Mas?r Legree, I ain?t a grain afeard to dieI?d as soon die as notYe may whip me, starve me, burn me,?it?ll only send me sooner where I want to go ?I?ll make ye give out, though, ?fore I?ve done!? said Legree, in a rage ?I shall have help,? said Tom; ?you?ll never do it ?Who the devil?s going to help you?? said Legree, scornfully ?The Lord Almighty,? said Tom ?D?n you!? said Legree, as with one blow of his fist he felled Tom to the earth A cold soft hand fell on Legree?s at this momentHe turned,?it was Cassy?s; but the cold soft touch recalled his dream of the night before, and, flashing through the chambers of his brain, came all the fearful images of the night-watches, with a portion of the horror that accompanied them ?Will you be a fool?? said Cassy, in French?Let him go! Let me alone to get him fit to be in the field againIsn?t it just as I told you?? They say the alligator, the rhinoceros, though enclosed in bullet-proof mail, have each a spot where they are vulnerable; and fierce, reckless, unbelieving reprobates, have commonly this point in superstitious dread Legree turned away, determined to let the point go for the time ?Well, have it your own way,? he said, doggedly, to Cassy ?Hark, ye!? he said to Tom; ?I won?t deal with ye now, because the business is pressing, and I want all my hands; but I never forgetI?ll score it against ye, and sometime I?ll have my pay out o? yer old black hide,?mind ye!? Legree turned, and went out ?There you go,? said Cassy, looking darkly after him; ?your reckoning?s to come, yet!?My poor fellow, how are you?? ?The Lord God hath sent his angel, and shut the lion?s mouth, for this time,? said Tom ?For this time, to be sure,? said Cassy; ?but now you?ve got his ill will upon you, to follow you day in, day out, hanging like a dog on your throat,?sucking your blood, bleeding away your life, drop by drop Chapter 37 Liberty ?No matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery, the moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the God sink together in the dust, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation A while we must leave Tom in the hands of his persecutors, while we turn to pursue the fortunes of George and his wife, whom we left in friendly hands, in a farmhouse on the road-side Tom Loker we left groaning and touzling in a most immaculately clean Quaker bed, under the motherly supervision of Aunt Dorcas, who found him to the full as tractable a patient as a sick bison Imagine a tall, dignified, spiritual woman, whose clear muslin cap shades waves of silvery hair, parted on a broad, clear forehead, which overarches thoughtful gray eyesA snowy handkerchief of lisse crape is folded neatly across her bosom; her glossy brown silk dress rustles peacefully, as she glides up and down the chamber ?The devil!? says Tom Loker, giving a great throw to the bedclothes ?I must request thee, Thomas, not to use such language,? says Aunt Dorcas, as she quietly rearranged the bed ?Well, I won?t, granny, if I can help it,? says Tom; ?but it is enough to make a fellow swear,?so cursedly hot!? Dorcas removed a comforter from the bed, straightened the clothes again, and tucked them in till Tom looked something like a chrysalis; remarking, as she did so, ?I wish, friend, thee would leave off cursing and swearing, and think upon thy ways ?What the devil,? said Tom, ?should I think of them for? thing ever I want to think of?hang it all!? And Tom flounced over, untucking and disarranging everything, in a manner frightful to behold ?That fellow and gal are here, I ?spose,? said he, sullenly, after a pause ?They are so,? said Dorcas ?They?d better be off up to the lake,? said Tom; ?the quicker the better ?Probably they will do so,? said Aunt Dorcas, knitting peacefully ?And hark ye,? said Tom; ?we?ve got correspondents in Sandusky, that watch the boats for usI don?t care if I tell, nowI hope they will get away, just to spite Marks,?the cursed puppy!?d?n him!? ?Thomas!? said Dorcas ?I tell you, granny, if you bottle a fellow up too tight, I shall split,? said Tom?But about the gal,?tell ?em to dress her up some way, so?s to alter herHer description?s out in Sandusky ?We will attend to that matter,? said Dorcas, with characteristic composure As we at this place take leave of Tom Loker, we may as well say, that, having lain three weeks at the Quaker dwelling, sick with a rheumatic fever, which set in, in company with his other afflictions, Tom arose from his bed a somewhat sadder and wiser man; and, in place of slave-catching, betook himself to life in one of the new settlements, where his talents developed themselves more happily in trapping bears, wolves, and other inhabitants of the forest, in which he made himself quite a name in the shop land

Mas?r Legree, I ain?t a grain afeard to dieI?d as soon die as notYe may whip me, starve me, burn me,?it?ll only send me sooner where I want to go ?I?ll make ye give out, though, ?fore I?ve done!? said Legree, in a rage ?I shall have help,? said Tom; ?you?ll never do it ?Who the devil?s going to help you?? said Legree, scornfully ?The Lord Almighty,? said Tom ?D?n you!? said Legree, as with one blow of his fist he felled Tom to the earth A cold soft hand fell on Legree?s at this momentHe turned,?it was Cassy?s; but the cold soft touch recalled his dream of the night before, and, flashing through the chambers of his brain, came all the fearful images of the night-watches, with a portion of the horror that accompanied them ?Will you be a fool?? said Cassy, in French?Let him go! Let me alone to get him fit to be in the field againIsn?t it just as I told you?? They say the alligator, the rhinoceros, though enclosed in bullet-proof mail, have each a spot where they are vulnerable; and fierce, reckless, unbelieving reprobates, have commonly this point in superstitious dread Legree turned away, determined to let the point go for the time ?Well, have it your own way,? he said, doggedly, to Cassy ?Hark, ye!? he said to Tom; ?I won?t deal with ye now, because the business is pressing, and I want all my hands; but I never forgetI?ll score it against ye, and sometime I?ll have my pay out o? yer old black hide,?mind ye!? Legree turned, and went out ?There you go,? said Cassy, looking darkly after him; ?your reckoning?s to come, yet!?My poor fellow, how are you?? ?The Lord God hath sent his angel, and shut the lion?s mouth, for this time,? said Tom ?For this time, to be sure,? said Cassy; ?but now you?ve got his ill will upon you, to follow you day in, day out, hanging like a dog on your throat,?sucking your blood, bleeding away your life, drop by drop Chapter 37 Liberty ?No matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery, the moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the God sink together in the dust, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation A while we must leave Tom in the hands of his persecutors, while we turn to pursue the fortunes of George and his wife, whom we left in friendly hands, in a farmhouse on the road-side Tom Loker we left groaning and touzling in a most immaculately clean Quaker bed, under the motherly supervision of Aunt Dorcas, who found him to the full as tractable a patient as a sick bison Imagine a tall, dignified, spiritual woman, whose clear muslin cap shades waves of silvery hair, parted on a broad, clear forehead, which overarches thoughtful gray eyesA snowy handkerchief of lisse crape is folded neatly across her bosom; her glossy brown silk dress rustles peacefully, as she glides up and down the chamber ?The devil!? says Tom Loker, giving a great throw to the bedclothes ?I must request thee, Thomas, not to use such language,? says Aunt Dorcas, as she quietly rearranged the bed ?Well, I won?t, granny, if I can help it,? says Tom; ?but it is enough to make a fellow swear,?so cursedly hot!? Dorcas removed a comforter from the bed, straightened the clothes again, and tucked them in till Tom looked something like a chrysalis; remarking, as she did so, ?I wish, friend, thee would leave off cursing and swearing, and think upon thy ways ?What the devil,? said Tom, ?should I think of them for? thing ever I want to think of?hang it all!? And Tom flounced over, untucking and disarranging everything, in a manner frightful to behold ?That fellow and gal are here, I ?spose,? said he, sullenly, after a pause ?They are so,? said Dorcas ?They?d better be off up to the lake,? said Tom; ?the quicker the better ?Probably they will do so,? said Aunt Dorcas, knitting peacefully ?And hark ye,? said Tom; ?we?ve got correspondents in Sandusky, that watch the boats for usI don?t care if I tell, nowI hope they will get away, just to spite Marks,?the cursed puppy!?d?n him!? ?Thomas!? said Dorcas ?I tell you, granny, if you bottle a fellow up too tight, I shall split,? said Tom?But about the gal,?tell ?em to dress her up some way, so?s to alter herHer description?s out in Sandusky ?We will attend to that matter,? said Dorcas, with characteristic composure As we at this place take leave of Tom Loker, we may as well say, that, having lain three weeks at the Quaker dwelling, sick with a rheumatic fever, which set in, in company with his other afflictions, Tom arose from his bed a somewhat sadder and wiser man; and, in place of slave-catching, betook himself to life in one of the new settlements, where his talents developed themselves more happily in trapping bears, wolves, and other inhabitants of the forest, in which he made himself quite a name in the shop land

She was so good and brave that we all felt that our hearts were strengthened to work and endure for her, and we began to discuss what we were to doI told her that she was to have all the papers in the safe, and all the papers or diaries and phonographs we might hereafter use, and was to keep the record as she had done beforeShe was pleased with the prospect of anything to do, if "pleased" could be used in connection with so grim an interest As usual Van Helsing had thought ahead of everyone else, and was prepared with an exact ordering of our work "It is perhaps well," he said, "that at our meeting after our visit to Carfax we decided not to do anything with the earth boxes that lay thereHad we done so, the Count must have guessed our purpose, and would doubtless have taken measures in advance to frustrate such an effort with regard to the othersBut now he does not know our intentionsNay, more, in all probability, he does not know that such a power exists to us as can sterilize his lairs, so that he cannot use them as of old "We are now so much further advanced in our knowledge as to their disposition that, when we have examined the house in Piccadilly, we may track the very last of themToday then, is ours, and in it rests our hopeThe sun that rose on our sorrow this morning guards us in its courseUntil it sets tonight, that monster must retain whatever form he now hasHe is confined within the limitations of his earthly envelopeHe cannot melt into thin air nor disappear through cracks or chinks or cranniesIf he go through a doorway, he must open the door like a mortalAnd so we have this day to hunt out all his lairs and sterilize themSo we shall, if we have not yet catch him and destroy him, drive him to bay in some place where the catching and the destroying shall be, in time, sure Here I started up for I could not contain myself at the thought that the minutes and seconds so preciously laden with Mina's life and happiness were flying from us, since whilst we talked action was impossibleBut Van Helsing held up his hand warningly "Nay, friend Jonathan," he said, "in this, the quickest way home is the longest way, so your proverb sayWe shall all act and act with desperate quick, when the time has comeBut think, in all probable the key of the situation is in that house in PiccadillyThe Count may have many houses which he has boughtOf them he will have deeds of purchase, keys and other thingsHe will have paper that he write onHe will have his book of chequesThere are many belongings that he must have somewhereWhy not in this place so central, so quiet, where he come and go by the front or the back at all hours, when in the very vast of the traffic there is none to noticeWe shall go there and search that houseAnd when we learn what it holds, then we do what our friend Arthur call, in his phrases of hunt 'stop the earths' and so we run down our old fox, so? Is it not?" "Then let us come at once," I cried, "we are wasting the precious, precious time!" The Professor did not move, but simply said, "And how are we to get into that house in Piccadilly?" "Any way!" I cried"We shall break in if need be "And your police? Where will they be, and what will they say?" I was staggered, but I knew that if he wished to delay he had a good reason for itSo I said, as quietly as I could, "Don't wait more than need beYou know, I am sure, what torture I am in "Ah, my child, that I doAnd indeed there is no wish of me to add to your anguishBut just think, what can we do, until all the world be at movementThen will come our timeI have thought and thought, and it seems to me that the simplest way is the best of allNow we wish to get into the house, but we have no shop key

Seward went about his work of going his round of the patientsWhen he had finished he came back and sat near me, reading, so that I did not feel too lonely whilst I workedHow good and thoughtful he isThe world seems full of good men, even if there are monsters in it Before I left him I remembered what Jonathan put in his diary of the Professor's perturbation at reading something in an evening paper at the station at Exeter, so, seeing that DrSeward keeps his newspapers, I borrowed the files of 'The Westminster Gazette' and 'The Pall Mall Gazette' and took them to my roomI remember how much the 'Dailygraph' and 'The Whitby Gazette', of which I had made cuttings, had helped us to understand the terrible events at Whitby when Count Dracula landed, so I shall look through the evening papers since then, and perhaps I shall get some new lightI am not sleepy, and the work will help to keep me quietSEWARD'S DIARY 30 SeptemberHarker arrived at nine o'clockHe got his wife's wire just before startingHe is uncommonly clever, if one can judge from his face, and full of energyIf this journal be true, and judging by one's own wonderful experiences, it must be, he is also a man of great nerveThat going down to the vault a second time was a remarkable piece of daringAfter reading his account of it I was prepared to meet a good specimen of manhood, but hardly the quiet, businesslike gentleman who came here today-After lunch Harker and his wife went back to their own room, and as I passed a while ago I heard the click of the typewriterHarker says that they are knitting together in chronological order every scrap of evidence they haveHarker has got the letters between the consignee of the boxes at Whitby and the carriers in London who took charge of themHe is now reading his wife's transcript of my diaryI wonder what they make out of itHere it is? Strange that it never struck me that the very next house might be the Count's hiding place! Goodness knows that we had enough clues from the conduct of the patient Renfield! The bundle of letters relating to the purchase of the house were with the transcriptOh, if we had only had them earlier we might have saved poor Lucy! Stop! That way madness lies! Harker has gone back, and is again collecting materialHe says that by dinner time they will be able to show a whole connected narrativeHe thinks that in the meantime I should see Renfield, as hitherto he has been a sort of index to the coming and going of the CountI hardly see this yet, but when I get at the dates I suppose I shallWhat a good thing that MrsHarker put my cylinders into type! We never could have found the dates otherwise I found Renfield sitting placidly in his room with his hands folded, smiling benignlyAt the moment he seemed as sane as any one I ever sawI sat down and talked with him on a lot of subjects, all of which he treated naturallyHe then, of his own accord, spoke of going home, a subject he has never mentioned to my knowledge during his sojourn hereIn fact, he spoke quite confidently of getting his discharge at onceI believe that, had I not had the chat with Harker and read the letters and the dates of his outbursts, I should have been prepared to sign for him after a brief time of observationAs it is, I am darkly suspiciousAll those out-breaks were in some way linked with the proximity of the CountWhat then does this absolute content mean? Can it be that his instinct is satisfied as to the vampire's ultimate triumph? StayHe is himself zoophagous, and in his wild ravings outside the chapel door of the deserted house he always spoke of 'master'This all seems confirmation of our ideaHowever, after a while I came awayMy friend is just a little too sane at present to make it safe to probe him too deep with shop questions

I am loathe to think it, and indeed it would be almost as great a marvel as the other to find that Van Helsing was mad, but anyhow I shall watch him carefullyI may get some light on the mystery-Last night, at a little before ten o'clock, Arthur and Quincey came into Van Helsing's roomHe told us all what he wanted us to do, but especially addressing himself to Arthur, as if all our wills were centred in hisHe began by saying that he hoped we would all come with him too, "for," he said, "there is a grave duty to be done thereYou were doubtless surprised at my letter?" This query was directly addressed to Lord GodalmingIt rather upset me for a bitThere has been so much trouble around my house of late that I could do without any moreI have been curious, too, as to what you mean "Quincey and I talked it over, but the more we talked, the more puzzled we got, till now I can say for myself that I'm about up a tree as to any meaning about anything "Me too," said Quincey Morris laconically "Oh," said the Professor, "then you are nearer the beginning, both of you, than friend John here, who has to go a long way back before he can even get so far as to begin It was evident that he recognized my return to my old doubting frame of mind without my saying a wordThen, turning to the other two, he said with intense gravity, "I want your permission to do what I think good this nightIt is, I know, much to ask, and when you know what it is I propose to do you will know, and only then how muchTherefore may I ask that you promise me in the dark, so that afterwards, though you may be angry with me for a time, I must not disguise from myself the possibility that such may be, you shall not blame yourselves for anything "That's frank anyhow," broke in Quincey"I'll answer for the ProfessorI don't quite see his drift, but I swear he's honest, and that's good enough for me "I thank you, Sir," said Van Helsing proudly"I have done myself the honour of counting you one trusting friend, and such endorsement is dear to me He held out a hand, which Quincey took Then Arthur spoke out, "DrVan Helsing, I don't quite like to 'buy a pig in a poke', as they say in Scotland, and if it be anything in which my honour as a gentleman or my faith as a Christian is concerned, I cannot make such a promiseIf you can assure me that what you intend does not violate either of these two, then I give my consent at once, though for the life of me, I cannot understand what you are driving at "I accept your limitation," said Van Helsing, "and all I ask of you is that if you feel it necessary to condemn any act of mine, you will first consider it well and be satisfied that it does not violate your reservations "Agreed!" said ArthurAnd now that the pourparlers are over, may I ask what it is we are to do?" "I want you to come with me, and to come in secret, to the churchyard at Kingstead Arthur's face fell as he said in an amazed sort of way, "Where poor Lucy is buried?" The Professor bowed Arthur went on, "And when there?" "To enter the tomb!" Arthur stood up"Professor, are you in earnest, or is it some monstrous joke? Pardon me, I see that you are in earnest He sat down again, but I could see that he sat firmly and proudly, as one who is on his dignityThere was silence until he asked again, "And when in the tomb?" "To open the coffin "This is too much!" he said, angrily rising again"I am willing to be patient in all things that are reasonable, but in this, this desecration of the grave, of one who?" He fairly choked with indignation The Professor looked pityingly at him"If I could spare you one pang, my poor friend," he said, "God knows I wouldBut this night our feet must tread in thorny paths, or later, and for ever, the feet you love must walk in paths of flame!" Arthur looked up with set white face and said, "Take care, sir, take care!" "Would it not be well to hear what I have to say?" said Van Helsing"And then you will at least know the limit of my purposeShall I go on?" "That's fair enough," broke in shop Morris