After a pause Van Helsing went on, evidently with an effort:⁠—

“Miss Lucy is dead; is it not so? Yes! Then there can be no wrong to her. But if she be not dead⁠—”

Arthur jumped to his feet.

“Good God!” he cried. “What do you mean? Has there been any mistake; has she been buried alive?” He groaned in anguish that not even hope could soften.

“I did not say she was alive, my child; I did not think it. I go no further than to say that she might be Un-Dead.”