The two men sitting on the bed stood up and came over, standing behind him so that he could not see them, but where they could hear better.  They were both silent, but the Professor started and quivered.  His face, however, grew grimmer and sterner still.  Renfield went on without noticing, “When Mrs. Harker came in to see me this afternoon she wasn’t the same.  It was like tea after the teapot has been watered.”  Here we all moved, but no one said a word.

He went on, “I didn’t know that she was here till she spoke, and she didn’t look the same.  I don’t care for the pale people.  I like them with lots of blood in them, and hers all seemed to have run out.  I didn’t think of it at the time, but when she went away I began to think, and it made me mad to know that He had been taking the life out of her.”  I could feel that the rest quivered, as I did; but we remained otherwise still.  “So when He came tonight I was ready for Him.  I saw the mist stealing in, and I grabbed it tight.  I had heard that madmen have unnatural strength.  And as I knew I was a madman, at times anyhow, I resolved to use my power.  Ay, and He felt it too, for He had to come out of the mist to struggle with me.  I held tight, and I thought I was going to win, for I didn’t mean Him to take any more of her life, till I saw His eyes.  They burned into me, and my strength became like water.  He slipped through it, and when I tried to cling to Him, He raised me up and flung me down.  There was a red cloud before me, and a noise like thunder, and the mist seemed to steal away under the door.”

His voice was becoming fainter and his breath more stertorous.  Van Helsing stood up instinctively.

“We know the worst now,” he said.  “He is here, and we know his purpose.  It may not be too late.  Let us be armed, the same as we were the other night, but lose no time, there is not an instant to spare.”

There was no need to put our fear, nay our conviction, into words, we shared them in common.  We all hurried and took from our rooms the same things that we had when we entered the Count’s house.  The Professor had his ready, and as we met in the corridor he pointed to them significantly as he said, “They never leave me, and they shall not till this unhappy business is over.  Be wise also, my friends.  It is no common enemy that we deal with Alas!  Alas!  That dear Madam Mina should suffer!” He stopped, his voice was breaking, and I do not know if rage or terror predominated in my own heart.

Outside the Harkers’ door we paused.  Art and Quincey held back, and the latter said, “Should we disturb her?”

“We must,” said Van Helsing grimly.  “If the door be locked, I shall break it in.”

“May it not frighten her terribly?  It is unusual to break into a lady’s room!”

Van Helsing said solemnly, “You are always right.  But this is life and death.  All chambers are alike to the doctor.  And even were they not they are all as one to me tonight.  Friend John, when I turn the handle, if the door does not open, do you put your shoulder down and shove; and you too, my friends.  Now!”