All day we traveled quickly. The horses seemed to understand that we were treating them well, because they willingly covered each stage of the journey at full speed.
We had already changed horses several times, and each change had gone smoothly. That gave us hope that the rest of the journey would be easier than we had feared.
Dr. Van Helsing spoke very little. Whenever we stopped at a farmhouse, he simply told the farmers that we were hurrying to Bistritz and paid them generously to change the horses as quickly as possible.
We were always given something hot to drink or eat—soup, coffee, or tea—and then we were on our way again.
The country was beautiful. Everywhere I looked, there were new sights to admire. The people were strong, brave, simple, and seemed to possess many good qualities.
But they were extremely superstitious.
At the first house where we stopped, the woman serving us noticed the scar on my forehead. She immediately crossed herself and held two fingers toward me, apparently to protect herself from the evil eye.
I suspect they also put an unusually large amount of garlic into our food.
I have never been able to stand garlic.
After that, I made sure never to remove my hat or veil in front of the villagers. That way, they could not see my forehead and would not become suspicious.
We were traveling so quickly, and we had no driver with us to spread stories about us, that we were always gone before any gossip could catch up.
Still, I imagined that the fear of the evil eye would follow us all the way.
The Professor seemed tireless. He refused to rest during the day, although he insisted that I sleep for several hours.
At sunset, he hypnotized me.
When he brought me out of the trance, he told me that I had answered as I always did:
“Darkness, water washing against something, and wood creaking.”
So our enemy was still traveling along the river.
I was afraid to think about Jonathan, but strangely, I no longer felt afraid for either him or myself.
We were waiting at a farmhouse while the horses were being prepared. Dr. Van Helsing had fallen asleep.
Poor man. He looked exhausted and much older than he had before. His hair was gray, his face was worn, and yet his mouth was set with the determination of a conqueror.
Even in sleep, he seemed completely resolved.
Once we were moving again, I decided that I would drive and make him rest.
I would tell him that we still had several days ahead of us. He must not destroy his strength now, when we would need it most.
Everything is ready.
We will leave shortly.
I succeeded in persuading him, and we took turns driving throughout the night.
Now the morning has come. The sky is bright, although the cold is severe.
There is a strange heaviness in the air. I cannot find a better word for it. It feels as though something is pressing down on both of us.
We are keeping warm with our thick furs.
At dawn, Van Helsing hypnotized me again.
This time I answered:
“Darkness, creaking wood, and rushing water.”
He believes this means the river is changing as the boat moves farther upstream.
I pray that my beloved Jonathan will not be placed in greater danger than necessary.
But we are in God’s hands.
We have spent the entire day driving.
The farther we go, the wilder the country becomes. The great mountains of the Carpathians, which at Veresti had seemed distant and low on the horizon, now surround us and rise high ahead of us.
We are both in fairly good spirits.
I think we are each trying to keep the other cheerful, and somehow, by doing so, we make ourselves feel better too.
Dr. Van Helsing says that by morning we should reach the Borgo Pass.
There are very few houses here now. The Professor says that the horses we have just obtained may have to carry us the rest of the way because we may not find anywhere else to change them.
He managed to obtain two extra horses, so we now have four horses pulling the carriage.
They are patient, gentle animals and have caused us no trouble.
There are almost no other travelers here, so even I can take a turn driving.
We should reach the Pass during daylight. We do not want to arrive too early.
So we are traveling slowly enough to allow each of us to get a long rest.
What will tomorrow bring?
We are going to the place where my poor Jonathan suffered so terribly.
May God guide us safely and watch over my husband and all those we love, who are facing such terrible danger.
As for me, I feel unworthy in His sight.
I am afraid that I am already stained by the evil that has entered my blood, and I can only pray that one day He will allow me to stand before Him clean again.
When I write this, it is morning.
I am writing beside a fire that I kept burning throughout the night, with Madam Mina helping me.
The cold is terrible. The sky is heavy and gray, filled with snow that will soon fall and remain on the frozen ground throughout the winter.
Something about this place seems to have affected Madam Mina.
All day she has been strangely sleepy and unlike herself.
She sleeps constantly.
She, who is normally so alert and active, has done almost nothing today. She has even lost her appetite.
She has not written in her little diary, although normally she records everything carefully whenever she gets the opportunity.
Something tells me that all is not well.
Yet tonight she seems much better.
Her long sleep appears to have restored her. She is once again bright, gentle, and cheerful.
At sunset I tried to hypnotize her.
But, for the first time, it failed completely.
The power of the hypnotism has been growing weaker every day, and tonight it disappeared altogether.
Still, God’s will must be done, whatever that will may be and wherever it may lead us.
Now I must record what happened, because Madam Mina has not been writing in her shorthand.
I must use my own slow and awkward method so that none of our days will be forgotten.
Yesterday morning, just after sunrise, we reached the Borgo Pass.
As soon as I saw the first light of dawn, I prepared for the hypnotism.
We stopped the carriage and got out so that nothing would disturb her.
I made a bed from our furs, and Madam Mina lay down.
She entered the hypnotic state as usual, but much more slowly than before, and only for a short time.
Again she answered:
“Darkness and swirling water.”
Then she woke looking bright and full of life.
We continued on and soon reached the Pass.
At that moment, something changed in her.
She suddenly seemed filled with determination, as though some new force were guiding her.
She pointed toward a narrow road.
“This is the way,” she said.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Of course I know.”
She paused, then added:
“Did not my Jonathan travel this road and write about it?”
At first I thought this strange.
But soon I realized there was only one small road leading in that direction. It was rarely used and was completely different from the wider, better-maintained road between Bukovina and Bistritz.
So we followed it.
Soon the road divided several times.
In places I could hardly tell whether there was a road at all. Snow had covered much of it, and it was badly neglected.
The horses seemed to know where to go, however.
I gave them the reins and trusted them.
They moved patiently forward.
Before long, we began to recognize all the places Jonathan had described in his remarkable diary.
We continued for hour after hour.
At first I told Madam Mina to sleep.
She did so, and remained asleep for a very long time.
Eventually I became uneasy and tried to wake her.
But she would not wake.
I did not dare shake her too hard. She had suffered so much, and sometimes sleep seemed to be the only relief she had.
I must have fallen asleep myself, because suddenly I woke with a terrible feeling that I had done something wrong.
I found myself sitting upright with the reins still in my hands.
The good horses were continuing along at the same steady pace.
Madam Mina was still asleep.
It was getting close to sunset.
The sunlight poured across the snow in great golden waves, casting long shadows over the steep mountain slopes.
We were climbing higher and higher.
The country had become so wild and rocky that it seemed like the end of the world.
I woke Madam Mina.
This time she woke easily.
Then I tried to hypnotize her.
But she seemed completely unaware of me.
I continued trying until suddenly I realized that darkness had fallen.
The sun had disappeared.
Madam Mina laughed.
I turned toward her.
She was fully awake, and she looked healthier and happier than I had seen her since the night we first entered the Count’s house at Carfax.
I was astonished and uneasy.
But she was so kind and thoughtful toward me that I forgot my fears.
I built a fire because we had brought plenty of wood.
She prepared food while I unharnessed the horses and tied them somewhere sheltered so they could feed.
When I returned, she had supper ready.
I went to help her.
She smiled and told me she had already eaten because she had been so hungry that she could not wait.
I did not like this at all.
I had serious doubts about what was happening, but I was afraid of frightening her, so I said nothing.
She helped me while I ate alone.
Afterward we wrapped ourselves in our furs and lay beside the fire.
I told her to sleep while I kept watch.
But once again, I somehow lost track of time.
When I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to be watching her, I found her lying quietly awake, looking at me with unusually bright eyes.
The same thing happened again.
And again.
I managed to sleep for a while before morning.
When I woke, I tried once more to hypnotize her.
She obediently closed her eyes, but she could not fall asleep.
The sun rose higher and higher.
Only then did sleep finally overcome her.
But by that time it was so deep that I could not wake her.
I had to carry her into the carriage after harnessing the horses and making everything ready.
She continued sleeping.
Strangely, she looked healthier and more flushed in sleep than before.
And I did not like it.
I was afraid.
Terribly afraid.
I was afraid even to think about what it might mean.
But I had to continue.
What we were fighting for was more than life and death.
We could not turn back.
All yesterday we traveled deeper into the mountains.
The land became increasingly wild and deserted.
There were enormous cliffs, steep valleys, and waterfalls everywhere.
Nature seemed to have unleashed all its power here.
Madam Mina continued sleeping.
I was hungry and stopped to eat, but I could not wake her even to give her food.
I began to fear that the evil spell of this place had fallen upon her, especially because of the vampire blood that had entered her.
“Well,” I said to myself, “if she sleeps all day, then I will stay awake all night.”
But the road was rough, and eventually I lowered my head and fell asleep.
Again I woke with that terrible sense that time had passed without me knowing.
Madam Mina was still asleep.
The sun was already low.
But now everything around us had changed.
The mountains seemed farther away.
We were approaching the top of a steep hill, and on its summit stood a castle exactly like the one Jonathan had described.
At once I felt both triumph and terror.
The end was near, for good or for evil.
I woke Madam Mina and tried to hypnotize her again.
But once more, I failed until it was too late.
The sun had already disappeared, although its last light still reflected from the snow, creating a strange twilight.
I unharnessed the horses and fed them in whatever shelter I could find.
Then I built a fire.
Madam Mina was awake now and looked more beautiful than ever. I made her sit comfortably among the blankets.
I prepared food for her.
She refused it.
“I am not hungry,” she said.
I did not force her.
I knew there was no point.
But I ate because I needed all my strength.
Then, terrified of what might happen, I drew a large circle around the place where Madam Mina was sitting.
I placed the sacred wafer around the circle and broke it into small pieces so that the protection would be complete.
Madam Mina remained perfectly still.
She became whiter and whiter until her face seemed almost as pale as the snow.
She said nothing.
When I approached her, she clung to me.
I could feel her trembling from head to foot.
After a while, when she seemed calmer, I said:
“Will you not come closer to the fire?”
I wanted to see whether she could cross the circle.
She stood up obediently.
But after taking one step, she suddenly stopped.
She looked as though she had been struck.
“Why don’t you continue?” I asked.
She shook her head and returned to her place.
Then she looked at me with wide, strangely clear eyes.
“I cannot,” she said simply.
And she sat down again.
I felt enormous relief.
I knew then that whatever had happened to her, the creatures we feared could not cross that boundary either.
Her body might still be in danger, but her soul was safe.
A little later, the horses began screaming.
They pulled desperately against their ropes.
I rushed to them and tried to calm them.
As soon as they felt my hands, they made soft sounds as if they were glad to see me and licked my hands.
They became quiet for a while.
I returned to them many times during the night.
Each time, my presence calmed them.
Then came the coldest part of the night.
The fire was dying, and I was about to leave the circle to collect more wood.
Snow was blowing through the darkness, mixed with a freezing mist.
Even in the darkness, the snow seemed to give off a strange pale light.
The snow and mist began to form shapes.
They looked like women moving through the darkness in long flowing garments.
Everything was silent and grim except for the horses, which whinnied and crouched down in terror.
I began to feel a terrible fear.
Then I remembered the protection of the sacred circle around us.
Perhaps I was only imagining things because of the darkness, exhaustion, and everything I had suffered.
The snow and mist continued swirling around us.
For a moment, I thought I could see the shadowy forms of the women who had once tried to kiss Jonathan.
The horses crouched lower and began to moan like terrified human beings.
They seemed too frightened even to break free.
I feared for Madam Mina.
Then the strange figures came closer.
I looked at her.
She was sitting calmly and smiling at me.
When I tried to step toward the fire, she suddenly caught my arm and held me back.
Her voice was so soft that it sounded almost like something heard in a dream.
“No. Don’t go outside. You are safe here.”
“But what about you?” I asked. “You are the one I am afraid for.”
She laughed softly.
“Afraid for me? Why would you be afraid for me? There is no one in the world safer from them than I am.”
I stared at her.
Then a gust of wind made the fire leap upward.
The light fell across her face.
I saw the red scar on her forehead.
And then I understood.
The strange figures in the snow and mist moved closer, but they could not cross the sacred circle.
Slowly, they began to take solid form.
Unless God had taken away my reason, I saw them with my own eyes.
They were the same three women Jonathan had seen in the castle—the women who had once tried to bite his throat.
I recognized their beautiful faces, their bright eyes, their white teeth, their red lips, and their seductive smiles.
They smiled at Madam Mina.
Their laughter echoed softly through the night.
Then they stretched out their arms toward her.
“Come, sister,” they called.
“Come to us. Come!”
I turned toward Madam Mina in terror.
But then my heart leaped with hope.
The fear in her eyes told me everything.
She was horrified by them.
She did not belong to them.
Thank God, she was not yet one of the Un-Dead.
I grabbed some firewood and held out the sacred wafer as I advanced toward the creatures.
They recoiled and laughed their horrible, low laughter.
I fed the fire and felt no fear.
We were protected.
They could not approach me while I carried the sacred wafer.
And they could not reach Madam Mina while she remained inside the circle.
The horses had stopped moaning.
They lay quietly on the ground as snow covered them.
Their terror was gone.
So we remained there until the first light of dawn began to appear through the snow.
I was exhausted, frightened, and filled with sorrow.
But when the sun began to rise, I felt life return to me.
At the first light of dawn, the terrible figures disappeared into the swirling snow and mist.
The shadows drifted toward the castle and vanished.
I instinctively turned to Madam Mina, intending to hypnotize her.
But she was already deep asleep.
I could not wake her.
I even tried to hypnotize her while she slept.
There was no response.
None at all.
Daylight came.
I was afraid to move.
I built up the fire and went to check the horses.
They were all dead.
There is much that I must do here today.
I will wait until the sun is high because there may be places I need to enter where the sunlight, even through snow and mist, will protect me.
I will eat breakfast and strengthen myself.
Then I will begin my terrible work.
Madam Mina is still sleeping.
Thank God, she is peaceful.
The accident with the launch has been disastrous.
If it had not happened, we would have caught the other party long ago, and by now my dear Mina would have been free.
I cannot bear to think of her alone in the wilderness near that terrible place.
We have obtained horses and are following their tracks.
Godalming is preparing everything now.
We have our weapons.
If the Szgany intend to fight us, they will have to be prepared for a battle.
Oh, if only Morris and Seward were here with us.
We can do nothing but hope.
If I never write again, then goodbye, Mina.
May God bless you and keep you safe.
At dawn we saw the Szgany ahead of us.
They were racing away from the river with the wagon.
Several men surrounded the wagon as they hurried along, as though they were trying to escape from something.
Snow was falling lightly.
There was a strange excitement in the air.
Perhaps it was simply our own fear and anticipation, but the feeling of danger was overwhelming.
Far away, I could hear wolves howling.
The snow drives them down from the mountains.
There are dangers everywhere now.
The horses are almost ready.
We will soon leave.
We are riding toward someone’s death.
God alone knows whose death it will be, where it will happen, and how.
Thank God, I am still sane.
I have been through horrors that would make anyone doubt his own mind, but at least I can still trust what I have seen.
When I left Madam Mina sleeping safely inside the sacred circle, I went toward the castle.
I had brought a blacksmith’s hammer with me from Veresti.
It proved useful.
Although the castle doors were already open, I tore several of them from their rusty hinges. I did not want some accident to leave me trapped inside.
Jonathan’s terrible experience had taught me that much.
Using his diary as my guide, I found the old chapel.
I knew that my work had to be done there.
The air inside was oppressive.
There seemed to be a strange sulfurous smell, and sometimes it made me dizzy.
I could hear what sounded like distant roaring.
At times I thought I heard wolves howling.
Then I thought of Madam Mina, and I found myself trapped between two terrible choices.
I could not bring her into this place.
The vampire might find her here.
But if I left her outside alone, the wolves could attack her.
Still, I decided that my duty was here.
As for the wolves, we would have to leave that in God’s hands.
Whatever happened, death would also mean freedom.
If I had been choosing only for myself, the decision would have been easy.
I would rather die in the jaws of a wolf than remain buried in a vampire’s grave.
So I continued.
I knew there were at least three graves containing the vampire women.
I searched until I found the first.
She lay there in her unnatural sleep, looking full of life and terrible beauty.
For a moment I felt as though I had come to murder an innocent woman.
I suddenly understood why men in ancient times might have failed in such a task.
A beautiful vampire could fascinate a man so completely that his courage disappeared.
He would delay.
Then delay again.
And eventually sunset would arrive.
The vampire would awaken.
Her beautiful eyes would open.
Her lips would invite a kiss.
And the man would become another victim.
There is certainly some terrible power in such creatures.
Even I felt it.
There she lay in a centuries-old tomb surrounded by dust and the same horrible smell that filled the Count’s lairs.
I, Van Helsing, who had every reason to hate these creatures, found myself wanting to delay.
My mind seemed to grow numb.
Perhaps exhaustion and the heavy air were affecting me.
I was beginning to fall asleep.
It was a strange kind of sleep, almost like surrendering to a beautiful dream.
Then a long, sorrowful cry came through the silent air.
It sounded so full of pain and pity that it woke me instantly.
It was Madam Mina’s voice.
That cry gave me back my strength.
I forced myself to continue.
I opened another tomb and found the second sister, the darker one.
This time I refused even to look closely at her.
I could not risk falling under the same spell.
I kept searching until I found the third sister in a large, beautiful tomb that looked as though it had been built for someone deeply loved.
She was extraordinarily beautiful.
Her beauty was so powerful that it stirred something deep inside me—the natural desire of a man to love and protect a beautiful woman.
My head began to spin again.
But Madam Mina’s cry was still in my ears.
Before her voice could fade, I forced myself to act.
I searched every tomb in the chapel as far as I could tell.
There had been only three of these creatures outside during the night, so I believed these were the only active vampire women remaining.
Then I found one final tomb.
It was larger and more magnificent than all the others.
Only one word was carved upon it:
DRACULA.
This was the resting place of the Vampire King.
Its emptiness confirmed what I already knew.
Before I began my terrible work on the three women, I placed a piece of the sacred wafer inside Dracula’s tomb.
That ensured he could never return to it as one of the Un-Dead.
Then I began.
It was horrible.
If there had been only one, it would have been difficult enough.
But there were three.
I had to perform the same terrible act again and again.
And if it had been as terrible as what I had done to poor Lucy, what would it be like with creatures who had survived for centuries and grown stronger with every passing year?
I trembled even as I worked.
It was like butchery.
If I had not been thinking of the dead and of the living people still threatened by this evil, I could never have continued.
I could hardly bear the screams.
I could hardly bear the sight of the bodies twisting as the stakes entered them.
But I forced myself to continue.
The first face showed me why I had to do it.
Just before the creature finally died, her expression became peaceful.
It was as though her soul had finally been released.
That gave me the strength to continue.
At last, it was over.
I can pity those poor souls now.
I can even weep for them when I remember how peacefully they looked in the brief moment before their bodies disappeared.
As soon as I cut off each head, the bodies began to crumble.
They melted away into dust almost instantly.
It was as though the deaths that should have come centuries ago had finally claimed them.
Their bodies were simply returning to the earth.
Before leaving the castle, I secured the entrances so that the Count could never return there as one of the Un-Dead.
When I returned to the sacred circle, Madam Mina woke.
She saw me and cried out in pain.
“You have suffered too much,” she said.
“Come. We must leave this terrible place. Let us go and meet my husband. I know he is coming toward us.”
She was thin, pale, and weak.
But her eyes were clear and full of hope.
I was strangely relieved to see her so pale and ill.
My mind was still filled with the horrifying image of the vampire women sleeping with such unnatural health and color.
So we set out eastward.
We were filled with hope, but also with fear.
Madam Mina told me that she knew Jonathan and the others were coming to meet us.
And she knew that He was coming too.
It was late in the afternoon when the Professor and I began walking eastward.
I knew that Jonathan was coming from that direction.
We did not travel quickly.
The road was steep, and we had to carry heavy blankets and warm clothing because we could not risk being caught without protection from the cold.
We also carried food.
The country around us was completely deserted.
As far as we could see through the falling snow, there was not a single house.
After we had gone about a mile, I became exhausted from walking through the deep snow.
I sat down to rest.
Then we looked back.
There, against the sky, stood Dracula’s castle.
We were so far below it that the mountains seemed to rise beneath it at a strange angle.
The castle stood in all its terrible grandeur.
It seemed to sit about a thousand feet above us on the top of a sheer cliff.
On every side there appeared to be a deep gap separating it from the surrounding mountains.
There was something wild and unnatural about the place.
In the distance we could hear wolves howling.
They were far away, but the sound was still terrifying as it passed through the falling snow.
I could tell that Dr. Van Helsing was searching for a safe position.
He wanted a place where we could defend ourselves if we were attacked.
The rough road continued downward through the snow.
After a while, the Professor signaled for me to come.
He had found an excellent shelter.
It was a natural hollow in the rocks, with an opening between two large boulders.
He took my hand and led me inside.
“See?” he said. “You will be safe here. If the wolves come, I can fight them one at a time.”
He brought our blankets inside and made a comfortable place for me.
Then he took out some food and insisted that I eat.
But I could not.
The thought of food made me feel sick.
I wanted to please him, but I simply could not eat.
He looked sad, but he did not criticize me.
Instead, he took out his field glasses and climbed onto the rock.
He began scanning the horizon.
Suddenly he shouted:
“Look, Madam Mina! Look!”
I jumped up and joined him.
He handed me the glasses and pointed.
The snow was falling more heavily now, swirling in the strong wind.
But every so often the snow stopped for a moment, giving us a clear view.
From our high position, we could see far across the landscape.
In the distance, the river appeared like a black ribbon winding through the white snow.
Then I saw a group of mounted men approaching.
They were coming quickly.
In the middle of them was a long wagon that swayed from side to side as it moved over the rough road.
From their clothing, I could tell that the men were peasants or Gypsies.
And on the wagon was a large wooden chest.
My heart leaped when I saw it.
I knew the end was near.
Sunset was approaching.
I knew that once the sun disappeared, the Thing inside that chest would regain its freedom and might escape in any form.
I turned toward the Professor.
To my surprise, he was gone.
A moment later, I saw him below me.
He had drawn another sacred circle around the shelter.
When he finished, he returned to my side.
“At least you will be safe from him here,” he said.
He took the glasses and scanned the plain.
“Look. They are coming quickly. They are driving the horses as hard as they can.”
He paused.
“They are racing against the sunset. We may be too late.”
“God’s will be done.”
Another wall of snow swept across the landscape and hid everything from view.
A moment later, it passed.
The Professor immediately raised his glasses again.
Suddenly he cried out:
“Look! Two horsemen are coming from the south. They are following fast.”
“It must be Quincey and John.”
“Take the glasses! Look before the snow hides them again.”
I looked.
The two riders appeared to be Dr. Seward and Mr. Morris.
I knew neither was Jonathan.
Yet I felt certain that Jonathan could not be far away.
I looked north.
There were two more riders racing toward the wagon.
One of them was Jonathan.
The other was Lord Godalming.
They were also pursuing the wagon.
When I told the Professor, he shouted with delight like a schoolboy.
He watched until another snowstorm blocked the view.
Then he placed his Winchester rifle against the rock beside the entrance of our shelter.
“They are all coming together,” he said. “Soon the Gypsies will be surrounded from every side.”
I took out my revolver.
At the same time, the wolves began howling louder and closer.
When the snow briefly cleared, we looked again.
It was a strange sight.
Heavy snow was falling around us, while far away the sun was shining more brightly as it sank toward the mountains.
Through the glasses I could see small groups moving across the snow.
Some traveled alone.
Others came in pairs, threes, or larger groups.
The wolves were gathering for their prey.
Every second seemed like an hour.
The wind came in violent bursts.
Snow whipped around us so fiercely that sometimes we could not see even a few feet ahead.
Then the wind would suddenly clear the air, and we could see the distant landscape again.
We had become accustomed to watching sunrise and sunset, so we knew the sun would disappear very soon.
It was difficult to believe that less than an hour had passed since we began waiting in the shelter.
The different groups were now coming together.
The wind grew colder and stronger, blowing steadily from the north.
The clouds began to clear.
We could now see the people clearly.
The pursued group seemed strangely unconcerned that they were being followed.
In fact, they appeared to travel even faster as the sun dropped lower.
Closer and closer they came.
The Professor and I crouched behind the rock, holding our weapons ready.
Neither the Gypsies nor their leader seemed to know that we were there.
Suddenly two voices shouted:
“Halt!”
One was Jonathan’s, filled with passion.
The other was Morris’s, calm but commanding.
The Gypsies may not have understood the words, but they understood the meaning of the voices.
They pulled back on the reins.
At once Lord Godalming and Jonathan charged toward one side of the wagon, while Seward and Morris approached from the other.
The leader of the Gypsies was an impressive man who sat his horse like a skilled rider.
He waved the others back and shouted an order.
The men whipped the horses.
But the four pursuers raised their Winchester rifles and ordered them to stop.
At the same moment, Van Helsing and I stood behind the rock and aimed our weapons at them.
The Gypsies realized they were surrounded.
They stopped.
Their leader shouted another command.
Every man pulled out whatever weapon he carried—knife or pistol—and prepared to fight.
Everything was ready for battle.
The leader suddenly moved his horse forward.
He pointed first toward the setting sun and then toward the castle.
He said something we could not understand.
Our answer was immediate.
Jonathan, Godalming, Seward, and Morris jumped from their horses and rushed toward the wagon.
I should have been terrified to see Jonathan charging into such danger.
But the excitement of the fight had taken hold of me too.
I felt no fear.
Only an overwhelming need to do something.
The Gypsy leader shouted another command.
His men formed a rough circle around the wagon, pushing against one another as they tried to obey.
Jonathan forced his way through from one side.
Quincey came through from the other.
They were clearly determined to open the chest before the sun disappeared.
Nothing seemed able to stop them.
The guns and knives in front of them meant nothing.
Neither did the wolves howling behind them.
Jonathan moved with such determination that the men in front of him instinctively stepped aside.
A moment later he reached the wagon.
He jumped onto it, seized the heavy chest, and with astonishing strength threw it over the wheel onto the ground.
Morris was fighting his way through the Gypsies on the other side.
As I watched Jonathan, I saw Morris forcing his way forward.
Knives flashed around him.
He defended himself with his great bowie knife.
At first I thought he had escaped unharmed.
Then he reached Jonathan.
I saw that he was holding his side with his left hand.
Blood was pouring through his fingers.
But he did not stop.
Jonathan attacked one end of the chest with his kukri, trying to pry the lid open.
Morris attacked the other end with his bowie knife.
Together they forced the lid upward.
The nails screamed as they were pulled loose.
Then the lid flew open.
By now the Gypsies had realized that the Winchesters were aimed at them.
With Godalming and Seward covering them, they surrendered and stopped resisting.
The sun was almost below the mountain tops.
Long shadows stretched across the snow.
Inside the chest lay the Count.
Earth from the fall of the wagon was scattered across his body.
He was deathly pale, almost like a wax figure.
His red eyes glared with the hatred I knew so well.
Then his eyes caught sight of the setting sun.
His expression changed.
The hatred became triumph.
But at that exact moment, Jonathan’s great knife flashed through the air.
I screamed.
His blade cut across the Count’s throat.
At the same instant, Morris drove his bowie knife into the vampire’s heart.
It happened almost too quickly to understand.
Before our eyes, the entire body crumbled into dust.
Then it vanished.
For the rest of my life, I will be grateful for what I saw at that final moment.
For just before the Count disappeared completely, his face held an expression of peace.
I had never imagined that such peace could ever appear on that terrible face.
Behind us, Dracula’s castle stood against the red evening sky.
Every broken tower and battlement was sharply outlined by the setting sun.
The Gypsies stared at us.
They seemed to believe that we had somehow caused the mysterious disappearance of the man in the chest.
Without saying another word, they turned and fled.
The men who had been on foot climbed onto the wagon and shouted at the riders not to leave them behind.
The wolves, which had been keeping their distance, followed the fleeing group.
Soon we were alone.
Morris collapsed onto the ground.
He leaned on one elbow and pressed his hand against his side.
Blood was still pouring through his fingers.
I ran toward him.
The sacred circle no longer held me back.
The two doctors rushed to him as well.
Jonathan knelt beside him.
Morris leaned his head against Jonathan’s shoulder.
With great effort, he reached for my hand with the hand that was not covered in blood.
He must have seen the pain on my face.
He smiled.
“I am more than happy to have been of some use,” he said.
Then he suddenly struggled to sit up.
He pointed toward me.
“It was worth dying for this!”
The sun had now disappeared behind the mountain.
Its final red light fell across my face.
My forehead was glowing in the sunset.
All the men dropped to their knees.
Morris stared at me.
“Thank God,” he said.
“Thank God it was not all in vain!”
He pointed at my forehead.
“Look! Her forehead is as clean as the snow.”
“The curse is gone!”
His face relaxed into a smile.
Then, quietly and peacefully, he died.
A brave and honorable man to the very end.