“By Heaven, Watson, I mean yet to get my hands on the fiend who has done this. And when I do...”
Meanwhile, my affair with Sarah was now well launched, with the seductive vampire (myself) continuing to visit the young woman repeatedly in her room at night, or in the grounds of Norberton House at dusk.
Watson, on discovering (I never did learn how) the fact of this affair, was outraged (naturally so, as he thought) and proved brave enough to tell me so to my face.
Considerations of honor and duty restrained my natural reaction to this meddling, and Watson survived the occasion unharmed. His good luck may be partially attributable to Sarah, who, with the wise idea of separating the two men, prevailed on Mr. Prince to escort her there and then to the little cemetery where her dear brother now lay beneath the freshly mounded earth. She said she wanted to bring more flowers to the grave.
“And will you help us hunt his killer, Sarah?” I inquired softly, when she had risen from her graveside prayers. (In recent days the value of traditional religion had risen sharply in her eyes.)
“Aye. But how am I t’ dae that?” Her brown eyes burned at me.
“He laid a spell upon you, did he not? Meaning to force you to do his will?”
“Aye, he did that.”
“Then traces of that connection probably remain. Will you trust me to put you to sleep, and let me look for them?”
Suffice it to say that the experiment was made, the thin red threads of mental influence traced to their source. Evidence obtained through Sarah, speaking in true trance, detailing her psychic visions, indicated that Kulakov had carried becky off to the docks, not in London but in Hull, and from there had promptly taken ship.
Sarah’s visions were also of pain and intermittent weakness. When Sherlock Holmes heard this, he said with characteristic insight that Kulakov probably still was, and had been for most of his long life, suffering from the discomforts of having been hanged in 1765.
Holmes delegated to some of his lesser associates a sustained effort to find and destroy all of Kulakov’s earths in England. Several such hideaways were found on the grounds of Smithbury Hall, quite near the place where Kulakov had been keeping Louisa. but Holmes thought this search of only secondary importance.
Dracula, too, freely expressed his doubts about the effectiveness of the procedure. “It seems most unlikely that we should ever really be able to render them all uninhabitable. I speak from a certain experience. A dozen years ago, as perhaps you are aware, some Englishmen led by that idiot Van Helsing were attempting to do the same thing to me. They failed miserably, though they were not aware of their failure. Someday perhaps I will tell you the whole story.
“But the point to be noted just now is this: A vampire given time for preparation, and the chance to ship in a supply of his native earth, can so entrench himself in a foreign land that he becomes almost impossible to root out–without killing him.”
Kulakov’s prospects for regaining his lost treasure must have seemed to him as remote as ever. The evil vampire had killed Louisa with his own hands, or arranged for her killing. The count had seen his convert now as only a liability.
Further evidence obtained through Sarah’s psychic contact indicated that the Russian vampire had departed from the docks at Hull aboard a fast steamer which, the port records showed, was bound directly for St. Petersburg. The vessel was Russian, and we thought that probably it was under Kulakov’s direct control.
Holmes promptly cabled some friendly contact in the Petersburg police, to alert them to be on watch for Kulakov, though there were as yet no formal charges to be brought against him. The cable brought a prompt response, which seemed to promise co-operation; but we feared that Kulakov might have so much influence in the Tsarist government as to be effectively immune to the police.
And Mycroft Holmes promised us that he could arrange for a swift vessel, perhaps even one of the Royal Navy’s new turbine-powered destroyers, to carry his band of hunters on to St. Petersburg, where the next act of the drama was going to be played out.
Dracula remarked that he could feel a certain remote sympathy for Kulakov.
“Sympathy!”
“Yes, Doctor. Oh, he is my enemy now, and I will hunt him down and kill him. but I found myself in a somewhat similar situation, that of the hunted vampire, about twelve years ago, on my first visit to britain, before I had met either you or my distinguished cousin.
“Perhaps I will someday tell you that story, Doctor.”
Seventeen
Before departing for London and thence for Russia, Holmes and I paid a final visit to the home of the Altamonts. The sad condition of this once-intelligent and happy couple stiffened our resolve to see that justice was done.
Ambrose Altamont, still denying the fact that his older daughter was truly dead at last, now assured us that his younger daughter, Rebecca, was only visiting a friend and would return at any hour.
Altamont’s back was bent now, like that of an old man. He peered at us timidly, and his voice and hands alike were quivering. “Surely becky will be back with us by this evening. Then we will have our next sitting. You gentlemen are welcome to attend.”
With our former client in this condition, and with Mrs. Altamont still prostrated by brain fever, there was obviously no point in our attempting any further explanations... either of vampires or on any other point. Instead, we nodded and smiled and said our good-byes, promising to call again, with good news, when we could.
At least, as I commented to Holmes a little later, Louisa’s parents had been spared the ultimate shock of being present when their daughter was staked as a vampire.
Mycroft was as good as his word, and with the benefit of his powerful though hidden influence, discreetly exercised, our expeditionary force was able to obtain, quickly and quietly, the use of a fast steamer for the journey to St. Petersburg. The vessel provided was in fact the private steam-yacht of one of the Sea Lords–I think that even now I had better not be more specific regarding the vessel’s ownership or the circumstances in which we obtained its use.
There had been some discussion of our using a naval vessel, but Holmes had promptly decided that would be inappropriate. “Owing to the essentially private nature of our business, a privately owned craft is preferable to a ship of His Majesty’s navy, which would inevitably attract attention, and would require some diplomatic prearrangement.”
Another advantage of a private ship was that she could stand by unobtrusively in the Russian port, ready to carry us on the return voyage–but haste in returning should not be necessary.
The craft we were privileged to obtain had engines similar to those of the new turbine-powered destroyers, capable of making more than thirty knots. Most naval vessels of the time could sustain no more like half that speed.
During our voyage, Count Kulakov’s motives and behavior were naturally the subject of intense discussion. So were those of Rebecca Altamont, the question being by what combination of force and guile she had been compelled to accompany him. Our party included Sherlock Holmes, Prince Dracula, Armstrong, and myself, as well as Sarah Kirkaldy, without whose genuine psychic capabilities we might never have been able to follow the escaping Kulakov with any accuracy.
While the Russian’s vampirish bloodlust had played a part in his behavior, obviously his prime motive in his attacks upon the Altamonts was–or had been–revenge. Even so, that left unexplained many details of his behavior. Nor was it very helpful simply to say that the man was mad, though that undoubtedly seemed to be the case. And there was still the matter of the mysterious treasure. Did that exist only in the fevered imagination of a deranged vampire?