THE VAMPIRE’S FEAST.—THE ALARM AND THE PURSUIT.
A general ringing of bells now ensued in the hotel, from all the
bedrooms that were occupied, and the din in the house was quite
terrific.
Mr. Lake hammered away at the door leading to the corridor, and he
was soon joined by the hall-porter, who having now recovered from the
first shock which the scream had given him, showed more courage and
determination than any one would have given him credit for. He was
rather a bulky man, and without any more ado, he flung himself bodily
against the door with such force that he dashed it open and rolled into
the corridor.
All was darkness.
“Lights! lights! lights!” shouted Mr. Lake. “Lights!—Mr. Black, where
are you? Mr. Black! Mr. Black!
A door, it was that of Mr. Blue, was now dashed open, and that
gentleman appeared with a candle in his hand, and a pistol firmly
grasped in the other. It was very strange but he wore an artificial
masquerade nose of an enormous size, and had on a red wig.
“Who locked my door?” he cried, “who locked my room door on the outside
and forced me to break it open—who did it?”
“Where is the vampire?” said Mr. Lake.
“Lights! lights! Lights!” shouted the night-watchman, and in another
minute the landlord and several waiters, half-dressed but carrying
lights, and each armed with the first weapon of offence he could lay
his hands on at the moment, made their appearance on the scene of
action.
“What is it? What is it?” cried the landlord. “Oh what is it?”
“God knows,” cried Mr. Lake, and he darted into the apartment of the
young lady. In another moment he emerged, and tottered towards one of
the seats.
“She is covered with blood,” he said.
Mr. Blue and the landlady of the Hotel both made a rush then into
the room, and the former came out in a minute, and going to his own
apartment shut the door. They thought that they then heard him fall at
full length upon the floor. All was mystery.
“I’m bewildered,” said the landlord, “What _is_ it all about?”
“And where is Mr. Black?” asked Mr. Lake.
“Here,” cried a waiter as he pointed to an insensible form lying so
close to the table, that nobody had as yet noticed it. “Here he is. He
looks as if he was dead.”
Poor Mr. Black was lifted up, his eyes were closed as well as his
mouth, and he seemed to breathe with difficulty. He was placed in a
chair, and then held, while water was dashed in his face to recover
him, and after a time, just as one of the waiters who had been sent
for the surgeon again who had before attended the young lady, made his
appearance with that gentleman, he slowly opened his eyes.
“Oh! mercy, mercy! Where am I now?”
“What is all this about?” inquired the medical man.
“Nobody knows sir,” said the landlord, “that’s the beauty of it. But
the young lady is very bad again; will you, wife, show the doctor into
her room. Good God, I shall go out of my wits, and my hotel that has a
character forming one of the quietest in all London—yes, the quietest I
may say. I’m a ruined man.”
“Mr. Black,” said Mr. Lake, “I implore you if you can to tell the
meaning of all this.”
“All—all I know,” said Mr. Black faintly. “All I know,—”
Everybody gathered round him to listen, and with looks of fright and
apprehension, and a trembling voice, he said:—
“I—I was sitting here waiting for Mr. Lake to come back with the night
porter, for we had some cause to wish for further help, when somebody
came suddenly up to me, and struck me down. The blow was on the top of
my head, and so severe, that I fell as if shot.”
“And then? and then?”
“Nothing. I don’t know anything else till you recovered me, and then, I
seemed as if all the place was scouring round me; and then—”
“But, Mr. Black, cannot you tell us who struck you? What was he like?
Could you identify him again?”
“I fear not. Indeed I hardly saw more of him than that he was tall.”
“Well,” cried Mr. Lake, “all I can say is that I have had my suspicions
since last night, and now I am certain, that is to say circumstantially
certain. What say you, landlord? Is there not one person in the house
who may not fairly enough be suspected.”
He looked towards the door of Mr. Blue’s room, as he spoke, and indeed
all eyes were turned in that direction, and the landlord mustering up
courage advanced to the door and said, as he did so, “We will have him
out. He shall not stay another hour on my premises. We will have him
out, I say. This sort of thing won’t do, and it shall not do. We will
have him out. I say gentlemen we will have him out.”
One thing was quite clear, and that was that the landlord wanted
somebody to come forward, and assist him in having out Mr. Blue; but
when he found that nobody stirred he turned round at the door, and
looked rather foolish.
Under any other circumstances, perhaps, this conduct might have excited
the risible faculties of all who were present; but the affair, take it
all in all, was of too mysterious and serious a character to indulge in
any laughter about.
“I,” said Mr. Lake, advancing, “will have him out, if nobody else will!”
It would appear as if Mr. Blue had been listening to what was going on;
for on the instant, he flung open his door, and said,—
“Who will have me out, and what for?”
“Vampire, vampire,” cried a chorus of voices.
“Idiots!” said Mr. Blue.
“Detain him!” sad Mr. Lake; “detain him, we shall never be satisfied
until this affair is thoroughly and judicially enquired into. Detain
him I say.”
“Let him who sets no value on his life,” said Mr. Blue, “lay but a hand
upon me, and he shall have to admire the consequences of his rashness.
I am not one to be trifled with; it is my fancy to leave this hotel
this moment let any one dare to stand in my way.”
“Your name is not Blue,” said the landlord, “you are not what you seem.”
“Granted.”
“Ah! you admit it,” said Lake. “Lay hold of him, I will give ten pounds
for him dead or alive; I have often heard of vampires, and by Heaven, I
now believe in them. Seize him, I say, seize him.”
He dashed forward himself, as he spoke, and was on the point of seizing
hold of Mr. Blue, when one well-directed blow from that individual sent
him sprawling. After this nobody showed any very marked disposition
to attack him, but he was allowed to walk calmly and slowly down the
staircase of the hotel; while Lake gathered himself up, looking rather
confused at the tumble he had had. But his passion was not subdued, for
he made a rush still after the supposed vampire, but he was too late.
The hotel door was closed with a bang, that reverberated through the
house, and Mr. Blue was gone, vampire, or no vampire.
“Landlord, I shall leave your house,” said Lake.
“I’m ruined,” said the landlord. “This affair will get into some Sunday
paper. Mr. Black, what is to be done?”
“Really, the top of my head is so hurt,” replied Mr. Black, “that I can
think of nothing else.”
“A plague upon the top of your head,” muttered the landlord.
The Lakes now, that is Mr. and Mrs. Lake found their way to the young
lady’s chamber, when they found her in a state of great alarm. The
story she told amounted to this:—
She was asleep, she said, having perfect confidence that no harm could
come to her, while the door of her room was watched in the way it was.
She had a light burning in her room, but it was one that gave a very
faint light, as she had usually an objection to sleeping otherwise
than in profound darkness; but she had no notion of how long she had
been asleep, when she was awakened by a hand being placed over her
mouth, which prevented her calling out, and nearly prevented her from
breathing.
She struggled to free herself but it was in vain. The monster attacked
her on the neck with his teeth, and all she remembered was getting
sufficiently free to utter one scream, and then she fainted away.
“My dear,” said Mrs. Lake, “I must have some serious talk with you upon
a subject which I have before urged. Go away, Lake.”
Lake left the room, and then, Mrs. Lake continued.
“This is a very dreadful affair, Annetta. You know that it is fancied
you are not the child of Lord Lake, and that we have the care of you.
Now we so much love and admire you,—”
“Stop madam, stop,” said the young lady, “I know what you are about to
say, you are going to urge me again to marry your son, which I will
never do, for I have the greatest aversion to him.”
“You will not? who will protect you from a vampire better than a
husband.”
“Probably no one, but at least I reserve to myself the right to choose
to whom I give that task, I am ill now and weak, I pray you not to
weary me further upon a subject concerning which it is quite impossible
we can ever agree. I only wish I were dead.”
“And that you may very well soon be if your blood is all sucked away by
a vampire.”
“So be it. Heaven help me!”
“Pshaw! you may die as soon as you like.”