Dracula

understand, but with the sternest look that his face could wear.

"If that were all, I would stop here where we are now, and let her
fade away into peace, for I see no light in life over her horizon."  He
went on with his work with, if possible, renewed and more frenzied
vigour.

Presently we both began to be conscious that the heat was beginning to
be of some effect.  Lucy's heart beat a trifle more audibly to the
stethoscope, and her lungs had a perceptible movement.  Van Helsing's
face almost beamed, and as we lifted her from the bath and rolled her
in a hot sheet to dry her he said to me, "The first gain is ours!
Check to the King!"

We took Lucy into another room, which had by now been prepared, and
laid her in bed and forced a few drops of brandy down her throat.  I
noticed that Van Helsing tied a soft silk handkerchief round her
throat.  She was still unconscious, and was quite as bad as, if not
worse than, we had ever seen her.

Van Helsing called in one of the women, and told her to stay with her
and not to take her eyes off her till we returned, and then beckoned
me out of the room.

"We must consult as to what is to be done," he said as we descended
the stairs.  In the hall he opened the dining room door, and we passed
in, he closing the door carefully behind him.  The shutters had been
opened, but the blinds were already down, with that obedience to the
etiquette of death which the British woman of the lower classes always
rigidly observes.  The room was, therefore, dimly dark.  It was,
however, light enough for our purposes.  Van Helsing's sternness was
somewhat relieved by a look of perplexity.  He was evidently torturing
his mind about something, so I waited for an instant, and he spoke.

"What are we to do now?  Where are we to turn for help?  We must have
another transfusion of blood, and that soon, or that poor girl's life
won't be worth an hour's purchase.  You are exhausted already.  I am
exhausted too.  I fear to trust those women, even if they would have
courage to submit.  What are we to do for some one who will open his
veins for her?"

"What's the matter with me, anyhow?"

The voice came from the sofa across the room, and its tones brought
relief and joy to my heart, for they were those of Quincey Morris.

Van Helsing started angrily at the first sound, but his face softened
and a glad look came into his eyes as I cried out, "Quincey Morris!"
and rushed towards him with outstretched hands.

"What brought you here?" I cried as our hands met.

"I guess Art is the cause."

He handed me a telegram.--'Have not heard from Seward for three days,
and am terribly anxious.  Cannot leave.  Father still in same
condition.  Send me word how Lucy is.  Do not delay.--Holmwood.'

"I think I came just in the nick of time.  You know you have only to
tell me what to do."

Van Helsing strode forward, and took his hand, looking him straight in
the eyes as he said, "A brave man's blood is the best thing on this
earth when a woman is in trouble.  You're a man and no mistake.  Well,
the devil may work against us for all he's worth, but God sends us men
when we want them."

Once again we went through that ghastly operation.  I have not the
heart to go through with the details.  Lucy had got a terrible shock
and it told on her more than before, for though plenty of blood went
into her veins, her body did not respond to the treatment as well as
on the other occasions.  Her struggle back into life was something
frightful to see and hear.  However, the action of both heart and
lungs improved, and Van Helsing made a sub-cutaneous injection of
morphia, as before, and with good effect.  Her faint became a profound
slumber.  The Professor watched whilst I went downstairs with Quincey
Morris, and sent one of the maids to pay off one of the cabmen who
were waiting.

I left Quincey lying down after having a glass of wine, and told the
cook to get ready a good breakfast.  Then a thought struck me, and I
went back to the room where Lucy now was.  When I came softly in, I
found Van Helsing with a sheet or two of note paper in his hand.  He
had evidently read it, and was thinking it over as he sat with his
hand to his brow.  There was a look of grim satisfaction in his face,
as of one who has had a doubt solved.  He handed me the paper saying
only, "It dropped from Lucy's breast when we carried her to the bath."

When I had read it, I stood looking at the Professor, and after a
pause asked him, "In God's name, what does it all mean?  Was she, or
is she, mad, or what sort of horrible danger is it?"  I was so
bewildered that I did not know what to say more.  Van Helsing put out
his hand and took the paper, saying,

"Do not trouble about it now.  Forget it for the present.  You shall
know and understand it all in good time, but it will be later.  And
now what is it that you came to me to say?"  This brought me back to
fact, and I was all myself again.

"I came to speak about the certificate of death.  If we do not act