Episode 18 — Across Europe

Travel, logistics, and narrow escapes as the chase heads closer to Transylvania.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
H Media presents Bram Stoker's Dracula adapted for audio. Thirtieth
of September. I got home at five o'clock and found
that Godalming and Morris had not only arrived, but had
already studied the transcript of the various diaries in letters
which Harker and his wonderful wife had made in a rain.

(00:23):
Harker had not yet returned from his visit to the Cariacters,
men of whom Doctor Hennessy had written to me. Missus
Harker gave him as a cup of tea, and I
can honestly say that, for the first time since I've
lived in it, this old house seemed like home. When
we had finished, Missus Harker said Dr Seward, may I
ask a favor. I want to see your patient, mister Renfield.

(00:48):
Do let me see him. What you have said of
him in your diary interests me so much. She looked
so appealing and so pretty that I could not refuse her.
There was no possible reason why I should, so I
took her with me. When I went into the room,
I told the man that the lady would like to
see him through as she simply answered, why she's going

(01:10):
through the house and wants to see every one in it.
I answered, oh, very well. He said that her come
in by all means, just wait a minute till I
tidy up the place. His method of tidying was peculiar.
He simply swallowed all the flies and spiders in the
boxets before I could stop him. It was quite evident
that he feared or was jealous of some interference. When

(01:33):
he had got through his disgusting task, he said cheerfully
let the lady come in, and sat down on the
edge of his bed with his head down, but his
eyelids raised so that he could see her as she entered.
For a moment, I thought that he might have some
homicidal intent. I remember how quiet he had been before

(01:53):
he attacked me in my own study. I took care
to stand where I could seize him at once if
he attempted to make a bring at her. She came
into the room with an easy gracefulness, which would at
once command the respect of any lunatic, for easiness is
to one of the qualities mad people most respect good evening,

(02:14):
mister Renfield said. She She walked over to him, smiling pleasantly,
and held out her hand. You see, I know you,
for Dr Seward has told me of you. He made
no immediate reply, but eyed her all over intently, with
a set frown on his face. This look gave way
to one of wonder, which merged in doubt. Then, to

(02:35):
my intense astonishment, he said, not the girl the doctor
wanted to marry? Are you? You can't be, you know,
for she's dead. Missus Harker smiled sweetly as she replied,
Oh no, I have a husband on my own, to
whom I was married for I ever saw Doctor Seward
or he me, I am missus Harker, And what are

(02:56):
you doing here? My husband and I are staying on
a visit with Dror Seward. Then don't stay? But why not?
I thought that this style of conversation might not be
pleasant to missus Harker any more than it was to me,
so I joined in, how did you know I wanted
to marry anyone? His reply was simply contemptuous, given in

(03:18):
a pause in which he turned his eyes from Missus
Harker to me, instantly turning them back again. What an
ass nine question. I don't see that at all, mister Renfield,
said Missus Harker, while championing me. He replied to her
that there was much courtesy and respect as he had
shown contempt to me. It will, of course understand, Missus Harker,

(03:39):
that when a man is so loved and honored as
our host is, everything regarding him is of interest in
our little community. Doctor Seward is loved not only by
his household and his friends, but even by his patients, who,
being some of them hardly in a mental equilibrium, are
apt to distort causes and if ects. Since I myself

(04:02):
have been an inmate of a lunatic asylum, I cannot
but notice that the sophistic tendencies of some of its
inmates leaned towards the errors of non causer and ignoratio. Elenchi,
I positively opened my eyes at this new development. Here
was my own pet lunatic, the most pronounced of his

(04:24):
type that I ever met with, talking elemental philosophy and
with a manner of a polished gentleman. I wonder if
it was Missus Harker's presence which would touch some chord
in his memory, if his new face were spontaneous or
in any way due to her unconscious influence. She must
have some rare gift of power. He continued to talk

(04:47):
for some time, and seeing that he was seemingly quite reasonable,
she ventured, looking at me questioningly as she began to
lead into his favorite topic. I was again astonished. Or
he addressed himself to the question with the impartiality of
the completest sanity. He even took himself as an example
when he mentioned certain things. Why I myself am an

(05:10):
instance of a man who had a strange belief. Indeed,
it was no wonder that my friends were alarmed and
insisted on my being put under control. I used to
fancy that life was a positive and perpetual entity, and
that by consuming a multitude of live things, no matter
how low in the scale of creation, one might in

(05:33):
definitely prolong life. At times I held the belief so
strongly will I actually tried to take human life. The
doctor here will bear me out on that one occasion,
I tried to kill him for the purpose of strengthening
my vital powers by the assimilation of my own body
of his life through the medium of his blood, relying

(05:55):
of course upon the scriptural phrase for the blood is
the life. But indeed the vendor of a certain nostrum
as vulgari as a truism. The very point of contempt,
isn't that true? Doctor? I nodded assent or I was
so amazed, so I hardly knew to either think or say,
but hard to imagine that I had seen him meet

(06:16):
up his spiders and flies not five minutes before. Looking
at my watch, I saw that I should go to
the station to meet Van Helsing. So I told missus
Harker that it was time to leave. She came at once,
after saying pleasantly to mister Renfrew, good bye. I hope
I may see you often under auspices, pleasanter to yourself,

(06:38):
to which, to my astonishment, he replied, good bye, my dear.
I pray God I may never see your sweet face again.
May He bless and keep you. When I went to
the station to meet Van Helsing, I left the boys
behind me. Poor Art seemed more cheerful than he had
been since Lucy first took hill. Quincy is more like

(07:00):
his own bright self than he has been for many
a long day. Barn Housing stepped from the carriage with
the eager, nimbullness of a boy. He saw me at
once and rushed at me, saying, ah, friend John, how
goes all? Well? So I've been busy for I come
here to stay if need be. All affairs are settled

(07:21):
with me, and I have much to tell. Madam Mina
is with you, yes, and her so fine husband, and
Arthur and my friend Quincy, they are with you too. Good.
As I drove to the house, I told him what
had passed and how my own diary had come to
be of some use through missus Harkin's suggestion, at which

(07:44):
the professor interrupted me, Ah, that wonderful meaning. She has
a man's brain, a brain that a man should have,
worry much gifted, and a woman's heart. The good God
fatted to her for a purpose. Believe me when he
made that so good common manation, Friend John. Up to
now fortune has made that woman have helped to us

(08:06):
after tonight. She must not have to do with this
so terrible affair. It is not good that she'd run
a risk so great. We men are determined now, we
are we not pledged to destroy this monster. But then
it's no part for a woman. Even if she be
not harmed, her heart may failure in so much and

(08:26):
so many horrors. And hereafter she may suffer of him
waiting for my nerves, and in sleep from her dreams. Besides,
she's a young woman that not so long knowning it
made the other things to think of sometime, if not now,
you tell me she's wrote all that. She must consult
with us tomorrow. She say goodbye to this work, and

(08:48):
we go alone. I agreed heartily with him, and I
told him what we had found in his absence. The
house which Dracula had bought is the very next one
to my own. He was amazed, and great concern see
to come on him. Oh that we had known it before,
he said, But then we might have reached him in

(09:09):
time to save poor Lucy. However, the milk that is
spilt cries not out afterwards, as you say, we shall
not think of that. Go on our way to the end.
Then he fell into a silence that lasted till we
entered my own gameway. Before we went to prepare for dinner,
he said to missus Harker, I am told, Madam Minner,

(09:32):
by my friend John At, you and your husband have
put up an exact order all things that have been
up to this moment, not up to this moment, Professor,
She said impulsively, but up to this morning, but why not?
Up to now we have seen hitherto have good light,
and all the things have been made. We have told

(09:54):
our secrets, and yet no one who has told is
the worse for it. Missus Harker began to blush, and
taking her paper from her pocket, she said, Doctor van Helsing,
will you read this and tell me if it must
go in? And it is my record of today, I
too have seen the need of putting down at present everything,

(10:15):
however trivial. But there is little in this except what
is personal? Must it go in? Professor read it over
gravely and handed it back, saying it need not go
in if you do not wish it, but I pray
that it may. It can but make your husband love
you the more, and all of us your friends more

(10:35):
honor to you, as well as more esteem and love.
She took it back with another blush and a bright smile.
And so now up to this very hour, all the
records we have are complete and in order. Professor took
away one copy to study after dinner before our meeting,
which is fixed for nine o'clock. The rest of us

(10:58):
have already read everything, so when we meet in the study,
we should be informed as to fact and can arrange
our plan of battle with this terrible and mysterious enemy. Mina.
Harker's Journal, thirtieth of September. When we met in Doctor
Seward's study two hours after the dinner, which had been

(11:19):
at six o'clock, we unconsciously formed a sort of board
or committee. Professor van Housing took the head of the table,
to which Doctor Seward motioned him as he came into
the room. He made me sit next to him on
his right and asked me to act as secretary. Johnathon
sat next to me, as were Lord Godalming, dtor Seward,

(11:40):
and mister Morris. Lord Godalman being next to Professor and
dtor Seward in the center. Professor said, why may I
suppose take it that we're all acquainted with the facts
that are in these papers. We all expressed assent, and
he went on, and I think it were I think
it good that I tell you something of the kind

(12:01):
of enemy with which we have to deal. I shall
then make known to you something of the history of
this man, which has been ascertained for me, so we
can then discuss how we shall act and can take
our measure. According there are such beings as vampires. Some
of us have the evidence that they exist. Even had

(12:22):
we not the proof of our own unhappy experience, the
teachings and the records of the past give proof enough
for sane people. I admit that the first time I
was skeptic. Were it not that through long years I
have trained myself to keep an open mind, I could
not have believed until such time as that fact thunder

(12:43):
on my ear. See I prove, I prove the letter
I known at the first what I now know. Nay
had even guessed that in one so precious a life,
that it have been spared to many of us who
did love her. But that has gone, and we were
so the other poor souls perish not whilst we can

(13:04):
save the Nosferato do not die like the bee when
he sting ones. He is only stronger, and being stronger,
have yet more power to work evil. This vampire, which
is amongst us, is of himself so strong in person
as twenty men. He is of cunning more than mortal,

(13:26):
or his cunning be the growth of ages. He have
still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his entomology
imply a divination by the dead, and all the dead
that he can come nigh are for him to command.
He is brute, and more than brute, he is devil
in callous, and the heart of him is not. He can,

(13:50):
within limitations, appear at will, where and when, and in
any of the forms that are to him. He can
with his range direct to the elements, the storm, the fog,
the thunder. He can command the meaner things, the rat,
the owl, and the bat, the moth, and the fox
and the wolf. He can grow and become small. He

(14:10):
can at times vanish and become unknown. How then are
we to begin our strike to destroy him? How as
we find is where, and having found it, how can
we destroy? My friends? This is much. It is a
terrible task that we undertake, and there may be consequences
to make the brave shudder. Or if we fail in

(14:31):
this our fight, he must surely win. And then where
end we life is nothings. I heed him not that
the fail here is not mere life or death.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
It is that we become as him, and that we
henceforward become foul things of the night, like him, without
heart or conscience, preying on the bodies and the souls
of those we love bet to us forever.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Are the gates of heaven shut? Or who shall open
them to us again? We go on for all time,
abhorred by all, a blot on the face of God's sunshine,
an arrow in the side of him who died for man.
But we are face to face with duty, and in
such case must we shrink? For me? I say no,

(15:23):
But then I am old, and life, with his sunshine
is fair, places, his songs of birds, his music, and
his love life far behind you. Others are young, some
have seen sorrow. There are fair days. Yet in store
what say you? While he was speaking, Jonathan had taking
my hand. I feared, oh so much that the appalling

(15:46):
nature of our danger was overcoming him. When I saw
his hands stretch out, it was life to me to
fear its touch. So strong, so self reliant, so resolute.
A brave man's hand can speak for itself. He does
not even need a woman's love to hear its music.
When the professor has done speaking, my husband looked at

(16:08):
my eyes and I in his. There was no need
for speaking between us. I answer for Mina and myself,
he said, help me in professor, said mister Quincy Morris
the conical he as usual, I am with you, said
Lord Godalmy, for Lucy's sake, if for no other reason,
dtor Seward simply nodded. Professor stood up, and, after laying

(16:32):
his golden crucifix on the table, had out his hand
either side. I took his right hand, Lord Godalming his left.
Jonathan held my right with his left, and stretched across
to mister Morris. So as we all took hands, our
solemn compact was made. I felt my heart go I
see cold, but it did not even occur to me

(16:53):
to draw back, and returned to our places. And Doctor
van Helsing went on with a sort of cheerfulness. Was
showed that the serious work had begun. It was to
be taken as gravely, in as business like a way
as any other transaction of life. Well, you know that
we have to contend against But we too are not

(17:14):
without strength. We have on our side power of combination,
a power denied to the vampire kid. We have sources
of science, are free to act and think, and the
hours of the day and night are ours equally. In fact,
so far as our powers extend, they are unfettered, and

(17:36):
we are free to use them. We have self devotion
in the cause, and an end to achieve which is
not a selfish one. These things are much. Let us
see how far the general powers are arrayed against us
are restrict, and how the individual cannot In fine, let
us consider the limitations of the vampire in general, and

(18:00):
of this one in particular. All we have to go
upon our traditions and superstitions. These do not at the
first appear much when the matter of one is of
life and death, nay of more than either life or death.
Yet we must be satisfied, in the first place, because

(18:20):
we have to be. No other means is at our control.
And secondly, because after all these things, tradition and superstition
are everything. There's not. The belief in vampires rest for others,
though not alas for us on them a year ago,

(18:40):
which of us would have received such a possibility. In
the midst of our scientific skeptical matter of that nineteenth century,
we even scouted in a belief what we saw justified
under our own very eyes. Take it, then, that the
vampire and the belief in his limitations and his cure

(19:01):
rests for the moment on the same base. For let
me tell you he is known everywhere that men have been,
in Old Greece, in Old Rome, he flourished, in Germany,
all over, in France, in India, even in the Chennosessei,
and in China. So far from us, in all ways

(19:24):
there even is he and the people's fear at h
this day he had followed the wake of the berserker, Icelander,
the devil begotten Hun, the Slav, the Saxon, the Magar.
So far then we have all we may act upon it.
And let me tell you that very much of the
beliefs are justified by what we have seen in our

(19:46):
own so unhappy experience. The vampire lives on and cannot
die by mere passing of the time. He can flourish
when that he can fatten on the blood of the living.
Even more or we have seen amongst us that he
can grow younger, and his vital faculties grow strenuous and

(20:07):
seem as though they have refreshed themselves when his special
paiblem is plenty. But he cannot flourish without this diet,
and he eat not as others. Even friend Jonathan, who
lived with him for weeks, did never see him to eat. Never,
he throws no shadow. He make in the mirror no reflect,

(20:29):
as again Jonathan observed. He has the strength of many
of his hand witness against Jonathan here when he shut
the door against the wolves, and when he help him
from the diligence, too, he can transform himself into a wolf,
as we gather from the ship arrival of Whitby. When
he tear open the dog, he can be as a bat,

(20:52):
as Madam Mina saw him on the window at Whitby,
and as friend John saw him fly from this so
near house, and as my friend Quincey saw him at
the window of Miss Lucy. He can come and mist
which he create. That noble ship's captain proved him of this.
But from what we know, the distance he can make

(21:14):
this mist is limited, and can only be round himself.
He come on moonlit rays as in a mental dust,
as again Johnathan saw those sisters in the castle of Dracula,
He becomes so small we ourselves saw Miss Lucy ere
she was at peace, slip through a hair breadth of

(21:34):
space at the tomb door. He can, when once he
finds his way, come out from anything or into anything,
no matter how clothes it be bound or even fused
up with fire, soldier, you cally he can see in
the dark no small power. This and a world which,
while it's half shut from the light, but hear me through.

(21:58):
He can do all these things. Yet he is not free. Nay,
he is even more prisoner than the slave of the
galley and the madmen in his cell. He cannot go
where he lists. He who is not of nature, has
yet to obey some of nature's laws. Why we know not.
He may not enter anywhere at the first unless to

(22:20):
be someone of the household who bid him to come.
Though afterwards he can come and go as he please.
His power ceases, as to that of all evil things,
at the coming of the day. Only at certain times
can he have limited freedom. If he be not at
the place where he is bound, can only change himself

(22:41):
at noon or at exact sunrise or sunset. These things
we are told, and in this record of ours we
have proof by inference. Thus, whereas he can do as
well as he will within his limit, when he have
his earthly home, his coffin home, his hell home, the
place unhallowed, as we saw when he went to the

(23:02):
grave of the suicide in Whitby. Still at other time
he can only change when the time come. It is
said too that he can only pass running water at
the slack or the flood of the tide. Then there
are things which so afflict him that he has no power,
as the garlic that we know of. And as for

(23:22):
the thing sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix, that was
amongst us. Even now when we resolve to them, he
is nothing, but in their presence he takes place far
off and silent with respect. Now are those too, which
I shall tell you of, lest in our seeking we
may need them. The branch of a wild rose on

(23:44):
his coffin, keep him that he moved, not from it.
A sacred bullet flied into the coffin. Kill him so
that he can be true dead. And as for the
stake through him, we know already of its peace, or
the cutoff of the head that give a rest, we
have seen it with our eyes. Thus, when we find

(24:05):
the habitation of this man that was, we can confine
into his coffin and destroy him if we obey what
we know that he is clever. I have asked my
friend Amenius at budapesth University to make his record, and
from all means that are he tell me of what
he has been, he must indeed have been that Volvo

(24:28):
Tratuer who won his name against the Turf over the
great river, on the very frontier of Turkey Land. If
it be so, then he was no common man, for
in that time and for centuries after he was spoken
of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well
as the bravest of the sons of the land. Beyond

(24:50):
the forest. That mighty brain and iron resolution went with
into his grave, and even now our arrayed against us.
The Draculas were, says Arminius, a great and noble race.
Now and again there were scions who were held by
their covials to have dealings with the evil one. They

(25:12):
learned his secrets in the Shalomans, among the mountains of
a lake Hermenstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar
as its due, in the records of such words as Stragosia,
which ordog and Poco, Satan and Hell. In one manuscript,
this very Dracula is spoken of as of empire, which

(25:35):
we all understand too well. There have been from the
loins of this vague one great man and good woman,
and their graves made sacred the earth where alone this
foulness can dwell. For it is not the least of
its terrors. That this evil thing is rooted deep in
all good, in the soil barren of holy memories. It

(25:58):
cannot rest. Whilst we were talking, mister Morris was looking
steadily at the window, and he now got up quietly
and went out of the room. There was a little pause,
and then the professor went on, and now we must
settle what we do. We have here much data, and
we must proceed to lay out our campaign. We know

(26:18):
from the inquiry of Jonathan that from the castle to
Whitby came fifty boxes of earth, all of which were
delivered at Carthax. We also know that at least some
of these boxes have been removed, and it seems to
me that our first step should be to ascertain whether
all the rest remained in the house beyond that wall

(26:39):
where we looked today, or whether any more have been removed.
It's the latter we must trace. Here we were interrupted
in a very startling way. Outside of the house came
the sound of a pistol shot. The glass in the
window was shattered with a bullet, which ricochet from the
top of the embrasure struck the far wall of the room.

(27:01):
I am afraid, I am at heart a coward, for
I shrieked out. The men all jumped to their feet.
Lord Gonalming flew over to the window and threw up
the sash. As he did so, we heard mister Morris's
voice without sorry, a fear of alarmed you. I shall
come in and tell you about it. A minute later
he came in and said, that was an idiotic thing

(27:23):
for me to do. And I ask your pardon, missus Harker,
most sincerely a fear I must have frightened you terribly.
But the fact is, whilst the Professor was talking, I
came a big bat sat in the window sill. Got
such a horror of the damn brutes and recent events
I cannot stand them. I went out to have a shot,
and have been doing the late of evenings whenever I

(27:43):
have seen one. You used to laugh at me for it.
Then I did you hit it? Asked Doctor van Helsing.
But oh no, I fancy not, for it flew away
end of the wood. I won't say any more. He
took his seat, and the Professor began to resume his statement.
We must trace each of these boxes. And when we
are ready, we must either capture or kill this monster

(28:06):
in his lair, or we must, so to speak, sterilize
the earth, so that no more he can seek safety
in it. Thus, in the end we may find him
in his form of a man between the hours of
noon and sunset, and so engage with him when he's
at his most weak. And now for you, Madam Mina,

(28:29):
this night is the end until all we will. You're
too precious to have such a risk. When we part
to night, you no more must question, and shall tell
you all in good time. We are men and able
to bear, but you must be our star and our hope,
and we shall act all the more free that you
are not in the danger such as we are. All

(28:51):
the men, even Jonathan, seemed relieved, But it did not
seem to me good that they should brave danger and
perhaps lessen their safety strength being the best safety through
care of me. But their minds were made up, and
it was a bitter pill for me to swallow, but
said nothing. It's safe to accept the chivalrous care of me.

(29:12):
Mister Morris resumed the discussion, and there is no time
to lose. We have a look at this house right now.
Time is everything with him, and swift action on our
part may save another victim. I own that my heart
began to foul me when the time for action came
so close, but I did not say anything, for I
had a greater fear if I appeared to be a

(29:35):
drag or hindrance to their work, they might even leave
me out of their counselors altogether. They've now gone off
to Carfax with means to get into the house. Man
like that told me to go to bed and sleep,
as if a woman can sleep when those she loves
are in danger, I shall lie down and present to
sleep less. Jonathan have added anxiety about me when he

(29:59):
returned Dr Seward's diary first of October four a m.
Just as we were about to leave the house, an
urgent message was brought to me from Renfield to know
if I would see him at once, and he had
something of the utmost importance to say to me. I
told the messenger to say that I would attend to

(30:20):
his wishes in the morning. I was busy. Just at
the moment the attendant added, he seems very importunate, Sir.
I have never seen him so eager don't know about.
If you don't see him seeing, he will have one
of his violent fits. I knew the man would not
have said this without some course, so I said, all right,

(30:41):
I'll go now, and asked the others to wait a
few minutes for me, as I had to go and
see my patient. Take me with you, friend, John, said
the professor. This case in your diary interests me much,
and it had bearing too now and again in our case.
I should like very much to see him, and a

(31:02):
special when his mind is disturbed. Why I come, also
asked Lord Godalmth, me too, said Quincey Morris. May I come,
said Harker. I nodded, and we all went down the
passage together. We found him in a state of considerable excitement,
but far more rational in his speech and manner than

(31:23):
I had ever seen him. There was an unusual understanding
of himself which was unlike anything I have met with
in a lunaty, and he took it for granted that
his reasons would prevail with the others entirely sane. We
all four went into the room, but none of the
others at first said anything. His request was that I

(31:45):
would at once release him from the asylum and send
him home. This, he backed up with arguments regarding his
complete recovery and adduced his own existing sanity. Appeal to
your friends, he said, they will perhaps not mind sitting
in judgment on my case. By the way you have
not introduced me. I was so much astonished that the

(32:07):
oddness of introducing a madman in an asylum did not
strike me at the moment. And besides, there was a
certain dignity.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
In the man's manner, so much of the habit of equality,
that I at once made the introduction, Lord Godalming, Professor
van Holding, mister Quincy, Morris of Texas, mister Renfield, who
shook hands with each of them, saying in turn, Lord Godalmy,
I have the honor of seconding your.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Father at the Wyndham. I agreed to know by your
holding the title that he is no more. He was
a man loved and honored by all who knew him,
and in his use was I have heard the inventor
of a burnt rum punch, much patronized on Darby Knight.
Mister Morris, you should be proud of your great state.

(32:54):
Its perception into the Union was the precedent which may
have far reaching effects after and the Pole and the
tropics may hold alliance to the stars and stripes. The
power of treaty may yet prove a vast engine of enlargement.
When the Monroe doctrine takes its place at a political table,

(33:17):
what shall any man say of his pleasure at meeting
Van Housing, Sir, I make no apology for dropping all
forms of conventional prethod when an individual has revolutionized therapeutics
by his discovery of the continuous evolution of brain matter,
conventional forms are unfitting, since they would seem to limit

(33:39):
him to one of a class. You, gentlemen, who by nationality,
by heredity, or by the possession of natural gifts, are
fitted to hold your respective places in the moving world.
I take to witness that I am as sane as
at least the majority of men who are in full
possession of their liberties. I am sure that you Doctor Seward,

(34:02):
humanitarian and medico jurists as well as scientists, would deem
it a moral duty to deal with me as one
to be considered as under exceptional circumstances. He made his
last appeal with a curtly air of conviction, which was
not without its own charm. I think we were all staggered.
For my own part, I was under the conviction, despite

(34:24):
my knowledge of the man's character and history, that his
reason had been restored. I felt under a strong impulse
to tell him that I was satisfied as to his sanity,
and would see about the necessary formalities for his release
in the morning. I thought it better to wait, however,
for making so grave a stake for a while would

(34:45):
I knew the sudden changes to richness. Particular patient was liable.
So I contented myself with making a general statement, but
he appeared to be improving very rapidly, that I would
have a longer chat with him in the morning and
with and see what I could do in the direction
of meeting his wishes. Listed not at all satisfying, for

(35:06):
he said quickly, but I fear, doctor Seu, I do
hardly appreciate my wish. I decided to go at once
here now, this very hour, this very moment, if I
may time presses, and in our implied agreement with the
old scytheman is the essence of the contract. I'm sure
is any necessary. But before so admirable a practitioner as

(35:28):
Dr Seward, so simple and so momentous a wish to
ensure its fulfillment. He looked at me keenly, and, seeing
that the negatives in my face, turned to the others
and scrutinized them closely. Not meeting any sufficient response, he
went on, is it possible that I've heard in my
supposition you have? I said frankly, but at the same

(35:51):
time as I felt brutally. There was a considerable pause,
and then he said, slowly, Then I suppose I must
own me if my ground of request, let me ask
for this concession, boom privilege, what you will? I am
content to implore in such a case, not on personal grounds,

(36:13):
but for the sake of others, and not at liberty
to give you the whole of my reasons. But you may,
I assure you take it from me that they are
good ones, sound and unselfish, and spring from the highest
sense of duty. Would you look so into my heart
you would approve to the full sentiments which animate me.

(36:35):
Nay more, you would count me amongst the best and
truest of your friend. Again, he looked at us all keenly.
I had a growing conviction that this sudden change of
his entire intellectual method was but yet another form or
phase of his madness, and so determined to let him
go on a little longer. Now I am thing experience

(36:57):
that he would like all lunatics give him up away.
In the end, Van Helsing was gazing at him with
a look of utmost intensity. His bushy eyebrows are always
meeting in a fixed concentration of his look, he said
to Renfield, in a tone which did not surprise him
at the time, but only when I sawed him it afterwards.

(37:18):
But it was as one addressing an equal. Can you
not tell, frankly, your real reason for wishing to be
free to time? I well undertake that if you will
satisfy me, a stranger, without prejudice, without the habit of
keeping open mind, doctor Seward will give you, at his
own risk and on his own responsibility, the privilege you see.

(37:39):
He shook his head sadly and with a look of
poignant regret in his face. The professor went on, come, sir,
but think yourself, he claimed, the privilege of reason and
the highest degree. Since you seek to impress us with
your complete reasonableness, you do this who's sanity? We have
reason to doubt, since you have not yet released from

(38:00):
treatment for this very defect. If you're not help us
in our effort to choose or wise its course, how
can we perform the duty which you yourself put upon us.
Be wise and help us. If we can, we shall
aid you to achieve your wish. He shook his head
as he said, Doctor van Helsing, I have nothing to say.

(38:22):
Your argument is complete. If I were free to speak,
I should not hesitate a moment. But I am not
my own master in the matter. I can only ask
you to trust me. If I am refused, the responsibility
does not mess with me. I thought it was now
time to end this scene, which is becoming too comically grave.

(38:42):
So I went towards the door, simply saying, come, my friends,
we have work to do. Good night. As however, I
got near the door, a new change came over the patient.
He moved towards me so quickly that for the moment
I feared that he was about to make another homicidal attack.
My fears, however, were groundless, for he held up his

(39:03):
two hands imploring me, and made his petition in a
moving manner. As he saw that the very excess of
his emotion was mitigating against him by restoring hiss more
to our old relations. He became still more demonstrative. I
glanced at Van Helsing and saw my conviction reflected in
his eyes. So I became a little more fixed in

(39:27):
my manner, if not more stern, and motioned to him
that his efforts were unavailing. I had previously seen something
of the same, constantly growing excitement in him when he
had to make some request of which at the time
he had sought much, such for instance, when he wanted
a cat, and I was prepared to see the collapse

(39:47):
into the same sullen acquiescence on this occasion, my expectation
was not realized. But when he found that his appeal
would not be successful, he got into quite a frantic condition.
He's threw himself on his knees, held up his hands,
wringing them in plaintive supplication, poured forth a torrent of entreaty,

(40:08):
with your tears rolling down his cheeks and his whole
face and form expressive of the deepest emotion. Let me
entreat you, doctor Seward, and let me implore you to
let me out of his house at once. Send me
away how you will and where you will and send
keepers with me with whips and chains. Let them take
me in a strait, waistcoat, manacle and leg iron, even

(40:32):
to a jail. But let me get out of this.
You don't know what you do by keeping me here.
I'm speaking from the depths of my heart, of my
very soul. You don't know to whom you wrong or how,
And I may not tell. Woe is me. I may
not tell by you all hold sacred, you all hold deer,

(40:54):
or your love that is lost, or your hope that lives.
For the sake of the old mind, Take me out
of this and save my soul and guilt. Can't you
hear me, ma'am? Can't you understand? You never learned? You
know that I am sane and earnest now, and I'm
no lunatic in a man's fit, but the sane man
fighting for his soul. Oh hear me, hear me. Let

(41:17):
me go, Let me go, Let me go. I thought
the longer this went on, the wilder he would get,
and so it would bring on a fit. So I
took him by the hand and raised him up. Come,
I said, stony, no more less, we read quite enough already,
get to your bed and try to behave more to screek.
He suddenly stopped and looked at me intensely for several moments,

(41:39):
and then, without a word, he rose and, moving over,
sat down on the side of the bed. A collapse
had come, as on former occasions, just as I had expected.
When I was leaving the room, the last of our party,
he said to me, in a well bred voice, you will,
I trust, doctor Suan. Give me. It's just a bear

(42:00):
in mind later. But I did what I could to
convince you tonight. End of chapter eighteen.