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immobile. Again I was struck by something distinctly reptilian in the man's
aspect.
At the same time his voice remained very human, and indeed gentlemanly.
"Because, Doctor... it is just the sort of thing I should have arranged
myself... in our opponent's place. Ah, there we are!"
As soon as the mechanism of the snare, whatever its exact nature, had been
disabled, the prince gave a little cry of triumph, then withdrew his arm from
beneath the stone and crouched beside it in the position of one about to lift
a heavy object. Before I could offer to help, there came a moment of
apparently effortless exertion, and the immense stone slab rose on one side a
feat that, I am sure, would have tested the strength of three or four ordinary
men.
Revealed was a little crypt or cavity, not much bigger than an ordinary
coffin, and nearly filled by the form of a man who lay upon his back, eyes
closed, his limbs tightly bound with rope.
"Holmes!"
Scrambling down into the pit beside my friend, I seized a thin white wrist. A
moment later, to my immense relief, I could detect a pulse.
"Holmes! Holmes, speak to me!"
To my indescribable joy, those pale eyelids fluttered open; the dry lips
stirred. In a moment I had uncorked my flask of brandy and water and was
lifting the victim's head. My friend drank avidly, and coughed, and then could
speak.
His voice was so weak as to be almost inaudible. "Watson. A timely
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Fred Saberhagen - Séance for a Vampire arrival. I... was confident that...
that you..."
"Of course, of course. You must not exert yourself just yet. Breathe deeply."
"The blessed light of day," Holmes murmured feebly. "There for a while,
Watson, I feared that I might never see the light of day again."
11
Holmes, in his debilitated state, evinced no particular surprise at
Dracula's presence. Turning his head slightly, he murmured a word or two of
greeting to his cousin, to which the prince responded calmly.
Even before we had lifted him from the earthen-floored pit, he gave orders
that we must thoroughly search the narrow space in which he had been confined,
looking for any evidence that Louisa Altamont had at least briefly after her
supposed drowning, but before her funeral and burial been confined in the
same place.
"You have reason to suspect this?" I demanded.
"Logic suggests it, Watson. I was unable to search properly myself.
Do look carefully. Perhaps a ribbon or some other small item from her
clothing "
We lay Holmes at full length on the crumbling medieval mosaics of what had
been the chapel's floor. I then went back, as commanded, to search the pit,
but could find nothing useful. Meanwhile, Dracula's sharp nails worked like
metal picks, his pale, resistless fingers tearing to shreds the ropes that
bound his cousin. As he did so the prince muttered something about psychic
vibrations these
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Fred Saberhagen - Séance for a Vampire were quite imperceptible to my no doubt
cruder senses, but to the prince they indicated that indeed a vampire had
recently been here.
"No," he amended this opinion. "I believe there have been two vampires, one of
them only a young girl."
But further investigation would have to wait. In a moment the bonds had been
completely torn away, and Dracula, lifting his cousin as easily as a small
child in his arms, carried him to our waiting carriage, where I wrapped him in
a robe.
Before leaving the site, Dracula insisted on taking a few moments to lower the
great stone slab back into place, and to replace most of the fragments he had
broken free around its edge, leaving to a casual inspection no visible sign
that a rescue had been effected. Holmes agreed that this was a good idea.
We drove at a good speed back to our inn at Holmes's request, keeping as much
as possible to little-traveled roads. My patient, drawing deep, grateful
breaths of the fresh air, already sounded a little stronger when he announced
his wish that the fact of his rescue should be kept secret from the public for
as long as possible.
By the time we reached the inn, Holmes was actually able to stand unaided,
and, with a little support, to walk into the building, through a rear
entrance. Dracula suggested carrying his cousin up and in through a
first-floor window, directly into our reserved rooms, but such heroic measures
proved unnecessary. We managed to reach our quarters by normal passages,
without encountering anyone.
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