ng
to do our duty in a very sad and terrible case, we can only do as we
deem best. What else have we to hope for, except the pity of the good
God?"

Lord Godalming had slipped away for a few minutes, but now he
returned. He held up a little silver whistle as he remarked, "That
old place may be full of rats, and if so, I've got an antidote on
call."

Having passed the wall, we took our way to the house, taking care to
keep in the shadows of the trees on the lawn when the moonlight shone
out. When we got to the porch the Professor opened his bag and took
out a lot of things, which he laid on the step, sorting them into four
little groups, evidently one for each. Then he spoke.

"My friends, we are going into a terrible danger, and we need arms of
many kinds. Our enemy is not merely spiritual. Remember that he has
the strength of twenty men, and that, though our necks or our
windpipes are of the common kind, and therefore breakable or
crushable, his are not amenable to mere strength. A stronger man, or
a body of men more strong in all than him, can at certain times hold
him, but they cannot hurt him as we can be hurt by him. We must,
therefore, guard ourselves from his touch. Keep this near your
heart." As he spoke he lifted a little silver crucifix and held it
out to me, I being nearest to him, "put these flowers round your
neck," here he handed to me a wreath of withered garlic blossoms, "for
other enemies more mundane, this revolver and this knife, and for aid
in all, these so small electric lamps, which you can fasten to your
breast, and for all, and above all at the last, this, which we must
not desecrate needless."

This was a portion of Sacred Wafer, which he put in an envelope and
handed to me. Each of the others was similarly equipped.

"Now," he said, "friend John, where are the skeleton keys? If so that
we can open the door, we need not break house by the window, as before
at Miss Lucy's."

Dr. Seward tried one or two skeleton keys, his mechanical dexterity as
a surgeon standing him in good stead. Presently he got one to suit,
after a little play back and forward the bolt yielded, and with a
rusty clang, shot back. We pressed on the door, the rusty hinges
creaked, and it slowly opened. It was startlingly like the image
conveyed to me in Dr. Seward's diary of the opening of Miss Westenra's
tomb, I fancy that the same idea seemed to strike the others, for with
one accord they shrank back.