Page 457 - DRACULA

Dracula

that before he had shaken the life out of a score, the other
dogs, who had by now been lifted in the same manner,
had but small prey ere the whole mass had vanished.
With their going it seemed as if some evil presence had

departed, for the dogs frisked about and barked merrily as
they made sudden darts at their prostrate foes, and turned
them over and over and tossed them in the air with
vicious shakes. We all seemed to find our spirits rise.
Whether it was the purifying of the deadly atmosphere by
the opening of the chapel door, or the relief which we
experienced by finding ourselves in the open I know not,
but most certainly the shadow of dread seemed to slip
from us like a robe, and the occasion of our coming lost
something of its grim significance, though we did not
slacken a whit in our resolution. We closed the outer door
and barred and locked it, and bringing the dogs with us,
began our search of the house. We found nothing
throughout except dust in extraordinary proportions, and
all untouched save for my own footsteps when I had made
my first visit. Never once did the dogs exhibit any
symptom of uneasiness, and even when we returned to the
chapel they frisked about as though they had been rabbit
hunting in a summer wood.

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