by Bram Stoker
“But we don’t value our personal safety,” said the admiral. “We’ve got into the adventure, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t carry it out. It may be growing a little serious; but what of that? For the sake of that young girl, Flora Bannerworth, as well as for the sake of my nephew, Charles Holland, I will see the end of this affair, let it be what it may; but mind you, Mr. Chillingworth, if one man chooses to go upon a desperate service, that’s no reason why he should ask another to do so.”
“I understand you,” said Mr. Chillingworth; “but, having commenced the adventure with you, I am not the man to desert you in it. We have committed a great mistake.”
“A mistake! how?”
“Why, we ought to have watched outside the house, instead of within it. There can be no doubt that if we had lain in wait in the garden, we should have been in a better position to have accomplished our object.”
“Well, I don’t know, doctor, but it seems to me that if Jack Pringle hadn’t made such a fool of himself, we should have managed very well: and I don’t know now how he came to behave in the manner he did.”
“Nor I,” said Mr. Chillingworth. “But, at all events, so far as the result goes, it is quite clear that any further watching, in this house, for the appearance of Sir Francis Varney, will now be in vain. He has nothing to do now but to keep quiet until we are tired out — a fact, concerning which he can easily obtain information — and then he immediately, without trouble, walks into the premises, to his own satisfaction.”
“But what the deuce can he want upon the premises?”
“That question, admiral, induces me to think that we have made another mistake. We ought not to have attempted to surprise Sir Francis Varney in coming into Bannerworth Hall, but to catch him as he came out.”
“Well, there’s something in that,” said the admiral. “This is a pretty night’s business, to be sure. However, it can’t be helped, it’s done, and there’s an end on’t. And now, as the morning is near at hand, I certainly must confess I should like to get some breakfast, although I don’t like that we should all leave the house together”
“Why,” said Mr. Chillingworth, “as we have now no secret to keep with regard to our being here, because the principal person we wished to keep it from is aware of it, I think we cannot do better than send at once for Henry Bannerworth, tell him of the non-success of the effort we have made in his behalf, and admit him at once into our consultation of what is next to be done.”
“Agreed, agreed, I think that, without troubling him, we might have captured this Varney; but that’s over now, and, as soon as Jack Pringle chooses to wake up again, I’ll send him to the Bannerworths with a message.”
“Ay, ay, sir,” said Jack, suddenly; “all’s right.”
“Why, you vagabond,” said the admiral, “I do believe you’ve been shamming!”
“Shamming what?”
“Being drunk, to be sure.”
“Lor! couldn’t do it,” said Jack; “I’ll just tell you how it was. I wakened up and found myself shut in somewhere; and, as I couldn’t get out of the door, I thought I’d try the window, and there I did get out. Well, perhaps I wasn’t quite the thing, but I sees two people in the garden a looking up at this ere room; and, to be sure, I thought it was you and the doctor. Well, it warn’t no business of mine to interfere, so I seed one of you climb up the balcony, as I thought, and then, after which, come down head over heels with such a run, that I thought you must have broken your neck. Well, after that you fired a couple of shots in, and then, after that, I made sure it was you, admiral.”
“And what made you make sure of that?”
“Why, because you scuttled away like an empty tar-barrel in full tide.”
“Confound you, you scoundrel!”
“Well, then, confound you, if it comes to that. I thought I was doing you good sarvice, and that the enemy was here, when all the while it turned out as you was and the enemy wasn’t, and the enemy was outside and you wasn’t.”
“But who threw such a confounded lot of things into the room?”
“Why, I did, of course; I had but one pistol, and, when I fired that off, I was forced to make up a broadside with what I could.”
“Was there ever such a stupid!” said the admiral; “doctor, doctor, you talked of us making two mistakes; but you forgot a third and worse one still, and that was the bringing such a lubberly son of a sea-cook into the place as this fellow.”
“You’re another,” said Jack; “and you knows it.”
“Well, well,” said Mr. Chillingworth, “it’s no use continuing it, admiral; Jack, in his way, did, I dare say, what he considered for the best.”
“I wish he’d do, then, what he considers for the worst, next time.”
“Perhaps I may,” said Jack, “and then you will be served out above a bit. What ‘ud become of you, I wonder, if it wasn’t for me? I’m as good as a mother to you, you knows that, you old babby.”
“Come, come, admiral,” said Mr. Chillingworth: “come down to the garden-gate; it is now just upon daybreak, and the probability is that we shall not be long there before we see some of the country people, who will get us anything we require in the shape of refreshment; and as for Jack, he seems quite sufficiently recovered now to go to the Bannerworths’.”
“Oh! I can go,” said Jack; “as for that, the only thing as puts me out of the way is the want of something to drink. My constitution won’t stand what they call temperance living, or nothing with the chill off.”
“Go at once,” said the admiral, “and tel! Mr. Henry Bannerworth that we are here; but do not tell him before his sister or his mother. If you meet anybody on the road, send them here with a cargo of victuals. It strikes me that a good, comfortable breakfast wouldn’t be at all amiss, doctor.”
“How rapidly the day dawns,” remarked Mr. Chillingworth, as he walked into the balcony from whence Varney, the vampire, had attempted to make good his entrance to the Hall.
Just as he spoke, and before Jack Pringle could get half way over to the garden gate, there came a tremendous ring at the bell which was suspended over it.
A view of that gate could not be commanded from the window of the haunted apartment, so that they could not see who it was that demanded admission.
As Jack Pringle was going down at any rate, they saw no necessity for personal interference; and he proved that there was not, by presently returning with a note which he said had been thrown over the gate by a lad, who then scampered off with all the speed he could make.
The note, exteriorly, was well got up, and had all the appearance of great care having been bestowed upon its folding and sealing.
It was duly addressed to “Admiral Bell, Bannerworth Hall,” and the word “immediate” was written at one corner.
The admiral, after looking at it for some time with very great wonder, came at last to the conclusion that probably to open it would be the shortest way of arriving at a knowledge of who had sent it, and he accordingly did so.
The note was as follows: —
“My dear sir, — Feeling assured that you cannot be surrounded with those means and appliances for comfort in the Hall, in its now deserted condition, which you have a right to expect, and so eminently deserve, I flatter myself that I shall receive an answer in the affirmative, when I request the favour of your company to breakfast, as well as that of your learned friend. Mr. Chillingworth.
“In consequence of a little accident which occurred last evening to my own residence, I am, ad interim, until the county build it up for me again, staying at a house called Walmesley Lodge, where I shall expect you with all the impatience of one soliciting an honour, and hoping that it will be conferred upon him.
“I trust that any little difference of opinion on other subjects will not interfere to prevent the harmony of our morning’s meal together.
“Believe me to be, my dear sir, with the greatest possible consideration, your very obedient, humble servant,
“FRANCIS VARNEY.”
The admiral gasped again, and looked at Mr. Chillingworth, and then at the note, and then at Mr. Chillingworth again, as if he was perfectly bewildered.
“That’s about the coolest piece of business,” said Mr. Chillingworth, “that ever I heard of.”
“Hang me,” said the admiral, “if I sha’n’t like the fellow at last. It is cool, and I like it because it is cool. Where’s my hat? where’s my stick!”
“What are you going to do?”
“Accept his invitation, to be sure, and breakfast with him; and, my learned friend, as he calls you, I hope you’ll come likewise. I’ll take the fellow at his word. By fair means, or by foul, I’ll know what he wants here; and why he persecutes this family, for whom I have an attachment; and what hand he has in the disappearance of my nephew, Charles Holland; for, as sure as there’s a Heaven above us, he’s at the bottom of that affair. Where is this Walmesley Lodge?”
“Just in the neighbourhood; but — ”
“Come on, then; come on.”
“But, really, admiral, you don’t mean to say you’ll breakfast with — with — ”
“A vampyre? Yes, I would, and will, and mean to do so. Here, Jack, you needn’t go to Mr. Bannerworth’s yet. Come, my learned friend, let’s take Time by the forelock.”
CHAPTER LX.
THE INTERRUPTED BREAKFAST AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY’S.
Notwithstanding all Mr. Chillingworth could say to the contrary, the admiral really meant to breakfast with Sir Francis Varney.
The worthy doctor could not for some time believe but that the admiral must be joking, when he talked in such a strain; but he was very soon convinced to the contrary, by the latter actually walking out and once more asking him, Mr. Chillingworth, if he meant to go with him, or not.
This was conclusive, so the doctor said, —
“Well, admiral, this appears to me rather a mad sort of freak; but, as I have begun the adventure with you, I will conclude it with you.”
“That’s right,” said the admiral; “I’m not deceived in you, doctor; so come along. Hang these vampyres, I don’t know how to tackle them, myself. I think, after all, Sir Francis Varney is more in your line than line is in mine.”
“How do you mean?”
“Why, couldn’t you persuade him he’s ill, and wants some physic? That would soon settle him, you know.”
“Settle him!” said Mr. Chillingworth; “I beg to say that if I did give him any physic, the dose would be much to his advantage; but, however, my opinion is, that this invitation to breakfast is, after all, a mere piece of irony; and that, when we get to Walmesley Lodge, we shall not see anything of him; on the contrary, we shall probably find it’s a hoax.”
“I certainly shouldn’t like that, but still it’s worth the trying. The fellow has really behaved himself in such an extraordinary manner, that, if I can make terms with him I will; and there’s one thing, you know, doctor, that I think we may say we have discovered.”
“And what may that be? Is it, not to make too sure of a vampyre, even when you have him by the leg?”
“No, that ain’t it, though that’s a very good thing in its way: but it is just this, that Sir Francis Varney, whoever he is and whatever he is, is after Bannerworth Hall, and not the Bannerworth family. If you recollect, Mr. Chillingworth, in our conversation, I have always insisted upon that fact.”
“You have; and it seems to me to be completely verified by the proceedings of the night. There, then, admiral, is the great mystery — what can he want at Bannerworth Hall that makes him take such a world of trouble, and run so many fearful risks in trying to get at it?”
“That is, indeed, the mystery; and if he really means this invitation to breakfast, I shall ask him plumply, and tell him, at the same time, that possibly his very best way to secure his object will be to be candid, vampyre as he is.”
“But really, admiral, you do not still cling to that foolish superstition of believing that Sir Francis Varney is in reality a vampyre?”
“I don’t know, and I can’t say; if anybody was to give me a description of a strange sort of fish that I had never seen, I wouldn’t take upon myself to say there wasn’t such a thing; nor would you, doctor, if you had really seen the many odd ones that I have encountered at various times.”
“Well, well, admiral, I’m certainly not belonging to that school of philosophy which declares the impossible to be what it don’t understand; there may be vampyres, and there may be apparitions, for all I know to the contrary; I only doubt these things, because I think, if they were true, that, as a phenomena of nature, they would have been by this time established by repeated instances without the possibility of doubt or cavil.”
“Well, there’s something in that; but how far have we got to go now?”
“No further than to yon enclosure where you see those park-like looking gates, and that cedar-tree stretching its dark-green foliage so far into the road; that is Walmesley Lodge, whither you have been invited.”
“And you, my learned friend, recollect that you were invited too; so that you are no intruder upon the hospitality of Varney the vampyre.”
“I say, admiral,” said Mr. Chillingworth, when they reached the gates, “you know it is not quite the thing to call a man a vampyre at his own breakfast-table, so just oblige me by promising not to make any such remark to Sir Francis.”
“A likely thing!” said the admiral; “he knows I know what he is, and he knows I’m a plain man and a blunt speaker; however, I’ll be civil to him, and more than that I can’t promise. I must wring out of him, if I can, what has become of Charles Holland, and what the deuce he really wants himself.”
“Well, well; come to no collision with him, while we’re his guests.”
“Not if I can help it.”
The doctor rang at the gate bell of Walmesley Lodge, and was in a few moments answered by a woman, who demanded their business.
“Is Sir Francis Varney here?” said the doctor.
“Oh, ah! yes,” she replied; “you see his house was burnt down, for something or other — I’m sure I don’t know what — by some people — I’m sure I don’t know who; so, as the lodge was to let, we have took him in till he can suit himself.”
“Ah! that’s it, is it?” said the admiral — ”tell him that Admiral Bell and Dr. Chillingworth are here.”
“Very well,” said the woman; “you may walk in.”
“Thank ye; you’re vastly obliging, ma’am. Is there anything going on in the breakfast line?”
“Well, yes; I am getting him some breakfast, but he didn’t say as he expected company.”
The woman opened the garden gate, and they walked up a trimly laid out garden to the lodge, which was a cottage-like structure in external appearance, although within it boasted of all the comforts of a tolerably extensive house.
She left them in a small room, leading from the hall, and was absent about five minutes; then she returned, and, merely saying that Sir Francis Varney presented his compliments, and desired them to walk up stairs, she preceded them up a handsome flight which led to the first floor of the lodge.
Up to this moment, Mr. Chillingworth had expected some excuse, for, notwithstanding all he had heard and seen of Sir Francis Varney, he could not believe that any amount of impudence would suffice to enable him to receive people as his guests, with whom he must feel that he was at such positive war.
It was a singular circumstance; and, perhaps, the only thing that matched the cool impertinence of the invitation, was the acceptance of it under the circumstances by the admiral.
Sir Francis Varney might have intended it as a jest; but if he did so, in the first instance, it was evident he would not allow himself to be beaten with his own weapons.
The room into which they were shown was a longish narrow one; a very wide door gave them admission to it, at the end, nearest the staircase, and at its other extremity there was a similar door opening into some other apartments of
the house.
Sir Francis Varney sat with his back towards this second door, and a table, with some chairs and other articles of furniture, were so arranged before him, that while they seemed but to be carelessly placed in the position they occupied, they really formed a pretty good barrier between him and his visitors.
The admiral, however, was too intent upon getting a sight of Varney, to notice any preparation of this sort, and he advanced quickly into the room.
And there, indeed, was the much dreaded, troublesome, persevering, and singular looking being who had caused such a world of annoyance to the family of the Bannerworths, as well as disturbing the peace of the whole district, which had the misfortune to have him as an inhabitant.
If anything, he looked thinner, taller, and paler than usual, and there seemed to be a slight nervousness of manner about him, as he slowly inclined his head towards the admiral, which was not quite intelligible.
“Well,” said Admiral Bell, “you invited me to breakfast, and my learned friend; here we are.”
“No two human beings,” said Varney, “could be more welcome to my hospitality than yourself and Dr. Chillingworth. I pray you to be seated. What a pleasant thing it is, after the toils and struggles of this life, occasionally to sit down in the sweet companionship of such dear friends.”
He made a hideous face as he spoke, and the admiral looked as if he were half inclined to quarrel at that early stage of the proceedings.
“Dear friends!” he said; “well, well — it’s no use squabbling about a word or two; but I tell you what it is, Mr. Varney, or Sir Francis Varney, or whatever your d — — d name is — ”
“Hold, my dear sir,” said Varney — ”after breakfast, if you please — after breakfast.”
He rang a hand-bell as he spoke, and the woman who had charge of the house brought in a tray tolerably covered with the materials for a substantial morning’s meal. She placed it upon the table, and certainly the various articles that smoked upon it did great credit to her culinary powers.
