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.First he took out a soldering iron and some plumbing solder, and thensmall oil lamp, which gave out, when lit in a corner of the tomb, gaswhich burned at a fierce heat with a blue flame, then his operating knives,which he placed to hand, and last a round wooden stake, some two and ahalf or three inches thick and about three feet long.One end of it washardened by charring in the fire, and was sharpened to a fine point.Withthis stake came a heavy hammer, such as in households is used in the coalcellar for breaking the lumps.To me, a doctor's preperations for work ofany kind are stimulating and bracing, but the effect of these things on bothArthur and Quincey was to cause them a sort of consternation.They both,however, kept their courage, and remained silent and quiet.When all was ready, Van Helsing said, "Before we do anything, let me tellyou this.It is out of the lore and experience of the ancients and of allthose who have studied the powers of the UnDead.When they becomesuch, there comes with the change the curse of immortality.They cannotdie, but must go on age after age adding new victims and multiplying theevils of the world.For all that die from the preying of the Undead becomethemselves Undead, and prey on their kind.And so the circle goes onever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water.FriendArthur, if you had met that kiss which you know of before poor Lucy die,or again, last night when you open your arms to her, you would in time,when you had died, have become nosferatu, as they call it in Easterneurope, and would for all time make more of those Un-Deads that so havefilled us with horror.The career of this so unhappy dear lady is but justbegun.Those children whose blood she sucked are not as yet so much theworse, but if she lives on, UnDead, more and more they lose their bloodand by her power over them they come to her, and so she draw their bloodwith that so wicked mouth.But if she die in truth, then all cease.The tinywounds of the throats disappear, and they go back to their play unknowingever of what has been.But of the most blessed of all, when this nowUnDead be made to rest as true dead, then the soul of the poor lady whomwe love shall again be free.Instead of working wickedness by night andgrowing more debased in the assimilating of it by day, she shall take herplace with the other Angels.So that, my friend, it will be a blessed handfor her that shall strike the blow that sets her free.To this I am willing, butis there none amongst us who has a better right? Will it be no joy to thinkof hereafter in the silence of the night when sleep is not, `It was my handthat sent her to the stars.It was the hand of him that loved her best, thePage 183 CHAPTER 16hand that of all she would herself have chosen, had it been to her tochoose?' Tell me if there be such a one amongst us?"We all looked at Arthur.He saw too, what we all did, the infinite kindnesswhich suggested that his should be the hand which would restore Lucy tous as a holy, and not an unholy, memory.He stepped forward and saidbravely, though his hand trembled, and his face was as pale as snow, "Mytrue friend, from the bottom of my broken heart I thank you.Tell me whatI am to do, and I shall not falter!"Van Helsing laid a hand on his shoulder, and said, "Brave lad! A moment'scourage, and it is done.This stake must be driven through her.It well be afearful ordeal, be not deceived in that, but it will be only a short time, andyou will then rejoice more than your pain was great.From this grim tombyou will emerge as though you tread on air.But you must not falter whenonce you have begun.Only think that we, your true friends, are roundyou, and that we pray for you all the time.""Go on," said Arthur hoarsely."Tell me what I am to do.""Take this stake in your left hand, ready to place to the point over theheart, and the hammer in your right.Then when we begin our prayer forthe dead, I shall read him, I have here the book, and the others shallfollow, strike in God's name, that so all may be well with the dead that welove and that the UnDead pass away."Arthur took the stake and the hammer, and when once his mind was set onaction his hands never trembled nor even quivered.Van Helsing openedhis missal and began to read, and Quincey and I followed as well as wecould.Arthur placed the point over the heart, and as I looked I could see its dintin the white flesh.Then he struck with all his might.The thing in the coffin writhed, and a hideous, blood-curdling screechcame from the opened red lips.The body shook and quivered and twistedin wild contortions.The sharp white champed together till the lips werecut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam.But Arthur neverfaltered.He looked like a figure of Thor as his untrembling arm rose andfell, driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake, whilst the bloodfrom the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it.His face was set,and high duty seemed to shine through it.The sight of it gave us courageso that our voices seemed to ring through the little vault.And then the writhing and quivering of the body became less, and theteeth seemed to champ, and the face to quiver.Finally it lay still.Theterrible task was over.The hammer fell from Arthur's hand.He reeled and would have fallenhad we not caught him.The great drops of sweat sprang from hisPage 184 CHAPTER 16forehead, and his breath came in broken gasps.It had indeed been anawful strain on him, and had he not been forced to his task by more thanhuman considerations he could never have gone through with it.For afew minutes we were so taken up with him that we did not look towardsthe coffin.When we did, however, a murmur of startled surprise ran fromone to the other of us.We gazed so eagerly that Arthur rose, for he hadbeen seated on the ground, and came and looked too, and then a gladstrange light broke over his face and dispelled altogether the gloom ofhorror that lay upon it.There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we has so dreadedand grown to hate that the work of her destruction was yielded as aprivilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her in life,with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity.True that there werethere, as we had seen them in life, the traces of care and pain and waste.But these were all dear to us, for they marked her truth to what we knew.One and all we felt that the holy calm that lay like sunshine over thewasted face and form was only an earthly token and symbol of the calmthat was to reign for ever.Van Helsing came and laid his hand on Arthur's shoulder, and said to him,"And now, Arthur my friend, dear lad, am I not forgiven?"The reaction of the terrible strain came as he took the old man's hand inhis, and raising it to his lips, pressed it, and said, "Forgiven! God blessyou that you have given my dear one her soul again, and me peace [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]