Paris was
in the sky, and towering up behind rose the heights of Montmarte--a dim light, with here and there brilliant
points like stars.

Restored to vigour in a moment, I ran over the few remaining mounds of decreasing size, and found myself on
the level land beyond. Even then, however, the prospect was not inviting. All before me was dark and dismal,
and I had evidently come on one of those dank, low-lying waste places which are found here and there in the
neighbourhood of great cities. Places of waste and desolation, where the space is required for the ultimate
agglomeration of all that is noxious, and the ground is so poor as to create no desire of occupancy even in the
lowest squatter. With eyes accustomed to the gloom of the evening, and away now from the shadows of those
dreadful dustheaps, I could see much more easily than I could a little while ago. It might have been, of course,
that the glare in the sky of the lights of Paris, though the city was some miles away, was reflected here.
Howsoever it was, I saw well enough to take bearings for certainly some little distance around me.

In front was a bleak, flat waste that seemed almost dead level, with here and there the dark shimmering of
stagnant pools. Seemingly far off on the right, amid a small cluster of scattered lights, rose a dark mass of Fort
Montrouge, and away to the left in the dim distance, pointed with stray gleams from cottage windows, the
lights in the sky showed the locality of Bicêtre. A moment's thought decided me to take to the right and try to
reach Montrouge. There at least would be some sort of safety, and I might possibly long before come on some
of the cross roads which I knew. Somewhere, not far off, must lie the strategic road made to connect the
outlying chain of forts circling the city.

Then I looked back. Coming over the mounds, and outlined black against the glare of the Parisian horizon, I
saw several moving figures, and still a way to the right several more deploying out between me and my
destination. They evidently meant to cut me off in this direction, and so my choice became constricted; it lay
now between going straight ahead or turning to the left. Stooping to the ground, so as to get the advantage of
the horizon as a line of sight, I looked carefully in this direction, but could detect no sign of my enemies. I
argued that as they had not guarded or were not trying to guard that point, there was evidently danger to me
there already. So I made up my mind to go straight on before me.

It was not an inviting prospect, and as I went on the reality grew worse. The ground became soft and oozy,
and now and again gave way beneath me in a sickening kind of way. I seemed somehow to be going down,
for I saw round me places seemingly more elevated than where I was, and this in a place which from a little
way back seemed dead level. I looked around, but could see none of my pursuers. This was strange, for all
along these birds of the night had followed me through the darkness as well as though it was broad daylight.
How I blamed myself for coming out in my light-coloured tourist suit of tweed. The silence, and my not being
able to see my enemies, whilst I felt that they were watching me, grew appalling, and in the hope of some one
not of this ghastly crew hearing me I raised my voice and shouted several times. There was not the slightest
response; not even an echo rewarded my efforts. For a while I stood stock still and kept my eyes in one
direction. On one of the rising places around me I saw something dark move along, then another, and another.
This was to my left, and seemingly moving to head me off.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 57

I thought that again I might with my skill as a runner elude my enemies at this game, and so with all my speed
darted forward.

Splash!

My feet had given way in a mass of slimy rubbish, and I had fallen headlong into a reeking, stagnant pool.
The water and the mud in which my arms sank up to the elbows was filthy and nauseous beyond description,
and in the suddenness of my fall I had actually swallowed some of the filthy stuff, which nearly choked me,
and made me gasp for breath. Never shall I forget the moments during which I stood trying to recover myself
almost fainting from the foetid odour of the filthy pool, whose white mist rose ghostlike around. Worst of all,
with the acute despair of the hunted animal when he sees the pursuing pack closing on him, I saw before my
eyes whilst I stood helpless the dark forms of my pursuers moving swiftly to surround me.

It is curious how our minds work on odd matters even when the energies of thought are seemingly
concentrated on some terrible and pressing need. I was in momentary peril of my life: my safety depended on
my action, and my choice of alternatives coming now with almost every step I took, and yet I could not but
think of the strange dogged persistency of these old men. Their silent resolution, their steadfast, grim,
persistency even in such a cause commanded, as well as fear, even a measure of respect. What must they have
been in the vigour of their youth. I could understand now that whirlwind rush on the bridge of Arcola, that
scornful exclamation of the Old Guard at Waterloo! Unconscious cerebration has its own pleasures, even at
such moments; but fortunately it does not in any way clash with the thought from which action springs.

I realised at a glance that so far I was defeated in my object, my enemies as yet had won. They had succeeded
in surrounding me on three sides, and were bent on driving me off to the left-hand, where there was already
some danger for me, for they had left no guard. I accepted the alternative--it was a case of Hobson's choice
and run. I had to keep the lower ground, for my pursuers were on the higher places. However, though the ooze
and broken ground impeded me my youth and training made me able to hold my ground, and by keeping a
diagonal line I not only kept them from gaining on me but even began to distance them. This gave me new
heart and strength, and by this time habitual training was beginning to tell and my second wind had come.
Before me the ground rose slightly. I rushed up the slope and found before me a waste of watery slime, with a
low dyke or bank looking black and grim beyond. I felt that if I could but reach that dyke in safety I could
there, with solid ground under my feet and some kind of path to guide me, find with comparative ease a way
out of my troubles. After a glance right and left and seeing no one near, I kept my eyes for a few minutes to
their rightful work of aiding my feet whilst I crossed the swamp. It was rough, hard work, but there was little
danger, merely toil; and a short time took me to the dyke. I rushed up the slope exulting; but here again I met
a new shock. On either side of me rose a number of crouching figures. From right and left they rushed at me.
Each body held a rope.

The cordon was nearly complete. I could pass on neither side, and the end was near.

There was only one chance, and I took it. I hurled myself across the dyke, and escaping out of the very
clutches of my foes threw myself into the stream.

At any other time I should have thought that water foul and filthy, but now it was as welcome as the most
crystal stream to the parched traveller. It was a highway of safety!

My pursuers rushed after me. Had only one of them held the rope it would have been all up with me, for he
could have entangled me before I had time to swim a stroke; but the many hands holding it embarrassed and
delayed them, and when the rope struck the water I heard the splash well behind me. A few minutes' hard
swimming took me across the stream. Refreshed with the immersion and encouraged by the escape, I climbed
the dyke in comparative gaiety of spirits.
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 58

From the top I looked back. Through the darkness I saw my assailants scattering up and down along the dyke.
The pursuit was evidently not ended, and again I had to choose my course. Beyond the dyke where I stood
was a wild, swampy space very similar to that which I had crossed. I determined to shun such a place, and
thought for a moment whether I would take up or down the dyke. I thought I heard a sound--the muffled
sound of oars, so I listened, and then shouted.

No response; but the sound ceased. My enemies had evidently got a boat of some kind. As they were on the
up side of me I took the down path and began to run. As I passed to the left of where I had entered the water I
heard several splashes, soft and stealthy, like the sound a rat makes as he plunges into the stream, but vastly
greater; and as I looked I saw the dark sheen of the water broken by the ripples of several advancing heads.
Some of my enemies were swimming the stream also.

And now behind me, up the stream, the silence was broken by the quick rattle and creak of oars; my enemies
were in hot pursuit. I put my best leg foremost and ran on. After a break of a couple of minutes I looked back,
and by a gleam of light through the ragged clouds I saw several dark forms climbing the bank behind me. The
wind had now begun to rise, and the water beside me was ruffled and beginning to break in tiny waves on the
bank. I had to keep my eyes pretty well on the ground before me, lest I should stumble, for I knew that to
stumble was death. After a few minutes I looked back behind me. On the dyke were only a few dark figures,
but crossing the waste, swampy ground were many more. What new danger this portended I did not
know--could only guess. Then as I ran it seemed to me that my track kept ever sloping away to the right. I
looked up ahead and saw that the river was much wider than before, and that the dyke on which I stood fell
quite away, and beyond it was another stream on whose near bank I saw some of the dark forms now across
the marsh. I was on an island of some kind.

My situation was now indeed terrible, for my enemies had hemmed me in on every side. Behind came the
quickening roll of the oars, as though my pursuers knew that the end was close. Around me on every side was
desolation; there was not a roof or light, as far as I could see. Far off to the right rose some dark mass, but
what it was I knew not. For a moment I paused to think what I should do, not for more, for my pursuers were
drawing closer. Then my mind was made up. I slipped down the bank and took to the water. I struck out
straight ahead so as to gain the current by clearing the backwater of the island, for such I presume it was,
when I had passed into the stream. I waited till a cloud came driving across the moon and leaving all in
darkness. Then I took off my hat and laid it softly on the water floating with the stream, and a second after
dived to the right and struck out under water with all my might. I was, I suppose, half a minute under water,
and when I rose came up as softly as I could, and turning, looked back. There went my light brown hat
floating merrily away. Close behind it came a rickety old boat, driven furiously by a pair of oars. The moon
was still partly obscured by the drifting clouds, but in the partial light I could see a man in the bows holding
aloft ready to strike what appeared to me to be that same dreadful pole-axe which I had before escaped. As I
looked the boat drew closer, closer, and the man struck savagely. The hat disappeared. The man fell forward,
almost out of the boat. His comrades dragged him in but without the axe, and then as I turned with all my
energies bent on reaching the further bank, I heard the fierce whirr of the muttered 'Sacre!' which marked the
anger of my baffled pursuers.

That was the first sound I had heard from human lips during all this dreadful chase, and full as it was of
menace and danger to me it was a welcome sound for it broke that awful silence which shrouded and appalled
me. It was as though an overt sign that my opponents were men and not ghosts, and that with them I had, at
least; the chance of a man, though but one against many.

But now that the spell of silence was broken the sounds came thick and fast. From boat to shore and back
from shore to boat came quick question and answer, all in the fiercest whispers. I looked back--a fatal thing to
do--for in the instant someone caught sight of my face, which showed white on the dark water, and shouted.
Hands pointed to me, and in a moment or two the boat was under weigh, and following hard after me. I had
but a little way to go, but quicker and quicker came the boat after me. A few more strokes and I would be on
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 59
the shore, but I felt the oncoming of the boat, and expected each second to feel the crash of an oar or other
weapon on my head. Had I not seen that dreadful axe disappear in the water I do not think that I could have
won the shore. I heard the muttered curses of those not rowing and the laboured breath of the rowers. With
one supreme effort for life or liberty I touched the bank and sprang up it. There was not a single second to
spare, for hard behind me the boat grounded and several dark forms sprang after me. I gained the top of the
dyke, and keeping to the left ran on again. The boat put off and followed down the stream. Seeing this I feared
danger in this direction, and quickly turning, ran down the dyke on the other side, and after passing a short
stretch of marshy ground gained a wild, open flat country and sped on.

Still behind me came on my relentless pursuers. Far away, below me, I saw the same dark mass as before, but
now grown closer and greater. My heart gave a great thrill of delight, for I knew that it must be the fortress of
Bicêtre, and with new courage I ran on. I had heard that between each and all of the protecting forts of Paris
there are strategic ways, deep sunk roads where soldiers marching should be sheltered from an enemy. I knew
that if I could gain this road I would be safe, but in the darkness I could not see any sign of it, so, in blind
hope of striking it, I ran on.

Presently I came to the edge of a deep cut, and found that down below me ran a road guarded on each side by
a ditch of water fenced on either side by a straight, high wall.

Getting fainter and dizzier, I ran on; the ground got more broken--more and more still, till I staggered and fell,
and rose again, and ran on in the blind anguish of the hunted. Again the thought of Alice nerved me. I would
not be lost and wreck her life: I would fight and struggle for life to the bitter end. With a great effort I caught
the top of the wall. As, scrambling like a catamount, I drew myself up, I actually felt a hand touch the sole of
my foot. I was now on a sort of causeway, and before me I saw a dim light. Blind and dizzy, I ran on,
staggered, and fell, rising, covered with dust and blood.

'Halt la!'

The words sounded like a voice from heaven. A blaze of light seemed to enwrap me, and I shouted with joy.

'Qui va la?' The rattle of musketry, the flash of steel before my eyes. Instinctively I stopped, though close
behind me came a rush of my pursuers.

Another word or two, and out from a gateway poured, as it seemed to me, a tide of red and blue, as the guard
turned out. All around seemed blazing with light, and the flash of steel, the clink and rattle of arms, and the
loud, harsh voices of command. As I fell forward, utterly exhausted, a soldier caught me. I looked back in
dreadful expectation, and saw the mass of dark forms disappearing into the night. Then I must have fainted.
When I recovered my senses I was in the guard room. They gave me brandy, and after a while I was able to
tell them something of what had passed. Then a commissary of police appeared, apparently out of the empty
air, as is the way of the Parisian police officer. He listened attentively, and then had a moment's consultation
with the officer in command. Apparently they were agreed, for they asked me if I were ready now to come
with them.

'Where to?' I asked, rising to go.

'Back to the dust heaps. We shall, perhaps, catch them yet!'

'I shall try!' said I.

He eyed me for a moment keenly, and said suddenly:

'Would you like to wait a while or till tomorrow, young Englishman?' This touched me to the quick, as,
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 60

perhaps, he intended, and I jumped to my feet.

'Come now!' I said; 'now! now! An Englishman is always ready for his duty!'

The commissary was a good fellow, as well as a shrewd one; he slapped my shoulder kindly. 'Brave garçon!'
he said. 'Forgive me, but I knew what would do you most good. The guard is ready. Come!'

And so, passing right through the guard room, and through a long vaulted passage, we were out into the night.
A few of the men in front had powerful lanterns. Through courtyards and down a sloping way we passed out
through a low archway to a sunken road, the same that I had seen in my flight. The order was given to get at
the double, and with a quick, springing stride, half run, half walk, the soldiers went swiftly along. I felt my
strength renewed again--such is the difference between hunter and hunted. A very short distance took us to a
low-lying pontoon bridge across the stream, and evidently very little higher up than I had struck it. Some
effort had evidently been made to damage it, for the ropes had all been cut, and one of the chains had been
broken. I heard the officer say to the commissary:

'We are just in time! A few more minutes, and they would have destroyed the bridge. Forward, quicker still!'
and on we went. Again we reached a pontoon on the winding stream; as we came up we heard the hollow
boom of the metal drums as the efforts to destroy the bridge was again renewed. A word of command was
given, and several men raised their rifles.

'Fire!' A volley rang out. There was a muffled cry, and the dark forms dispersed. But the evil was done, and
we saw the far end of the pontoon swing into the stream. This was a serious delay, and it was nearly an hour
before we had renewed ropes and restored the bridge sufficiently to allow us to cross.

We renewed the chase. Quicker, quicker we went towards the dust heaps.

After a time we came to a place that I knew. There were the remains of a fire--a few smouldering wood ashes
still cast a red glow, but the bulk of the ashes were cold. I knew the site of the hut and the hill behind it up
which I had rushed, and in the flickering glow the eyes of the rats still shone with a sort of phosphorescence.
The commissary spoke a word to the officer, and he cried:

'Halt!'

The soldiers were ordered to spread around and watch, and then we commenced to examine the ruins. The
commissary himself began to lift away the charred boards and rubbish. These the soldiers took and piled
together. Presently he started back, then bent down and rising beckoned me.

'See!' he said.

It was a gruesome sight. There lay a skeleton face downwards, a woman by the lines--an old woman by the
coarse fibre of the bone. Between the ribs rose a long spike-like dagger made from a butcher's sharpening
knife, its keen point buried in the spine.

'You will observe,' said the commissary to the officer and to me as he took out his note book, 'that the woman
must have fallen on her dagger. The rats are many here--see their eyes glistening among that heap of
bones--and you will also notice'--I shuddered as he placed his hand on the skeleton--'that but little time was
lost by them, for the bones are scarcely cold!'

There was no other sign of any one near, living or dead; and so deploying again into line the soldiers passed
on. Presently we came to the hut made of the old wardrobe. We approached. In five of the six compartments
was an old man sleeping--sleeping so soundly that even the glare of the lanterns did not wake them. Old and
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 61

grim and grizzled they looked, with their gaunt, wrinkled, bronzed faces and their white moustaches.

The officer called out harshly and loudly a word of command, and in an instant each one of them was on his
feet before us and standing at 'attention!'

'What do you here?'

'We sleep,' was the answer.

'Where are the other chiffoniers?' asked the commissary.

'Gone to work.'

'And you?'

'We are on guard!'

'Peste!' laughed the officer grimly, as he looked at the old men one after the other in the face and added with
cool deliberate cruelty: 'Asleep on duty! Is this the manner of the Old Guard? No wonder, then, a Waterloo!'

By the gleam of the lantern I saw the grim old faces grow deadly pale, and almost shuddered at the look in the
eyes of the old men as the laugh of the soldiers echoed the grim pleasantry of the officer.

I felt in that moment that I was in some measure avenged.

For a moment they looked as if they would throw themselves on the taunter, but years of their life had
schooled them and they remained still.

'You are but five,' said the commissary; 'where is the sixth?' The answer came with a grim chuckle.

'He is there!' and the speaker pointed to the bottom of the wardrobe. 'He died last night. You won't find much
of him. The burial of the rats is quick!'

The commissary stooped and looked in. Then he turned to the officer and said calmly:

'We may as well go back. No trace here now; nothing to prove that man was the one wounded by your
soldiers' bullets! Probably they murdered him to cover up the trace. See!' again he stooped and placed his
hands on the skeleton. 'The rats work quickly and they are many. These bones are warm!'

I shuddered, and so did many more of those around me.

'Form!' said the officer, and so in marching order, with the lanterns swinging in front and the manacled
veterans in the midst, with steady tramp we took ourselves out of the dustheaps and turned backward to the
fortress of Bicêtre.

*****

My year of probation has long since ended, and Alice is my wife. But when I look back upon that trying
twelvemonth one of the most vivid incidents that memory recalls is that associated with my visit to the City of
Dust.

A Dream of Red Hands

Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 62
The first opinion given to me regarding Jacob Settle was a simple descriptive statement, 'He's a
down-in-the-mouth chap': but I found that it embodied the thoughts and ideas of all his fellow-workmen.
There was in the phrase a certain easy tolerance, an absence of positive feeling of any kind, rather than any
complete opinion, which marked pretty accurately the man's place in public esteem. Still, there was some
dissimilarity between this and his appearance which unconsciously set me thinking, and by degrees, as I saw
more of the place and the workmen, I came to have a special interest in him. He was, I found, for ever doing
kindnesses, not involving money expenses beyond his humble means, but in the manifold ways of forethought
and forbearance and self-repression which are of the truer charities of life. Women and children trusted him
implicitly, though, strangely enough, he rather shunned them, except when anyone was sick, and then he made
his appearance to help if he could, timidly and awkwardly. He led a very solitary life, keeping house by
himself in a tiny cottage, or rather hut, of one room, far on the edge of the moorland. His existence seemed so
sad and solitary that I wished to cheer it up, and for the purpose took the occasion when we had both been
sitting up with a child, injured by me through accident, to offer to lend him books. He gladly accepted, and as
we parted in the grey of the dawn I felt that something of mutual confidence had been established between us.

The books were always most carefully and punctually returned, and in time Jacob Settle and I became quite
friends. Once or twice as I crossed the moorland on Sundays I looked in on him; but on such occasions he was
shy and ill at ease so that I felt diffident about calling to see him. He would never under any circumstances
come into my own lodgings.

One Sunday afternoon, I was coming back from a long walk beyond the moor, and as I passed Settle's cottage
stopped at the door to say 'How do you do?' to him. As the door was shut, I thought that he was out, and
merely knocked for form's sake, or through habit, not expecting to get any answer. To my surprise, I heard a
feeble voice from within, though what was said I could not hear. I entered at once, and found Jacob lying
half-dressed upon his bed. He was as pale as death, and the sweat was simply rolling off his face. His hands
were unconsciously gripping the bedclothes as a drowning man holds on to whatever he may grasp. As I came
in he half arose, with a wild, hunted look in his eyes, which were wide open and staring, as though something
of horror had come before him; but when he recognised me he sank back on the couch with a smothered sob
of relief and closed his eyes. I stood by him for a while, quite a minute or two, while he gasped. Then he
opened his eyes and looked at me, but with such a despairing, woeful expression that, as I am a living man, I
would have rather seen that frozen look of horror. I sat down beside him and asked after his health. For a
while he would not answer me except to say that he was not ill; but then, after scrutinising me closely, he half
arose on his elbow and said:

'I thank you kindly, sir, but I'm simply telling you the truth. I am not ill, as men call it, though God knows
whether there be not worse sicknesses than doctors know of. I'll tell you, as you are so kind, but I trust that
you won't even mention such a thing to a living soul, for it might work me more and greater woe. I am
suffering from a bad dream.'

'A bad dream!' I said, hoping to cheer him; 'but dreams pass away with the light--even with waking.' There I
stopped, for before he spoke I saw the answer in his desolate look round the little place.

'No! no! that's all well for people that live in comfort and with those they love around them. It is a thousand
times worse for those who live alone and have to do so. What cheer is there for me, waking here in the silence
of the night, with the wide moor around me full of voices and full of faces that make my waking a worse
dream than my sleep? Ah, young sir, you have no past that can send its legions to people the darkness and the
empty space, and I pray the good God that you may never have!' As he spoke, there was such an almost
irresistible gravity of conviction in his manner that I abandoned my remonstrance about his solitary life. I felt
that I was in the presence of some secret influence which I could not fathom. To my relief, for I knew not
what to say, he went on:

'Two nights past have I dreamed it. It was hard enough the first night, but I came through it. Last night the
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 63
expectation was in itself almost worse than the dream--until the dream came, and then it swept away every
remembrance of lesser pain. I stayed awake till just before the dawn, and then it came again, and ever since I
have been in such an agony as I am sure the dying feel, and with it all the dread of tonight.' Before he had got
to the end of the sentence my mind was made up, and I felt that I could speak to him more cheerfully.

'Try and get to sleep early tonight--in fact, before the evening has passed away. The sleep will refresh you,
and I promise you there will not be any bad dreams after tonight.' He shook his head hopelessly, so I sat a
little longer and then left him.

When I got home I made my arrangements for the night, for I had made up my mind to share Jacob Settle's
lonely vigil in his cottage on the moor. I judged that if he got to sleep before sunset he would wake well
before midnight, and so, just as the bells of the city were striking eleven, I stood opposite his door armed with
a bag, in which were my supper, an extra large flask, a couple of candles, and a book. The moonlight was
bright, and flooded the whole moor, till it was almost as light as day; but ever and anon black clouds drove
across the sky, and made a darkness which by comparison seemed almost tangible. I opened the door softly,
and entered without waking Jacob, who lay asleep with his white face upward. He was still, and again bathed
in sweat. I tried to imagine what visions were passing before those closed eyes which could bring with them
the misery and woe which were stamped on the face, but fancy failed me, and I waited for the awakening. It
came suddenly, and in a fashion which touched me to the quick, for the hollow groan that broke from the
man's white lips as he half arose and sank back was manifestly the realisation or completion of some train of
thought which had gone before.

'If this be dreaming,' said I to myself, 'then it must be based on some very terrible reality. What can have been
that unhappy fact that he spoke of?'

While I thus spoke, he realised that I was with him. It struck me as strange that he had no period of that doubt
as to whether dream or reality surrounded him which commonly marks an expected environment of waking
men. With a positive cry of joy, he seized my hand and held it in his two wet, trembling hands, as a frightened
child clings on to someone whom it loves. I tried to soothe him:

'There, there! it is all right. I have come to stay with you tonight, and together we will try to fight this evil
dream.' He let go my hand suddenly, and sank back on his bed and covered his eyes with his hands.

'Fight it?--the evil dream! Ah! no, sir, no! No mortal power can fight that dream, for it comes from God--and
is burned in here;' and he beat upon his forehead. Then he went on:

'It is the same dream, ever the same, and yet it grows in its power to torture me every time it comes.'

'What is the dream?' I asked, thinking that the speaking of it might give him some relief, but he shrank away
from me, and after a long pause said:

'No, I had better not tell it. It may not come again.'

There was manifestly something to conceal from me--something that lay behind the dream, so I answered:

'All right. I hope you have seen the last of it. But if it should come again, you will tell me, will you not? I ask,
not out of curiosity, but because I think it may relieve you to speak.' He answered with what I thought was
almost an undue amount of solemnity:

'If it comes again, I shall tell you all.'

Then I tried to get his mind away from the subject to more mundane things, so I produced supper, and made
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 64

him share it with me, including the contents of the flask. After a little he braced up, and when I lit my cigar,
having given him another, we smoked a full hour, and talked of many things. Little by little the comfort of his
body stole over his mind, and I could see sleep laying her gentle hands on his eyelids. He felt it, too, and told
me that now he felt all right, and I might safely leave him; but I told him that, right or wrong, I was going to
see in the daylight. So I lit my other candle, and began to read as he fell asleep.

By degrees I got interested in my book, so interested that presently I was startled by its dropping out of my
hands. I looked and saw that Jacob was still asleep, and I was rejoiced to see that there was on his face a look
of unwonted happiness, while his lips seemed to move with unspoken words. Then I turned to my work again,
and again woke, but this time to feel chilled to my very marrow by hearing the voice from the bed beside me:

'Not with those red hands! Never! never!' On looking at him, I found that he was still asleep. He woke,
however, in an instant, and did not seem surprised to see me; there was again that strange apathy as to his
surroundings. Then I said:

'Settle, tell me your dream. You may speak freely, for I shall hold your confidence sacred. While we both live
I shall never mention what you may choose to tell me.'

He replied:

'I said I would; but I had better tell you first what goes before the dream, that you may understand. I was a
schoolmaster when I was a very young man; it was only a parish school in a little village in the West Country.
No need to mention any names. Better not. I was engaged to be married to a young girl whom I loved and
almost reverenced. It was the old story. While we were waiting for the time when we could afford to set up
house together, another man came along. He was nearly as young as I was, and handsome, and a gentleman,
with all a gentleman's attractive ways for a woman of our class. He would go fishing, and she would meet him
while I was at my work in school. I reasoned with her and implored her to give him up. I offered to get
married at once and go away and begin the world in a strange country; but she would not listen to anything I
could say, and I could see that she was infatuated with him. Then I took it on myself to meet the man and ask
him to deal well with the girl, for I thought he might mean honestly by her, so that there might be no talk or
chance of talk on the part of others. I went where I should meet him with none by, and we met!' Here Jacob
Settle had to pause, for something seemed to rise in his throat, and he almost gasped for breath. Then he went
on:

'Sir, as God is above us, there was no selfish thought in my heart that day, I loved my pretty Mabel too well to
be content with a part of her love, and I had thought of my own unhappiness too often not to have come to
realise that, whatever might come to her, my hope was gone. He was insolent to me--you, sir, who are a
gentleman, cannot know, perhaps, how galling can be the insolence of one who is above you in station--but I
bore with that. I implored him to deal well with the girl, for what might be only a pastime of an idle hour with
him might be the breaking of her heart. For I never had a thought of her truth, or that the worst of harm could
come to her--it was only the unhappiness to her heart I feared. But when I asked him when he intended to
marry her his laughter galled me so that I lost my temper and told him that I would not stand by and see her
life made unhappy. Then he grew angry too, and in his anger said such cruel things of her that then and there I
swore he should not live to do her harm. God knows how it came about, for in such moments of passion it is
hard to remember the steps from a word to a blow, but I found myself standing over his dead body, with my
hands crimson with the blood that welled from his torn throat. We were alone and he was a stranger, with
none of his kin to seek for him and murder does not always out--not all at once. His bones may be whitening
still, for all I know, in the pool of the river where I left him. No one suspected his absence, or why it was,
except my poor Mabel, and she dared not speak. But it was all in vain, for when I came back again after an
absence of months--for I could not live in the place--I learned that her shame had come and that she had died
in it. Hitherto I had been borne up by the thought that my ill deed had saved her future, but now, when I
learned that I had been too late, and that my poor love was smirched with that man's sin, I fled away with the
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 65
sense of my useless guilt upon me more heavily than I could bear. Ah! sir, you that have not done such a sin
don't know what it is to carry it with you. You may think that custom makes it easy to you, but it is not so. It
grows and grows with every hour, till it becomes intolerable, and with it growing, too, the feeling that you
must for ever stand outside Heaven. You don't know what that means, and I pray God that you never may.
Ordinary men, to whom all things are possible, don't often, if ever, think of Heaven. It is a name, and nothing
more, and they are content to wait and let things be, but to those who are doomed to be shut out for ever you
cannot think what it means, you cannot guess or measure the terrible endless longing to see the gates opened,
and to be able to join the white figures within.

'And this brings me to my dream. It seemed that the portal was before me, with great gates of massive steel
with bars of the thickness of a mast, rising to the very clouds, and so close that between them was just a
glimpse of a crystal grotto, on whose shining walls were figured many white-clad forms with faces radiant
with joy. When I stood before the gate my heart and my soul were so full of rapture and longing that I forgot.
And there stood at the gate two mighty angels with sweeping wings, and, oh! so stern of countenance. They
held each in one hand a flaming sword, and in the other the latchet, which moved to and fro at their lightest
touch. Nearer were figures all draped in black, with heads covered so that only the eyes were seen, and they
handed to each who came white garments such as the angels wear. A low murmur came that told that all
should put on their own robes, and without soil, or the angels would not pass them in, but would smite them
down with the flaming swords. I was eager to don my own garment, and hurriedly threw it over me and
stepped swiftly to the gate; but it moved not, and the angels, loosing the latchet, pointed to my dress, I looked
down, and was aghast, for the whole robe was smeared with blood. My hands were red; they glittered with the
blood that dripped from them as on that day by the river bank. And then the angels raised their flaming swords
to smite me down, and the horror was complete--I awoke. Again, and again, and again, that awful dream
comes to me. I never learn from the experience, I never remember, but at the beginning the hope is ever there
to make the end more appalling; and I know that the dream does not come out of the common darkness where
the dreams abide, but that it is sent from God as a punishment! Never, never shall I be able to pass the gate,
for the soil on the angel garments must ever come from these bloody hands!'

I listened as in a spell as Jacob Settle spoke. There was something so far away in the tone of his
voice--something so dreamy and mystic in the eyes that looked as if through me at some spirit
beyond--something so lofty in his very diction and in such marked contrast to his workworn clothes and his
poor surroundings that I wondered if the whole thing were not a dream.

We were both silent for a long time. I kept looking at the man before me in growing wonderment. Now that
his confession had been made, his soul, which had been crushed to the very earth, seemed to leap back again
to uprightness with some resilient force. I suppose I ought to have been horrified with his story, but, strange to
say, I was not. It certainly is not pleasant to be made the recipient of the confidence of a murderer, but this
poor fellow seemed to have had, not only so much provocation, but so much self-denying purpose in his deed
of blood that I did not feel called upon to pass judgment upon him. My purpose was to comfort, so I spoke out
with what calmness I could, for my heart was beating fast and heavily:

'You need not despair, Jacob Settle. God is very good, and His mercy is great. Live on and work on in the
hope that some day you may feel that you have atoned for the past.' Here I paused, for I could see that deep,
natural sleep this time, was creeping upon him. 'Go to sleep,' I said; 'I shall watch with you here and we shall
have no more evil dreams tonight.'

He made an effort to pull himself together, and answered:

'I don't know how to thank you for your goodness to me this night, but I think you had best leave me now. I'll
try and sleep this out; I feel a weight off my mind since I have told you all. If there's anything of the man left
in me, I must try and fight out life alone.'
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 66

'I'll go tonight, as you wish it,' I said; 'but take my advice, and do not live in such a solitary way. Go among
men and women; live among them. Share their joys and sorrows, and it will help you to forget. This solitude
will make you melancholy mad.'

'I will!' he answered, half unconsciously, for sleep was overmastering him.

I turned to go, and he looked after me. When I had touched the latch I dropped it, and, coming back to the bed,
held out my hand. He grasped it with both his as he rose to a sitting posture, and I said my goodnight, trying
to cheer him:

'Heart, man, heart! There is work in the world for you to do, Jacob Settle. You can wear those white robes yet
and pass through that gate of steel!'

Then I left him.

A week after I found his cottage deserted, and on asking at the works was told that he had 'gone north', no one
exactly knew whither.

Two years afterwards, I was staying for a few days with my friend Dr. Munro in Glasgow. He was a busy
man, and could not spare much time for going about with me, so I spent my days in excursions to the
Trossachs and Loch Katrine and down the Clyde. On the second last evening of my stay I came back
somewhat later than I had arranged, but found that my host was late too. The maid told me that he had been
sent for to the hospital--a case of accident at the gas-works, and the dinner was postponed an hour; so telling
her I would stroll down to find her master and walk back with him, I went out. At the hospital I found him
washing his hands preparatory to starting for home. Casually, I asked him what his case was.

'Oh, the usual thing! A rotten rope and men's lives of no account. Two men were working in a gasometer,
when the rope that held their scaffolding broke. It must have occurred just before the dinner hour, for no one
noticed their absence till the men had returned. There was about seven feet of water in the gasometer, so they
had a hard fight for it, poor fellows. However, one of them was alive, just alive, but we have had a hard job to
pull him through. It seems that he owes his life to his mate, for I have never heard of greater heroism. They
swam together while their strength lasted, but at the end they were so done up that even the lights above, and
the men slung with ropes, coming down to help them, could not keep them up. But one of them stood on the
bottom and held up his comrade over his head, and those few breaths made all the difference between life and
death. They were a shocking sight when they were taken out, for that water is like a purple dye with the gas
and the tar. The man upstairs looked as if he had been washed in blood. Ugh!'

'And the other?'

'Oh, he's worse still. But he must have been a very noble fellow. That struggle under the water must have been
fearful; one can see that by the way the blood has been drawn from the extremities. It makes the idea of the
Stigmata possible to look at him. Resolution like this could, you would think, do anything in the world. Ay! it
might almost unbar the gates of Heaven. Look here, old man, it is not a very pleasant sight, especially just
before dinner, but you are a writer, and this is an odd case. Here is something you would not like to miss, for
in all human probability you will never see anything like it again.' While he was speaking he had brought me
into the mortuary of the hospital.

On the bier lay a body covered with a white sheet, which was wrapped close round it.

'Looks like a chrysalis, don't it? I say, Jack, if there be anything in the old myth that a soul is typified by a
butterfly, well, then the one that this chrysalis sent forth was a very noble specimen and took all the sunlight
on its wings. See here!' He uncovered the face. Horrible, indeed, it looked, as though stained with blood. But I
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 67

knew him at once, Jacob Settle! My friend pulled the winding sheet further down.

The hands were crossed on the purple breast as they had been reverently placed by some tender-hearted
person. As I saw them my heart throbbed with a great exultation, for the memory of his harrowing dream
rushed across my mind. There was no stain now on those poor, brave hands, for they were blanched white as
snow.

And somehow as I looked I felt that the evil dream was all over. That noble soul had won a way through the
gate at last. The white robe had now no stain from the hands that had put it on.

Crooken Sands

Mr Arthur Fernlee Markam, who took what was known as the Red House above the Mains of Crooken, was a
London merchant, and being essentially a cockney, thought it necessary when he went for the summer
holidays to Scotland to provide an entire rig-out as a Highland chieftain, as manifested in chromolithographs
and on the music-hall stage. He had once seen in the Empire the Great Prince--'The Bounder King'--bring
down the house by appearing as 'The MacSlogan of that Ilk,' and singing the celebrated Scotch song, 'There's
naething like haggis to mak a mon dry!' and he had ever since preserved in his mind a faithful image of the
picturesque and warlike appearance which he presented. Indeed, if the true inwardness of Mr. Markam's mind
on the subject of his selection of Aberdeenshire as a summer resort were known, it would be found that in the
foreground of the holiday locality which his fancy painted stalked the many hued figure of the MacSlogan of
that Ilk. However, be this as it may, a very kind fortune--certainly so far as external beauty was
concerned--led him to the choice of Crooken Bay. It is a lovely spot, between Aberdeen and Peterhead, just
under the rock-bound headland whence the long, dangerous reefs known as The Spurs run out into the North
Sea. Between this and the 'Mains of Crooken'--a village sheltered by the northern cliffs--lies the deep bay,
backed with a multitude of bent-grown dunes where the rabbits are to be found in thousands. Thus at either
end of the bay is a rocky promontory, and when the dawn or the sunset falls on the rocks of red syenite the
effect is very lovely. The bay itself is floored with level sand and the tide runs far out, leaving a smooth waste
of hard sand on which are dotted here and there the stake nets and bag nets of the salmon fishers. At one end
of the bay there is a little group or cluster of rocks whose heads are raised something above high water, except
when in rough weather the waves come over them green. At low tide they are exposed down to sand level;
and here is perhaps the only little bit of dangerous sand on this part of the eastern coast. Between the rocks,
which are apart about some fifty feet, is a small quicksand, which, like the Goodwins, is dangerous only with
the incoming tide. It extends outwards till it is lost in the sea, and inwards till it fades away in the hard sand of
the upper beach. On the slope of the hill which rises beyond the dunes, midway between the Spurs and the
Port of Crooken, is the Red House. It rises from the midst of a clump of fir-trees which protect it on three
sides, leaving the whole sea front open. A trim old-fashioned garden stretches down to the roadway, on
crossing which a grassy path, which can be used for light vehicles, threads a way to the shore, winding
amongst the sand hills.

When the Markam family arrived at the Red House after their thirty-six hours of pitching on the Aberdeen
steamer Ban Righ from Blackwall, with the subsequent train to Yellon and drive of a dozen miles, they all
agreed that they had never seen a more delightful spot. The general satisfaction was more marked as at that
very time none of the family were, for several reasons, inclined to find favourable anything or any place over
the Scottish border. Though the family was a large one, the prosperity of the business allowed them all sorts
of personal luxuries, amongst which was a wide latitude in the way of dress. The frequency of the Markam
girls' new frocks was a source of envy to their bosom friends and of joy to themselves.

Arthur Fernlee Markam had not taken his family into his confidence regarding his new costume. He was not
quite certain that he should be free from ridicule, or at least from sarcasm, and as he was sensitive on the
subject, he thought it better to be actually in the suitable environment before he allowed the full splendour to
burst upon them. He had taken some pains, to insure the completeness of the Highland costume. For the
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 68
purpose he had paid many visits to 'The Scotch All-Wool Tartan Clothing Mart' which had been lately
established in Copthall-court by the Messrs. MacCallum More and Roderick MacDhu. He had anxious
consultations with the head of the firm--MacCallum as he called himself, resenting any such additions as 'Mr.'
or 'Esquire.' The known stock of buckles, buttons, straps, brooches and ornaments of all kinds were examined
in critical detail; and at last an eagle's feather of sufficiently magnificent proportions was discovered, and the
equipment was complete. It was only when he saw the finished costume, with the vivid hues of the tartan
seemingly modified into comparative sobriety by the multitude of silver fittings, the cairngorm brooches, the
philibeg, dirk and sporran that he was fully and absolutely satisfied with his choice. At first he had thought of
the Royal Stuart dress tartan, but abandoned it on the MacCallum pointing out that if he should happen to be
in the neighbourhood of Balmoral it might lead to complications. The MacCallum, who, by the way, spoke
with a remarkable cockney accent, suggested other plaids in turn; but now that the other question of accuracy
had been raised, Mr. Markam foresaw difficulties if he should by chance find himself in the locality of the
clan whose colours he had usurped. The MacCallum at last undertook to have, at Markam's expense, a special
pattern woven which would not be exactly the same as any existing tartan, though partaking of the
characteristics of many. It was based on the Royal Stuart, but contained suggestions as to simplicity of pattern
from the Macalister and Ogilvie clans, and as to neutrality of colour from the clans of Buchanan, Macbeth,
Chief of Macintosh and Macleod. When the specimen had been shown to Markam he had feared somewhat
lest it should strike the eye of his domestic circle as gaudy; but as Roderick MacDhu fell into perfect ecstasies
over its beauty he did not make any objection to the completion of the piece. He thought, and wisely, that if a
genuine Scotchman like MacDhu liked it, it must be right--especially as the junior partner was a man very
much of his own build and appearance. When the MacCallum was receiving his cheque--which, by the way,
was a pretty stiff one--he remarked:

'I've taken the liberty of having some more of the stuff woven in case you or any of your friends should want
it.' Markam was gratified, and told him that he should be only too happy if the beautiful stuff which they had
originated between them should become a favourite, as he had no doubt it would in time. He might make and
sell as much as he would.

Markam tried the dress on in his office one evening after the clerks had all gone home. He was pleased,
though a little frightened, at the result. The MacCallum had done his work thoroughly, and there was nothing
omitted that could add to the martial dignity of the wearer.

'I shall not, of course, take the claymore and the pistols with me on ordinary occasions,' said Markam to
himself as he began to undress. He determined that he would wear the dress for the first time on landing in
Scotland, and accordingly on the morning when the Ban Righ was hanging off the Girdle Ness lighthouse,
waiting for the tide to enter the port of Aberdeen, he emerged from his cabin in all the gaudy splendour of his
new costume. The first comment he heard was from one of his own sons, who did not recognise him at first.

'Here's a guy! Great Scott! It's the governor!' And the boy fled forthwith and tried to bury his laughter under a
cushion in the saloon. Markam was a good sailor and had not suffered from the pitching of the boat, so that
his naturally rubicund face was even more rosy by the conscious blush which suffused his cheeks when he had
found himself at once the cynosure of all eyes. He could have wished that he had not been so bold for he knew
from the cold that there was a big bare spot under one side of his jauntily worn Glengarry cap. However, he
faced the group of strangers boldly. He was not, outwardly, upset even when some of the comments reached
his ears.

'He's off his bloomin' chump,' said a cockney in a suit of exaggerated plaid.

'There's flies on him,' said a tall thin Yankee, pale with sea-sickness, who was on his way to take up his
residence for a time as close as he could get to the gates of Balmoral.

'Happy thought! Let us fill our mulls; now's the chance!' said a young Oxford man on his way home to
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 69

Inverness. But presently Mr. Markam heard the voice of his eldest daughter.

'Where is he? Where is he?' and she came tearing along the deck with her hat blowing behind her. Her face
showed signs of agitation, for her mother had just been telling her of her father's condition; but when she saw
him she instantly burst into laughter so violent that it ended in a fit of hysterics. Something of the same kind
happened to each of the other children. When they had all had their turn Mr. Markam went to his cabin and
sent his wife's maid to tell each member of the family that he wanted to see them at once. They all made their
appearance, suppressing their feelings as well as they could. He said to them very quietly:

'My dears, don't I provide you all with ample allowances?'

'Yes, father!' they all answered gravely, 'no one could be more generous!'

'Don't I let you dress as you please?'

'Yes, father!'--this a little sheepishly.

'Then, my dears, don't you think it would be nicer and kinder of you not to try and make me feel
uncomfortable, even if I do assume a dress which is ridiculous in your eyes, though quite common enough in
the country where we are about to sojourn?' There was no answer except that which appeared in their hanging
heads. He was a good father and they all knew it. He was quite satisfied and went on:

'There, now, run away and enjoy yourselves! We shan't have another word about it.' Then he went on deck
again and stood bravely the fire of ridicule which he recognised around him, though nothing more was said
within his hearing.

The astonishment and the amusement which his get-up occasioned on the Ban Righ was, however, nothing to
that which it created in Aberdeen. The boys and loafers, and women with babies, who waited at the landing
shed, followed en masse as the Markam party took their way to the railway station; even the porters with their
old-fashioned knots and their new-fashioned barrows, who await the traveller at the foot of the gang-plank,
followed in wondering delight. Fortunately the Peterhead train was just about to start, so that the martyrdom
was not unnecessarily prolonged. In the carriage the glorious Highland costume was unseen, and as there were
but few persons at the station at Yellon, all went well there. When, however, the carriage drew near the Mains
of Crooken and the fisher folk had run to their doors to see who it was that was passing, the excitement
exceeded all bounds. The children with one impulse waved their bonnets and ran shouting behind the carriage;
the men forsook their nets and their baiting and followed; the women clutched their babies, and followed also.
The horses were tired after their long journey to Yellon and back, and the hill was steep, so that there was
ample time for the crowd to gather and even to pass on ahead.

Mrs. Markam and the elder girls would have liked to make some protest or to do something to relieve their
feelings of chagrin at the ridicule which they saw on all faces, but there was a look of fixed determination on
the face of the seeming Highlander which awed them a little, and they were silent. It might have been that the
eagle's feather, even when arising above the bald head, the cairngorm brooch even on the fat shoulder, and the
claymore, dirk and pistols, even when belted round the extensive paunch and protruding from the stocking on
the sturdy calf, fulfilled their existence as symbols of martial and terrifying import! When the party arrived at
the gate of the Red House there awaited them a crowd of Crooken inhabitants, hatless and respectfully silent;
the remainder of the population was painfully toiling up the hill. The silence was broken by only one sound,
that of a man with a deep voice.

'Man! but he's forgotten the pipes!'

The servants had arrived some days before, and all things were in readiness. In the glow consequent on a good
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 70

lunch after a hard journey all the disagreeables of travel and all the chagrin consequent on the adoption of the
obnoxious costume were forgotten.

That afternoon Markam, still clad in full array, walked through the Mains of Crooken. He was all alone, for,
strange to say, his wife and both daughters had sick headaches, and were, as he was told, lying down to rest
after the fatigue of the journey. His eldest son, who claimed to be a young man, had gone out by himself to
explore the surroundings of the place, and one of the boys could not be found. The other boy, on being told
that his father had sent for him to come for a walk, had managed--by accident, of course--to fall into the water
butt, and had to be dried and rigged out afresh. His clothes not having been as yet unpacked this was of course
impossible without delay.

Mr. Markam was not quite satisfied with his walk. He could not meet any of his neighbours. It was not that
there were not enough people about, for every house and cottage seemed to be full; but the people when in the
open were either in their doorways some distance behind him, or on the roadway a long distance in front. As
he passed he could see the tops of heads and the whites of eyes in the windows or round the corners of doors.
The only interview which he had was anything but a pleasant one. This was with an odd sort of old man who
was hardly ever heard to speak except to join in the 'Amens' in the meeting-house. His sole occupation seemed
to be to wait at the window of the post-office from eight o'clock in the morning till the arrival of the mail at
one, when he carried the letter-bag to a neighbouring baronial castle. The remainder of his day was spent on a
seat in a draughty part of the port, where the offal of the fish, the refuse of the bait, and the house rubbish was
thrown, and where the ducks were accustomed to hold high revel.

When Saft Tammie beheld him coming he raised his eyes, which were generally fixed on the nothing which
lay on the roadway opposite his seat, and, seeming dazzled as if by a burst of sunshine, rubbed them and
shaded them with his hand. Then he started up and raised his hand aloft in a denunciatory manner as he
spoke:--

'"Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. All is vanity." Mon, be warned in time! "Behold the lilies of the field,
they toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Mon! Mon!
Thy vanity is as the quicksand which swallows up all which comes within its spell. Beware vanity! Beware
the quicksand, which yawneth for thee, and which will swallow thee up! See thyself! Learn thine own vanity!
Meet thyself face to face, and then in that moment thou shalt learn the fatal force of thy vanity. Learn it, know
it, and repent ere the quicksand swallow thee!' Then without another word he went back to his seat and sat
there immovable and expressionless as before.

Markam could not but feel a little upset by this tirade. Only that it was spoken by a seeming madman, he
would have put it down to some eccentric exhibition of Scottish humour or impudence; but the gravity of the
message--for it seemed nothing else--made such a reading impossible. He was, however, determined not to
give in to ridicule, and although he had not yet seen anything in Scotland to remind him even of a kilt, he
determined to wear his Highland dress. When he returned home, in less than half-an-hour, he found that every
member of the family was, despite the headaches, out taking a walk. He took the opportunity afforded by their
absence of locking himself in his dressing-room, took off the Highland dress, and, putting on a suit of
flannels, lit a cigar and had a snooze. He was awakened by the noise of the family coming in, and at once
donning his dress made his appearance in the drawing-room for tea.

He did not go out again that afternoon; but after dinner he put on his dress again--he had, of course dressed for
dinner as usual--and went by himself for a walk on the sea-shore. He had by this time come to the conclusion
that he would get by degrees accustomed to the Highland dress before making it his ordinary wear. The moon
was up and he easily followed the path through the sand-hills, and shortly struck the shore. The tide was out
and the beach firm as a rock, so he strolled southwards to nearly the end of the bay. Here he was attracted by
two isolated rocks some little way out from the edge of the dunes, so he strolled towards them. When he
reached the nearest one he climbed it, and, sitting there elevated some fifteen or twenty feet over the waste of
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 71

sand, enjoyed the lovely, peaceful prospect. The moon was rising behind the headland of Pennyfold, and its
light was just touching the top of the furthermost rock of the Spurs some three-quarters of a mile out; the rest
of the rocks were in dark shadow. As the moon rose over the headland, the rocks of the Spurs and then the
beach by degrees became flooded with light.

For a good while Mr. Markam sat and looked at the rising moon and the growing area of light which followed
its rise. Then he turned and faced eastwards and sat with his chin in his hand looking seawards, and revelling
in the peace and beauty and freedom of the scene. The roar of London--the darkness and the strife and
weariness of London life--seemed to have passed quite away, and he lived at the moment a freer and higher
life. He looked at the glistening water as it stole its way over the flat waste of sand, coming closer and closer
insensibly--the tide had turned. Presently he heard a distant shouting along the beach very far off.

'The fishermen calling to each other,' he said to himself and looked around. As he did so he got a horrible
shock, for though just then a cloud sailed across the moon he saw, in spite of the sudden darkness around him,
his own image. For an instant, on the top of the opposite rock he could see the bald back of the head and the
Glengarry cap with the immense eagle's feather. As he staggered back his foot slipped, and he began to slide
down towards the sand between the two rocks. He took no concern as to failing, for the sand was really only a
few feet below him, and his mind was occupied with the figure or simulacrum of himself, which had already
disappeared. As the easiest way of reaching terra firma he prepared to jump the remainder of the distance. All
this had taken but a second, but the brain works quickly, and even as he gathered himself for the spring he saw
the sand below him lying so marbly level shake and shiver in an odd way. A sudden fear overcame him; his
knees failed, and instead of jumping he slid miserably down the rock, scratching his bare legs as he went. His
feet touched the sand--went through it like water--and he was down below his knees before he realised that he
was in a quicksand. Wildly he grasped at the rock to keep himself from sinking further, and fortunately there
was a jutting spur or edge which he was able to grasp instinctively. To this he clung in grim desperation. He
tried to shout, but his breath would not come, till after a great effort his voice rang out. Again he shouted, and
it seemed as if the sound of his own voice gave him new courage, for he was able to hold on to the rock for a
longer time than he thought possible--though he held on only in blind desperation. He was, however,
beginning to find his grasp weakening, when, joy of joys! his shout was answered by a rough voice from just
above him.

'God be thankit, I'm nae too late!' and a fisherman with great thigh-boots came hurriedly climbing over the
rock. In an instant he recognised the gravity of the danger, and with a cheering 'Haud fast, mon! I'm comin'!'
scrambled down till he found a firm foothold. Then with one strong hand holding the rock above, he leaned
down, and catching Markam's wrist, called out to him, 'Haud to me, mon! Haud to me wi' ither hond!'

Then he lent his great strength, and with a steady, sturdy pull, dragged him out of the hungry quicksand and
placed him safe upon the rock. Hardly giving him time to draw breath, he pulled and pushed him--never
letting him go for an instant--over the rock into the firm sand beyond it, and finally deposited him, still
shaking from the magnitude of his danger, high upon the beach. Then he began to speak:

'Mon! but I was just in time. If I had no laucht at yon foolish lads and begun to rin at the first you'd a bin
sinkin' doon to the bowels o' the airth be the noo! Wully Beagrie thocht you was a ghaist, and Tom MacPhail
swore ye was only like a goblin on a puddick-steel! "Na!" said I. "Yon's but the daft Englishman--the loony
that had escapit frae the waxwarks." I was thinkin' that bein' strange and silly--if not a whole-made feel--ye'd
no ken the ways o' the quicksan'! I shouted till warn ye, and then ran to drag ye aff, if need be. But God be
thankit, be ye fule or only half-daft wi' yer vanity, that I was no that late!' and he reverently lifted his cap as he
spoke.

Mr. Markam was deeply touched and thankful for his escape from a horrible death; but the sting of the charge
of vanity thus made once more against him came through his humility. He was about to reply angrily, when
suddenly a great awe fell upon him as he remembered the warning words of the half-crazy letter-carrier: 'Meet
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 72

thyself face to face, and repent ere the quicksand shall swallow thee!'

Here, too, he remembered the image of himself that he had seen and the sudden danger from the deadly
quicksand that had followed. He was silent a full minute, and then said:

'My good fellow, I owe you my life!'

The answer came with reverence from the hardy fisherman, 'Na! Na! Ye owe that to God; but, as for me, I'm
only too glad till be the humble instrument o' His mercy.'

'But you will let me thank you,' said Mr. Markam, taking both the great hands of his deliverer in his and
holding them tight. 'My heart is too full as yet, and my nerves are too much shaken to let me say much; but,
believe me, I am very, very grateful!' It was quite evident that the poor old fellow was deeply touched, for the
tears were running down his cheeks.

The fisherman said, with a rough but true courtesy:

'Ay, sir! thank me and ye will--if it'll do yer poor heart good. An' I'm thinking that if it were me I'd be thankful
too. But, sir, as for me I need no thanks. I am glad, so I am!'

That Arthur Fernlee Markam was really thankful and grateful was shown practically later on. Within a week's
time there sailed into Port Crooken the finest fishing smack that had ever been seen in the harbour of
Peterhead. She was fully found with sails and gear of all kinds, and with nets of the best. Her master and men
went away by the coach, after having left with the salmon-fisher's wife the papers which made her over to
him.

As Mr. Markam and the salmon-fisher walked together along the shore the former asked his companion not to
mention the fact that he had been in such imminent danger, for that it would only distress his dear wife and
children. He said that he would warn them all of the quicksand, and for that purpose he, then and there, asked
questions about it till he felt that his information on the subject was complete. Before they parted he asked his
companion if he had happened to see a second figure, dressed like himself on the other rock as he had
approached to succour him.

'Na! Na!' came the answer, 'there is nae sic another fule in these parts. Nor has there been since the time o'
Jamie Fleeman--him that was fule to the Laird o' Udny. Why, mon! sic a heathenish dress as ye have on till ye
has nae been seen in these pairts within the memory o' mon. An' I'm thinkin' that sic a dress never was for
sittin' on the cauld rock, as ye done beyont. Mon! but do ye no fear the rheumatism or the lumbagy wi'
floppin' doon on to the cauld stanes wi' yer bare flesh? I was thinking that it was daft ye waur when I see ye
the mornin' doon be the port, but it's fule or eediot ye maun be for the like o' thot!' Mr. Markam did not care to
argue the point, and as they were now close to his own home he asked the salmon-fisher to have a glass of
whisky--which he did--and they parted for the night. He took good care to warn all his family of the
quicksand, telling them that he had himself been in some danger from it.

All that night he never slept. He heard the hours strike one after the other; but try how he would he could not
get to sleep. Over and over again he went through the horrible episode of the quicksand, from the time that
Saft Tammie had broken his habitual silence to preach to him of the sin of vanity and to warn him. The
question kept ever arising in his mind: 'Am I then so vain as to be in the ranks of the foolish?' and the answer
ever came in the words of the crazy prophet: '"Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." Meet thyself face to face, and
repent ere the quicksand shall swallow thee!' Somehow a feeling of doom began to shape itself in his mind
that he would yet perish in that same quicksand, for there he had already met himself face to face.

In the grey of the morning he dozed off, but it was evident that he continued the subject in his dreams, for he
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 73

was fully awakened by his wife, who said:

'Do sleep quietly! That blessed Highland suit has got on your brain. Don't talk in your sleep, if you can help
it!' He was somehow conscious of a glad feeling, as if some terrible weight had been lifted from him, but he
did not know any cause of it. He asked his wife what he had said in his sleep, and she answered:

'You said it often enough, goodness knows, for one to remember it--"Not face to face! I saw the eagle plume
over the bald head! There is hope yet! Not face to face!" Go to sleep! Do!' And then he did go to sleep, for he
seemed to realise that the prophecy of the crazy man had not yet been fulfilled. He had not met himself face to
face--as yet at all events.

He was awakened early by a maid who came to tell him that there was a fisherman at the door who wanted to
see him. He dressed himself as quickly as he could--for he was not yet expert with the Highland dress--and
hurried down, not wishing to keep the salmon-fisher waiting. He was surprised and not altogether pleased to
find that his visitor was none other than Saft Tammie, who at once opened fire on him:

'I maun gang awa' t' the post; but I thocht that I would waste an hour on ye, and ca' roond just to see if ye waur
still that fou wi' vanity as on the nicht gane by. An I see that ye've no learned the lesson. Well! the time is
comin', sure eneucht! However I have all the time i' the marnins to my ain sel', so I'll aye look roond jist till
see how ye gang yer ain gait to the quicksan', and then to the de'il! I'm aff till ma wark the noo!' And he went
straightway, leaving Mr. Markam considerably vexed, for the maids within earshot were vainly trying to
conceal their giggles. He had fairly made up his mind to wear on that day ordinary clothes, but the visit of Saft
Tammie reversed his decision. He would show them all that he was not a coward, and he would go on as he
had begun--come what might. When he came to breakfast in full martial panoply the children, one and all,
held down their heads and the backs of their necks became very red indeed. As, however, none of them
laughed--except Titus, the youngest boy, who was seized with a fit of hysterical choking and was promptly
banished from the room--he could not reprove them, but began to break his egg with a sternly determined air.
It was unfortunate that as his wife was handing him a cup of tea one of the buttons of his sleeve caught in the
lace of her morning wrapper, with the result that the hot tea was spilt over his bare knees. Not unnaturally, he
made use of a swear word, whereupon his wife, somewhat nettled, spoke out:

'Well, Arthur, if you will make such an idiot of yourself with that ridiculous costume what else can you
expect? You are not accustomed to it--and you never will be!' In answer he began an indignant speech with:
'Madam!' but he got no further, for now that the subject was broached, Mrs. Markam intended to have her say
out. It was not a pleasant say, and, truth to tell, it was not said in a pleasant manner. A wife's manner seldom
is pleasant when she undertakes to tell what she considers 'truths' to her husband. The result was that Arthur
Fernlee Markam undertook, then and there, that during his stay in Scotland he would wear no other costume
than the one she abused. Woman-like his wife had the last word--given in this case with tears:

'Very well, Arthur! Of course you will do as you choose. Make me as ridiculous as you can, and spoil the poor
girls' chances in life. Young men don't seem to care, as a general rule, for an idiot father-in-law! But I must
warn you that your vanity will some day get a rude shock--if indeed you are not before then in an asylum or
dead!'

It was manifest after a few days that Mr. Markam would have to take the major part of his outdoor exercise by
himself. The girls now and again took a walk with him, chiefly in the early morning or late at night, or on a
wet day when there would be no one about; they professed to be willing to go out at all times, but somehow
something always seemed to occur to prevent it. The boys could never be found at all on such occasions, and
as to Mrs. Markam she sternly refused to go out with him on any consideration so long as he should continue
to make a fool of himself. On the Sunday he dressed himself in his habitual broadcloth, for he rightly felt that
church was not a place for angry feelings; but on Monday morning he resumed his Highland garb. By this
time he would have given a good deal if he had never thought of the dress, but his British obstinacy was
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 74
strong, and he would not give in. Saft Tammie called at his house every morning, and, not being able to see
him nor to have any message taken to him, used to call back in the afternoon when the letter-bag had been
delivered and watched for his going out. On such occasions he never failed to warn him against his vanity in
the same words which he had used at the first. Before many days were over Mr. Markam had come to look
upon him as little short of a scourge.

By the time the week was out the enforced partial solitude, the constant chagrin, and the never-ending
brooding which was thus engendered, began to make Mr. Markam quite ill. He was too proud to take any of
his family into his confidence since they had in his view treated him very badly. Then he did not sleep well at
night, and when he did sleep he had constantly bad dreams. Merely to assure himself that his pluck was not
failing him he made it a practice to visit the quicksand at least once every day, he hardly ever failed to go
there the last thing at night. It was perhaps this habit that wrought the quicksand with its terrible experience so
perpetually into his dreams. More and more vivid these became, till on waking at times he could hardly realise
that he had not been actually in the flesh to visit the fatal spot. He sometimes thought that he might have been
walking in his sleep.

One night his dream was so vivid that when he awoke he could not believe that it had only been a dream. He
shut his eyes again and again, but each time the vision, if it was a vision, or the reality, if it was a reality,
would rise before him. The moon was shining full and yellow over the quicksand as he approached it; he
could see the expanse of light shaken and disturbed and full of black shadows as the liquid sand quivered and
trembled and wrinkled and eddied as was its wont between its pauses of marble calm. As he drew close to it
another figure came towards it from the opposite side with equal footsteps. He saw that it was his own figure,
his very self, and in silent terror, compelled by what force he knew not, he advanced--charmed as the bird is
by the snake, mesmerised or hypnotised--to meet this other self. As he felt the yielding sand closing over him
he awoke in the agony of death, trembling with fear, and, strange to say, with the silly man's prophecy
seeming to sound in his ears: '"Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!" See thyself and repent ere the quicksand
swallow thee!'

So convinced was he that this was no dream that he arose, early as it was, and dressing himself without
disturbing his wife took his way to the shore. His heart fell when he came across a series of footsteps on the
sands, which he at once recognised as his own. There was the same wide heel, the same square toe; he had no
doubt now that he had actually been there, and half horrified, and half in a state of dreamy stupor, he followed
the footsteps, and found them lost in the edge of the yielding quicksand. This gave him a terrible shock, for
there were no return steps marked on the sand, and he felt that there was some dread mystery which he could
not penetrate, and the penetration of which would, he feared, undo him.

In this state of affairs he took two wrong courses. Firstly he kept his trouble to himself, and, as none of his
family had any clue to it, every innocent word or expression which they used supplied fuel to the consuming
fire of his imagination. Secondly he began to read books professing to bear upon the mysteries of dreaming
and of mental phenomena generally, with the result that every wild imagination of every crank or half-crazy
philosopher became a living germ of unrest in the fertilising soil of his disordered brain. Thus negatively and
positively all things began to work to a common end. Not the least of his disturbing causes was Saft Tammie,
who had now become at certain times of the day a fixture at his gate. After a while, being interested in the
previous state of this individual, he made inquiries regarding his past with the following result.

Saft Tammie was popularly believed to be the son of a laird in one of the counties round the Firth of Forth. He
had been partially educated for the ministry, but for some cause which no one ever knew threw up his
prospects suddenly, and, going to Peterhead in its days of whaling prosperity, had there taken service on a
whaler. Here off and on he had remained for some years, getting gradually more and more silent in his habits,
till finally his shipmates protested against so taciturn a mate, and he had found service amongst the fishing
smacks of the northern fleet. He had worked for many years at the fishing with always the reputation of being
'a wee bit daft,' till at length he had gradually settled down at Crooken, where the laird, doubtless knowing
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 75

something of his family history, had given him a job which practically made him a pensioner. The minister
who gave the information finished thus:--

'It is a very strange thing, but the man seems to have some odd kind of gift. Whether it be that "second sight"
which we Scotch people are so prone to believe in, or some other occult form of knowledge, I know not, but
nothing of a disastrous tendency ever occurs in this place but the men with whom he lives are able to quote
after the event some saying of his which certainly appears to have foretold it. He gets uneasy or
excited--wakes up, in fact--when death is in the air!'

This did not in any way tend to lessen Mr. Markam's concern, but on the contrary seemed to impress the
prophecy more deeply on his mind. Of all the books which he had read on his new subject of study none
interested him so much as a German one Die Döppleganger, by Dr. Heinrich von Aschenberg, formerly of
Bonn. Here he learned for the first time of cases where men had led a double existence--each nature being
quite apart from the other--the body being always a reality with one spirit, and a simulacrum with the other.
Needless to say that Mr. Markam realised this theory as exactly suiting his own case. The glimpse which he
had of his own back the night of his escape from the quicksand--his own footmarks disappearing into the
quicksand with no return steps visible--the prophecy of Saft Tammie about his meeting himself and perishing
in the quicksand--all lent aid to the conviction that he was in his own person an instance of the döppleganger.
Being then conscious of a double life he took steps to prove its existence to his own satisfaction. To this end
on one night before going to bed he wrote his name in chalk on the soles of his shoes. That night he dreamed
of the quicksand, and of his visiting it--dreamed so vividly that on walking in the grey of the dawn he could
not believe that he had not been there. Arising, without disturbing his wife, he sought his shoes.

The chalk signatures were undisturbed! He dressed himself and stole out softly. This time the tide was in, so
he crossed the dunes and struck the shore on the further side of the quicksand. There, oh, horror of horrors! he
saw his own footprints dying into the abyss!

He went home a desperately sad man. It seemed incredible that he, an elderly commercial man, who had
passed a long and uneventful life in the pursuit of business in the midst of roaring, practical London, should
thus find himself enmeshed in mystery and horror, and that he should discover that he had two existences. He
could not speak of his trouble even to his own wife, for well he knew that she would at once require the fullest
particulars of that other life--the one which she did not know; and that she would at the start not only imagine
but charge him with all manner of infidelities on the head of it. And so his brooding grew deeper and deeper
still. One evening--the tide then going out and the moon being at the full--he was sitting waiting for dinner
when the maid announced that Saft Tammie was making a disturbance outside because he would not be let in
to see him. He was very indignant, but did not like the maid to think that he had any fear on the subject, and
so told her to bring him in. Tammie entered, walking more briskly than ever with his head up and a look of
vigorous decision in the eyes that were so generally cast down. As soon as he entered he said:

'I have come to see ye once again--once again; and there ye sit, still just like a cockatoo on a pairch. Weel,
mon, I forgie ye! Mind ye that, I forgie ye!' And without a word more he turned and walked out of the house,
leaving the master in speechless indignation.

After dinner he determined to pay another visit to the quicksand--he would not allow even to himself that he
was afraid to go. And so, about nine o'clock, in full array, he marched to the beach, and passing over the sands
sat on the skirt of the nearer rock. The full moon was behind him and its light lit up the bay so that its fringe
of foam, the dark outline of the headland, and the stakes of the salmon-nets were all emphasised. In the
brilliant yellow glow the lights in the windows of Port Crooken and in those of the distant castle of the laird
trembled like stars through the sky. For a long time he sat and drank in the beauty of the scene, and his soul
seemed to feel a peace that it had not known for many days. All the pettiness and annoyance and silly fears of
the past weeks seemed blotted out, and a new holy calm took the vacant place. In this sweet and solemn mood
he reviewed his late action calmly, and felt ashamed of himself for his vanity and for the obstinacy which had
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 76

followed it. And then and there he made up his mind that the present would be the last time he would wear the
costume which had estranged him from those whom he loved, and which had caused him so many hours and
days of chagrin, vexation, and pain.

But almost as soon as he arrived at this conclusion another voice seemed to speak within him and mockingly
to ask him if he should ever get the chance to wear the suit again--that it was too late--he had chosen his
course and must now abide the issue.

'It is not too late,' came the quick answer of his better self; and full of the thought, he rose up to go home and
divest himself of the now hateful costume right away. He paused for one look at the beautiful scene. The light
lay pale and mellow, softening every outline of rock and tree and house-top, and deepening the shadows into
velvety-black, and lighting, as with a pale flame, the incoming tide, that now crept fringe-like across the flat
waste of sand. Then he left the rock and stepped out for the shore.

But as he did so a frightful spasm of horror shook him, and for an instant the blood rushing to his head shut
out all the light of the full moon. Once more he saw that fatal image of himself moving beyond the quicksand
from the opposite rock to the shore. The shock was all the greater for the contrast with the spell of peace
which he had just enjoyed; and, almost paralysed in every sense, he stood and watched the fatal vision and the
wrinkly, crawling quicksand that seemed to writhe and yearn for something that lay between. There could be
no mistake this time, for though the moon behind threw the face into shadow he could see there the same
shaven cheeks as his own, and the small stubby moustache of a few weeks' growth. The light shone on the
brilliant tartan, and on the eagle's plume. Even the bald space at one side of the Glengarry cap glistened, as did
the cairngorm brooch on the shoulder and the tops of the silver buttons. As he looked he felt his feet slightly
sinking, for he was still near the edge of the belt of quicksand, and he stepped back. As he did so the other
figure stepped forward, so that the space between them was preserved.

So the two stood facing each other, as though in some weird fascination; and in the rushing of the blood
through his brain Markam seemed to hear the words of the prophecy: 'See thyself face to face, and repent ere
the quicksand swallow thee.' He did stand face to face with himself, he had repented--and now he was sinking
in the quicksand! The warning and prophecy were coming true.

Above him the seagulls screamed, circling round the fringe of the incoming tide, and the sound being entirely
mortal recalled him to himself. On the instant he stepped back a few quick steps, for as yet only his feet were
merged in the soft sand. As he did so the other figure stepped forward, and coming within the deadly grip of
the quicksand began to sink. It seemed to Markam that he was looking at himself going down to his doom,
and on the instant the anguish of his soul found vent in a terrible cry. There was at the same instant a terrible
cry from the other figure, and as Markam threw up his hands the figure did the same. With horror-struck eyes
he saw him sink deeper into the quicksand; and then, impelled by what power he knew not, he advanced again
towards the sand to meet his fate. But as his more forward foot began to sink he heard again the cries of the
seagulls which seemed to restore his benumbed faculties. With a mighty effort he drew his foot out of the sand
which seemed to clutch it, leaving his shoe behind, and then in sheer terror he turned and ran from the place,
never stopping till his breath and strength failed him, and he sank half swooning on the grassy path through
the sandhills.

*****

Arthur Markam made up his mind not to tell his family of his terrible adventure--until at least such time as he
should be complete master of himself. Now that the fatal double--his other self--had been engulfed in the
quicksand he felt something like his old peace of mind.

That night he slept soundly and did not dream at all; and in the morning was quite his old self. It really
seemed as though his newer and worser self had disappeared for ever; and strangely enough Saft Tammie was
Dracula's Guest, by Bram Stoker 77

absent from his post that morning and never appeared there again, but sat in his old place watching nothing, as
of old, with lack-lustre eye. In accordance with his resolution he did not wear his Highland suit again, but one
evening tied it up in a bundle, claymore, dirk and philibeg and all, and bringing it secretly with him threw it
into the quicksand. With a feeling of intense pleasure he saw it sucked below the sand, which closed above it
into marble smoothness. Then he went home and announced cheerily to his family assembled for evening
prayers:

'Well! my dears, you will be glad to hear that I have abandoned my idea of wearing the Highland dress. I see
now what a vain old fool I was and how ridiculous I made myself! You shall never see it again!'

'Where is it, father?' asked one of the girls, wishing to say something so that such a self-sacrificing
announcement as her father's should not be passed in absolute silence. His answer was so sweetly given that
the girl rose from her seat and came and kissed him. It was:

'In the quicksand, my dear! and I hope that my worser self is buried there along with it--for ever.'

*****

The remainder of the summer was passed at Crooken with delight by all the family, and on his return to town
Mr. Markam had almost forgotten the whole of the incident of the quicksand, and all touching on it, when one
day he got a letter from the MacCallum More which caused him much thought, though he said nothing of it to
his family, and left it, for certain reasons, unanswered. It ran as follows:--

'The MacCallum More and Roderick MacDhu. 'The Scotch All-Wool Tartan Clothing Mart. Copthall Court,
E.C., 30th September, 1892.

'Dear Sir,--I trust you will pardon the liberty which I take in writing to you, but I am desirous of making an
inquiry, and I am informed that you have been sojourning during the summer in Aberdeenshire (Scotland,
N.B.). My partner, Mr. Roderick MacDhu--as he appears for business reasons on our bill-heads and in our
advertisements, his real name being Emmanuel Moses Marks of London--went early last month to Scotland
(N.B.) for a tour, but as I have only once heard from him, shortly after his departure, I am anxious lest any
misfortune may have befallen him. As I have been unable to obtain any news of him on making all inquiries
in my power, I venture to appeal to you. His letter was written in deep dejection of spirit, and mentioned that
he feared a judgment had come upon him for wishing to appear as a Scotchman on Scottish soil, as he had one
moonlight night shortly after his arrival seen his 'wraith'. He evidently alluded to the fact that before his
departure he had procured for himself a Highland costume similar to that which we had the honour to supply
to you, with which, as perhaps you will remember, he was much struck. He may, however, never have worn it,
as he was, to my own knowledge, diffident about putting it on, and even went so far as to tell me that he
would at first only venture to wear it late at night or very early in the morning, and then only in remote places,
until such time as he should get accustomed to it. Unfortunately he did not advise me of his route so that I am
in complete ignorance of his whereabouts; and I venture to ask if you may have seen or heard of a Highland
costume similar to your own having been seen anywhere in the neighbourhood in which I am told you have
recently purchased the estate which you temporarily occupied. I shall not expect an answer to this letter unless
you can give me some information regarding my friend and partner, so pray do not trouble to reply unless
there be cause. I am encouraged to think that he may have been in your neighbourhood as, though his letter is
not dated, the envelope is marked with the postmark of "Yellon" which I find is in Aberdeenshire, and not far
from the Mains of Crooken.

'I have the honour to be, dear sir, 'Yours very respectfully, 'JOSHUA SHEENY COHEN BENJAMIN '(The
MacCallum More.)'

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