Varney the Vampire 2(54)

With the most provoking deliberation, the speaker re-lit his pipe, which had gone out while he was talking, and then, after a few whiffs, to assure himself that its contents had thoroughly ignited, he resumed,--

 

"No sooner had the last sound of it died away, than I heard something on the stairs."

 

"Yes, yes."

 

"It was as if some man had given his foot a hard blow against one of the stairs; and he would have needed to have had a heavy boot on to do it. I started up in bed and listened, as you may well suppose, not in the most tranquil state of mind, and then I heard an odd, gnawing sort of noise, and then another dab upon one of the stairs."

 

"How dreadful!"

 

"It was. What to do I knew not, or what to think, except that the vampyre had, by some means, got in at the attic window, and was coming down stairs to my room. That seemed the most likely. Then there was another groan, and then another heavy step; and, as they were evidently coming towards my door, I felt accordingly, and got out of bed, not knowing hardly whether I was on my head or my heels, to try and lock my door."

 

"Ah, to be sure."

 

"Yes; that was all very well, if I could have done it; but a man in such a state of mind as I was in is not a very sharp hand at doing anything. I shook from head to foot. The room was very dark, and I couldn't, for a moment or two, collect my senses sufficient really to know which way the door lay."

 

"What a situation!"

 

"It was. Dab, dab, dab, came these horrid footsteps, and there was I groping about the room in an agony. I heard them coming nearer and nearer to my door. Another moment, and they must have reached it, when my hand struck against the lock."

 

"What an escape!"

 

"No, it was not."

 

"No?"

 

"No, indeed. The key was on the outside, and you may well guess I was not over and above disposed to open the door to get at it."

 

"No, no."

 

"I felt regularly bewildered, I can tell you; it seemed to me as if the very devil himself was coming down stairs hopping all the way upon one leg."

 

"How terrific!"

 

"I felt my senses almost leaving me; but I did what I could to hold the door shut just as I heard the strange step come from the last stair on to the landing. Then there was a horrid sound, and some one began trying the lock of my door."

 

"What a moment!"

 

"Yes, I can tell you it was a moment. Such a moment as I don't wish to go through again. I held the door as close as I could, and did not speak. I tried to cry out help and murder, but I could not; my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, and my strength was fast failing me."

 

"Horrid, horrid!"

 

"Take a drop of ale."

 

"Thank you. Well, I don't think this went on above two or three minutes, and all the while some one tried might and main to push open the door. My strength left me all at once; I had only time to stagger back a step or two, and then, as the door opened, I fainted away."

 

"Well, well!"

 

"Ah, you wouldn't have said well, if you had been there, I can tell you."

 

"No; but what become of you. What happened next? How did it end? What was it?"

 

"Why, what exactly happened next after I fainted I cannot tell you; but the first thing I saw when I recovered was a candle."

 

"Yes, yes."

 

"And then a crowd of people."

 

"Ah, ah!"

 

"And then Dr. Web."

 

"Gracious!"

 

"And. Mrs. Bulk, my housekeeper. I was in my own bed, and when I opened my eyes I heard Dr. Webb say,--

 

"'He will be better soon. Can no one form any idea of what it is all about. Some sudden fright surely could alone have produced such an effect.'"

 

"'The Lord have mercy upon me!' said I.

 

"Upon this everybody who had been called in got round the bed, and wanted to know what had happened; but I said not a word of it; but turning to Mrs. Bulk, I asked her how it was she found out I had fainted.

 

"'Why, sir,' says she, 'I was coming up to bed as softly as I could, because I knew you had gone to rest some time before. The clock was striking twelve, and as I went past it some of my clothes, I suppose, caught the large weight, but it was knocked off, and down the stairs it rolled, going with such a lump from one to the other, and I couldn't catch it because it rolled so fast, that I made sure you would be awakened; so I came down to tell you what it was, and it was some time before I could get your room door open, and when I did I found you out of bed and insensible.'"

 

There was a general look of disappointment when this explanation was given, and one said,--