A Full-Cast Audio Drama of Bram Stoker's Dracula
The script of a full-cast audio drama adapted from Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897, public domain), with Dale Tummins written in. Stoker's plot and much of his dialogue are his own; Dale is ours. There is no narrator. Scene, sound and music cues are as performed. Free, not for sale.
Music: dracula theme.
Scene: pub.
Sound: quill scratch.
DALE Dear Nana. I'm in Bistritz, which is past Exeter if you keep going for about a week. Mr. Hawkins sent Jonathan out here to sell a house in England to a count, and he sent me to help. His letter calls me a clerk's clerk. I'm pretty sure that's how lawyers say junior partner.
DALE A real count, Nana. I'm going to watch how he holds his fork and do it exactly the same, and in a year nobody will be able to tell us apart. Love, Dale. Junior partner.
Sound: letter fold.
DALE Not that one. The big one, over the bar. The one that's looking at me.
THE LANDLADY That is garlic sausage, young Herr. Very much garlic.
DALE Good. If I'm paying for garlic, I want to taste it. How much?
THE LANDLADY Twenty kreuzer.
DALE Thirty.
(A pause.)
THE LANDLADY Thirty.
Sound: coins count.
DALE Never let them name the price, Jonathan. I named it.
JONATHAN You named a higher one.
DALE But I named it.
Sound: munch.
THE LANDLADY Must you go? Oh, young Herr, must you go?
JONATHAN I must. I'm engaged on important business.
THE LANDLADY Do you know what day it is?
JONATHAN The fourth of May.
THE LANDLADY Yes, yes, I know that. But do you know what day it is? It is the eve of Saint George's Day. Tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway. Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?
DALE Every inn in the world has a holiday on the night you try to leave. Ask her what the room costs on a holiday.
JONATHAN Dale.
THE LANDLADY (crying) One day. Wait one day, two days. I beg you, on my knees.
JONATHAN Please, get up. I thank you, truly. But my duty is imperative.
THE LANDLADY Then wear this. For your mother's sake.
JONATHAN Your crucifix? I can't take that from you.
THE LANDLADY For your mother's sake.
DALE Do you do one for nanas? Mine would wear it to church and make everybody ask about it.
THE LANDLADY You. You eat your sausage. All of it, every day.
DALE I'm going to. I paid thirty for it.
Scene: coach road night.
Sound: whip crack.
AN OLD MAN Ordog.
A WOMAN Pokol.
A MAN Stregoica.
AN OLD MAN Vrolok. Vlkoslak.
DALE Wave back, Jonathan. Two fingers, the way they do it. You don't want to be rude on your first day.
JONATHAN Madam, those words. What do they mean?
A PASSENGER Better you do not know, English.
JONATHAN Then the dictionary will tell me. Ordog. Satan. Pokol, hell. Stregoica, witch. And vrolok is either werewolf or vampire. It can't decide.
DALE So the whole town's worried about us. That's nice. In Exeter nobody even waves.
A PASSENGER The fingers are against the evil eye. Take this, English. Wild rose. And this, mountain ash. God keep you.
DALE What about me? I'm going too.
A PASSENGER You will be all right.
DALE She can tell I'm management.
Sound: coach wheels.
DALE Driver, can we get out and walk up this hill? I've been sitting on my sausage.
A MAN No, no. You must not walk here. The dogs are too fierce. And you may have enough of such matters before you go to sleep.
(A pause.)
A MAN There is no carriage here. The Herr is not expected after all. He will come on to Bukovina, and return tomorrow, or the next day. Better the next day.
Sound: horses arrive.
Sound: crowd gasp.
THE DRIVER You are early tonight, my friend.
A MAN (nervous) The English Herr was in a hurry.
THE DRIVER That is why, I suppose, you wished him to go on to Bukovina. You cannot deceive me, my friend. I know too much, and my horses are swift.
A PASSENGER (whispering) Denn die Todten reiten schnell. For the dead travel fast.
THE DRIVER Give me the Herr's luggage.
DALE And the junior partner's. The brown one.
JONATHAN Steady, sir. You'll have my arm off.
DALE Me next. Lift me like that.
Sound: whip crack.
Scene: mountain night.
Sound: coach wheels.
THE DRIVER The night is chill, mein Herr, and my master the Count bade me take all care of you. You will find a flask of slivovitz under the seat, if you should require it.
DALE I require it.
JONATHAN (whispering) Dale. We've passed that rock before. Twice.
DALE Twice, so we remember it. That's a good driver.
Sound: wolves howl.
DALE Those'll be the fierce dogs.
Sound: wolves close.
JONATHAN Driver? Driver, where are you going?
DALE I want one of those little blue fires for the office. You'd never need coal.
(A pause.)
JONATHAN (shouting) Driver! Come back! Get away, get away from us!
Sound: thud.
Sound: thud.
THE DRIVER Back.
(A pause.)
DALE I'd pay good money to learn that. My neighbour's dog won't even get off the step for me.
Scene: castle courtyard.
Sound: bolt slide.
Sound: door creak.
Music: pell elegant.
THE COUNT Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!
DALE Thanks. Don't mind if I do.
(A pause.)
THE COUNT Mr. Harker?
DALE Tummins. Junior partner. He's Harker.
JONATHAN Mr. Hawkins sent him along with me, Count. His letter calls him a clerk's clerk.
THE COUNT Then he too is welcome. Come freely. Go safely. And leave something of the happiness you bring.
DALE Cold hand. You've been standing out here waiting for us. You shouldn't have.
THE COUNT Nay, sir, you are my guest. It is late, and my people are not available. Let me see to your comfort myself.
DALE Write that down for me, Jonathan. A count carried my bag. Nobody at the office is ever going to believe it.
Scene: king hall.
THE COUNT I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will, I trust, excuse me that I do not join you. I have dined already, and I do not sup.
DALE Then I'll eat yours, so it doesn't go to waste. That's just manners.
JONATHAN Dale.
THE COUNT Let him, Mr. Harker. There is no one else to eat it.
Sound: munch.
THE COUNT Through my books I have come to know your great England, and to know her is to love her. I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death.
DALE I'll show you round. I know a pie shop by the river that lets you sit as long as you like, if you keep buying the small pie.
DALE Count, those little blue fires in the pass last night. Where do I get one?
THE COUNT It is believed that on one night of the year, a blue flame is seen over any place where treasure has been hidden.
DALE Treasure. Jonathan, we have to go back. Where were they?
JONATHAN I know no more than the dead where to look for them.
THE COUNT Just so. And on that night no man of this land will stir without his doors. Your peasant is at heart a coward and a fool.
DALE I'd stir. I'd stir for treasure.
THE COUNT Now. Tell me of my house in London.
JONATHAN Carfax, at Purfleet. Twenty acres inside a high stone wall that hasn't been repaired in years. A deep, dark pond. One part of the house is very old, stone immensely thick, with only a few windows, high up and barred with iron. And close beside it, an old chapel.
DALE I'd lead with the chapel, Jonathan. Everybody wants a church they don't have to walk to.
JONATHAN There are very few houses near it. One is a private asylum.
DALE Doctors for neighbours, Count. If you ever feel poorly, you just shout over the wall.
THE COUNT I am glad that it is old and big. I myself am of an old family, and to live in a new house would kill me. I rejoice also that there is a chapel of old times. We Transylvanian nobles love not to think that our bones may lie amongst the common dead.
DALE I'm the same way. I want a bench with my name on it, somewhere with ducks.
THE COUNT The deeds, Mr. Harker. Let me see where I must sign.
JONATHAN Forgive me. A chill.
DALE Count, I've always wanted hair on the insides of my hands like that. You'd never need gloves.
THE COUNT And you, Mr. Tummins. You have papers for me also?
DALE Just this. Have a bite. It's local.
(A pause.)
THE COUNT Keep it, Mr. Tummins. Keep it there. Just there.
DALE Not a sausage person. You meet them everywhere, even in castles.
Sound: wolves howl.
THE COUNT Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!
(A pause.)
THE COUNT Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter.
DALE I can. We had a dog at home that sang every time the kettle went. You could make tea by him.
Scene: castle bedroom.
THE COUNT Good morning.
JONATHAN Count! I didn't see you come in.
(A pause.)
JONATHAN Ah. I've cut myself.
Music: sting danger.
JONATHAN (panicked) Count? Count!
(A pause.)
THE COUNT (calm) Take care. Take care how you cut yourself. It is more dangerous than you think in this country.
THE COUNT And this is the wretched thing that has done the mischief. It is a foul bauble of man's vanity. Away with it!
Sound: wood crack.
(A pause.)
Sound: glass crack.
Sound: door slam.
(A pause.)
Sound: door creak.
DALE Was that the Count? I wanted to thank him for the room. Can I borrow your mirror? I've only done the one side.
JONATHAN It's gone.
DALE Gone where?
JONATHAN Out of the window. A thousand feet down.
DALE Well, he's right. Nobody should have to see themselves first thing in the morning. That's real hospitality.
Sound: quill scratch.
DALE Dear Count. Thank you for the supper, the room, and the singing dogs. How many t's in hospitality?
JONATHAN Two.
DALE I'll do three. He's been very generous. I'll slide it under his door, if I can find his door. I tried nine of them on the way up and every one was locked.
JONATHAN Every one?
DALE A private man. I respect that. A man who locks every door has got something worth keeping.
Scene: castle corridor.
Sound: door lock.
(A pause.)
Sound: door lock.
(A pause.)
Sound: door lock.
Scene: castle bedroom.
Sound: quill scratch.
JONATHAN (whispering) Eighth of May. Let me be prosaic, so far as facts can be, or I am lost. This morning he stood at my shoulder, close enough to touch, and the glass showed the whole room behind me. He was not in it.
JONATHAN (whispering) I have not once seen him eat or drink. Every door is locked and bolted. The only ways out are windows, and from them a stone would fall a thousand feet without touching anything.
JONATHAN (whispering) The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner.
Sound: wolves howl.
Music: sting horror.
Scene: king hall.
THE COUNT We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship. What devil or what witch was ever so great as Attila, whose blood is in these veins?
DALE Is it a family firm? Because eventually I'd want my name on the door. Hawkins and Tummins. Tummins smaller, at first.
JONATHAN You speak as though you'd been at every one of those battles yourself, Count.
THE COUNT To a boyar, the pride of his house is his own pride. Their glory is his glory, their fate is his fate. But the warlike days are over. Blood is too precious a thing in these days of dishonourable peace.
DALE My Nana says that about butter.
THE COUNT Have you written since your first letter to our friend Mr. Peter Hawkins, or to any other?
JONATHAN I've had no opportunity to send anything.
THE COUNT Then write now, my young friend. Write to our friend and to any other, and say, if it will please you, that you shall stay with me until a month from now.
JONATHAN Do you wish me to stay so long?
THE COUNT I desire it much. Nay, I will take no refusal. Three sheets. Date the first the twelfth of June, the second the nineteenth, and the third the twenty-ninth.
JONATHAN But those dates are weeks away.
THE COUNT The posts are few and uncertain here. Your friends will be glad to hear from you at proper intervals. And I pray you, write of nothing but business. Is it not so?
Sound: quill scratch.
DALE Can I write one? I've got people.
THE COUNT Write whatever you like, Mr. Tummins. No one will believe you.
DALE That's what Mr. Hawkins says.
THE COUNT Tell me, Mr. Harker. A man in England might have one agent for his banking, and another for his shipping, in some port far away?
JONATHAN He might, Count. It's often done.
DALE If you need a shipping man, I'm available. Ports, boats, all of it. Junior partner.
THE COUNT I shall remember it.
THE COUNT I have your note, Mr. Tummins.
DALE You don't have to write back.
THE COUNT No.
THE COUNT Let me warn you, my dear young friend, with all seriousness. Should you leave these rooms, you will not by any chance go to sleep in any other part of the castle. It is old, and has many memories, and there are bad dreams for those who sleep unwisely. Be warned!
DALE Does that go for me too?
THE COUNT Sleep wherever you like, Mr. Tummins.
DALE I think I'm his favourite, Jonathan.
Scene: mountain night.
Sound: quill scratch.
JONATHAN (whispering) Later. I came up to the south window for a breath of air, and something moved, a storey below. His head, out of his own window. And now the whole man, slowly, face down over that dreadful abyss.
Sound: stone scrape.
JONATHAN (whispering) His fingers and toes in the cracks of the stones, moving downwards as a lizard moves along a wall. It is a trick of the moonlight. I keep looking. It is no trick. What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature in the semblance of man?
Scene: castle corridor.
Sound: wood crack.
Sound: door creak.
JONATHAN Not locked. Only stuck.
Scene: castle bedroom.
JONATHAN Let him warn me. I'll sleep here, in the moonlight, out of his rooms.
(A pause.)
THE DARK WOMAN (whispering) Go on. You are first, and we shall follow. Yours is the right to begin.
THE FAIR WOMAN He is young.
THE DARK WOMAN (laughing) He is young and strong. There are kisses for us all.
(A pause.)
THE FAIR WOMAN So warm.
Music: sting horror.
Sound: thud.
THE COUNT How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you'll have to deal with me.
THE FAIR WOMAN (laughing) You yourself never loved. You never love!
THE COUNT Yes, I too can love. You yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so? Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him, you shall kiss him at your will. Now go! Go! I must awaken him, for there is work to be done.
THE DARK WOMAN Are we to have nothing tonight?
Sound: thud.
A CHILD (muffled) Mama?
THE DARK WOMAN Sisters.
(A pause.)
Scene: castle bedroom.
Sound: snore.
THE DARK WOMAN (whispering) And this one? Come, sister.
THE FAIR WOMAN Pah. That one.
Sound: snore.
DALE (sleepy) Housekeeping? Could I get another blanket? Two, if you've got them. Somebody left the window open.
(A pause.)
DALE Shy girls. Nice, though.
Music: sting comic.
Scene: castle courtyard.
Sound: wagon wheels.
Sound: whip crack.
A MAN (shouting) Together now. Lift! Mind the rope handles.
Sound: thud.
AN OLD MAN Hollow as a drum, that one.
A MAN Not for long. Take your money and spit on it, for luck.
DALE Excuse me. Who's in charge of the boxes? Because I'd like it to be me.
A MAN The master is in charge of everything.
Sound: door creak.
THE COUNT And the master is pleased. Good evening, Mr. Tummins. You take an interest in my earth.
DALE If anything needs signing for, Count, I'm your man. I've got my own pencil.
THE COUNT Tomorrow the Szgany carry these to Varna, and from Varna they go by ship to England. I have need of an agent to go with them. A man of trust.
DALE An agent. Would that be above a clerk's clerk?
THE COUNT Far above.
DALE Then I accept. Is there a desk?
THE COUNT There are fifty. You may sit upon whichever you please, all the way to England.
Sound: munch.
DALE Sausage, Count? It's the big one. I'm only halfway.
THE COUNT (disgusted) You are generous. Stand there. No. There. Further.
THE COUNT Hetman. The Englishman goes with my earth, all the way to the sea. Do not bring him back.
DALE One way. Hear that? That's confidence.
Scene: castle bedroom.
JONATHAN (whispering) Shut the door. Dale, you're truly leaving?
DALE In the morning. Agent. You can still call me Dale, at home.
JONATHAN Then take this to Mina. Hide it somewhere he'll never go.
Sound: letter fold.
DALE Squiggles? You're sending your fiancée squiggles? She'll think you've had a fall.
JONATHAN Shorthand. She can read it. He can't.
DALE I'll keep it in with the sausage. Nobody ever goes near the sausage.
JONATHAN Dale, listen to me. If I don't come home, tell her I tried.
DALE You're staying a month, you wrote it yourself. Some of us got promoted, and some of us got a month's holiday in a castle, and I won't say which is worse.
JONATHAN He locks my door at night.
DALE Because he cares. Now, how do you spell grateful? I'm writing him a note for the promotion, and I want it to look like a junior partner wrote it.
JONATHAN One L. Dale, are you hearing a word I say?
Sound: door creak.
THE COUNT Letters are a heavy thing to carry so far, Mr. Tummins. Let me lighten you.
DALE Left side, in with the sausage. Mind your cuffs.
THE COUNT Give it to me with your own hand. Thank you. This one is to my friend Peter Hawkins. That I shall send on, since it is yours. Your letters are sacred to me.
THE COUNT But this other is a vile thing, an outrage upon friendship and hospitality! It is not signed. Well. So it cannot matter to us.
Sound: paper burn.
JONATHAN Mina.
DALE Half of it was squiggles anyway, Jonathan. You can't send a lady squiggles. Write her properly when you get home.
THE COUNT So, my friend, you are tired? Get to bed. There is the surest rest.
Sound: door lock.
Scene: castle corridor.
THE FAIR WOMAN (whispering) He is awake. I can hear his heart going.
THE DARK WOMAN Master, you promised him to us.
THE FAIR WOMAN And the other one? The one who smells?
THE COUNT He goes with the earth at dawn. I will not have him under my roof another night.
THE COUNT Back, back, to your own place! Your time is not yet come. Wait! Have patience! Tonight is mine. Tomorrow night is yours!
THE DARK WOMAN (laughing) Tomorrow, then, sisters.
THE FAIR WOMAN Tomorrow.
(A pause.)
Scene: cellar.
Sound: box lid.
Music: sting horror.
JONATHAN (whispering) The key. You have the key on you, somewhere.
JONATHAN London. You mean to go to London, among all those millions. Not while I can lift my hand.
JONATHAN (scared) No. Don't turn your eyes on me. Don't.
Sound: shovel strike.
(A pause.)
A MAN Lids on, all of them. Nail them down.
DALE Hold that one. Before you nail it.
A MAN Not that one. The master says nobody opens that one.
DALE Then it's the good china, and the good china is where a thank you note goes. Lift it a crack. There. He'll find it when he unpacks.
Sound: nails hammered.
DALE Lovely. Now it's official.
Scene: castle courtyard.
Sound: whip crack.
Sound: wagon wheels.
JONATHAN (shouting) Dale! The great door! Make them unbolt the door!
DALE No need, I'm going with the boxes! You stay and enjoy yourself!
JONATHAN Dale!
A MAN Drive on. Don't look up at the window.
Scene: castle bedroom.
Sound: quill scratch.
JONATHAN Thirtieth June. They are gone, the boxes and Dale with them. And in one box, him. I found him gorged, like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion. I struck at him with a shovel, and the lid fell.
JONATHAN I am alone in the castle with those awful women. Mina is a woman, and there is nought in common. They are devils of the Pit!
JONATHAN I shall try the wall, farther than I have yet dared, and take some of the gold. At least God's mercy is better than that of these monsters, and the precipice is steep and high. At its foot a man may sleep, as a man.
JONATHAN (whispering) Good-bye, all. Mina.
Music: sting danger.
Scene: whitby cliff.
LUCY Three, Mina. Three in one day. And don't you dare write that down.
MINA It's only shorthand. Nobody can read it but Jonathan.
LUCY Then Jonathan will read that I'm a horrid flirt. Number one came just before lunch. Dr. Seward.
MINA The asylum doctor? With the strong jaw?
LUCY He very nearly sat down on his silk hat, and he played with a lancet the whole time. Then he asked if I could love him in time, and I cried, and he called himself a brute, and said I must count him one of my best friends.
MINA Poor man.
LUCY Number two came after lunch. Mr. Morris, the Texan. He took my hand and said, Miss Lucy, I know I ain't good enough to regulate the fixings of your little shoes. Won't you just hitch up alongside of me, and let us go down the long road together, driving in double harness?
MINA (laughing) He never.
LUCY He did! I told him I wasn't broken to harness at all yet. And then he was so earnest, and so noble about the other fellow, that I kissed him. Why can't they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?
MINA Lucy Westenra.
LUCY I know. It's heresy. I take it back.
MINA And number three?
LUCY I needn't tell you about number three, need I?
MINA Mr. Swales, Lucy says these graves are the most peaceful spot in Whitby.
MR. SWALES Peaceful! It be all fool-talk, lock, stock, and barrel. Here lies the body, they say, an' in nigh half of them there bean't no bodies at all. Drowned in the Greenland seas, the lot.
LUCY Surely not all of them.
MR. SWALES Geordie Canon, under your seat, my pretty. In the hope of a glorious resurrection, it says. I've heard him say masel' he hoped he'd go to hell, for his mother was so pious she'd be sure to go to heaven.
LUCY Oh, why did you tell us? It's my favourite seat, and now I must go on sitting over the grave of a suicide.
MR. SWALES That won't harm ye. It may make poor Geordie gladsome, to have so trim a lass sittin' on his lap.
Sound: church bell.
MR. SWALES There's the clock, an' I must gang. My service to ye, ladies.
LUCY You've gone quiet, Mina.
MINA One line, Lucy. From the castle. Just starting for home. It's his hand, but it isn't him. He's never written me one line in his life.
LUCY Then he's on a boat, and he'll be home before you've done missing him.
MINA That was three weeks ago, Lucy. And you were walking again last night. I woke and you were at the door, trying the handle.
LUCY Was I? How silly. Lock it, then.
MINA I did. You went round the room in the dark, looking for the key.
Scene: asylum corridor.
THE ATTENDANT Sick as a dog, doctor. Feathers everywhere. My belief is he's eaten his birds without cooking them.
SEWARD All of them?
THE ATTENDANT He says they flew away. Window's barred.
Sound: door creak.
RENFIELD Doctor! A favour, doctor. A very, very great favour.
SEWARD Go on, Renfield.
RENFIELD (excited) A kitten. A nice little, sleek, playful kitten, that I can play with, and teach, and feed, and feed, and feed!
SEWARD Wouldn't you rather have a cat?
RENFIELD Oh, yes, I would like a cat! I only asked for a kitten lest you should refuse me a cat. No one would refuse me a kitten, would they?
SEWARD Not at present, I think.
RENFIELD Then I shall wait. I keep my accounts, doctor. They always come out.
Scene: asylum study.
Sound: phonograph start.
SEWARD Nineteenth July. Renfield. Flies, then spiders to eat the flies, then sparrows to eat the spiders. Now a cat, to eat the sparrows.
SEWARD A zoophagous maniac. A life eater, keeping his accounts. I wonder at how many lives he values a man. A large, and growing, appetite.
SEWARD Two months since she said no, and still the only cure is work. Oh, Lucy. Work. Work!
Sound: phonograph stop.
Music: sting danger.
Scene: ship hold.
Sound: ship bell.
THE CAPTAIN Sign here. Fifty boxes, clay. Varna to Whitby.
DALE Put Agent. Then Junior Partner, in brackets.
THE CAPTAIN There is no room for brackets.
DALE Then just Agent. I'll do my own brackets later.
Sound: pencil scratch.
THE CAPTAIN You will sleep in the cabin, with the mate and me.
DALE I'll sleep down here with my boxes. An agent doesn't leave his boxes. Also you never said what the cabin costs, and I'm not going to be the one who brings it up.
THE CAPTAIN As you please. Three weeks, if God is kind.
DALE One more thing. Which of these is the good china? I put a note in it, and I'd like to sit near it.
THE CAPTAIN They are all invoiced clay.
DALE Then I'll sit on the heaviest. That's where they always put the good stuff.
Scene: ship deck.
Sound: quill scratch.
THE CAPTAIN Sixteenth July. Petrofsky missing. Came off his watch and never reached his bunk. The men say there is something aboard, and cross themselves.
THE CAPTAIN Twenty fourth July. Another man lost, like the first. The men beg for double watch; they fear to be alone.
THE CAPTAIN Twenty ninth July. Second mate gone. We searched every corner. Only the boxes, and the young Englishman asleep among them, who has seen nothing, and eats his sausage, and is content.
THE CAPTAIN Second August. One more gone. The fog moves with us. God seems to have deserted us.
Scene: ship hold.
Sound: munch.
DALE Sausage, mate? Go on. It was a bargain, so it doesn't count.
THE MATE Keep it away from me.
DALE Suit yourself. So where's everybody gone? I'm guessing pay. Am I right? It's pay.
THE MATE Pay.
DALE I knew it. You can always tell a pay dispute. Everyone goes quiet, then one by one they swim for it. I admire that. I couldn't swim to Varna, and I've been.
THE MATE (whispering) It is here. I know it, now. On the watch I saw It, like a man, tall and thin, and ghastly pale. I gave It my knife, and the knife went through It, empty as the air.
DALE Well, now you've stabbed a passenger. I'd keep that out of the log.
THE MATE It is in the hold. In one of these. I'll unscrew them one by one and see.
Sound: box lid.
DALE Sir, I signed for those. If you open them, I have to sign for them all over again, and I'm down to the stub of my pencil.
THE MATE Go up. Go up to the captain.
DALE I'm not leaving my boxes with a man who stabs passengers.
(A pause.)
Sound: snore.
Sound: box lid.
Music: sting horror.
THE MATE (panicked) Save me! Save me!
Sound: stairs climb.
Scene: ship deck.
THE MATE You had better come too, captain, before it is too late. He is there. I know the secret now. The sea will save me from Him, and it is all that is left!
THE CAPTAIN (shouting) Mate! Stand fast!
Sound: wave crash.
(A pause.)
DALE (sleepy) Has he gone for a swim as well? That's the whole union, then. I'd have backed him.
THE CAPTAIN Englishman. Tie my hands to the wheel. The beads go between, so. Pull the knots tight.
DALE Is this a Russian thing? I want to do it right.
THE CAPTAIN I am captain, and I must not leave my ship. When my strength fails, my hands will still be here.
Sound: rope creak.
DALE A man and his wheel. I respect that. Tighter?
THE CAPTAIN Tighter. Then go below and stay there. It does not touch you. Every night it passes you by, and I do not know why.
DALE People do. I'm told I'm restful. When we get in, is there a man to sign for the boxes? I'd like a fresh signature.
THE CAPTAIN When we get to port. If we get to port.
THE CAPTAIN God and the Blessed Virgin and the saints help a poor ignorant soul trying to do his duty.
DALE I'll be below. Shout if you need a hand. Well, you won't have a hand. Shout anyway.
Scene: storm sea.
Sound: thunder crack.
A MAN I can't make her out. A Russian, by the look of her, and knocking about in the queerest way.
A MAN (shouting) Clear the pier! Clear the pier, she'll have you off your feet!
A WOMAN The light! Turn the light on her!
AN OLD MAN All sail set, in this. She must fetch up somewhere, if it's only in hell.
A MAN She doesn't mind her wheel at all. Nobody's steering her.
A WOMAN God save us. He's tied to it.
AN OLD MAN Then who's bringing her in?
Sound: wave crash.
Sound: wood crack.
Sound: crowd gasp.
Sound: dog bark.
A WOMAN (scared) Mind the dog! Mind!
A MAN Let it go! Don't follow it up there, let it go!
Scene: ship deck.
AN OLD MAN Cut him loose, then.
A MAN Not his hands. Not off that crucifix. Leave him for the doctor.
AN OLD MAN Two days dead, if he's an hour. And he brought her in all the same.
A MAN Dead men don't steer.
Scene: ship hold.
Sound: stairs climb.
A MAN Anyone below? Hello?
Sound: snore.
A MAN Lord above. Wake up, lad. Wake up.
DALE (sleepy) Is this Whitby? Who do I see about a signature?
A MAN Your captain's dead, lad. Tied to his own wheel.
DALE Oh, no. He had lovely handwriting. You'll have to sign, then.
Music: sting comic.
Scene: churchyard night.
Sound: church bell.
MINA (out of breath) Lucy! Lucy, answer me!
Sound: snore.
MINA Lucy, it's Mina. Please, darling. Lucy!
Sound: bat flutter.
MINA (scared) Get away from her! Whatever you are, get away from her!
Music: sting horror.
Sound: snore.
DALE (sleepy) Mm. Count? Count! Over here, by the big angel.
DALE Did you get my note? I put it under the lid of box nineteen. It was about the boat. I said the boat was a little lonely toward the end, but I didn't want that to be the main thing.
THE COUNT You choose strange beds, Mister Tummins.
DALE A bed in Whitby is a shilling. This bench is free, and it's got a sea view. Mister Billington says the boxes go Thursday, and I'm not paying for a bed I'm going to leave on Thursday.
Sound: munch.
DALE Sausage? Whitby sausage. The big one ran out off Flamborough Head, so I spent my last fourpence on this. Go on, it's got a lot of personality.
THE COUNT (disgusted) Keep it.
DALE You've got something on your moustache. Here, have my handkerchief. Is it jam? I'd kill for jam.
THE COUNT Good night, Mister Tummins. Sleep. Sleep very soundly.
Sound: bat flutter.
DALE Not a sausage person. I'll put that in the next note, so he knows I don't hold it against him.
Scene: churchyard night.
MINA Lucy. Lucy, wake up. Oh, you're like ice.
LUCY (sleepy) Mina? Why is it so cold? Mina, where are your shoes?
MINA On your feet. Hold still, I'm pinning the shawl.
LUCY Ow.
MINA Oh, I'm so clumsy. Come home, quickly, before anyone sees us.
LUCY Don't tell Mother. Promise me, Mina. Not a word to Mother. It would kill her.
MINA I promise. Lean on me. Mind the steps.
Scene: whitby bedroom.
MINA Lift your chin. Let me see your throat.
LUCY (laughing) You've been fussing since breakfast.
MINA Two little red points. I did that with the pin. Oh, Lucy, I'm so sorry.
LUCY I didn't even feel it. I feel better this morning than I have for weeks.
MINA Did you dream, that night?
LUCY Not quite dream. I wanted to be up on our seat, I don't know why, and I was afraid of something. Then there was something long and dark with red eyes, and something very sweet and very bitter all around me at once.
LUCY And then I was sinking into deep green water, and there was a singing in my ears, the way they say there is for drowning men. Isn't that funny?
MINA Let's not talk about it.
Sound: door knock.
MINA The post. Oh. Oh, Lucy, it's from Buda-Pesth. It isn't his hand.
LUCY Then read it to me. Read it, quickly, before you faint.
Sound: letter fold.
MINA Dear Madam. I write by desire of Mister Jonathan Harker, who is himself not strong enough to write. He has been under our care for nearly six weeks, suffering from a violent brain fever. He came in the train from Klausenburg, shouting for a ticket home. In his delirium his ravings have been dreadful, of wolves and poison and blood, of ghosts and demons, and I fear to say of what. Be careful with him always. He has won all hearts by his sweetness. Sister Agatha.
(A pause.)
MINA (crying) He's alive. Six weeks, and I've been cross with him for not writing.
Music: tender.
LUCY Go to him. Go today. Mister Hawkins says you should marry him out there, and Mister Hawkins is always right about papers.
MINA And leave you, like this?
LUCY Like what? I'm the picture of health. I'll bring your trunk to London. Go and get your husband.
Scene: train station.
A MAN Fifty boxes, Carfax, Purfleet, by the nine thirty goods. Billington's paid the carriage. Sign there.
DALE I'll sign yours if you sign mine.
A MAN Your what?
DALE My receipt. I've had one signed at every stop since Varna. The captain signed mine at the wheel. I'm not breaking the run in Yorkshire.
Sound: pencil scratch.
A MAN There. Now what's this line? Bench, two nights?
DALE That bench was cold. Somebody ought to pay for that, and I don't think it should be the man who slept on it.
A MAN Passenger train's on platform two.
DALE I'd rather ride with the boxes. I've come this far with them. Put me down as box fifty-one.
A MAN It's a goods van.
DALE Then I'm goods.
Sound: door slam.
A MAN Mind your head, fifty-one.
Scene: carfax chapel.
A MAN (out of breath) Forty-nine. And fifty. That's your lot, and I hope I never lift another.
DALE Lovely work. Now I need it signed for.
A MAN Keys go in the hall, gentleman's orders. Nobody signs, nobody stays.
DALE Somebody has to sign. I've had a signature at every stop since Varna. I'm not breaking the run in Essex.
A MAN Then try next door. Big house, over the wall. They're always in.
AN OLD MAN (laughing) Ask for the doctor. Tell him everything.
Sound: wagon wheels.
DALE I'll leave the Count a note on box one. Welcome home, hope the trip was smooth, I kept the dirt dry. I'll leave out the bench. You don't want to start a man off on his complaints.
Scene: asylum corridor.
Sound: door knock.
Sound: door creak.
THE ATTENDANT Visiting's Sundays.
DALE I'm not visiting, I'm delivering. Dale Tummins, junior partner. I need a signature for fifty boxes of earth from Transylvania.
THE ATTENDANT Earth.
DALE Dirt. The Count likes his own. I respect that. You wouldn't want to sleep on foreign dirt either.
THE ATTENDANT And this Count. He's your employer, is he?
DALE Best host I've ever had. Never eats, so there's more for you. Keeps his own hours. And when he's in a hurry he goes down the outside of the castle wall, face first. I'd do it myself if I had the knees.
THE ATTENDANT Face first.
DALE You'd want to see where you're going.
(A pause.)
THE ATTENDANT (calm) Come inside, sir. Wipe your feet. We've a room all ready.
DALE I didn't book.
THE ATTENDANT Nobody does. Congratulations. You've been made a patient.
DALE Is that above clerk?
THE ATTENDANT Well above.
Sound: door lock.
DALE I'd like that in writing, please. And my receipt.
Scene: asylum study.
SEWARD He knocked?
THE ATTENDANT Knocked, sir. Nobody knocks. They get brought.
SEWARD And the delusion?
THE ATTENDANT The owner of Carfax climbs down walls headfirst. And he's a junior partner. He tipped me.
SEWARD With what?
THE ATTENDANT Sausage.
SEWARD Carfax has been empty for twenty years.
THE ATTENDANT Not since this afternoon, sir. Carriers took fifty boxes into the old chapel. And Renfield's been at his window ever since, sniffing like a dog on a scent. Says I don't count now. Says the Master is at hand.
SEWARD Put the new man in the room next to Renfield. I want to hear what one madman makes of the other.
THE ATTENDANT He won't settle without his receipt, sir.
SEWARD Then sign it. Sign whatever he likes.
Scene: asylum corridor.
Sound: fly buzz.
RENFIELD (whispering) New man. You, through the wall. Are you awake?
DALE Hello! I'm in the hotel. What are you in?
RENFIELD Flies.
DALE So you're in flies. How's the market?
RENFIELD The flies eat the sugar. The spiders eat the flies. A sparrow eats the spiders, and a cat eats the sparrows. Every one is a life, and every life goes into the next.
DALE A ladder! I'm on a ladder too. Where do you want to end up?
RENFIELD Higher. Much higher. A man could eat his way to the top.
Sound: fly buzz.
DALE Did you just eat your stock?
RENFIELD Profit.
DALE Mister Hawkins says I eat into the profits. I always thought he meant the biscuits.
RENFIELD You came with Him. I can smell the earth on you.
DALE The Count? He's my employer. Do you work for him too? I could put in a word.
RENFIELD (excited) He has promised me. Lives! Many lives! The blood is the life! The blood is the life!
DALE You should paint that over the door. People would come from miles.
Sound: wood crack.
DALE Renfield? Are you checking out? Leave the sugar, I'll mind it.
THE ATTENDANT (shouting) Window! He's out the window! Get the doctor!
Scene: garden night.
RENFIELD I am here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave, and You will reward me, for I shall be faithful. You will not pass me by, will You, dear Master, in Your distribution of good things?
SEWARD (whispering) Slowly, men. Close in from both sides. Now!
Sound: thud.
RENFIELD (shouting) I shall be patient, Master! It is coming! Coming! Coming!
Scene: asylum study.
Sound: phonograph start.
SEWARD Nineteenth August. Renfield secured in the strait-waistcoat, chained in the padded room. Tonight he broke out through his window, ran to the chapel door at Carfax, and spoke to it as to a master. The new man, Tummins, is calm, polite, and asks only for a receipt. Both men speak of a master in the house next door. I could put it down to one infecting the other through the wall. But Tummins brought his master with him before he had heard Renfield say a word. I shall watch Carfax.
Sound: phonograph stop.
(A pause.)
Sound: door creak.
THE ATTENDANT Sir. The new one wants to know if breakfast is included.
SEWARD Tell him yes.
THE ATTENDANT He wants it in writing.
Music: sting comic.
Scene: sickroom night.
LUCY I cannot tell you how I loathe talking about myself.
SEWARD Arthur asked me to come. He wired from his father's bedside. He's half out of his mind, Lucy.
LUCY Then tell Arthur everything you choose. I do not care for myself, but all for him.
SEWARD There's nothing wrong with your blood that I can find. And yet you're as white as the pillow.
LUCY I only dream badly. I can never remember what.
SEWARD I'm sending for my old master. Professor Van Helsing, of Amsterdam. He knows more of obscure diseases than any man living.
LUCY Am I so very obscure, Jack?
Scene: london street.
A MAN Amsterdam. Name and message. You pay by the word.
SEWARD Van Helsing, Amsterdam. Terrible change for the worse. Come at once. Do not lose an hour.
A MAN Thirteen words. You could lose the do not.
SEWARD Send every word.
Sound: coins count.
Scene: sickroom night.
VAN HELSING (whispering) My God, this is dreadful. There is no time to be lost. She will die for sheer want of blood. There must be transfusion at once. Is it you or me, friend John?
SEWARD I'm younger and stronger, Professor. It must be me.
Sound: door creak.
ARTHUR Jack! I read between the lines of your letter. Father's rallied, so I came. Is this Doctor Van Helsing?
VAN HELSING Sir, you have come in time. You are the lover of our dear miss. She wants blood, and blood she must have or die.
ARTHUR Then take mine. My life is hers. I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her.
VAN HELSING My young sir, I do not ask so much as that. Not the last! Off with the coat. You shall kiss her once, and then you go at my sign.
Sound: kiss.
Sound: transfusion.
VAN HELSING (gentle) Do not stir an instant. So. So. Good boy. It is enough. Friend John, take him down, give him of the port wine. He has saved her life this time.
ARTHUR Lucy. I'll come back tonight.
(A pause.)
SEWARD What do you make of the mark on her throat?
VAN HELSING What do you make of it?
SEWARD Nothing. Two little punctures can't drain a girl that white. The whole bed would be soaked.
VAN HELSING I go back to Amsterdam tonight. There are books there that I want. You do not let your sight pass from her, not for one hour. Remember, she is your charge.
Scene: sickroom night.
VAN HELSING These are for you, Miss Lucy.
LUCY For me? Oh, Professor! Why, these flowers are only common garlic. You're putting up a joke on me.
VAN HELSING No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in all I do, and I warn you that you do not thwart me.
(A pause.)
VAN HELSING (gentle) Oh, little miss, my dear, do not fear me. I make myself the wreath that you are to wear. Take care you do not disturb it, and even if the room feel close, do not tonight open the window or the door.
LUCY I promise. And thank you both a thousand times. What have I done to be blessed with such friends?
SEWARD Professor, if there were a sceptic here, he'd say you were working some spell to keep out an evil spirit.
VAN HELSING Perhaps I am.
Scene: asylum corridor.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE Dear Nana. Big news. I've been promoted again, to patient. They bring the food to your door, and a man stands outside all night in case you need anything. My best friend lives in the wall. He's in flies.
Sound: door creak.
SEWARD This way, Professor. Renfield is the next door down.
VAN HELSING Wait, friend John. What is this? Who is this?
SEWARD Our newest. Tummins. A delusion of employment.
DALE Junior partner. Pleased to meet you. Sausage?
Sound: munch.
VAN HELSING This young man smells of the garlic like a whole Dutch kitchen.
DALE Thank you. I've been working on it since Bistritz.
VAN HELSING (laughing) He is the safest man in England.
SEWARD Safe from what?
VAN HELSING Come, friend John. We go on.
Sound: door lock.
DALE P S. The doctors are very pleased with me.
Scene: sickroom night.
Sound: clock chime.
Sound: bat flutter.
LUCY (whispering) Is there anybody there?
Sound: door creak.
MRS. WESTENRA Only me, darling. I was uneasy about you. Let me lie down with you a while.
MRS. WESTENRA Oh, the air in here. These horrible strong flowers. You can't breathe, you poor child, and with your weak chest.
LUCY Mother, leave them. The Professor said I mustn't touch them.
MRS. WESTENRA The Professor isn't lying in them. Just for tonight. And a little air, only a crack. There. Isn't that better?
Sound: bat flutter.
MRS. WESTENRA (scared) What is that? Lucy, what is that at the window?
Sound: wolf snarl.
Sound: window smash.
Sound: scream.
LUCY (panicked) Mother? Mother, let go of me. Mother!
(A pause.)
Sound: church bell.
LUCY (crying) Is there anybody there?
Music: sting horror.
Scene: sickroom night.
Sound: clock chime.
LUCY (sleepy) Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come!
VAN HELSING (whispering) No. Not yet, my child. Hold her hand. It will comfort her more.
ARTHUR I'm here, darling. I'm here.
(A pause.)
LUCY Arthur. Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come. Kiss me!
Sound: thud.
VAN HELSING (shouting) Not for your life! Not for your living soul and hers!
ARTHUR How dare you, sir!
SEWARD Art. Stand still, old fellow. For God's sake, stand still.
(A pause.)
LUCY My true friend. My true friend, and his. Oh, guard him, and give me peace.
VAN HELSING I swear it. Come, Arthur. Kiss her on the forehead, and only once.
Sound: kiss.
(A pause.)
VAN HELSING It is all over. She is dead.
SEWARD Poor girl. There's peace for her at last. It is the end.
VAN HELSING Not so. Alas, not so. It is only the beginning.
Music: sting horror.
Scene: london street.
A WOMAN Westminster Gazette! Hampstead Horror! Another child took on the Heath!
AN OLD MAN Read it me, love. I've left my spectacles at home.
A WOMAN Another child missed last night, found this morning under a furze bush. Same little wound in the throat as the others. Terrible weak. And when it come round it told the same story. It went for a walk with the bloofer lady.
AN OLD MAN The what lady?
A WOMAN Bloofer. Beautiful, the way the little ones say it.
A MAN Mine plays bloofer lady all day. Hides behind the washing and says, come for a walk.
AN OLD MAN I'd put a stop to that, if I was you.
Scene: tomb.
Sound: door creak.
Sound: match strike.
SEWARD She's been a week in her coffin, Professor. Whatever you mean to prove, I'd rather you proved it to me in daylight.
VAN HELSING In daylight it proves nothing. Hold the candle. Lower.
Sound: wood crack.
(A pause.)
VAN HELSING Are you satisfied now, friend John?
SEWARD I'm satisfied that Lucy's body is not in that coffin. That only proves one thing.
VAN HELSING And what is that?
SEWARD That it isn't there.
VAN HELSING That is good logic, so far as it goes. And the little ones on the Heath, with the holes in their throats so like hers?
SEWARD The same cause. Whatever hurt her has hurt them.
VAN HELSING Oh, would it were so. It is worse. Far, far worse. They were made by Miss Lucy.
Scene: asylum corridor.
Sound: bolt slide.
THE ATTENDANT Tummins. Out you come. Gentleman's signed for you.
DALE Signed for me? Nobody's ever signed for me. I'm usually the one signing. Do I get my deposit back?
THE ATTENDANT You never paid one.
DALE Then I'd like that in writing, for my records.
SEWARD Professor, you can't take a patient out grave watching.
VAN HELSING I can take this one. He cannot be bitten. I do not say why.
SEWARD Cannot be... what on earth does that mean?
VAN HELSING It means he carries the lantern.
DALE Is this the burial society? I've always wanted to be in a society. Is there a sash?
VAN HELSING No sash. A lantern.
DALE Lantern Warden. I'll put it under junior partner, so people can see I've got range.
Sound: munch.
VAN HELSING Good. Eat, eat. Do not stop for anything.
Scene: churchyard night.
Sound: church bell.
ARTHUR (whispering) Professor, if this is some monstrous joke, I'll never forgive you.
VAN HELSING (whispering) Hush, all of you. Mr. Tummins, the slide of the lantern. Shut.
DALE (whispering) Shut. Do we get a vote at these, or is it mostly standing?
Sound: child cry.
QUINCEY (whispering) Great Scott.
ARTHUR Oh, God. Lucy.
LUCY Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!
Sound: child cry.
ARTHUR Lucy.
VAN HELSING Back! Back, in God's name!
LUCY (disgusted) Pah. That one.
DALE Some people aren't sausage people, ma'am. I don't hold it against you.
VAN HELSING Answer me, oh my friend! Am I to proceed in my work?
ARTHUR (crying) Do as you will, friend. Do as you will. There can be no horror like this ever any more.
Sound: mist hiss.
QUINCEY Jack, tell me I'm dreaming.
SEWARD I can't, Quincey.
Scene: tomb.
VAN HELSING Take the stake in your left hand, the point over the heart, and the hammer in your right. When we begin our prayer for the dead, strike in God's name.
ARTHUR Tell me what I am to do, and I shall not falter.
VAN HELSING Mr. Tummins. The light. Hold it so, and do not move.
DALE I won't move, sir. Nobody's ever trusted me with fire before.
VAN HELSING Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice.
QUINCEY Lord, hear my voice.
Sound: hammer stake.
Sound: scream.
Sound: hammer stake.
(A pause.)
ARTHUR (out of breath) Is it done?
VAN HELSING (gentle) It is done. Open your eyes, my child.
Music: tender.
ARTHUR Lucy. Oh, it's Lucy.
VAN HELSING She is not a grinning devil now. She is God's true dead, whose soul is with Him.
ARTHUR God bless you, that you have given my dear one her soul again, and me peace.
DALE Professor, whatever my dues are, I'd like them to go on flowers for her. White ones.
VAN HELSING White ones, Mr. Tummins.
Scene: london street.
MINA Jonathan, you're hurting my arm.
JONATHAN (whispering) My God.
MINA Dear, what is it? Are you ill?
JONATHAN Do you see who it is?
MINA No, dear. I don't know him. Who is it?
JONATHAN It is the man himself!
A MAN Cab, sir? Hansom!
Music: pell elegant.
THE COUNT Follow that victoria.
Sound: whip crack.
Sound: coach wheels.
JONATHAN That voice. It is the Count, but he has grown young. My God, if this be so! If I only knew!
MINA (gentle) Come and sit in the shade, dear. Come and sit with me.
Scene: dining room.
VAN HELSING You wrote it all down at the time? Oh, you so clever woman. But this is shorthand, and alas, I know not the shorthand.
MINA Forgive me, Doctor. I couldn't resist. Here's the same on the typewriter. And this is my husband's journal from abroad. Last week in Piccadilly he went white as paper at a stranger. Read it, and tell me honestly if he's mad.
VAN HELSING Madam Mina, how can I say what I owe you? This paper is as sunshine. It opens the gate to me.
MINA Then open it for me, Doctor. Is he mad?
VAN HELSING If what is here be true, your husband is not mad. And then God help us all, for he is right.
Scene: asylum study.
Sound: typewriter.
JONATHAN Tummins? Dale Tummins? You went with the boxes!
DALE I was promoted.
JONATHAN By him?
DALE He called me his agent. I wrote to thank him. I've slipped a note under the Carfax door every Sunday since.
JONATHAN Every Sunday.
DALE Never wrote back, either. I expect he's busy with the move.
JONATHAN Dale, he locked me in that castle for two months.
DALE He locked my door too. I took it as him keeping the draughts off me.
VAN HELSING Friends, sit. There are such beings as vampires. This one is so strong in person as twenty men. He throws no shadow. He makes in the mirror no reflect. He may come as wolf, as bat, as mist.
VAN HELSING But he is not free. He may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be some one of the household who bid him to come. And his power ceases at the coming of the day.
DALE That's just good manners, waiting to be asked. I've always said he was a gentleman.
VAN HELSING The garlic he cannot bear. The crucifix. The Sacred Host. And the stake, as some of us know.
Sound: munch.
VAN HELSING Some of us are, so to say, already armed.
SEWARD Professor?
VAN HELSING I do not say why.
Sound: rifle shot.
Sound: window smash.
MINA (scared) Oh!
QUINCEY Sorry! I'm sorry, Mrs. Harker. Bat on the sill. I've no patience with the brutes since Lucy.
VAN HELSING Did you hit it?
QUINCEY I fancy not. It went off toward the wood.
VAN HELSING And for you, Madam Mina, this night is the end until all be well. You are too precious to us to run such risk.
MINA Professor, I've typed every word you're fighting with.
VAN HELSING And so you have done enough. Sleep, and leave the rest to us men.
VAN HELSING Fifty boxes came to Carfax. Some are gone already, and to trace them may take us weeks.
DALE While we're on boxes, Lord Godalming. I hear you're the one with the money now. I signed for every one of them, all the way from Varna, and I'd like to put in for expenses. Boat, cabs, two sausages.
ARTHUR Mr. Tummins, this is hardly the time.
DALE That's what Mr. Hawkins always says. It's never the time.
MINA May I see those?
MINA Fifty cases, common earth, received of Dale Tummins at Varna. Again at Whitby. Again at King's Cross. Delivered, Carfax chapel.
MINA Then another hand. Six cases from Carfax to one hundred and ninety-seven Chicksand Street, Mile End. Six to Jamaica Lane, Bermondsey. Nine to three hundred and forty-seven Piccadilly.
JONATHAN Piccadilly.
DALE Every time a cart came, I went out my window and signed. Agent's duty. The attendant calls it escaping.
MINA (whispering) Professor. They say where every box went.
VAN HELSING Madam Mina. Mr. Tummins. You have given us the weeks.
DALE So that's a yes on expenses?
ARTHUR I hardly...
QUINCEY I'll pay him, Art. Texas dollars, Mr. Tummins. Will that suit?
DALE Are they bigger than the regular kind?
QUINCEY Everything's bigger.
Sound: coins count.
DALE Then I accept.
Scene: asylum corridor.
RENFIELD Let me entreat you, Dr. Seward. Oh, let me implore you. Let me out of this house at once. Send keepers with whips and chains. Put me in a strait waistcoat, even to a gaol. But let me go.
SEWARD In the morning, Renfield. We'll talk in the morning.
RENFIELD The morning is no use! You don't know what you do by keeping me here. You don't know whom you wrong, or how, and I may not tell. Woe is me, I may not tell!
VAN HELSING Then tell me only your reason, sir. If it satisfy even me, you go free tonight.
RENFIELD I am not my own master in the matter. I can only ask you to trust me. Let me go! Let me go!
SEWARD Come. No more of this. Get to your bed.
(A pause.)
RENFIELD (calm) You will, I trust, Dr. Seward, do me the justice to bear in mind, later on, that I did what I could to convince you tonight.
Sound: door lock.
Scene: asylum corridor.
Sound: door knock.
RENFIELD (whispering) Tummins. Are you awake?
DALE (sleepy) I am now. Is it breakfast?
RENFIELD If anyone asks to come in tonight, don't answer. Not for flies. Not for anything.
DALE I'd let breakfast in. I'd let breakfast in any hour.
RENFIELD Not even breakfast. Promise me.
DALE All right. But I want it noted I'm missing breakfast for you.
Scene: asylum corridor.
Sound: dog bark.
Sound: crash.
THE ATTENDANT (shouting) Doctor! Doctor Seward! It's Renfield!
(A pause.)
VAN HELSING Tell us, Mr. Renfield. Quickly, and all of it.
RENFIELD It was no dream. He came to the window in the mist, laughing with his red mouth. I wouldn't ask him in. Then he began promising me things. Not in words. By doing them.
RENFIELD He whispered, Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, millions of them, and every one a life. All these lives will I give you, and many more and greater, if you will fall down and worship me.
RENFIELD And then a red cloud, like the colour of blood, came over my eyes, and I opened the sash and said to Him, Come in, Lord and Master.
QUINCEY (whispering) Lord have mercy.
RENFIELD When Mrs. Harker came to see me this afternoon, she wasn't the same. It was like tea after the teapot had been watered. He'd been taking the life out of her.
RENFIELD So tonight I grabbed the mist, and I held Him. Till I saw His eyes. They burned into me, and my strength went to water, and He raised me up and flung me down.
(A pause.)
SEWARD He's gone.
VAN HELSING We know the worst now. He is here, and we know his purpose. Your crucifixes. Quick!
Sound: stairs climb.
QUINCEY Should we disturb her?
VAN HELSING We must. If the door be locked, I shall break it in. Your shoulders, all of you. Now!
Sound: crash.
Music: sting horror.
VAN HELSING (shouting) Back! Back!
ARTHUR In the name of God, back!
Sound: mist hiss.
Sound: scream.
JONATHAN Mina? In God's name, what does this mean? What does that blood mean? My God, my God, has it come to this!
MINA (crying) No! Jonathan, you mustn't leave me. Stay with these friends who will watch over you.
VAN HELSING (gentle) Madam Mina. We must know all.
MINA He said, If you make a sound, I shall dash his brains out before your very eyes. Then he said I would help these men to hunt him, and now I should come to his call.
MINA When my brain says Come! to you, you shall cross land or sea to do my bidding. That's what he said. Then he opened a vein in his breast and pressed my mouth to it, so that I must either suffocate or swallow. Oh, my God. What have I done?
JONATHAN Nothing. You have done nothing.
VAN HELSING Madam Mina, let me give you a holy thing to keep you. In the name of the Father.
Sound: sizzle.
Sound: scream.
MINA Unclean! Unclean! Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh!
(A pause.)
Scene: asylum corridor.
Sound: teacup rattle.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE Dear Nana. I made a pot of tea for Mrs. Harker, because she sounded upset, and in my experience that's what tea's for. The Professor says nobody's to go in. I think that's fair.
DALE Renfield's gone quiet at last. I'll take him a cup after. I'm being a big help lately. Nobody's said so, but you can tell. Your grandson, Dale.
Scene: asylum corridor.
Sound: door creak.
DALE Tea, gentlemen? I made it for Mrs. Harker, but she doesn't sound like a tea person tonight.
SEWARD Not now, Tummins.
DALE Is Renfield up? I've poured him one too.
(A pause.)
QUINCEY (gentle) Give it here, son. I'll drink his.
Music: tender piano.
Scene: cellar.
Sound: wood crack.
VAN HELSING He has chosen this earth because it has been holy. So we defeat him with his own weapon. We make it more holy still.
Sound: box lid.
SEWARD Twenty-seven. Screw it down, Harker.
DALE I'd like it noted I signed for that one at Varna, on the boat, at Whitby and on the train. If anything's wrong with the earth, I'm the man to see.
JONATHAN Nothing is wrong with the earth, Dale. That's the trouble with it.
Sound: wood crack.
DALE Hold the lid, Professor. That's box one. I left a welcome home note on it the day we got in.
VAN HELSING Then the rats have it.
DALE Rats don't open envelopes. He's been going round reading them. You don't go round reading a man's notes unless you like him.
JONATHAN (gentle) He read all of mine as well, Dale.
DALE Then we're both in. That's good for the firm.
Sound: box lid.
VAN HELSING So. If it may be that with all the others we are so lucky, the sunset tonight may shine on madam Mina's forehead all white as ivory.
Sound: door slam.
Scene: dining room.
Sound: clock chime.
JONATHAN One o'clock. They should be back from Bermondsey by now.
SEWARD I still can't believe we're steering this whole hunt by Tummins's receipts.
VAN HELSING Every box he sign for, he sign twice, and keep the copy. He want his expenses. God uses what is to hand, friend John.
Sound: door knock.
Sound: letter fold.
VAN HELSING From madam Mina. Look out for D. He has just now, twelve forty-five, come from Carfax hurriedly and hastened towards the south. He seems to be going the round, and may want to see you.
JONATHAN Now, God be thanked, we shall soon meet!
VAN HELSING Do not rejoice as yet. What we wish for at the moment may be our undoing.
JONATHAN I care for nothing now except to wipe this brute from the face of creation. I'd sell my soul to do it!
VAN HELSING Hush, my child. God does not purchase souls in this wise. And the Devil, though he may purchase, does not keep faith.
(A pause.)
Scene: dining room.
Sound: door knock.
ARTHUR It's all right. We found both places. Six boxes in each, and we've destroyed them all.
DALE And I want to say, Bermondsey was very glad to see me. A man there remembered my face.
QUINCEY He remembered you owed him for a cab, son.
DALE Which I've put through as expenses, so really he's owed by the firm.
Sound: door lock.
VAN HELSING (whispering) Hush. All of you. Have your arms.
QUINCEY (whispering) Harker, by the door. Art, the window. Dale, under the table.
DALE (whispering) I'd rather stand. I want him to see I'm still with the firm.
QUINCEY (whispering) Under the table.
Sound: door creak.
Music: sting danger.
Sound: thud.
Sound: knife slash.
Sound: coins spill.
SEWARD (shouting) Back! In God's name, back!
Sound: window smash.
Sound: coin single.
THE COUNT You think to baffle me, you with your pale faces all in a row, like sheep in a butcher's. You shall be sorry yet, each one of you!
THE COUNT You think you have left me without a place to rest, but I have more. My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side.
THE COUNT Your girls that you all love are mine already. And through them you and others shall yet be mine, my creatures, to do my bidding and to be my jackals when I want to feed. Bah!
Sound: bolt slide.
JONATHAN (shouting) The stable! Quincey, the stable door!
Sound: door slam.
VAN HELSING We have learnt something. For all his brave words, he fears us. He fear time, he fear want. Else why does he take the money?
DALE Mr. Morris, was the gold mine? You said I'd be paid, and I'd hate to think my pay went out a window.
QUINCEY That was his, son.
DALE Then I'll hold it for him. He's very particular about money.
VAN HELSING Give it here, friend Dale.
DALE I'll want a receipt.
VAN HELSING You shall have one. Now. How many?
SEWARD Twenty-nine at Carfax. Twelve from Bermondsey and Mile End. Eight here. Forty-nine.
JONATHAN Fifty left the castle. I heard every one of them nailed down.
DALE Forty-nine, plus the one I sat on. That's the same thing as fifty.
VAN HELSING Which one did you sit on, friend Dale?
DALE The good one, on the boat. The only warm one in the hold. The lid had a little give in it, like it was breathing out.
(A pause.)
DALE Honestly, I'd like that one back. Best seat I ever had.
Music: sting horror.
Scene: sickroom night.
MINA (whispering) Jonathan. Wake up. Go and call the Professor.
JONATHAN (sleepy) Mina? What's wrong?
MINA Nothing. I want him to hypnotise me before the dawn. Then I can speak. Go quick, dearest, the time is getting close.
Sound: door creak.
(A pause.)
VAN HELSING Where are you?
MINA I do not know. Sleep has no place it can call its own.
VAN HELSING Friend Jonathan, the blind. Let the sun in. Now, madam. What do you hear?
MINA The lapping of water. It is gurgling by, and little waves leap. I can hear them on the outside.
JONATHAN A ship. God help us, a ship.
VAN HELSING Hush. What else?
MINA Men stamping overhead as they run about. The creaking of a chain. The check of the capstan falling into the ratchet.
MINA I am still. Oh, so still. It is like death.
(A pause.)
MINA (sleepy) Have I been talking in my sleep?
VAN HELSING He meant escape. Hear me, escape! One earth-box left, and a pack of men behind him like dogs after a fox. He take it on a ship, and he leave the land.
MINA Then why need we seek him further, when he's gone away from us?
VAN HELSING Because he can live for centuries, and you are but mortal woman. Time is now to be dreaded, since once he put that mark upon your throat.
Sound: thud.
Scene: london street.
A MAN Czarina Catherine, out of Doolittle's Wharf on the tide, for Varna. Gone, guv'nor. Bloomin' gone.
QUINCEY And the tall fellow with the straw hat?
A MAN Paid in gold. Wanted his box stowed just so. Then a fog come up round this wharf and nowhere else on the river. Never seen the like.
DALE Who signed for the box?
A MAN The mate.
DALE The mate. Not a professional. Mr. Morris, I want it on the record that this is the first one of his boxes I didn't sign for.
QUINCEY Noted, son. Varna it is.
Scene: dining room.
ARTHUR Rufus Smith, Lloyd's, London. Czarina Catherine reported entering Galatz at one o'clock today.
VAN HELSING Galatz. He has used her mind against us, and left us waiting here in Varna like fools. When does the next train start for Galatz?
MINA At six thirty tomorrow morning!
ARTHUR How on earth do you know?
MINA I'm the train fiend. At home in Exeter I always made up the time-tables for Jonathan.
VAN HELSING Wonderful woman!
Scene: train compartment.
MINA Wood creaking on wood, and cattle lowing, and water level with my ears. He's in an open boat, poled against the stream. The Sereth, and then the Bistritza. It runs up round the Borgo Pass.
ARTHUR Then I shall get a steam launch and follow him.
QUINCEY And I'll take horses up the bank, in case he lands. Jack, you ride with me.
VAN HELSING Friend Jonathan, go with Arthur. It is your right to destroy him. I take madam Mina by Bistritz, over the Borgo, to the castle itself.
JONATHAN Into the jaws of his death-trap? Not for the world! Not for Heaven or Hell!
VAN HELSING It is because I would save her from that place that I go.
DALE I'll go with the Professor. I know the area.
JONATHAN You were there three days, Dale. You never left your room.
DALE Then I know the room. If anybody needs that room found, I'm their man.
VAN HELSING Yes. Him I want with us. Close by madam Mina. Very close.
JONATHAN (sighing) Do as you will. We are in the hands of God.
DALE Mr. Harker, I'd say guide is above junior partner. Wouldn't you?
JONATHAN Far above, Dale.
Scene: snow pass.
Sound: footsteps snow.
Sound: wolves howl.
VAN HELSING In this ring you stay. Both of you. Whatever comes. Madam Mina, will you not come over to the fire?
MINA I cannot.
VAN HELSING (gentle) Good. Then none of them can either.
Sound: munch.
MINA Mr. Tummins, would you eat that a little farther off? I can't abide garlic.
DALE Not everybody's a sausage person. My Nana says it's a failure of character, but I think it's mostly the nose.
Sound: horses scream.
THE DARK WOMAN Come, sister. Come to us. Come! Come!
THE FAIR WOMAN Come, sister.
MINA (whispering) No. No, Professor. Do not go without. Here you are safe.
VAN HELSING But you? It is for you that I fear!
MINA Fear for me? Why fear for me? None safer in all the world from them than I am.
Music: sting horror.
DALE Ladies! Come in by the fire. There's room if the Professor tucks his legs in.
VAN HELSING (angry) Friend Dale. Sit down.
THE DARK WOMAN That one again.
THE FAIR WOMAN (disgusted) Pah. Not that one. Never that one.
DALE You remember me. The blankets? I never got the blankets, but I'm not going to bring it up.
(A pause.)
VAN HELSING The dawn. Thank God. Sleep now, madam Mina. Friend Dale, you keep the fire. Today I have work in that castle.
DALE If you see the Count, tell him I'm out front. He'll want to say hello.
Scene: snow pass.
DALE Mrs. Harker, you're asleep, so I'm going to practise on you. Mr. Hawkins, sir. I've taken fifty boxes across Europe, some of them twice, and I'd like a window.
DALE Not a big window. Just one that opens.
Sound: hammer stake.
Sound: scream.
(A pause.)
Sound: hammer stake.
Sound: scream.
(A pause.)
Sound: footsteps snow.
DALE Professor! Sit by the fire. I kept it going all morning with the carriage.
VAN HELSING You burn the carriage.
DALE Only the parts that weren't carriage-shaped. The horses weren't using it.
VAN HELSING Let me talk, friend Dale. I must say it to someone, and you are here, and madam Mina sleeps.
VAN HELSING Three I find. The first lay so full of life and beauty that I shudder, as though I come to do murder. And I wait, and wait. The waiting is the trap.
VAN HELSING Then through the snow comes a long low wail, so full of woe. Madam Mina, in her sleep. It wake me like a trumpet.
VAN HELSING It was butcher work. But at the last, in each face, peace. Then dust. And on the great tomb one word only. Dracula. In it I lay the Wafer. Never more can he lie there.
DALE Did you see his ladies? I wanted to say goodbye. They never let me get a word in.
VAN HELSING They are at home, friend Dale. All three. They do not go out any more.
DALE Did they say anything about me?
VAN HELSING No, friend Dale. Not one word.
DALE Shy to the last. Can't blame them, in this weather. Has Mrs. Harker eaten anything? She won't touch my sausage. I've stopped taking it personally.
VAN HELSING Good. That is good.
DALE Then you eat something. Here. Have the end of the sausage.
VAN HELSING (laughing) The sausage. Yes. Give it. Give me all of it.
Sound: munch.
MINA Come! Come away from this awful place! Let us go to meet my husband, who is, I know, coming towards us.
Scene: mountain night.
Sound: wolves howl.
QUINCEY Jack. Wake up. They've left the river.
SEWARD The box?
QUINCEY On a leiter-wagon, with a dozen Szgany round it, whipping like the Devil's behind them. Which I guess he is, in a manner of speaking.
SEWARD Then we ride to the death of someone. God alone knows who, or where, or how.
QUINCEY Somebody's got to. I gave Mrs. Harker my word, Jack. If it comes to it, I'll make all certain.
SEWARD You won't be alone.
QUINCEY Remember the pack that ran us at Tobolsk? I'd give a good deal for that again. That was only wolves.
Scene: snow pass.
Sound: wolves close.
Music: chase.
VAN HELSING They are racing for the sunset. We may be too late. God's will be done!
VAN HELSING But two horsemen come up from the south. Quincey and John, it must be. Take the glass, madam, quick, before the snow blots it out.
MINA Neither of them is Jonathan. Oh, to the north! It is Jonathan, riding hard!
VAN HELSING Then they are all converging.
DALE Is that my box? Give me the glass. I want to see who signed for it.
VAN HELSING Your revolver, madam. Have it ready.
MINA It is ready.
DALE If they're taking it up to the castle, somebody ought to tell them nobody's home.
Sound: wagon wheels.
Sound: whip crack.
JONATHAN (shouting) Halt!
QUINCEY (shouting) Halt!
A MAN (shouting) The sun! Drive for the sun! To the castle!
AN OLD MAN Knives! Round the cart! Round the cart!
ARTHUR Drop it! Every one of you, drop it!
Sound: rifle shot.
Sound: knife slash.
QUINCEY Ah! I'm all right. Harker, the lid! Get the lid!
Sound: wood crack.
Sound: box lid.
MINA (shouting) Jonathan! The sun is going!
Music: sting horror.
Sound: knife slash.
Sound: dust crumble.
(A pause.)
A MAN Away! Away! Leave it!
Sound: wagon wheels.
VAN HELSING Peace. At the last, in that face, peace. God be thanked for it.
JONATHAN Mina! Mina, are you hurt?
MINA Go to Quincey. Quick, Jonathan, he's bleeding through his fingers.
Sound: letter fold.
VAN HELSING (gentle) Friend Dale. Your little notes. Every one. Opened, and kept.
(A pause.)
QUINCEY I am only too happy to have been of any service.
QUINCEY Dale. I still owe you them Texas dollars.
DALE I'll put you down as paid, Mr. Morris. In full.
QUINCEY Oh, God! It was worth for this to die! Look! Look!
QUINCEY Now God be thanked that all has not been in vain! See! The snow is not more stainless than her forehead! The curse has passed away!
ARTHUR Amen.
SEWARD Amen.
(A pause.)
Scene: train compartment.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE Dear Nana. We're on the train home. I'm writing small because this pencil's nearly gone and I can't expense another one.
DALE Mr. Morris died in the snow. He was the only man on this whole trip who ever offered to pay me, so I'm naming my desk after him, once I get a desk.
DALE The Count went home after all. I never thanked him in person, but the Professor says he kept my notes, so I think we left it on good terms.
DALE Mrs. Harker's forehead is clean now. I didn't know it was dirty, but everybody cried, so I cried too. You want to be a team player.
DALE The Professor says I'm the safest man in England. I'm having that put on a card.
DALE Love, Dale. Junior partner.
Music: end credits dracula.