Dracula: The Count Escapes

While they waited in the Piccadilly house, a telegram came from Mina: the Count had left Carfax and was heading south.Soon Arthur and Quincey returned with good news: they had found all twelve boxes and made them useless to him.Then they heard a key turn in the front door, and the Count walked in.

He saw the trap at once and sprang into the room like a panther.Jonathan swung his great knife at him, but it only cut open the Count’s coat.A bundle of banknotes and a stream of gold coins fell to the floor.

The others held up their crosses, and the Count backed away with a face full of hate.Suddenly he grabbed a handful of the money and threw himself through the window.He landed unhurt in the yard below and turned to shout at them.

“You think you have left me without a place to rest, but I have more,” he said. “My revenge has just begun, and time is on my side.”Then he was gone, and by the time they broke open the stable door, there was no sign of him.“He is afraid,” said Van Helsing. “Why else would he stop to take the money? One box is left, and we must find it.”

Before dawn the next morning, Mina woke Jonathan and asked Van Helsing to hypnotize her.In a strange, far-away voice she said, “I hear water lapping, and men running, and the creak of a chain. It is dark and still, like death.”The Count was on a ship, leaving England, and Van Helsing knew they would have to follow him, even to the end of the world.