Chapter V. More Strange Instructions

by Bram Stoker

　　When I came from my room at half-past eleven o'clock I found allwell in the sick-room. The new nurse, prim, neat, and watchful, sat inthe chair by the bedside where Nurse Kennedy had sat last night. Alittle way off, between the bed and the safe, sat Doctor Winchesteralert and wakeful, but looking strange and almost comic with therespirator over mouth and nose. As I stood in the doorway looking atthem I heard a slight sound; turning round I saw the new detective, whonodded, held up the finger of silence and withdrew quietly. Hitherto noone of the watchers was overcome by sleep.I took a chair outside the door. As yet there was no need for me torisk coming again under the subtle influence of last night. Naturallymy thoughts went revolving round the main incidents of the last day andnight and I found myself arriving at strange conclusions, doubts,conjectures; but I did not lose myself, as on last night, in the trainsof thought. The sense of the present was ever with me, and I reallyfelt as should a sentry on guard. Thinking is not a slow process; andwhen it is earnest the time can pass quickly. It seemed a very shorttime indeed till the door, usually left ajar, was pulled open andDoctor Winchester emerged, taking off his respirator as he came. Hisact, when he had it off, was demonstrative of his keenness. He turnedup the outside of the wrap and smelled it carefully.'I am going now,' he said. 'I shall come early in the morning;unless, of course, I am sent for before. But all seems well tonight.'The next to appear was Sergeant Daw, who went quietly into the roomand took the seat vacated by the Doctor. I still remained outside; butevery few minutes looked into the room. This was rather a form than amatter of utility, for the room was so dark that coming even from thedimly lighted corridor it was hard to distinguish anything.A little before twelve o'clock Miss Trelawny came from her room.Before coming to her father's she went into that occupied by NurseKennedy. After a couple of minutes she came out, looking, I thought, atrifle more cheerful. She had her respirator in her hand, but beforeputting it on, asked me if anything special had occurred since she hadgone to lie down. I answered in a whisper--there was no loud talking inthe house tonight--that all was safe, was well. She then put on herrespirator, and I mine; and we entered the room. The Detective and theNurse rose up, and we took their places. Sergeant Daw was the last togo out; he closed the door behind him as we had arranged.For a while I sat quiet, my heart beating. The place was grimlydark. The only light was a faint one from the top of the lamp whichthrew a white circle on the high ceiling, except the emerald sheen ofthe shade as the light took its under edges. Even the light only seemedto emphasize the blackness of the shadows. These presently began toseem, as on last night, to have a sentience of their own. I did notmyself feel the least sleepy; and each time I went softly over to lookat the patient, which I did about every ten minutes, I could see thatMiss Trelawny was keenly alert Every quarter of an hour one or other ofthe policemen looked in through the partly opened door. Each time bothMiss Trelawny and I said through our mufflers, 'all right,' and thedoor was closed again.As the time wore on, the silence and the darkness seemed toincrease. The circle of light on the ceiling was still there, but itseemed less brilliant than at first. The green edging of the lampshadebecame like Maori greenstone rather than emerald. The sounds of thenight without the house, and the starlight spreading pale lines alongthe edges of the window-cases, made the pall of black within moresolemn and more mysterious.We heard the clock in the corridor chiming the quarters with itssilver bell till two o'clock; and then a strange feeling came over me.I could see from Miss Trelawny's movement as she looked round, that shealso had some new sensation. The new detective had just looked in; wetwo were alone with the unconscious patient for another quarter of anhour.My heart began to beat wildly. There was a sense of fear over me.Not for myself; my fear was impersonal. It seemed as though some newperson had entered the room, and that a strong intelligence was awakeclose to me. Something brushed against my leg. I put my hand downhastily and touched the furry coat of Silvio. With a very faintfar-away sound of a snarl he turned and Scratched at me. I felt bloodon my hand. I rose gently and came over to the bedside. Miss Trelawny,too, had stood up and was looking behind her, as though there wassomething close to her. Her eyes were wild, and her breast rose andfell as though she were fighting for air. When I touched her she didnot seem to feel me; she worked her hands in front of her, as thoughshe was fending off something.There was not an instant to lose. I seized her in my arms and rushedover to the door, threw it open, and strode into the passage, callingloudly:'Help! Help!'In an instant the two Detectives, Mrs. Grant, and the Nurse appearedon the scene. Close on their heels came several of the servants, bothmen and women. Immediately Mrs. Grant came near enough, I placed MissTrelawny in her arms and rushed back into the room, turning up theelectric light as soon as I could lay my hand on it. Sergeant Daw andthe Nurse followed me.We were just in time. Close under the great safe, where on the twosuccessive nights he had been found, lay Mr. Trelawny with his leftarm, bare save for the bandages, stretched out. Close by his side was aleaf-shaped Egyptian knife which had lain amongst the curios on theshelf of the broken cabinet. Its point was stuck in the parquet floor,whence had been removed the bloodstained rug.But there was no sign of disturbance anywhere; nor any sign of anyone or anything unusual. The Policemen and I searched the roomaccurately, whilst the Nurse and two of the servants lifted the woundedman back to bed; but no sign or clue could we get. Very soon MissTrelawny returned to the room. She was pale but collected. When shecame close to me she said in a low voice:'I felt myself fainting. I did not know why; but I was afraid!'The only other shock I had was when Miss Trelawny cried out to me,as I placed my hand on the bed to lean over and look carefully at herfather:'You are wounded. Look! Look! Your hand is bloody. There is blood onthe sheets!' I had, in the excitement, quite forgotten Silvio'sscratch. As I looked at it, the recollection came back to me; butbefore I could say a word Miss Trelawny had caught hold of my hand andlifted it up. When she saw the parallel lines of the cuts she cried outagain:'It is the same wound as Father's!' Then she laid my hand downgently but quickly, and said to me and to Sergeant Daw:'Come to my room! Silvio is there in his basket.' We followed her,and found Silvio sitting in his basket awake. He was licking his paws.The Detective said:'He is there sure enough; but why licking his paws?'Margaret--Miss Trelawny gave a moan as she bent over and took one ofthe forepaws in her hand; but the cat seemed to resent it and snarled.At that Mrs. Grant came into the room. When she saw that we werelooking at the cat she said:'The Nurse tells me that Silvio was asleep on Nurse Kennedy's bedever since you went to your Father's room until a while ago.He came there just after you had gone to master's room. Nurse says thatNurse Kennedy is moaning and muttering in her sleep as though she had anightmare. I think we should send for Doctor Winchester.''Do so at once, please!' said Miss Trelawny; and we went back to theroom.For a while Miss Trelawny stood looking at her father, with herbrows wrinkled. Then, turning to me, as though her mind were made up,she said:'Don't you think we should have a consultation on Father? Of courseI have every confidence in Doctor Winchester; he seems an immenselyclever young man. But he is a young man: and there must be menwho have devoted themselves to this branch of science. Such a man wouldhave more knowledge and more experience; and his knowledge andexperience might help to throw light on poor Father's case. As it is,Doctor Winchester seems to be quite in the dark. Oh! I don't know whatto do. It is all so terrible!' Here she broke down a little and cried;and I tried to comfort her.Doctor Winchester arrived quickly. His first thought was for hispatient; but when he found him without further harm, he visited NurseKennedy. When he saw her, a hopeful look came into his eyes. Taking atowel, he clipped a corner of it in cold water and flicked her on theface. The skin coloured, and she stirred slightly. He said quietly tothe new nurse--sister Doris he called her:'She is all right. She will wake in a few hours at latest. She maybe dizzy and distraught at first, or perhaps hysterical. If so, youknow how to treat her.''Yes, sir!' answered sister Doris demurely; and we went back to Mr.Trelawny's room. As soon as we had entered, Mrs. Grant and the Nursewent out so that only Doctor Winchester, Miss Trelawny, and myselfremained in the room. When the door had been closed Doctor Winchesterasked me as to what had occurred. I told him fully, giving exactlyevery detail so far as I could remember. Throughout my narrative, whichdid not take long, however, he kept asking me questions as to who hadbeen present and the order in which each one had come into the room. Heasked other things, but nothing of any importance; these were all thattook my attention, or remained in my memory. When our conversation wasfinished, he said, in a very decided way indeed, to Miss Trelawny:'I think, Miss Trelawny, that we had better have a consultation onthis case.' She answered at once, seemingly a little to his surprise:'I am glad you have mentioned it. I quite agree. Who would yousuggest?''Have you any choice yourself?' he asked. 'Anyone to whom yourFather is known? Has he ever consulted anyone?''Not to my knowledge. But I hope you will choose whomsoever youthink would be best. My dear Father should have all the help that canbe had: and I shall be deeply obliged by your choosing. Who is the bestman in London--anywhere else--in such a case?''There are several good men; but they are scattered all over theworld. Somehow, the brain specialist is born, not made; though a lot ofhard work goes to the completing of him and fitting him for his work.He comes from no country. The most daring investigator up to thepresent is Chiuni, the Japanese; but he is rather a surgicalexperimentalist than a practitioner. Then there is Zammerfest ofUppsala, and Fenelon of the University of Paris, and Morfessi ofNaples. These, of course, are in addition to our own men, Morrison ofAberdeen and Richardson of Birmingham. But before them all I would putFrere of King's College. Of all that I have named he best unites theoryand practice. He has no hobbies--that have been discovered at allevents; and his experience is immense. It is the regret of all of uswho admire him that the nerve so firm and the hand so dexterous mustyield to time. For my own part I would rather have Frere than anyoneliving.''Then,' said Miss Trelawny decisively, 'let us have Doctor Frere--bythe way, is he "Doctor" or "Mister"?--as early as we can get him in themorning!'A weight seemed removed from him, and he spoke with greater ease andgeniality than he had yet shown:'He is Sir James Frere. I shall go to him myself as early as it ispossible to see him, and shall ask him to come here at once.' Thenturning to me he said:"You had better let me dress your hand.''It is nothing,' I said.'Nevertheless it should be seen to. A scratch from any animal mightturn out dangerous; there is nothing like being safe.' I submitted;forthwith he began to dress my hand. He examined with a magnifyingglass the several parallel wounds, and compared them with the slip ofblotting-paper, marked with Silvio's claws, which he took from hispocket-book. He put back the paper, simply remarking:'It's a pity that Silvio slips in--and out---just when he shouldn't.'The morning wore slowly on. By ten o'clock Nurse Kennedy had so farrecovered that she was able to sit up and talk intelligibly. But shewas still hazy in her thoughts; and could not remember anything thathad happened on the previous night, after her taking her place by thesick bed. As yet she seemed neither to know nor care what had happened.It was nearly eleven o'clock when Doctor Winchester returned withSir James Frere. Somehow I felt my heart sink when from the landing Isaw them in the hall below, I knew that Miss Trelawny was to have thepain of telling yet another stranger of her ignorance of her father'slife.Sir James Frere was a man who commanded attention followed byrespect. He knew so thoroughly what he wanted himself, that he placedat once on one side all wishes and ideas of less definite persons. Themere flash of his piercing eyes, or the set of his resolute mouth, orthe lowering of his great eyebrows, seemed to compel immediate andwilling obedience to his wishes. Somehow, when we had all beenintroduced and he was well amongst us, all sense of mystery seemed tomelt away. It was with a hopeful spirit that I saw him pass into thesick-room with Doctor Winchester.They remained in the room a long time; once they sent for the Nurse,the new one, sister Doris, but she did not remain long. Again they bothwent into Nurse Kennedy's room. He sent out the nurse attendant on her.Doctor Winchester told me afterward that Nurse Kennedy, though she wasignorant of later matters, gave full and satisfactory answers to allDoctor Frere's questions relating to her patient up to the time shebecame unconscious. Then they went to the study, where they remained solong, and their voices raised in heated discussion seemed in suchdetermined opposition, that I began to be uneasy. As for Miss Trelawny,she was almost in a state of collapse from nervousness before theyjoined us. Poor girl! She had had a sadly anxious time of it, and hernervous strength had almost broker, down.They came out at last, Sir James first, his grave face looking asunenlightening as that of the sphinx. Doctor Winchester followed himclosely: his face was pale, but with that kind of pallor which lookedlike a reaction. It gave me the idea that it had been red not longbefore. Sir James asked that Miss Trelawny would come into the study.He suggested that I should come also. When we had entered, Sir Jamesturned to me and said:I understand from Doctor Winchester that you are a friend of MissTrelawny, and that you have already considerable knowledge of thiscase. Perhaps it will be well that you should be with us. I know youalready as a keen lawyer, Mr. Ross, though I never had the pleasure ofmeeting you. As Doctor Winchester tells me that there are some strangematters outside this case which seem to puzzle him--and others--and inwhich he thinks you may yet be specially interested, it might be aswell that you should know every phase of the case. For myself I do nottake much account of mysteries--except those of science; and as thereseems to be some idea of an attempt at assassination or robbery, all Ican say is that if assassins were at work they ought to take someelementary lessons in anatomy before their next job, for they seemthoroughly ignorant. If robbery were their purpose, they seem to haveworked with marvellous inefficiency. That, however, is not mybusiness.' Here he took a big pinch of snuff, and turning to MissTrelawny, went on: 'Now as to the patient. Leaving out the cause of hisillness, all we can say at present is that he appears to be sufferingfrom a marked attack of catalepsy. At present nothing can be done,except to sustain his strength. The treatment of my friend DoctorWinchester is mainly such as I approve of; and I am confident thatshould any slight change arise he will be able to deal with itsatisfactorily. It is an interesting case--most interesting; and shouldany new or abnormal development arise I shall be happy to come at anytime. There is just one thing to which I wish to call your attention;and I put it to you, Miss Trelawny, directly, since it is yourresponsibility. Doctor Winchester informs me that you are not yourselffree in the matter, but are bound by an instruction given by yourFather in case just such a condition of things should arise. I wouldstrongly advise that the patient be removed to another room; or, as analternative, that those mummies and all such things should be removedfrom his chamber. Why, it's enough to put any man into an abnormalcondition, to have such an assemblage of horrors round him, and tobreathe the atmosphere which they exhale. You have evidence already ofhow such mephitic odour may act. That Nurse--Kennedy, I think you said,Doctor--isn't yet out of her state of catalepsy; and you, Mr. Ross,have, I am told, experienced something of the same effects. I knowthis'--here his eyebrows came down more than ever, and his mouthhardened--'If I were in charge here I should insist on the patienthaving a different atmosphere; or I would throw up the case. DoctorWinchester already knows that I can only be again consulted on thiscondition being fulfilled. But I trust that you will see your way, as agood daughter to my mind should, to looking to your Father's health andsanity rather than to any whim of his--whether supported or not by aforegoing fear, or by any number of "penny dreadful" mysteries. The dayhas hardly come yet, I am glad to say, when the British Museum and StThomas's Hospital have exchanged their normal functions. Good-day, MissTrelawny. I earnestly hope that I may soon see your Father restored.Remember, that should you fulfil the elementary condition which I havelaid down, I am at your service day or night. Good-morning, Mr. Ross. Ihope you will be able to report to me soon, Doctor Winchester.'When he had gone we stood silent, till the rumble of his carriagewheels died away. The first to speak was Doctor Winchester:'I think it well to say that to my mind, speaking purely as aphysician, he is quite right. I feel as if I could have -assaulted himwhen he made it a condition of not giving up the case; but all the samehe is right as to treatment. He does not understand that there issomething odd about this special case; and he will not realize the knotthat we are all tied up in by Mr. Trelawny's instructions. Of course--'He was interrupted by Miss Trelawny:'Doctor Winchester, do you, too, wish to give up the case; or areyou willing to continue it under the conditions which you know?''Give it up! Less now than ever. Miss Trelawny, I shall never giveit up, so long as life is left to him or any of us!' She said nothing,but held out her hand, which he took warmly.'Now,' said she, 'if Sir James Frere is a type of the cult ofSpecialists, I want no more of them. To start with, he does not seem toknow any more than you do about my Father's condition; and if he were ahundredth part as much interested in it as you are, he would not standon such punctilio. Of course, I am only too anxious about my poorFather; and if I can see a way to meet either of Sir James Frere'sconditions, I shall do so. I shall ask Mr. Marvin to come here today,and advise me as to the limit of Father's wishes. If he thinks I amfree to act in any way on my own responsibility, I shall not hesitateto do so. Then Doctor Winchester took his leave.Miss Trelawny sat down and wrote a letter to Mr. Marvin, telling himof the state of affairs, and asking him to come and see her and tobring with him any papers which might throw any light on the subject.She sent the letter off with a carriage to bring back the solicitor; wewaited with what patience we could for his coming.It is not a very long journey for oneself from Kensington PalaceGardens to Lincoln's Inn Fields; but it seemed endlessly long whenwaiting for someone else to take it. All things, however, are amenableto Time; it was less than an hour all told when Mr. Marvin was with us.He recognized Miss Trelawny's impatience, and when he had learnedsufficient of her father's illness, he said to her:'Whenever you are ready I can go with you into particulars regardingyour Father's wishes.''Whenever you like,' she said, with an evident ignorance of hismeaning. "Why not now?' He looked at me, as to a fellow man ofbusiness, and stammered out:'We are not alone.''I have brought Mr. Ross here on purpose,' she answered. 'He knowsso much at present, that I want him to know more.' The solicitor was alittle disconcerted, a thing which those knowing him only in courtswould hardly have believed. He answered, however, with somehesitation:'But, my dear young lady--Your Father's wishes!-- Confidence betweenfather and child--'Here she interrupted him; there was a tinge of red in her palecheeks as she did so:'Do you really think that applies to the present circumstances, Mr.Marvin? My Father never told me anything of his affairs; and I can now,in this sad extremity, only learn his wishes through a gentleman who isa stranger to me and of whom I never even heard till I got my Father'sletter, written to be shown to me only in extremity. Mr. Ross is a newfriend; but he has all my confidence, and I should like him to bepresent. Unless, of course,' she added, 'such a thing is forbidden bymy Father. Oh! Forgive me, Mr. Marvin, if I seem rude; but I have beenin such dreadful trouble and anxiety lately, that I have hardly commandof myself.' She covered her eyes with her hand for a few seconds; wetwo men looked at each other and waited, trying to appear unmoved. Shewent on more firmly; she had recovered herself:'Please! Please do not think I am ungrateful to you for yourkindness in coming here and so 'quickly. I really am grateful; and Ihave every confidence in your judgement. If you wish, or think it best,we can be alone.' I stood up; but Mr. Marvin made a dissentientgesture. He was evidently pleased with her attitude; there wasgeniality in his voice and manner as he spoke:'Not at all! Not at all! There is no restriction on your Father'spart; and on my own I am quite willing. Indeed, all told, it may bebetter. From what you have said of Mr. Trelawny's illness, and theother--incidental--matters, it will be well in 'case ofany--grave--eventuality, that it was understood from the first, thatcircumstances were ruled by your Father's own imperative instructions.For, please, understand me, his instructions are imperative--mostimperative. They are so unyielding that he has given me a Power ofAttorney, under which I have undertaken to act, authorizing me to seehis written wishes carried out. Please believe once for all, that heintended fully everything mentioned in that letter to you! Whilst he isalive he is to remain in his own room; and none of his property is tobe removed from it under any circumstances whatever. He has even givenan inventory of the articles which are not to be displaced.' Miss Trelawny was silent. She looked somewhat distressed; so,thinking that I understood the immediate cause, I asked:'May we see the list?' Miss Trelawny's face at once brightened; butit fell again as the lawyer answered promptly--he was evidentlyprepared for the question:'Not unless I am compelled to take action on the Power of Attorney.I have brought that instrument with me. You will recognize, Mr. Ross,'he said this with a sort of business conviction which I had noticed inhis professional work, as he handed me the deed, 'how strongly it isworded, and how the grantor made his wishes apparent in such a way asto leave no loophole. It is his own wording, except for certain legalformalities; and I assure you I have seldom seen a more iron-claddocument. Even I myself have no power to make the slightest relaxationof the instructions, without committing a distinct breach of faith. Andthat, I need not tell you, is impossible.' He evidently added the lastwords in order to prevent an appeal to his personal consideration. Hedid not like the seeming harshness of his words, however, for he added:'I do hope, Miss Trelawny, that you understand that I amwilling--frankly and unequivocally willing--to do anything I can,within the limits of my power, to relieve your distress. But yourFather had, in all his doings, some purpose of his own which he did notdisclose to me. So far as I can see, there is not a word of hisinstructions that he had not thought over fully. Whatever idea he hadin his mind was the idea of a lifetime; he had studied it in everypossible phase, and was prepared to guard it at every point.'Now I fear I have distressed you, and I am truly sorry for it; forI see you have much--too much--to bear already. But I have noalternative. If you want to consult me at any time about anything, Ipromise you I will come without a moment's delay, at any hour of theday or night.'There is my private address,' he scribbled in his pocket-book as hespoke, 'and under it the address of my club, where I am generally to befound in the evening.' He tore out the paper and handed it to her. Shethanked him. He shook hands with her and with me, and withdrew.As soon as the hall door was shut on him, Mrs. Grant tapped at thedoor and came in. There was such a look of distress in her face thatMiss Trelawny stood up, deadly white, and asked her:'What is it, Mrs. Grant? What is it? Any new trouble?"'I grieve to say, miss, that the servants, all but two, have givennotice and want to leave the house today. They have talked the matterover among themselves; the butler has spoken for the rest. He says ashow they are willing to forgo their wages, and even to pay their legalobligations instead of notice; but that go today they must.''What reason do they give?''None, miss. They say as how they're sorry, but that they've nothingto say. I asked Jane, the upper housemaid, miss, who is not with therest but stops on; and she tells me confidential that they've got somenotion in their silly heads that me house is haunted!' We ought to have laughed, but we didn't. I could not look in MissTrelawny's face and laugh. The pain and horror there showed no suddenparoxysm of fear; there was a fixed idea of which this was aconfirmation. For myself, it seemed as if my brain had found a voice.But the voice was not complete; there was some other thought, darkerand deeper, which lay, behind it, whose voice had not sounded as yet.