Dracula Sequence - Seance For A Vampire Part 11

I recalled that Holmes had still been present on the terrace when Abraham Kirkaldy was struck down, slaughtered by a blow from the hand of a strong vampire, as irresistible as that from the paw of a lion-and Holmes confirmed that he had seen that happen.

"But after that, old fellow, I was not able to see much. Will you tell me what occurred after my forced departure?"

"Of course." I now briefly outlined for him the later events I had witnessed on the terrace and in the garden. Dracula, though he had heard substantially the same story from me earlier, sat listening with great attention.

When I had finished, Holmes said: "Gentlemen, we are dealing with two vampires here-I believe with no more than two. One of these, I am now certain, is the unfortunate Louisa Altamont."

Here my friend glanced at his impa.s.sive cousin. "I say 'unfortunate' because she has been brought to her present state not by her own choice, or even by an accident precipitated by excessive pa.s.sion. Rather the young woman is the victim of a deliberate attack."

Dracula stirred at last from his pose of rapt attention. "And the other nosferatu?"

he inquired in a soft voice. "The one who carried you away?"

"That one, I am morally certain, is also her attacker. But let me tell you from the beginning the story of my own abduction."

Holmes went on to outline, in a few words, what he had been endeavoring to accomplish by dashing out onto the terrace at the conclusion of the siance: "I was determined to save Mrs. Altamont if I could, and also the breathing men who could not understand what sort of enemy we faced. I considered that they were all in danger of the same fate which had befallen Abraham Kirkaldy-if not of something worse."

"Thereby exposing yourself," I commented, "to a greater danger still."

Holmes made a dismissive gesture. "It is true that the intruder at the siance might have slain me on the spot-he might have slain us all. But it is obvious now that he had in mind something more than the mere slaughter of those he considered his enemies."

Then Holmes related for us in some detail what he had actually seen, felt, and heard while being seized and carried off by a single adversary of immense strength. "I must tell you, gentlemen, that it is not an experience I should care to repeat.

"Naturally my first reaction, when I felt his grip upon me, was a spontaneous attempt to resist; but that effort was both short-lived and unsuccessful, as my opponent quickly proved himself fully capable of pinioning both of my arms with one of his own. In that fashion he carried me, held at his side like an infant, while he beat a swift retreat from the vicinity of Norberton House.

"As there was no longer the slightest doubt about the nature of my antagonist, my immediate and overriding fear was that he might choose to drink my blood..."

Holmes paused for a moment. "I am, as you know, no weakling in ordinary circ.u.mstances, yet I could do nothing physically against a vampire. I regret that his ident.i.ty remains a mystery-though to judge by the few words I heard him speak, and by a few other clues I noticed, it is certain that he is not English.""I am glad to hear it," I murmured, and felt rather than saw the gaze of Prince Dracula turn toward me.

Holmes resumed his tale. "Not knowing why I was being taken prisoner, I fully expected death at any moment. Realizing that any continued physical struggle would be useless, I next endeavored to influence my captor by making him aware that I understood the basic truths regarding the existence and nature of vampires. By this means, I hoped to suggest to him the possibility that he might find me more useful alive than dead... but my attempt at cleverness was ignored about as thoroughly as my physical struggles had been."

"It is a miracle that you survived."

Holmes nodded at me. "I tell you, gentlemen, it would have been less frightening had he gagged me, or threatened me to keep me silent. But I received a strong impression that he was indifferent as to whether I might cry out. I sensed that nothing I might say or do was going to influence my captor in the least."

Holmes went on to describe how he had been taken to a secluded glade along the riverbank. There his limbs were bound, quickly and efficiently, and he was thrown down upon the gra.s.s and questioned at some length.

"I saw no point in trying to deceive him regarding my ident.i.ty. Still, I am not even sure that he recognized my name."

This, I surmised, had probably stung my friend's pride as sharply as had being carried away like an infant.

"What else did he ask you?" Dracula inquired.

"There were several commonplace questions about the Altamonts, and how long I had known them. These I answered truthfully, not seeing that there was anything to be lost thereby. But-and this is interesting-when he moved on to Ambrose Altamont's reasons for hiring me, he doubted my still-truthful answers. He would have it that my real purpose in their house and at the siance had been to protect 'the treasure,' or 'the jewels'-he used both phrases several times.

"Steadfastly I denied any knowledge of a family treasure. I admitted having heard the apparition in white speak of it during the siance, but said I had a.s.sumed that her claim had been made at her new master's prodding.

"Then-after perhaps an hour, though really it might have been considerably less- my captor abruptly seemed to lose interest in me."

"Lose interest!"

Holmes nodded. "That is the impression I received. Though unfortunately I was not entirely forgotten. Again my kidnapper picked me up, throwing me over one shoulder this time, and carried me some little distance through the dark wood.

"Already the faint traces of dawn were visible in the east. No doubt the approach of daylight contributed to his decision to postpone any further questioning, and it gave me hope that at least my uncertainty regarding my fate was not to be much more prolonged.

"Not until we were climbing the slope surrounding the abandoned church did I recognize my surroundings. With scarcely another word to me, my enemy brought me to the place where you found me. Effortlessly he lifted the stone slab and packed me away beneath it.

"I can only describe his manner in doing so as if it seemed to him that I might be too valuable to be thrown away, but at the same time, he could not for the life of him think of anything useful to do with me at the moment."

Fervently I repeated a sentiment I had already expressed: "It is amazing that you are still alive!"

"For that I have you gentlemen to thank." And Holmes solemnly nodded to each of us in turn.

Dracula rubbed pale hands together, as I have seen his cousin do on occasion, in the manner of one who looks forward to some task he is about to undertake. "Tell me," said the prince, "more about this man we are looking for. I confess that I am intrigued. About this insane Russian, if that is really what he is."

Holmes shrugged. "There is not much more that I can tell. I am not even completely certain that I shall recognize him when I meet him again. The darkness was very nearly absolute in among the trees where I was questioned, and I was cast to the ground in such a position that my face was turned away from him. And as we know, the face, even the voice, of the vampire may change from one day to the next, much more than that of any breathing man."

I interrupted at this point to say that perhaps I could provide some physical description of the enemy, and now I repeated to Holmes another episode I had earlier recounted to Dracula: Rebecca Altamont's revelation of what she had seen, but had not previously disclosed, on the day her sister had been lost.

Holmes, who did not appear to be much surprised, listened with great attention.

"So, he deliberately capsized the boat to get at his prey! The faint marks on the prow had suggested as much to me; but I could not be sure. The maneuver required him to expose his naked body to the daylight, if only briefly-even for an angry vampire, such a tactic seems bizarre, does it not?-but there can be no doubt that it is the same man. Did Rebecca Altamont hear him speak?"

"Apparently not."

My friend arose from his chair and paced the floor, and I was glad to see this evidence of his returning strength. He said: "Overturning the boat suggests a certain cleverness-it allowed him to make off with the older sister, and use her for his own foul purposes, while leaving everyone else with the impression that she had been accidentally drowned. But then why take the risk of allowing himself to be seen?

Surely he might have tipped the boat while remaining hidden. Why? Why? Mere bravado? But that would be inconsistent. Real lunacy is a more convincing explanation." Holmes paused, and sighed. "Watson-"

"Yes?"

"A criminally insane man is terrible enough when he is breathing. When we add the immense physical strength of the nosferatu, and the other powers they possess- this is a fearful business indeed."

Holmes was excited and expressed his urgent wish to question Rebecca, and his concern for her safety.

Presently, seating himself again, he resumed the narrative of his captivity. "Our criminal's accent is Russian, I should say. Though I have some small knowledge of the language, I cannot be absolutely sure-perhaps his native tongue is some antique dialect of Russian. That would suggest that he is of considerable age. Definitely he is a native speaker of one of the Slavic languages; with years, perhaps centuries, of intermittent practice in the English tongue, yet still the traces linger."

"Holmes-"

He turned to me with an inquiring look.

"Holmes, is the name 'Count Kulakov' familiar to you?"

He thought for a moment. "No. Who is he?"

"I ask because a man of that name 'phoned to Baker Street and left a message of sympathy for me."

"Sympathy? Because of my supposed demise?"

"I a.s.sumed that was the reason. The name sounds Russian, and your mention just now-"

"Quite so." My friend was frowning. "Count Kulakov. But no, I am acquainted with no one... well, we shall see."

Dracula, who had been listening intently, asked: "And you really can give no reason why you were spared?"

"I cannot. Perhaps, as I half-seriously suggested a moment ago, it was out of a mere uncertainty as to what to do with me. During the hour or more that I was in the immediate presence of my enemy, I am sure that there were intervals, some lasting a full minute, when he was not entirely aware of everything about him. Could I have freed myself from my bonds during one of those periods, I might have been able to escape. But the cord was strong, the knots were skillfully tied, and I was not allowed time to overcome them."

"You say he was 'not entirely aware'?"

"That is understating the case. The actuality was something more frightening; the word 'catalepsy' comes to mind. It was rather as if my antagonist were functioning in a trance, or under some kind of posthypnotic suggestion."

Dracula and I were both intrigued by the medical possibilities, and the prince urged his cousin to give us more details.

Holmes did his best to provide them. The foreign vampire had sat immobile for minutes at a time, staring at nothing, as far as Holmes had been able to discern, except the very darkness of the night. "Again, the suggestion of real insanity looms.

Had he been a breathing man, I should have strongly suspected epilepsy, or drugs."

At this, Dracula shook his head doubtfully. "Among us, both epilepsy and drug use of any kind are practically unheard of." The prince paused before adding, with evident reluctance: "Unfortunately, we do have cases of insanity." He paused again before admitting: "And they are not particularly rare."

Holmes turned toward his cousin. "Prince, he may have given us a valuable clue.

There was a certain name he uttered-I do not think it was his own, but he p.r.o.nounced it more than once. Does the name 'Gregory Efimovitch' mean anything to you?"

Dracula shrugged minimally. "Male. A Christian name and patronymic, according to the Russian style of address."

"Of course. But-?"

Our vampire colleague shook his head. "No. As the name of an individual, it means nothing to me. No more than does 'Count Kulakov.' Well, possibly they are the same."

Holmes returned to the question of Louisa Altamont. His brief observation of that young woman when she appeared at the siance had been enough to convince him, even as I was convinced, that she had definitely pa.s.sed into the nosferatu state. But my friend had seen nothing of her; indeed, he had seen or heard no one but his captor during the period of his captivity. He was keenly interested when Dracula reported that Louisa's tomb was occupied by a living member of that race.

"We must call upon her, Prince." Holmes consulted his watch. "Tonight, if at all possible."

" 'Call upon her'?" I asked, puzzled.

"In her tomb, Watson, in her tomb!" Even as I shuddered inwardly, I took comfort in the fact that my companion had so far recovered as to display a flash of his old impatience.

Prince Dracula took the suggestion with perfect calm. "To arrange a conversation with the young one who now sleeps among her ancestors should not be too difficult. It may be that in the process, we will encounter the one who put her there as well." He smiled. "If so, that problem at least may be rather quickly settled."

The detective now turned his attention to me and requested that I give him a more detailed account of the events in and near the house following the siance. I complied, describing as fully as I could the savage attack on Abraham Kirkaldy, my conversations the next morning with Armstrong and Merivale, and the subsequent attempt to murder me in London.

Holmes reacted with considerable alarm upon hearing a partial account of my communications with Mycroft.

He beat a fist softly upon the arm of his chair. "But this I did not expect! I must telephone-no, I prefer not to appear in public just yet. Let my survival remain a secret, if possible, for a little longer. Watson, you must find a telephone at once. Call Mycroft and rea.s.sure him regarding my safety." "Cousin Sherlock," interposed Prince Dracula, "before you do that, allow me to make a suggestion."

12.

The prince proceeded with a formal request for our opinions on a plan that had suggested itself to him. This involved returning to the chapel and there setting up an ambush in force, with the object of trapping the slayer and kidnapper when the latter sooner or later returned to the hidden crypt. But Holmes immediately though diplomatically expressed grave doubts regarding the likelihood of success and soon we had all agreed that the idea was untenable. After all, Holmes had lain in confinement from very early on Wednesday morning until around midday on Thursday, and the villain had not returned to the crypt during that interval. Given his evidently uncertain mental state, it seemed perfectly possible that he might never go back at all.

With that decided, our next step was to communicate with Mycroft. Knowing the extreme regularity of the man's habits, I felt confident of being able to reach him at his desk at the ministry-or at the Diogenes Club during the evening, from a quarter to five till twenty to eight. After that, he was sure to be found in his rooms just opposite the club, across Pall Mall.

The Saracen's Head, like most other inns, boasted a telephone. But since the instrument was located on the ground floor, any conversation conducted there might be uncomfortably public. Other 'phones were sure to be available somewhere in the village-at the other inns, and at the railroad station if nowhere else-but I felt that a similar problem would surely arise whichever one we attempted to use.

The prince, always at his best when faced with an immediate tactical problem, quickly suggested a scheme to enable me to conduct my call to London without being overheard. Dracula proceeded me downstairs and went into the public room, from whence, a moment later, I heard his voice raised in unfamiliar tones, calling jovially for a round of drinks for the house. With bewildering facility, he had adopted the character of a commercial traveler. When I presently followed my ally downstairs, all potential eavesdroppers were concentrating eagerly upon a story of amatory adventure, as thoroughly improbable as it was distracting. This tale was scarcely concluded before it was followed by another. In using the telephone, my only remaining problem would be the occasional wave of boisterous laughter emanating from the pub down the hall, which might interfere somewhat with hearing.

Reasonably confident now of privacy, I put through my call and had the satisfaction of promptly reaching Mycroft-the further satisfaction of remembering to call him by that name, and of being able to a.s.sure him that his brother was now safe.

"But," I added, "he wishes to remain for a time out of view, and so has sent me to the telephone."

"Thank G.o.d!" came the heartfelt sentiment across the wires. "Sherlock has come through what must have been a terrible experience. Can you tell me whether the precise nature of it was... was...?" It seemed that there were certain words Mycroft could not quite bring himself to say.

"It was, I regret to say, of the kind that we discussed in London. But he has come through it well."

"Thank you, John, for your honesty." Again the voice on the other end was quavering. "Is there anything I can do?"

"There may be several things." We conferred briefly, quickly agreeing that there was no immediate need for Mycroft to come to Amberley.

"I was not looking forward to the journey. Tell me, what does Sherlock request?"

"First, that you gather and pa.s.s along any information currently available on any unusual activity you can discover taking place in the Russian immigrant community in London."

"A large order." Mycroft sighed faintly, a sound of relaxation indicating, I thought, that the fact of his brother's current safety was sinking in, and that he was looking forward to being able to resume his own regular activities, which consisted almost entirely of the gathering and ordering of information.

After a moment's thought, Mycroft continued: "Just now we have in London the unity conference of the Social Democratic Party, which includes in its membership Russians as well as many other nationalities. The gathering has just moved here from Brussels, with the encouragement, not to say prodding, of the Belgian police. There are several prize rascals to be found among the delegates, along with a number of sincere reformers. Actually, I was studying the dossier of one of the men only this afternoon, trying to decide in which category he belongs."

"Not," I asked, "that of a man named Gregory Efimovitch?"

"Who is that?"

I did my best to explain. There was a slight pause at the other end of the line. "No, John," Mycroft answered presently. "The information on my desk concerns one Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, age thirty-three. A writer of revolutionary propaganda, under the pen name 'Lenin.' I don't see how this Ulyanov, or Lenin, can be your Gregory Efimovitch."

Nor did I. Mycroft, provided with such details as I could offer, promised to do his best to ascertain whether anyone prominent in the revolutionary intrigues, on either side, bore that particular Christian name and patronymic. Currently, the appellation was as unfamiliar to him as it had been to any of us.

Sherlock had given me several additional requests to pa.s.s along to Mycroft: First, pursuing the idea of a mysterious treasure, my friend wished to learn the origins of the Altamont fortune-not a difficult task for one who, like Mycroft in his position of power behind the scenes, had the whole resources of the British government at his fingertips when he felt it necessary to call upon them.

Second, Sherlock had also inquired whether there were any Russians or other Eastern Europeans known to be living or visiting in the vicinity of Amberley.

Our 'phone conversation was soon concluded, without either of us mentioning directly the once totally forbidden subject of vampires. Still, I felt justified in concluding that Mycroft had successfully adjusted to the facts of the situation and was bearing up better than his brother would ever have predicted.

Perhaps I had better explain to my readers that Mycroft Holmes, though he received very little publicity or recognition, at times almost was the British government. I thought it perfectly possible that in that capacity he might already have some information regarding Count Kulakov.

This supposition proved correct. Within two hours Mycroft had 'phoned back to me at the Saracen's Head, to pa.s.s along the information that several months ago a Russian gentleman named Alexander Ilyitch Kulakov had taken a country house within a few miles of the Altamonts' estate.