The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen (best black authors TXT) 📗

in his journal — which he kept, by the way, on an early variety of phonograph, nowhere near as efficient as this admirable machine into which I speak — “again the operation; again the narcotic; again some return of color to the ashy cheeksc…”

      This time Van Helsing himself was donor, whilst Seward, at the master’s direction, operated. With such an agglomeration of cells in her poor veins, it is only a wonder that the poor girl lived as long as she did.

      I must now recount the events of September seventeenth, which was a most fateful day for all of us.

      Jonathan and Mina Harker, fresh from being married in Budapest, where he had long lain in hospital, were now prosperously installed in a house in Exeter. Mina had now read her bridegroom’s somewhat feverish journal of his stay at my castle, but the subject of vampirism had never been discussed between them, and no doubt at this point neither thought such horrors would touch their lives again.

      Arthur Holmwood still watched at his dying father’s bedside in Ring, with moral support from a young American named Quincey Morris, Arthur’s frequent companion on hunting trips round the world, and the third of Lucy’s breathing suitors.

      At the asylum on that evening, Renfield, loose again, came after Dr. Seward with a kitchen knife. Seward, fortunately for himself, managed to stun his powerful antagonist with a single punch, and the madman was soon disarmed and returned to confinement.

      Van Helsing, back in Antwerp on one of his habitual commuting journeys, but still commendably concerned about his patient Lucy, telegraphed to Seward that it was vital for Seward to stand guard at Hillingham that night — to guard against exactly what, Van Helsing had yet to specify. Seward of course would have un-questioningly complied, but that telegram for some fateful reason was missent. It was not delivered until it was twenty-two hours overdue.

      And I myself, on September seventeenth, was visiting Regents Park. My doubts were with me, and I was resolved to work harder at being human. I sat on a convenient bench and read the Times of London for the day:

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CRYSTAL PALACE

Astounding Performance

TIGER DRIVING GOAT

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...enough of that.

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MASSAGE AND ELECTRICITY

(Weir Mitchell system) with Swedish and German movements combined. As each LESSON of two hours’ duration is given daily on a living subject, pupils can be perfected in a fortnight. No bruising; those who bruise have been improperly taught …

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Mary Jane Heathcote, 28, was indicted for the willful murder of Florence Heathcote … her little girl … aged five years and six months …

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At Clerkenwell, Henry Bazley, 29, bookbinder, was … charged with having taken away out of the possession and control of her mother a girl named Elizabeth Morey … aged 16 years 10 months. She was traced to Highgate, where she lodged in a room for which the prisoner was found to be paying 5 shillings a week, and where he visited her … Detective-sergeant Drew, who had executed the warrant for the prisoner’s arrest, said that he found him at home hiding in a backyard. The prisoner was a married man with four children. When told the charge he said it was a lie. On the application of the prosecutor the prisoner was remanded …

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... Do you doubt I can remember all these items as they were? Well, I found them memorable. Check your library’s microfilm files of the Times if you doubt me.

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(To the editor) Sir — Contrary to my inclination, it has fallen to my lot to refute the theory put forward by my friend Mr. Haliburton at the Oriental Congress that a race of dwarfs exists between the Atlas and the Sahara …

            Jas. Ed. Budgett Meakin

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Sir — The necessity for a ready communication between the front door and the upper floor of a house in case of fire or other urgent need … is so obvious as to require no comment … I have thought of the following simple contrivance: A loud-ringing bell is hung in the upper floor; the wire of this bell terminates at its lower end on a chain and hook in the basement of the house. At night the hook is attached to the crank of the ordinary housebell and is detached in the morning … by this means also the filthy and insanitary practice of having a manservant sleeping in the pantry, that fertile source of much immorality, both in and out of doors, may be avoided.

              Yours, & C. H.

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PICCADILLY (Overlooking Green Park) — self-contained FLAT — four rooms, bath room, lift, etc., to be LET, on LEASE, and Furniture sold. Apply Housekeeper, 98, Piccadilly, W.

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      … That was interesting. But I would rather buy than rent, wanting nothing to do with nosy landlords.

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Sir — If one of the delegates who spoke so strongly in favor of the eight-hours movement was, on his return home, seized with a sudden and dangerous illness; and if, on sending for his doctor, he got an answer to say that the latter had just finished eight hours of work, and that for the next sixteen hours he was going to rest and enjoy himself, what would he think of the new arrangement?

                  Yours truly, J.R.T. 

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      …And back to the front page...

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MOULE’S PATENT EARTH-CLOSET COMPANY (Limited)

Garrick-street Covent-garden,

LONDON

MOULE’S COMPANY NOW MAKES: 

CLOSETS — for the garden 

CLOSETS — for shooting boxes

CLOSETS — for cottages

CLOSETS — for anywhere

CLOSETS — Complete are now made, fitted with “pull out” apparatus

CLOSETS — fitted with “pull up” apparatus

CLOSETS — fitted with self-acting apparatus

CLOSETS — made of galvanized, corrugated iron

CLOSETS — to take to pieces, for easy transport

CLOSETS — can be put together in two hours.

CLOSETS — to work satisfactorily

CLOSETS — only require to be supplied

CLOSETS — with fine and dry mold

CLOSETS — on this principle never fail

CLOSETS — if supplied with dry earth …

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      The litany went on, and I read it, eyes almost in hypnotic bondage. But my higher attention was still