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CHAPTER 8: Lucy Sleepwalks to the Cemetery

The storm left Whiby as quickly as it had come, as though it had accomplished its one and only purpose. It turned out the strange ship was Russian, called th 'Demeter', and carried a very unusual cargo - a number of great wooden boxes fill with dirt. Members of a firm came by a few days laters with papers proving that they had been hired to pick up and transport the boxes. The police authorized their removal.

In the dead captain' pocket, the police found a bottle containing a note. Written shortly before he died, the note told a tale of a fearful crew whose members had gone missing one by one. Someone had reported seeing a tall, thin, pale man - not one of them - aboard. A search, however, revealed no one.

The note told of fog growing and engines failing and still more man disappearing. Finally only the captain and one man were left, a Romanain who claimed not only to have seen the tall, pale stranger but to have stabbed him with a knife - only to have the blade slice right through him, as if through the air!

"he is probably hiding in one of those boxes!" the Romanain cocluded, vowing to go down and search every singel case. Only a few minutes later, however, the captain heard a horrible scream followed by the Romanain running back up on deck.

"Save me!" he had cried, according to the note in the captain's pocket, his eyes bulging with fear. The captain had watched with horror as the Romanain ran to the rail and threw hiself to his death in the cold water below, claiming that only the sea could save him now.

Finally the note related, the captain saw the pale man, too. "But I will not  leave my wheel," the note concluded. "No matter what happens, this evil monster cannot make me!"

No one knew what to make up the note. Had the captain been insane?

The entire town attended his funeral, except, that is, for poor Mr. Swales. He had been found dead that mornong, sitting on the women's favorite seat in the cemetery. He had died of fright, the doctor said. His face still had the expression of someone staring at something horrible. What could he had possibly seen?

The night of the funeral, Mina was so tired that she slept deeply and did not hear Lucy get up and sleepwalks down the stairs and outside.

When Mina awoke she found her friend gone. She had a feeling where Lucy could be. Grabbing a heavy shawl, she ran toward the cliffs and the cemetery. Sure enough, as she approached and the moon peeked out from behind a cloud, ahe could see her friend in the distance, pale in her white nightdress, sitting upon their favorite headstone seat.

But what was that behind her, that long, dark thng seeming to bend over her? A shadow from s cloud? Some kind of man or beast? Mina ran as fast as she could and, upon arriving, confirmed it: Something long and dark was bending over her half-reclining friend.

"Lucy!" she cried, and the dark thing raised its head, revealing a white face and red, gleaming eyes. Or perhaps she herself was sleepwalking and dreaming? the cloud momentarily hid the moon again, making everything dark. When the moon came back, the monster was gone, and Lucy was still asleep. Mina shook her gently awake, and Lucy moaned and put her hand to her throat. She had probably caught a sore throat, Mina thought, from the chilly night air.

Giving Lucy ans shawl and pinning at her friend's throat with a safety pin. Mina led Lucy back to the inn. The next day Lucy seemed fine, except for two little pinpricks on her throat.

"I'm so sorry," Mina said. "I must have pricked you with my safety pin."

"Don't worry," Lucy said. "I didn't feel anything." But Mina was worried, for, over breakfast, Lucy descibed that she was certain must have been a dream, featuring the same long, dark figure with red eyes that Mina herslef had seen.

That night Mina locked the door to their room and kept the key on a string around her wrist, so that Lucy could not find it and leave the inn again. Lucy tried another route, however. Mina was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of the window latch being opened.

Mina went to get her friend and pull her away from the window. There in the sky between them and the moon, she could see a giant bat coming and going in great whirling circles.

"Go back to your bed," Mina said, shivering, and the sleeping Lucy obeyed.

Every night after that, Lucy continued to sleepwalk to the window. Once there, she would fall asleep, her head resting on the sill. One night Mina was awakened by the cold gust of the wind and sat up to see her friend sleeping there with a giant black bird sitting right near her friend's neck.

As the days progressed, Lucy grew paler and paler, possibly from the chill night air. And, upon catching a glimpse of her friend's neck one day, Mina noticed with concern that the pinbricks, far from healing, seemed to have gotten worse! If they did not heal soon, she would insist that Lucy see a doctor.