I was not so sleepy as I should have been, so before
they went I asked Dr. Seward to give me a little opiate
of some kind, as I had not slept well the night before.
He very kindly made me up a sleeping draught, which
he gave to me, telling me that it would do me no harm,
as it was very mild . . . I have taken it, and
am waiting for sleep, which still keeps aloof.
I hope I have not done wrong, for as sleep begins
to flirt with me, a new fear comes: that I may
have been foolish in thus depriving myself of the
power of waking. I might want it. Here
comes sleep. Goodnight.
JONATHAN HARKER’S JOURNAL
1 October, evening.—I found Thomas Snelling
in his house at Bethnal Green, but unhappily he was
not in a condition to remember anything. The
very prospect of beer which my expected coming had
opened to him had proved too much, and he had begun
too early on his expected debauch. I learned,
however, from his wife, who seemed a decent, poor
soul, that he was only the assistant of Smollet, who
of the two mates was the responsible person.
So off I drove to Walworth, and found Mr. Joseph
Smollet at home and in his shirtsleeves, taking a late
tea out of a saucer. He is a decent, intelligent
fellow, distinctly a good, reliable type of workman,
and with a headpiece of his own. He remembered
all about the incident of the boxes, and from a wonderful
dog-eared notebook, which he produced from some mysterious
receptacle about the seat of his trousers, and which
had hieroglyphical entries in thick, half-obliterated
pencil, he gave me the destinations of the boxes.
There were, he said, six in the cartload which he
took from Carfax and left at 197 Chicksand Street,
Mile End New Town, and another six which he deposited
at Jamaica Lane, Bermondsey. If then the Count
meant to scatter these ghastly refuges of his over
London, these places were chosen as the first of delivery,
so that later he might distribute more fully.
The systematic manner in which this was done made
me think that he could not mean to confine himself
to two sides of London. He was now fixed on
the far east on the northern shore, on the east of
the southern shore, and on the south. The north
and west were surely never meant to be left out of
his diabolical scheme, let alone the City itself and
the very heart of fashionable London in the south-west
and west. I went back to Smollet, and asked
him if he could tell us if any other boxes had been
taken from Carfax.
He replied, “Well guv’nor, you’ve
treated me very ’an’some”, I had
given him half a sovereign, “an I’ll tell
yer all I know. I heard a man by the name of
Bloxam say four nights ago in the ‘Are an’
’Ounds, in Pincher’s Alley, as ‘ow
he an’ his mate ’ad ’ad a rare dusty
job in a old ’ouse at Purfleet. There
ain’t a many such jobs as this ’ere, an’
I’m thinkin’ that maybe Sam Bloxam could
tell ye summut.”
