stand; even in her sleep she seems to be watching me. She tries
the door, and finding it locked, goes about the room searching for
the key.
6 August. Another three days, and no news. This suspense
is getting dreadful. If I only knew where to write to or where to
go to, I should feel easier; but no one has heard a word of Jona-
than since that last letter. I must only pray to God for patience.
Lucy is more excitable than ever, but is otherwise well. Last night
was very threatening, and the fishermen say that we are in for a
storm. I must try to watch it and learn the weather signs. To-day
is a grey day, and the sun as I write is hidden in thick clouds,
high over Kettleness. Everything is grey except the green grass,
which seems like emerald amongst it; grey earthy rock; grey
clouds, tinged with the sunburst at the far edge, hang over the
grey sea, into which the sand-points stretch like grey fingers.
The sea is tumbling in over the shallows and the sandy flats with
a roar, muffled in the sea-mists drifting inland. The horizon is lost
in a grey mist. All is vastness; the clouds are piled up like giant
rocks, and there is a «brool» over the sea that sounds like some
presage of doom. Dark figures are on the beach here and there,
sometimes half shrouded in the mist, and seem «men like trees
walking.» The fishing-boats are racing for home, and rise and
dip in the ground swell as they sweep into the harbour, bending
to the scuppers. Here comes old Mr. Swales. He is making straight
for me, and I can see, by the way he lif ts his hat, that he wants to
talk
I have been quite touched by the change in the poor old man.
When he sat down beside me, he said in a very gentle way:
«I want to say something to you, miss.» I could see he was
not at ease, so I took his poor old wrinkled hand in mine and
asked him to speak fully; so he said, leaving his hand in mine:
«I’m afraid, my deary, that I must have shocked you by all
the wicked things I’ve been sayin’ about the dead, and such like,
for weeks past; but I didn’t mean them, and I want ye to remem-
ber that when I’m gone. We aud folks that be daffled, and with
one foot abaft the krok-hooal, don’t altogether like to think of it,
and we don’t want to feel scart of it; an’ that’s why I’ve took to
makin’ light of it, so that I’d cheer up my own heart a bit. But,
Lord love ye, miss, I ain’t afraid of dyin’, not a bit; only I don’t
want to die if I can help it. My time must be nigh at hand now,
for I be aud, and a hundred years is too much for any man to
70 Dracula
expect; and I’m so nigh it that the Aud Man is already whettin’
his scythe. Ye see, I can’t get out o’ the habit of caffin’ about it
all at once; the chafts will wag as they be used to. Some day soon
the Angel of Death will sound his trumpet for me. But don’t ye
dooal an’ greet, my deary!» for he saw that I was crying
«if he should come this very night I’d not refuse to answer his
call. For life be, after all, only a waitin’ for somethin’ else than
what we’re doin '; and death be all that we can rightly depend on.
But I’m content, for it’s comin’ to me, my deary, and comin’
quick. It may be comin’ while we be lookin’ and wonderin’.
Maybe it’s in that wind out over the sea that’s bringin’ with it
loss and wreck, and sore distress, and sad hearts. Look! look!» he
cried suddenly. «There’s something in that wind and in the hoast
beyont that sounds, and looks, and tastes, and smells like death.
It’s in the air; I feel it comin’. Lord, make me answer cheerful
when my call comes!» He held up his arms devoutly, and raised
his hat. His mouth moved as though he were praying. After a
few minutes’ silence, he got up, shook hands with me, and blessed
me, and said good-bye, and hobbled off. It all touched me, and
upset me very much.
I was glad when the coastguard came along, with his spy-glass
under his arm. He stopped to talk with me, as he always does,
but all the time kept looking at a strange ship.
«I can’t make her out,» he said; «she’s a Russian, by the look
of her; but she’s knocking about in the queerest way. She doesn’t
know her mind a bit; she seems to see the storm coming, but can’t
decide whether to run up north in the open, or to put in here.
Look there again! She is steered mighty strangely, for she doesn’t
mind the hand on the wheel; changes about with every puff of
wind. We’ll hear more of her before this time to-morrow.»
CHAPTER VII
CUTTING FROM «THE DAILYGRATH,» 8 AUGUST
(Pasted in Mina Murray ’s Journal.)
From a Correspondent.
Whitby.
ONE of the greatest and suddenest storms on record has just been
experienced here, with results both strange and unique. The
weather had been somewhat sultry, but not to any degree un-
common in the month of August. Saturday evening was as fine as
was ever known, and the great body of holiday-makers laid out
yesterday for visits to Mulgrave Woods, Robin Hood’s Bay, Rig
Mill, Runswick, Staithes, and the various trips hi the neighbour-
hood of Whitby. The steamers Emma and Scarborough made
trips up and down the coast, and there was an unusual amount
of «tripping» both to and from Whitby. The day was unusually
fine till the afternoon, when some of the gossips who frequent the
East Cliff churchyard, and from that commanding eminence
watch the wide sweep of sea visible to the north and east, called
attention to a sudden show of" mares’-tails" high in the sky to
the north-west. The wind was then blowing from the south-west
in the mild degree which in barometrical language is ranked
«No. 2: light breeze.» The coastguard on duty at once made
report, and one old fisherman, who for more than half a century
has kept watch on weather* signs from the East Cliff, foretold in
an emphatic manner the coming of a sudden storm. The ap-
proach of sunset was so very beautiful, so grand in its masses of
splendidly-coloured clouds, that there was quite an assemblage
on the walk along the cliff in the old churchyard to enjoy the
beauty. Before the sun dipped below the black mass of Kettle-
ness, standing boldly athwart the western sky, its downward
way was marked by myriad clouds of every sunset-colour
flame, purple, pink, green, violet, and all the tints of gold; with
here and there masses not large, but of seemingly absolute black-
ness, in all sorts of shapes, as well outlined as colossal silhouettes.
The experience was not lost on the painters, and doubtless some
of the sketches of the «Prelude to the Great Storm» will grace
the R. A. and R. I. walls in May next. More than one captain
72 Dracula
made up his mind then and there that his «cobble» or his
«mule,» as they term the different classes of boats, would
remain in the harbour till the storm had passed. The wind fell
away entirely during the evening, and at midnight there was a
dead calm, a sultry heat, and that prevailing intensity which, on
the approach of thunder, affects persons of a sensitive nature.
There were but few lights in sight at sea, for even the coasting
steamers, which usually «hug» the shore so closely, kept well to
seaward, and but few fishing-boats were in sight. The only sail
noticeable was a foreign schooner with all sails set, which was
seemingly going westwards. The foolhardiness or ignorance of
her officers was a prolific theme for comment whilst she remained
in sight, and efforts were made to signal her to reduce sail in face
of her danger. Before the night shut down she was seen with sails
idly flapping as she gently rolled on the undulating swell of the
sea,
«As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.»
Shortly before ten o’clock the stillness of the air grew quite
oppressive, and the silence was so marked that the bleating of a
sheep inland or the barking of a dog in the town was distinctly
heard, and the band on the pier, with its li vely French air, was like
a discord in the great harmony of nature’s silence. A little after