XXXI

With the first flush of the morning Ethel appeared at the door of the house on Riverside Drive.  She had not heard from Ernest, and had been unable to obtain connection with him at the telephone.  Anxiety had hastened her steps.  She brushed against Jack, who was also directing his steps to the abode of Reginald Clarke.

At the same time something that resembled Ernest Fielding passed from the house of the Vampire.  It was a dull and brutish thing, hideously transformed, without a vestige of mind.

“Mr. Fielding,” cried Ethel, beside herself with fear as she saw him descending.

“Ernest!” Jack gasped, no less startled at the change in his friend’s appearance.

Ernest’s head followed the source of the sound, but no spark of recognition illumined the deadness of his eyes.  Without a present and without a past ... blindly ... a gibbering idiot ... he stumbled down the stairs.

***End of the project gutenberg EBOOK the house of the vampire***

******* This file should be named 17144.txt or 17144.zip *******

This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:  http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/1/4/17144

Updated editions will replace the previous one—­the old editions will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the project gutenberg-tm concept and trademark.  Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research.  They may be modified and printed and given away—­you may do practically anything with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

*** Start:  Full license ***

The full project gutenberg license
please read this before you distribute or use this work

To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at http://gutenberg.net/license).