Fred Saberhagen Vlad Tepes 08 Seance for a Vampire

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

able to achieve together.
"We must do something, Holmes."
"I share your feelings, Watson. But by what right would we interfere?"
"By what right? It is our duty to act, as we would act to prevent a suicide,
to save a madman from self-destruction."
"Is Martin Armstrong mad?"
"If he behaves in such a way. On the other hand..."
"Yes?"
"I was about to say, it would be unthinkable, Holmes, to return the girl to
her parents in this... this..."
"Quite so." Holmes, with a sigh, turned to his relative. "To the best
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...20Tepes%2008%20-%20Seance
%20for%20a%20Vampire.html (254 of 318)22-2-2006 2:00:15
Fred Saberhagen - S�ance for a Vampire of my knowledge, there can be no
possibility of reversion to the breathing state once matters have progressed
this far."
"To cling to any such hope would be an utter waste of time."
Dracula's face seemed carved in ice, as if he might have been insulted by the
suggestion that such a change might be desirable. As for repealing Louisa's
vampire-conversion, the prince assured us that everyone had better accept that
as impossible. Dracula himself had never seen it happen.
Today, as yesterday, our first glimpse of our enemy's rented house came from a
little distance away among the trees. Today again we had eschewed
attention-drawing motorcars and were traveling in a small convoy of carriages.
Smithbury Hall was a relatively new building, constructed in
Page 121
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Victoria's early reign, of yellow stone with white stone columns, and in a
mixture of architectural styles, most of them flat-roofed. It stood on a
gentle, grassy hill amid fairly extensive grounds, some thirteen or fourteen
miles from Norberton House and perhaps half a mile from the abandoned
greenhouse.
Our discovery yesterday of Louisa's "body" so close to the house would
certainly have interested the police; but of course we had not told them of
our find.
Naturally, we had preferred to launch our raid on Kulakov's rented manor in
daylight, when it was at least probable that the count might be caught
sleeping within.
But he was not to be found. Perhaps, we thought, he had somehow
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...20Tepes%2008%20-%20Seance
%20for%20a%20Vampire.html (255 of 318)22-2-2006 2:00:15
Fred Saberhagen - S�ance for a Vampire got wind of our coming. With Holmes and
Merivale leading the way, armed with search warrants, we stormed through the
house. Of course Holmes and I, if not the police, were well aware that the
vampire could not be caught in such a way but the police were ready and eager
to lay hands on a man whom they conceived to be an ordinary criminal.
Though within a matter of minutes, a dozen policemen were tearing the house
apart from roof to cellar, we were not really surprised at our failure to
discover Kulakov; and Mr. Prince, once invited in, searched the attic, and
particularly the cellar, with a thoroughness of which no breathing man would
have been capable, seeking traces of a hidden earth, whether occupied or not.
Actually, Dracula, while the police remained oblivious to his real activities,
located two or three such dens, but all were empty.
Holmes, the prince, and I had already agreed that Kulakov had probably formed
a careful, suspicious habit of shifting daily from one earth to another, and
that one or more of his essential troves of
Russian soil might be in close proximity to the place where we had finally
found Louisa, and where we hoped to be able to find her again.
Today our raiders, like yesterday's disguised inquirers at the door, were told
by two servants of Kulakov's, the only people inhabiting the house at present,
that the master had gone elsewhere; he was in
London, they thought. No, they could not say where, and they had no means of
reaching him.
When the opportunity presented itself, Holmes and I, by prearrangement,
slipped away from the main house without telling
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...20Tepes%2008%20-%20Seance
%20for%20a%20Vampire.html (256 of 318)22-2-2006 2:00:15
Fred Saberhagen - S�ance for a Vampire
Merivale or any of his men, and made our way back to the abandoned greenhouse.
Holmes had great hopes that there we should find Louisa Altamont in daylight
trance.
Should we be successful in this endeavor, Holmes had worked out a plan of
getting her away to a hiding place of his own choosing and then, later, with
Dracula's help, working out some kind of viable future for the girl.
But such was not to be. Our departure from the area of the main house was not
unnoticed by our enemies. Holmes and I were trudging across a grassy meadow,
not yet within a hundred yards of the old greenhouse, when I happened to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Wątki