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come for you, and shall bear you to the Borgo Pass to meet the diligence from Bukovina to Bistritz. But I am in hopes that I shall see more of you at Castle Dracula.
     
    HARKER: Why may I not go to-night?
     
    DRACULA: Because, dear sir, my coachman and horses are away on a mission.
     
    HARKER: But I would walk with pleasure. I want to get away at once.
     
    DRACULA: And your baggage?
     
    HARKER: I do not care about it. I can send for it some other time.
     
    DRACULA: You English have a saying which is close to my heart, for its spirit is
that which rules our boyars: “Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.” Come with me, my dear young friend. Not an hour shall you wait in my house against your will, though sad am I at your going, and that you so suddenly desire it. Come.—Hark!
     
    HOWLING OF WOLVES HEARD AS THE COUNT RAISES HIS HAND.
     
    HARKER: I shall wait till morning.
     
    EXIT DRACULA.
     
    SOUND OF VOICES AND WOMEN LAUGHING OUTSIDE DOOR.
     
    DRACULA: (Outside) Back, back, to your own place! Your time is not yet come.
    Wait. Have patience. To-morrow night, to-morrow night, is yours!
     
    HARKER: To-morrow! To-morrow! Lord, help me and those to whom I am dear!
     
I shall scale the wall again and gain the Count’s room. He may kill me, but death now seems the happier choice of evils.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Scene 8
     
    THE CHAPEL VAULT.
     
    HARKER DESCENDS BY WALL AND PEERS ROUND.
     
    HARKER: The great box is in the same place, close against the wall. The lid laid
on it; not fastened down, the nails ready in their places to be hammered home. I must search the body for the key. (Raises lid and lays it back against wall)
     
Ah! Something which filled my very soul with horror. The Count, looking as if his youth had been half renewed, for the white hair and moustache are changed to dark iron-grey; the cheeks are fuller, and the white skin seems ruby-red underneath; the mouth is redder than ever, for on the lips are gouts of fresh blood, which trickle from the corners of the mouth and run over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seem set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath are bloated. It seems as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood like a filthy leech. I must search, or I am lost. The coming night may see my own body a banquet in a similar way to those horrid three.
     
This was the being I am helping to transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come he may amongst its teeming millions satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to fatten on the helpless. The very thought drives me mad. I shall rid the world of such a monster. There is no lethal weapon at hand, but with this ... (Seizes shovel and strikes at Count, head turns and he sees eyes. Shovel strikes wide and gashes forehead and, as he pulls it away flange catches lid and pulls it over chest. Distant roll of wheels and cracking of whips) I shall rush out when they open the hall door.
     
    CLIMBS WALL AND DISAPPEARS.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Scene 9
     
    THE LIBRARY.
     
    AS HARKER ENTERS BY WINDOW DOOR SLAMS AND SHUTS.
     
    HARKER: I am still a prisoner, and the net of doom is closing round me more
    closely.
     
I hear the sound of many tramping feet and the sound of weights being set down heavily, doubtless the boxes, with their freight of earth. There is a sound of hammering; it is the box being nailed down. Now I can hear the heavy feet tramping again along the hall, with many other idle feet coming behind them.
     
The door is shut, and the chains rattle; there is a grinding of the key in the lock; I can hear the key withdrawn: then another door opens and shuts; I hear the creaking of lock and bolt.
     
Hark! In the courtyard and down the rocky way the roll of heavy wheels, the crack of whips, and the chorus of the Szagany as they pass into the distance.
     
I am alone in the castle with those awful women. Faugh! Mina is a woman, and there is nought in