THE VAMPYRE DISCOVERED.—THE ESCAPE ON THE THAMES.
“Enjoy myself!” muttered the young Lake, “enjoy myself! That may be
his idea of staying here vampyre-catching, but it ain’t mine. What a
fool I was to consent to come here, to be sure, and all alone too. Eh,
what was that? Oh! I’m all of a shake. I thought I heard somebody, but
I suppose it was nothing. Oh dear, what a disagreeable affair this is;
what an infernal fool I am, to be sure. Eh? eh?”
The hair on his head nearly stood up as he heard, or fancied he heard,
a low groan. He shook so while he arose from his seat that he was glad
to sit down again as quickly as he possibly could, for he found his
strength evaporating along with the Dutch courage, or rather as it
should be called, French courage, that had been instilled into him by
the brandy.
“What shall I do,” he gasped, “what shall I do? Oh, what will become of
me? I’m in for a row, I’m in for it to a certainty; I—I think I’ll call
the old man.”
He did not, however, call his father, whom he designated the old man,
more familiarly than respectfully, but as all continued now quiet, he
thought he would wait until the next alarm, at all events, before he
made a piece of work and thoroughly exhibited his own pusillanimity.
“It may be nothing” he said, “after all, perhaps only the wind coming
through some chink in a door or window. Lord bless us, I’ve read of
such things in romances till my blood had turned to curds and whey.
There was the Bloody Spectre of the Tub of Blood, or the Smashed Gore.
Eh? eh? I thought somebody spoke. No, no—oh, it’s all, what do they
call it, imagination, that’s what it is, and the sooner I get the job
over the better, so I’ll just pop on the cloak, and do the business.”
With trembling hands Mr. Lake junior drew the cloak from under the
table and put it on, bringing the collar of it right up to the top of
his head, so that but a small portion of his head was at all visible
when he was thus equipped, and he certainly might look like a vampyre,
for he did not look like anything human by any means.
“Now, I wonder if she’s asleep,” he muttered as he laid his hand gently
on the lock of the door, “if she ain’t, it would be a pity; but still I
can say, I only wanted to know how she was, so I’ll just make the trial
at all events. Here goes.”
He opened the door of the bedroom a very short distance, and said,—
“Hist! hist! are you awake, eh? eh? What did you say?—nothing, oh,
she’s asleep, and now here goes—upon my life when one comes to think
of it, it ain’t by any means a bad plan. But just before I begin, I’ll
have another drain.”
About two-thirds of a glass of brandy-and-water were in the tumbler
on the table, and that he tossed down at once, and feeling very much
fortified by laying in such a stratum of courage, he drew up the cloak
to its proper vampyre-like position, as he considered it, and advanced
two steps within the chamber of the sleeping girl.
She was sleeping, and slightly moaning in her sleep. It was a great
satisfaction to young master Lake, to hear her so moaning, for it
convinced him that such were the sounds which he previously heard, and
which had gone near to terrifying him out of his project.
He had no compunction whatever regarding the amount of alarm which this
dastardly project was likely to give to Miss Lake. No, all he looked
to and thought of was himself. A light was burning in the chamber, and
that according to the directions of his father he blew out, and then
groping his ways towards the bed, he laid his hands upon the young
girl’s face, and said,—
“The vampyre! the vampyre has come!—blood, blood, blood!—the vampyre!”
She awoke with a cry of terror as usual, and then master Lake moved off
to the door, and said in his natural voice,
“I’ll protect you—I’m coming—I’ll soon clear the room of the vampyre.
Come on, you wretch! Oh, I’ll do for him. Take that—and that—and that.”
Then he commenced kicking about the chairs, and nearly upset the
washing stand, all by way of making the necessary disturbance, and
convincing his cousin what a sanguinary conflict he was having with the
vampyre. In the midst of this something laid hold of him by the ears
and whiskers on each side of his head, and the door swinging open, his
own light that was upon the table in the corridor shone upon a hideous
countenance within half an inch of his own. The long fang-like teeth of
which, with the lips retracted from them, were horrible to look upon,
and a voice like the growl of an enraged hyena said,—
“What want you with the vampyre, rash fool? He is here.”
Master Lake was absolutely petrified with horror and astonishment. The
hair bristled up upon his head. His eyes opened the width of saucers,
and when in a low voice the vampyre said again,—“What want you,
reptile, with the vampyre?” he let his feet slide from under him, and
had he not been upheld by the horrible being who grasped him, he would
have fallen.
Bang went a pistol out of the corridor, and the vampyre uttered a cry
and let go his hold of Lake, who then fell, and being out of the way,
showed his father standing on the threshold of his own door, with a
pistol in his hand recently discharged, and another apparently ready.
In another moment the vampyre kicked the insensible form of young Lake
out of the way, and shut himself in the girl’s bedroom. The father
heard him lock the door, and although he instantly sent another pistol
shot through the panelling, he heard no sound indicating its having
done any execution.
“Help, help, help,” he cried, “help here. The vampyre, the vampyre, the
vampyre!”
All this had not taken above two or three minutes, and the whole house
was now alarmed by the sound of fire-arms, and as nobody had completely
undressed themselves to go to bed since the first alarm of the vampyre,
the landlord and several of the waiters, and the night watchman ran
with all speed to the spot, looking full of consternation, and all
asking questions together.
“Force the door, force the door,” cried Mr. Lake, “a hammer, a hatchet,
anything, so that we may get the door forced; the vampyre is inside.”
“Oh lor!” cried one of the waiters who had gone close to the door, but
who now made a precipitate retreat, treading upon the stomach of young
Lake as he did so.
“If you’ll pay for the door, Sir,” said the landlord, “I’ll soon have
it open.”
“Damn it, I’ll pay for twenty doors.”
The landlord took a short run at the door, probably he knew its
weakness, and burst it open at once. There was the pause of about a
moment, and then Mr. Lake, snatching up the candle, the light of which
had first revealed the hideous features of the vampyre to his son,
rushed into the room.
In these cases all that is wanted is a leader, so he was promptly
enough followed. The state of affairs was evident at a glance. The
young lady had fainted, and the window was wide open, indicating the
mode of retreat of the vampire.
“I thought you told us,” said Mr. Lake “that this window was too far
from the ground to anticipate any danger from—”
“Yes, so I did, sir. But don’t you see he could easy enough jump off
the sill on to those leads there. Nobody could get in by the window,
but anybody that wasn’t afraid could get out. But we have him, sir, we
have him now as sure as a gun.”
“Have him. How?”
“Why don’t you see sir, there’s nothing but high walls. He must be
among our stables, and he can’t get out, for I have the keys of the
outer doors myself, we shall not lose him now sir, I’m not a little
thankful for it. Come on, everybody, round to the stables, and nothing
now can prevent us catching him if he is flesh and blood. Come on, come
on.”
By this time Mrs. Lake had reached the scene of action, and although
the first thing she did was to tumble, sprawling, over her hopeful son,
who lay in the door-way of his cousin’s chamber, she gathered herself
up again, and remained in charge of Annette and the chamber, while Mr.
Lake accompanied the landlord and the waiters to the stables of the
hotel, which were surrounded by high walls and only to be approached by
a pair of large gates, which were quite satisfactorily fastened, and
there was not a chink large enough for a cat to get through.
The landlord had the keys, and he opened a small wicket in one of the
large gates.
“Now be careful,” he said, “for fear he bounces out.”
At this everybody but Mr. Lake, who to do him but justice, had
certainly the quality of courage, looked as alarmed as possible, but he
said,—
“I have re-loaded my pistols, and he shall not escape me.”
The wicket was opened, and in an instant out walked Mr. Black! He
appeared at first somewhat agitated, but speedily recovered his
self-possession, and looking at the group, he said,—
“Have you caught him? I have been upon the look out, notwithstanding my
indisposition, and jumped out of the bedroom window after him; I cannot
see him anywhere. Have you caught him.”
“Yes,” cried Mr. Lake, “I saw you in the room when I fired at you—_you_
are the vampyre!”
He made a rush forward as he spoke, but Mr. Black got dextrously out
of the way, and seizing the landlord by the hair of the head he cast
him so fairly in Mr. Lake’s way that they both fell down together; with
amazing rapidity the vampyre then fled from the spot.
“After him, after him,” cried Mr. Lake, as he scrambled to his feet,
“don’t let him escape, after him, whatever you do; alarm the whole
city, rather than let the monster elude you. This way—this way, I see
him. Follow me, a vampyre, a vampyre; help—help, seize him, a vampyre!”
“Fire,” cried the landlord, and he too ran.
But all the running was in vain, the vampyre had fairly got the start
of them, and he took good care to keep it, for with the most wonderful
fleetness he ran on, until, to his great relief, he found his pursuers
were distanced.
He made his way to the Strand, and diving down one of the narrow
streets terminated by the river, and at the end of which was a landing
place, he called aloud,—
“Boat, boat!”
An old waterman answered the hail.
[Illustration: A waterman answers the vampyre’s hail.]
“Where to, your honour?”
“Up the river, I will tell you where to land me, row quick, and row
well, and you may name your own fare, without a chance of its being
questioned.”
“That’s the customer for me,” said the waterman.