Episode 20 — Confrontations and Losses

Skirmishes, personal costs, and hard decisions as the hunt intensifies.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
H Media presents Bram Stoker's Dracula adapted for audio.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
First of October evening I found Thomas Snelling in his
house at Bethnal Green, but unhappily he was not in
a condition to remember anything. A very prospected beer which
my expected coming and open to him, had proved too much.
He began too early on his expected debulch. I learned, however,

(00:30):
from his wife, who seemed a decent poor soul, and
he was only the assistant to Smollett, who of the
two mates was a responsible person. So off I drove
to Walworth and found mister Joseph Smollett at home and
in his shirt sleeves taking a late tea out of
a saucer. He's a decent, intelligent fellow, distinctly a good,

(00:54):
reliable type of workman, and with a head piece of
his own. He remembered all about the incident from the
boxes from a wonderful dog eared notebook which he produced
for some mysterious receptacle about the seat of his trousers,
and which had hieroglyphical entries in thick, half obliterated pencil.

(01:14):
He gave me the destinations to the boxes there were,
he said, six in the cartload which he took from
Carfax and left at one hundred and ninety seven chicksand
Street Mine End, Newtown, and another six which he deposited
at Jamaica Lane, Bermondsey. If then the Count meant to
scatter these ghastly refuges of his over London, these places

(01:40):
were chosen at the first of delivery, so that later
he might distribute more fully. The systematic manner in which
this was done made me think that he could not
mean to confine himself to two sides of London. He
was now fixed on the far east to the northern shore,

(02:00):
on the east of the southern shore, and on the south.
An awesome west was surely never meant to be left
out of his diabolical scheme, let alone the city itself
in the very fashionable London in the southwest and west.
I went back to Smolllett and asked him if he
could tell us if any of the other boxes had
been taken from Carfax. He replied, well, come Noor, you

(02:25):
treated me very handsome. I've given him half a sovereign,
and I'll tell you all I know. I heard a
man by the name of Bloxham say, four nights ago
in the air and ounds in Pincher's alley as though
he had his mate done a rare dusty job and
an old house at berthet. There ain't many such jobs
in this here, and I'm thinking that maybe Sam Bloxham

(02:46):
could tell you something. I asked him if he could
tell me where to find him. I told him that
if he could get me the address, it would be
worth another half sovereign to him. So he gulped down
the rest of his team and stood up, saying that
he was going to begin the search then. And there
at the door, he stopped and said, look at here, Governor.

(03:07):
Main't make sense to me. You're keeping you here. I
may find Sam soon or man, but anyway, he ain't
like to be in a way to tell you much.
To night. Sam is a rare one. And when he
starts on the booze, you can give me an envelope
with a stamp on it and put your address on it.
I'll find out where Sam is he found and post
it to you tonight. Maybe you won't catch him, but

(03:31):
for Sam gets off main early. Never mind the booze.
The night before. This was all practical so one of
the children went off with a penny buy an envelope
in a sheet of paper, and to keep the chain.
When she came back, I addressed the envelope and stamped it,
and when Smilin had a gain, faithfully promised to post
the address when found, I took my way home. We're

(03:56):
on the track anyhow, I'm tired tonight. I want to sleep.
Mina is fast asleep and looks a little too pale
to eyes, look as though she had been crying. Poor dear,
I have no doubt it frets her to be kept
in the dark, and it may make her doubly anxious
about me and the others. But it as best as

(04:16):
it is. It is better to be disappointed and worried
in such a way now and to have her nerve broken.
The doctors were quite right to insist on her being
kept out of this dreadful business. I must be firm,
for on me this particular burden of silence must rest.
I shall not ever enter on the subject with her

(04:39):
under any circumstances. Indeed, it may not be a hard task,
after all, for she herself has become reticent on the subject,
and has not spoken of the count or his doings
ever since we told her of Ourt's decision. Second to
October evening, a long and trying and exciting day. By

(05:00):
the first post, I got my directed envelope with a
dirty scrap of paper it closed on, which was written
with a carpenter's pencil in a sprawling hand. Sam Bloxam
Corkrans four porters caught Bartel Street Walworth, asked for the decatipe.
I got the letter in bed and rose without waiting mina.

(05:24):
She looked heavy and sleepy and pale and far from well.
I determined not to wake her, but that when I
should return from this new search, I would arrange for
her going back to Exeter. I think she'd be happier
in our own home, with the daily tasks to interest her,
and being in here amongst us and in ignorance. I

(05:47):
only saw Doctor Seward for a moment and told him
where I was off to, promising to come back and
tell the rest as soon as I should have found
out everything. I drove to Walworth and found with some
difficulty Potter's Court. Mister Smollett's spelling misled me, and I
asked for Poetus Court instead of Potter's cord. However, when

(06:09):
I found the Court, I had no difficulty in discovering
Corcoran's lodging house. I asked the man who came to
the door for deputite. He shook his head and said,
I don't know him. No such person here, never heard
of it in a warmer blooming days. Don't believe there
ain't anybody that guy in living here or anywhere. So
I took out the smallest letter, and as I read it,

(06:30):
it seemed to me that the lesson of the spelling
of the name of the court might guide me. What
are you, I asked, I'm a deputy, he answered, I
saw at once I was on the right track phonetic spelling.
How the game misled me half a crown tip put
the deputy's knowledge at my disposal, and I learned that
mister Bloxham, who had slept off the remains of his

(06:52):
bier on the previous night at Corcoran's, had left for
his work at Popular at five o'clock that morning. He
could not tell me where the place of work was situated.
We had a vague idea it was some kind of
new fangled warehouse, and with this slender crewe, I had
to start the popular It was twelve o'clock before I

(07:14):
got any satisfactory hint of such a building, and this
I got at a coffee shop where some workmen were
having their dinner. One of those suggested there was being
erected at Cross Angels Street a new cold storage building,
and as this suited the condition of a new fangled warehouse,
I at once drove to it. An interview with a

(07:37):
surly gatekeeper and a surlier foreman, both of whom were
appeased in the coin of the realm, put me on
the track of Bloxam. He was sent for on my
suggesting I was willing to pay his day's wages to
his woman for the privilege of asking him a few
questions on a private matter. He was a smart enough fellow,

(08:00):
a rough of speech and bearing. When I promised to
pay for his information, they had given him an earnest.
He told me that he'd made two journeys between Carfax
and a house in Piccadilly, and he had taken from
this house to the latter nine great boxes, made every
ones with a horse and cart hired by him for

(08:21):
the purpose. I asked him if he could tell me
the number of the house in Piccadilly, to which he replied, well, Governor,
I forget the number, but it was only a few
doors from a big white churches, something at a kind
not long built, the dusty old house. Oh nothing to
the dustiness that the house he took the blooming boxes from.

(08:41):
How did you get into the houses? If they were
all sent? There was an old party and what engaged
me and waited at the house in Berthy. He helped
me to lift the boxes and put them in the
dry cursed me. But he was the strongest chap whatever struck.
And him an old fellow with a white mustache. One
that's seen you. He'd think he couldn't throw a shadder.

(09:04):
How this phrase thrilled through me? Well, he took up
at this end of the box. He thought were pounds
of tea, and me are puffing and are blowing four
I could end mine up. He yeah, I'm no chicken either.
How did you get into the house at Piccadilly? I asked?
He was there too, He must have started off and
got there for me. When I lung on the bell.

(09:25):
He opened the door hisself and helped me carrying the
boxes into the hall. The whole line, I asked, Yeah,
there was five in the first four in a second.
It was main drive work. I don't so well remember
I got home, I interrupted him. Were the boxes left
in the hall? Yes? It was a big oar. There

(09:45):
was nothing else in it. I made one more attempt
to further matters. He didn't have a key and he
used to key or nothing. Held gently opened the door
yourself shut it again when I drove off. Don't remember
the last time, but that was a beer. You can't
remember the number of the house, No, sir, you need

(10:07):
know no difficulty about that. It's a iron with a
stone front and a bow in front of it. Eye
steps up to the door, I know them steps either
to carrying them boxes up with three loaders, or come
round and earn a copper. The old check gave him shillings,
and then, seeing they got so much, they wanted more.
But he took one of them by the shoulder and

(10:28):
was like throwing down the steps to a lot of
them went away cussing. I thought that with this description
I could find the house. So, having paid my friend
for his information, I started off with pickadiny. I'd had
a new painful experience account could, it was evident, handle
the earth boxes himself, so if so, time was precious,

(10:52):
would know that he had achieved a certain amount of distribution.
He could, by choosing his own time, complete the task observed.
At Piccadilly Circus, I discharged my cab of what west
would beyond the junior constitutional. I came across the house
described and satisfied that this was the next of the

(11:12):
lairs arranged by Dracula. The house looked as if it
had been long untenanted. The windows were encrusted with dust,
and the shutters were up, and the framework was black
with time, and from the iron the paint had mostly
scaled away. It was evident that up to lately there

(11:33):
had been a large noticeboard in front of the balcony.
It had how ever, been roughly torn away, the uprights
which had supported it still remaining behind the rows of
the balcony, and I saw there were some loose boards
whose raw edges looked white. I would have given a
good deal to have been able to see a noticeboard intact,

(11:54):
as it would perhaps have given the sum some clue
to the ownership of the house. I remember my experience
of the investigation and purchase of Carfax. I could not
but feel that if I could find the former owner,
there might be some means discovered of gaining access to
the house. There was at present nothing to be learned

(12:17):
from the Piccadilly site, and nothing could be done. But
I went round to the back to see if anything
could be gathered from this quarter. The news were active,
the Piccadilly houses being mostly in occupation. I asked one
or two of the grooms and helpers whom I saw
around if they could tell me anything about the empty house.

(12:37):
One of them said that he had heard it lately
had been taken, but he couldn't say from whom. He
told me, however, that up till very lately it had
been a notice board of for sale up and perhaps
mitchell AND's sons and Candy, the house agents, could tell
me something, as he thought he had remembered seeing the

(12:58):
name of that firm on the board. I did not
wish to seem too eager or to let my informant
know or guess too much, so, saving him in the
usual manner, I strolled away. It was now growing dusk
and the autumn night was closing in, so I did
not lose any time having learned the address of Mitchell,

(13:21):
Sons and Candy from a directory at the Barkley, I
was soon in their office in Sackville Street. Gentleman who
sawmy was particularly swave in manner, but uncommunicative in equal proportion.
Having once told me that the Piccadilly house, which throughout
our interview he called a mansion, was sold, he considered

(13:45):
it my business, as concluded. When I asked you had
purchased it? He opened his eyes a thought wider and
paused a few seconds before replying, it is sold, sir.
Pardon me, I said, with equal politeness, but I have
a special reason for wishing to know who purchased it. Again,

(14:07):
he paused longer and raised his eyebrows still more. But
is sold, sir, was his laconic reply. Surely, I said,
you do not mind letting me know so much, But
I do mind, he answered, affairs of the clients are
absolutely safe in the hands of Mitchell, Sons and Candy.

(14:30):
This was manifestly a prig of the first water. There
was no use arguing with him. I thought I'd best
meet him on his own ground. So I said, your clients, sir,
are happy in having so resolute a guardian of their confidence.
I am myself a professional man. Here I handed in
my card. In this instance, I am not prompted by curiosity.

(14:54):
I act on the part of Lord Godalming, who wishes
to know something of the property which was young I
stood lately for sale. These words put a different complexion
out of theirs. He said, I would like to oblige
you if I could, mister Harker, and especially I would
like to oblige his Lordship. We once carried out a

(15:15):
small matter of renting some chambers morning, when he was
the Honorable Arthur Homeward. If you will let me have
his Lordship's address, I will consult the house on the subject,
and will in any case communicate with his Lordship by
tonight's post. It would be a pleasure if we can
so far deviate from our rules as to give the

(15:37):
required information to his Lordship. I wanted to secure a
friend and not to make an enemy, so I thanked him,
gave the address at Doctor Sewards, and came away. It
was now dark, and I was tired and hungry. I've
got a cup of tea at the Aerated Bread Company.
Came down to perfect by the next train. I found

(15:59):
all the others at home. Mina was looking tired and pale,
and she made a gallant effort to be bright and cheerful.
It wrung my heart to think that I had to
keep anything from her and so cause her inquietude. Thank God,
this would be the last night of her looking on
at our conferences and feeling the sting of our not

(16:20):
showing confidence. It took all my courage to hold to
the wise resolution of keeping her out of our grim task.
She seems somehow more reconciled, whilst the very subject seems
to have become repugnant to her, for when any accidental
allusion is made, she actually shudders. I'm glad we made

(16:42):
our resolution in time, as with such a feeling as this,
our growing knowledge would be torture to her. I could
not tell the others of the day's discovery till we
were alone. So after dinner, followed by little music, the
same appearances even amongst ourselves, I took Mina to her
room and left her to go to bed. The dear

(17:05):
girl was more affectionate with me than ever, and clung
to me as though she would detain me. But there
was much to be talked of and I came away.
Thank God, the ceasing of telling things has made no
difference between us. When I came down again, I found
the others all gathered round the fire in the study

(17:26):
in the train. I had written my doties so far
and simply read it off to them as the best
means of letting them get abreast of my own information.
When I had finished, Van Helsing said, this has been
a great day's work, friend, Jonathan. Doubtless we are on
the track of the missing boxes. If we find them
are in that house, and our work is near the end.

(17:50):
But if there is some missing, we must search until
we find them. Then we shall make our final coup
and hunt the wretch to his real death. We all
sat silent, all at once. Mister Morris boke, say, how
are we going to get into that house we got
into the other, answered Lord Gordumin quickly. Yeah. But all

(18:12):
this is different. We broke house at Carfax, but we
had night and a walled park to protect us. Be
a mighty different thing to commit burglary and Piccadilly either
by day or night. I confess, I don't know how
we're going to get in unless that agency Duck can
find us a key of some sort. Maybe we shall
know when you get his letter in the morning. Lord

(18:35):
Golalming's brows contracted, and he stood up and walked about
the room. Bye and bye. He stopped and said, turning
from one to the other, of us. Quincy's head is level.
The burglary business is getting serious. We got off once,
all right, but we now have a rare job on
hand unless we can find the count's key basket. As

(18:58):
nothing could well be done before more, as it would
be at least advice a wait until Lord Godalming should
hear from Mitchell's. We decided not to take any active
step before breakfast. For a good while we sat and smoked,
discussing the matter in its various lights and bearings. I
took the opportunity of bringing this diary right up to
the moment. I'm very sleepy, and she'll go to bed

(19:22):
just a line. Many A sleeps soundly, and her breathing
is regular. Her forehead has puckered into little wrinkles, as
though she thinks even in her sleep. She is still
too pale, but does not look so haggard as she
did this morning. Tomorrow, Will I hope mend all this,

(19:43):
she will be herself at home in Exeter. Ah. But
I am sleepy Doctor Seward's diary, first of October. I
am puzzled afresh about Renfield. His moods changed so rapidly
that her find it difficult to keep touch on them.
And as they always mean something more than his own

(20:04):
well being, they form a more than interesting study. This morning,
when I went to see him after his repulse of
van Helsing, his manner was that of a man commanding destiny.
He was, in fact commanding destiny subjectively, you do not
really care for any of the things of mere earth.

(20:25):
He was in the clouds and looked down on all
the weaknesses and wants of us poor mortals. I thought
I would improve the occasion and learn something, So I
asked him what about the flies at these times? He
smiled on me in quite a superior sort of way,
such a smile as would have come the face of Malvolio,

(20:48):
as he answered me, the fly, my dear sir, has
one striking figure. Its wings are typical of the aerial
powers of the psychic facilities. The ancients did well when
they provide the soul as a butterfly. I thought I
would push his analogy to its most logically, so I
said quickly, Oh, it's your soul you're after.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Now, is it. His madness fooled his reason, and a
puzzled look spread over his face. As shaking his head
with a decision which I had but seldom seen in him,
he said, oh no, oh, no, I want no souls.
Life is all I want here, he brightened up. I'm

(21:30):
pretty indifferent about it at present. Life is all right.
I have all I want. You must get a new patient, doctor,
if you wish to study Zoufeiji. This puzzled me a little,
so I drew him on. Then you command life. You
are a god, I suppose, he smiled, with an ineffably

(21:50):
benign superiority.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Oh no, far from it for me to arrogate myself
to the attributes of the deity. I am not even
concerned in his especially spiritual doings. If I may state
my intellectual position, I am so far as concerned things
purely to rest your someone in the position which Enoch
occupied spiritually. This was a poser to me. I could

(22:17):
not at the moment recall Enoch's a positiveness, so I
had to ask a simple question. I felt that by
doing so, I was lowering myself in the eyes of
the lunaty. And why with Enoch? Because he walked with God.
I could not see the analogy, but did not like
to admit it. So I harked back to what he

(22:39):
had denied. So, you don't care about life and you
don't want souls? Why not? I put my question quickly
and somewhat stern, me on purpose to disconcert him. The
effort succeeded. In an instant. He unconsciously relapsed into his
old servile manner, bent low before me, and actually fawned

(23:00):
upon me as he replied, I don't want any souls. Indeed,
indeed I could use them. If I had them, it
would be of no manner used to me. I couldn't
eat them more. He suddenly stopped, and the old cunning
looked spread over his face like a wind sweep on
the surface of the water. And Doctor, as to life,

(23:23):
what is it? After all? When you've got all you
require and you know that you'll never want, that is all?
I have friends, good friends like you, Doctor Seward. This
was said, with a leer of inexpressible cunning. I know
that I shall never lack the means of life. I
think that's really the clodiness of its insanity. He saw

(23:46):
some antagonism in me, for he at once fell back
on the last refuge of such as he a dogged silent.
After a short time, I saw that for the press,
and it was useless to speak to him. He was sulky,
and so I came away. Later in the day he

(24:08):
sent for me. Ordinarily I would not have come without
special reason, but just at present I am so interested
in him that I would gladly make the effort. Besides,
I am glad to have anything to help pass the time.
Harker is out following up clues, so are Lord Godalming

(24:29):
and Crensy and Housing sits in my study pouring over
the record prepared by the Harkers. He seems to think
that by accurate knowledge of all details, he will light
upon some clue. He does not wish to be disturbed
in the work. Without cause, I would have taken him
with me to see the patient. Only I thought that
after his last repulse he might not care to go again.

(24:53):
There was also another reason Renfield might not speak so freely,
and for a third person. When he and I were alone,
I found him sitting out in the middle of the
floor on his stool, pose which is generally indicative of
some mental energy on his part. When I came in,

(25:13):
he said at once, as though the question had been
waiting on his lips, what about souls? It was evident
that my surmise had been correct. Unconscious cerebration was doing
its work even with a lunaty. I determined to have
the matter out. What about them yourself? I asked. He

(25:34):
did not reply. For a moment. It looked all around
him and up and down, as though he expected to
find some inspiration for an answer. I don't want any souls,
he said, in a feeble, apologetic way. The matter seemed
to be preying on his mind, so I determined to
use it to be cruel and only he be kind.

(25:56):
So I said, you like life? You want life? Oh? Yes,
but that's all right. You needn't worry about that. But
I asked, how are we to get the life without
getting the soul? Also? It seemed to puzzle him, so
I followed it up, A nice time. You'll have some
time when you're flying out there with the souls of

(26:17):
thousands of the flies and spiders and birds, cats, puzzling
and twittering and meowing all around you. You've got their lives,
you know, and you must put up with their souls.
Something seemed to affect his imagination. He put his fingers
to his ears and shut his eyes, scrowing them up tightly,

(26:39):
just as the small boy does when his face is
being soaked. There was something pathetic in it that touched me.
It also gave me a lesson. But it seemed that
before me was a child, only a child, and the
features were worn, and the stubble on the jaws was white.
It was evident that he was undergoing some process, a

(27:00):
mental disturbance. Knowing how his past moods and interpreted things
seemingly foreign to himself, I thought I would enter his
mind as well as I could go with him. The
first step was to restore comfort, so I asked him,
speaking pretty loud so they would hear me through his
closed ears, would you like some sugar to get your

(27:23):
flies round again? You seemed to wake up all at once,
and shook his head with a laugh. He replied, The
flies are poor things, after all. After a pause, he added,
but I don't want their souls buzzing round me all
the same or spiders. I went on, blow spiders. What's
the useless buyers? There isn't anything in them to eat all?

(27:46):
He stopped suddenly, as though reminded of a forbidden topic.
So so I thought to myself, this is the second
time that he suddenly stopped at the word drink. What
was it mean? Wentfield seemed aware of having made a
lapsed or. He hurried on, as though to distract my
attention from it. I don't take any stock at all

(28:07):
in such matters rats and miceness, such small deer as
Jake as Shakespeare has it, chicken feed of the larder,
they might be called. I'm past all that sort of nonsense.
You might try as well ask a man to eat
molecules with a pair of chopsticks, as to try to
interest me about the lesser kind of war. Well, I

(28:29):
know of what is before me. I see, I said,
you want big things that you can make your teeth meeting.
How'd you like to breakfast on elephant? What ridiculous nonsense
you were talking? He was getting too wide away, so
I thought I would press him hard. I wonder, I said, reflectively,

(28:49):
what an elephant's soul is like? The effect I desired
was obtained or at once fell from his high horse
and became a child again. I don't want an elephant's
song or any soul at all easily. For a few moments,
he sat despondently. Suddenly he jumped to his feet, with

(29:10):
his eyes blazing and all the signs of intense cerebral excitement.
To hell with you and your souls, he shouted, Why
do you plague me about souls? Haven't I got enough
to worry and pain and distract me already without thinking
of souls. He looked so hostile that I thought he

(29:30):
was in for another homicidal fit. So I blew my whistle.
The instant, however that I did so, he became calm
and said, apologetically, forgive me, doctor, I forgot myself. You
do not need any help. I'm so worried in my mind,
and I am apt to be irritable. If you only
knew the problem I have to face and that I

(29:52):
am working out, you would pity and tolerate and pardon me. Pray,
do not put me in a strait waistcoat. I want
to see and I cannot think really when my body
is confined. I'm sure you will understand it only self control.
So when the attendants came, I told them not to mind,
and they Withdrew Renfield watched them go when the door

(30:17):
was closed, and he said, with considerable dignity and sweetness,
Doctor Seward, you'd be very considerate towards me. Believe me
that I am very very grateful to you. I thought
it well to leave him in this mood, and so
I came away. There's certainly something to ponder over in

(30:37):
this man's state. Several points seemed to make what the
American interviewer calls a story, if one could only get
them in proper order. Here they are will not mention drinking, fears,
the thought of being burdened with the soul of anything
as no dread of wanting life in the future, the

(31:00):
meaner forms of life altogether. He dreads being haunted by
their souls. Logically, all these things point to one way.
He has assurance of some kind that he will acquire
some higher life. He dreads the consequence burden of the soul,
and it is a human life he looks to, and

(31:22):
the assurance merciful God the count has been to him.
Is there some new scheme of terror? Foot later? I
went after my round to Van Helsing and told him
my suspicion. He grew very grave, and, after thinking the
matter over for a while, asked me to take him

(31:43):
to Renfield. I did so. As he came to the door,
we heard the lunatic within singing daily, as he used
to in the time which now seems long ago. When
we entered, we saw with amazement, and he had spread
out his sugar as of old. The flies lethargic with

(32:05):
the autumn, were beginning to buzz in the room. We
tried to make him talk on the subject of our
previous conversation, but he would not attend. He went on
with his singing, just as though we had not been present.
He had got a scrap of paper and was folding
it into a notebook. We had to come away, as

(32:26):
ignorant as when we went in. His is a curious case.
Indeed we must watch him to night. Letter Mitchell and
Sons and Candy to Lord Godalming Verse to October. My Lord,
we are at all times only too happy to meet
your wishes. We beg with regard to the desire of

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your lordship expressed by mister Harker on your behalf to
supply the following information concerning the sale and purchase of
number three forty seven. The original vendors are the executors
of the late mister Archibald Winter Supfill the purchases of
foreign nobleman, Count de Ville, who affected the purchase himself,

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paying the purchase money in notes over the counter. If
your Lordship will pardon by choosing so vulgar an expression,
beyond this, we know nothing whatever of him. We are,
my Lord, your Lordship's humble servants, Mitchell Sons and Candy.
Dr Seward Starry, second of October. I placed a man

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in the corridor last night and told him to make
an accurate note of any sound in my ear from
Renfield's room. Gave him instructions that there should be anything
strange at all. He was to call me after dinner,
when we had all covered round the fire in the study,
Missus Harker having gone to bed, we discussed the attempts

(34:00):
and discoveries of the day. Harker was the only one
who had any result. We are in great hopes that
his clue made me an important one. Before going to bed,
I went round to the patient's room and looked in
through the observation trap. He was sleeping soundly, and his
heart rose and fell with regular respiration. This morning, the

(34:24):
man on duty reported to me, but a little after
midnight he was restless and kept saying his prayers somewhat loudly.
I asked him if that was all. He replied that
was all he heard. There was something about his manner
so suspicious that I asked him point blank if he
had been asleep. He denied sleep, but admitted to having

(34:46):
doze for a while. It is too bad that men
cannot be trusted unless they are watched. To day, Harker
is out following up his clue, and and Quincy are
looking after the horses. Godoman thinks that it will be
well to have horses in readiness, for when we get
the information which we seek, there will be no time

(35:09):
to lose. We must sterilize all the imported earth between
sunrise and sunset. We shall thus catch the Count at
his weakest without a refuge to fly to. And Helsing
is off to the British Museum, looking up from authorities
on ancient medicine. The old physicians took account of such

(35:30):
things which their followers do not accept, and a professor
is searching for witch and demon cures which may be
useful to us later. I sometimes think we must all
be mad, that we shall wait to sanity in straight waistcoats.
Later we have met again, we seem at last to

(35:54):
be on the track, and our work to morrow may
be the beginning of the end. I wonder if Renfield's
quiet has anything to do with this. His moods have
so followed to go doing to the count that the
coming destruction of the monster may be carried to him
in some subtle way. If we could only get some
hint as to what has passed in his mind between

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the time of my argument with him today and there's
resumption of fly catching, it might afford us a valuable clue.
He is now seemingly quiet for a spell. Is he
that wild yell seemed to come from his room? The
Tendant came bursting into my room and told me that
Renfield had somehow met with some accident. He heard him

(36:40):
yell and went to him, and found him lying on
his face on the floor, all covered with blood. I
must go at once. End of Chapter twenty