“When you come back, Jack, may I have two words with you all to ourselves?” I nodded in reply and went out.  I found no difficulty about the registration, and arranged with the local undertaker to come up in the evening to measure for the coffin and to make arrangements.

When I got back Quincey was waiting for me.  I told him I would see him as soon as I knew about Lucy, and went up to her room.  She was still sleeping, and the Professor seemingly had not moved from his seat at her side.  From his putting his finger to his lips, I gathered that he expected her to wake before long and was afraid of fore-stalling nature.  So I went down to Quincey and took him into the breakfast room, where the blinds were not drawn down, and which was a little more cheerful, or rather less cheerless, than the other rooms.

When we were alone, he said to me, “Jack Seward, I don’t want to shove myself in anywhere where I’ve no right to be, but this is no ordinary case.  You know I loved that girl and wanted to marry her, but although that’s all past and gone, I can’t help feeling anxious about her all the same.  What is it that’s wrong with her?  The Dutchman, and a fine old fellow he is, I can see that, said that time you two came into the room, that you must have another transfusion of blood, and that both you and he were exhausted.  Now I know well that you medical men speak in camera, and that a man must not expect to know what they consult about in private.  But this is no common matter, and whatever it is, I have done my part.  Is not that so?”

“That’s so,” I said, and he went on.

“I take it that both you and Van Helsing had done already what I did today.  Is not that so?”

“That’s so.”

“And I guess Art was in it too.  When I saw him four days ago down at his own place he looked queer.  I have not seen anything pulled down so quick since I was on the Pampas and had a mare that I was fond of go to grass all in a night.  One of those big bats that they call vampires had got at her in the night, and what with his gorge and the vein left open, there wasn’t enough blood in her to let her stand up, and I had to put a bullet through her as she lay.  Jack, if you may tell me without betraying confidence, Arthur was the first, is not that so?”

As he spoke the poor fellow looked terribly anxious.  He was in a torture of suspense regarding the woman he loved, and his utter ignorance of the terrible mystery which seemed to surround her intensified his pain.  His very heart was bleeding, and it took all the manhood of him, and there was a royal lot of it, too, to keep him from breaking down.  I paused before answering, for I felt that I must not betray anything which the Professor wished kept secret, but already he knew so much, and guessed so much, that there could be no reason for not answering, so I answered in the same phrase.

“That’s so.”

“And how long has this been going on?”