Mystery Tales, March 1940

  BLOOD FOR THE VAMPIRE DEAD

  by Robert Leslie Bellem

  Author of “Curse of the Lovely Torso,” etc.

  Was this then the horrible price Tim Croft must pay for his disbelief in devil-magic philtres?—

  forfeiture of his own lovely fiancee’s life-blood to the undead corpse of Haunted Hollow!

  Her lithe body swayed gently, and her flesh was fish-belly white!

  VER the wind’s midnight howling and the side of the hospital proper. He slid his feet into worn demoniac swirl of the mountain rainstorm came slippers, made a light, crossed the cabin’s single room Othe frantic cry of a man harassed by some and opened the rough, hard-hewn door.

  hideous mental torment. “Doc Croft! For God’s sake

  A spindrift of rain flurried at him, and with it came

  open up afore hit’s too late!”

  the man who had called out so despairingly. He was Jeb

  Tim Croft, recently assigned by the state health Starko from up in Haunted Hollow, a mile beyond the authorities to take charge of this tiny charity hospital in ridge—an area bedeviled, according to local the deep Ozarks, came abruptly awake as he heard the superstition, by ghosts and similar evil creatures of the agonized call punctuated by an insistent hammering on night. Soaked to the skin, his unshaven face pasty with the front door of his cabin, which was located to one fear, Starko stumbled over the threshold. “You got to

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  stop ‘em, doc!” he mouthed. “They’re a-comin’ to git

  Tim Croft peered into the storm and saw a group of

  my Eula!”

  grim-visaged men slogging forward through the ankle-

  “Coming to get your wife? But she’s—” Tim Croft deep mud. Three carried lanterns, while the remaining choked back the gloomy news he had for the pair bore a limp burden that sagged gruesomely between mountaineer. “Who’s coming, and why?” he demanded.

  them. It was the inert form of a young girl, stripped stark

  “The Ludwells from down in the flats, damn ‘em! naked and horribly pallid in the lantern glow.

  They’re a-sayin’ as how Eula is a witch-vampire like the

  Some inner sixth sense told Croft that the unclad girl

  hants that roam the ridge, an’ they’re aimin’ to kill her. was dead, and apprehension seized him when he They’ll do for you an’ your nurses, too, if you ain’t recognized her as Lige Ludwell’s daughter and saw the careful!”

  marks of a whiplash on her nude flesh. Lige was the

  Croft’s nostrils pinched in as he drew a deep breath. acknowledged leader of the Ludwell clan, the bearded The Ludwells were members of a clan which, from the and sullen herb-dispenser responsible for most of the very outset, had fiercely resented his coming to the bad feeling against the hospital. But what had caused his region as only the deeply superstitious can resent girl’s death, and why should he bring her body here?

  progress. More than once they had muttered dark threats

  The five surly mountaineers halted outside the door,

  against him because of his efforts to educate the natives and glowering Lige Ludwell stepped forward a truculent away from their old beliefs in herbs and charms and pace. “We-uns got business with you, doc,” he devil-magic philtres. If it were really true that they were announced savagely.

  now on their way to the hospital, then trouble was

  “What kind of business?”

  definitely brewing.

  “We-uns want the witch-vampire.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  HERE was an old revolver in the top drawer of Tim

  “Yes, you do. Hit’s Eula Starko we-uns air after. She

  TCroft’s desk. He got it and thrust it into the pocket vampired my datter, here. She kilt her an’ drank up her of his bathrobe. Then he pivoted as he heard scurrying blood.” He gestured toward the pallid corpse held by his footfalls behind him. His day nurse, Brenda Lemoyne, clansmen.

  came pelting into the room, clad in a slicker over her

  Croft’s eyes narrowed. “There’s no such thing as a

  nightgown. Daintily blonde and alluringly pretty, she witch-vampire. That’s nonsense.”

  panted: “Tim, darling, what’s wrong? I heard a

  “No hit ain’t, Doc Croft. You’re a-harborin’ Eula

  commotion—”

  Starko here in your horspital an’ you know she’s a

  His arm went possessively about her slender waist. blood-drinkin’ vampire. She hexed my datter up to the Some day Brenda would be his wife, when he had holler tonight an’ kilt her. Now we-uns air aimin’ to take achieved a promotion to some more important post; and her away from you an’ drive a hick’ry stake through her because his love for her was so great, he frowned heart, by God!”

  uneasily at her presence in his quarters now. “You

  Jeb Starko clutched at Croft’s arm. “Don’t let ‘em git

  should have stayed in your cabin with Edith Paxon,” he my Eula!” he choked. “She hain’t no witch-vampire.

  said gravely, referring to the nurse who shared duty with She—she’s jest sick.”

  Brenda.

  “No, Jeb. I won’t let them take her. But she isn’t

  “But—but Edith isn’t there. I looked for her before I sick. It’s worse than that.” Tim Croft turned to the came over here, but I couldn’t find her. Tim—tell me Ludwells. “I can prove you’re wrong when you accuse what the trouble is!”

  Eula Starko of killing your girl tonight. You see, Eula

  “The Ludwells are on their way here.”

  died at four o’clock this afternoon.”

  “The Ludwells? Oh, Tim, I—I’m frightened!”

  “I’ll handle them,” he said evenly.

  WILD cry surged from Jeb Starko’s thin throat.

  A

  She shivered as she clung to him. “Maybe you won’t

  “My Eula—dead? God, why didn’t you tell me?”

  be able to. You know how they hate us, Tim. And that

  “Hold it, Jeb. We did everything we possibly could

  Lige Ludwell is . . . dangerous. Only today, down in the for her. I told you at the start that she was suffering from village, somebody told me Lige turned his own daughter nephrosis. That’s an extremely rare disease, and very out into the storm after whipping her with a leather few cases ever pull through. You knew the treatment we strap—because she’d fallen in love with a boy Lige were giving her. I’m sorry, old fellow. It wasn’t disliked. A man capable of doing a thing like that is anybody’s fault. It was just Eula’s time to go, I guess.”

  capable of doing . . . uglier things.”

  Starko shambled out into the rain, dazed, his bony

  Croft summoned a smile. “Maybe they won’t come shoulders shaking, his sobs rising above the wail of the here, after all.”

  wind. Meanwhile, Lige Ludwell came pushing into the

  Even as he spoke the words, the trembling Jeb Starko cabin, bearded jaw jutting pugnaciously. “You say the pointed through the open doorway toward the road. witch-vampire’s dead. We-uns don’t believe you. We-

  “Don’t fool yourself, doc. Here they be now!”

  uns want to see her corpse.”

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  “I’m not compelled to show it to you, but I’m willing

  “That’s crazy talk!” Croft snapped. He was growing

  to let you look at her, just to prove my point,” Croft tired of this superstitious palaver, this sinister harping on answered steadily. “First, though, I’ll examine your witches and vampires. Another ten or fifteen minutes of daughter. I want to know what caused her death.”

  it and he’d be getting jittery himself. He stood upright.

  They brought the Ludwell girl into the room and “Eula’s body is still in the hospital building where I left placed her naked body on the floor. And then Brenda her when she died. I couldn’t make any arrangements for Lemoyne gasped: “Tim—look!” She pointed a trembling removing her corpse on account of the storm. Now come forefinger.

  with me, all of you. I’ll prove what I’m saying.”

  He felt his scalp tightening. Marring the too-white

  Muttering, the Ludwells permitted themselves to be

  flesh of the dead girl’s throat, full over the jugular vein, herded out into the rain. Brenda Lemoyne kept very were four deep incisions that looked as if they might close to Tim Croft, while Jeb Starko trailed along have been made by the teeth of some sharp-fanged behind. They crossed the clearing to the hospital beast!

  building, a low, one-story structure of hewn logs, just

  “Good God!” Tim Croft whispered as he went to his large enough to accommodate four beds, a surgery and a knees for a closer inspection of the wounds. Then he dispensary. Croft opened the front door, waved the looked at the clansmen who clustered around him. “How others in, and made a light.

  did this happen? Tell me about it!”

  Brenda Lemoyne’s hand flew to her mouth. “Tim!”

  Lige Ludwell snarled: “Reckon mebbe you’ll be a- she gasped. Her frightened gaze went to the mussed bed changin’ your mind about witch-vampires now. where Jeb Starko’s lovely young wife had reposed in Anybody can tell what kind of thing made them tooth- death’s stillness. “Her body—it’s gone, Tim! Gone!”

  marks.”

&nbs

p; It was true. The bed was empty. Cold sweat formed

  “Will you forget the witch-vampires and answer my on Tim Croft’s palms, and he stifled the startled oath question? I want to know how this happened.”

  that leaped to his lips as he stared about the room. For a

  “How do we know? We-uns jest found her a-hangin’ dead woman to vanish, to disappear into thin air of her to a tree limb in the holler by Haunted Creek. A-hangin’ own volition, was obviously impossible. Yet, apparently, upside down, by God, an’ still warm to the touch. An’ that was what had happened.

  she’d been bled white, jest the way you see her now. But

  “Eula! My Eula!” Jeb Starko strangled. He wheeled

  there warn’t no blood on the airth underneath her. ”

  to face the scowling Ludwell clan. “You-all took her,

  Croft blurted out the first words that popped into his damn your souls to hell! One of you came here an’ stole mind. “Of course there wouldn’t be any blood. The rain her away while the rest was a-talkin’ to Doc Croft!

  washed it away, naturally. All the same, this is murder. You—you—”

  Somebody killed the girl and then tried to make it look

  He would have leaped to attack the five burly

  like the work of a vampire in order to alibi himself.” His clansmen, but Tim Croft grabbed him, pinioned him and mouth compressed, “I heard you whipped her and kicked fought him to calmness. And then Lige Ludwell, her out of your house today because she was having a prowling toward the far end of the room, emitted a love affair. Maybe—”

  sudden roaring yell of triumph. “Come an’ look at this!”

  Ludwell let out a bellow of rage. “Air you accusin’ he shouted. “I reckon you’ll believe me now when I say me of killin’ my own datter? We-uns will git even with Eula Starko is a witch-vampire!”

  you for that, Doc Croft! Mark my words, you an’ your

  Everyone raced to the door through which Lige

  nurses will wish you’d never set foot in these here pointed, with the doctor in the lead. At the threshold, mountains afore I git through with you!” He balled his Croft froze in horror. “God in heaven!” he whispered as fists and looked ready to spring, his eyes glowing like he stared into the surgery; and then he tried to shield the those of some feral animal.

  gruesome sight from Brenda Lemoyne.

  In the little white-walled room the missing night-

  ROFT drew his revolver, cocked it. “Keep your nurse, Edith Paxon, hung suspended upside down and Cdistance, Ludwell. I didn’t make any accusations. I naked from an overhead rafter, her curvesome body merely stated a fact. As for your threats—well, you’re swaying gently, like a pendulum, and her flesh a horrible already trying to start trouble. By blaming the murder of fish-belly white. Exactly like the wounds on the throat of your daughter on Eula Starko, you’re hoping to stir up a Lige Ludwell’s daughter, there were a series of sharp lot of ill will toward the hospital because we harbored incisions over Edith Paxon’s jugular, and ruby rivulets her, as you call it. Well, I can put a stop to that. I’ve ran down from the punctures to drip slowly on the floor.

  already told you that Eula died at four o’clock this But the flow of blood had almost ceased; and that was a afternoon. You say you found your girl later tonight— strange thing, because in spite of the obvious fact that still warm. Dead people don’t commit murders.”

  the nurse’s veins had been completely drained, there was

  “Witch-vampires kin. Because they don’t die. Not practically no blood on the floor beneath her head. Just a really.”

  few spattered drops, and that was all!

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  RENDA LEMOYNE trembled against Tim Croft.

  Something leaped at him from the surrounding

  B“Darling . . . can it be true? Did Eula Starko come darkness, and a bludgeoning blow took him over the back from death to drink Edith’s blood . . .?”

  skull. Blinding lights cascaded through his brain, and he

  “No!” he rasped. “It’s not so! It can’t be!” He felt himself falling. As if from some other world, he grabbed for a stethoscope, jammed it against the slain heard Brenda shrilly screaming. He tried to right nurse’s heart and could find no trace of pulse-beat. himself, to go to her aid. But smothering blackness

  “She’s dead,” he announced grimly. “And I’m going swooped down on him, enfolded him. He toppled into down to report this to the sheriff! Come on, Brenda. the mud and lay there, unconscious.

  We’re getting out of here. Don’t you Ludwells touch

  anything,” he warned.

  OW long it was before he regained his senses, he

  H

  “You needn’t worry,” Lige Ludwell retorted. “We-

  had no way of knowing. But when at last he

  uns air a-goin’ out to hunt the witch-vampire afore she staggered drunkenly to his feet, he was quite alone.

  does any more killin’. Follow me, boys.”

  Brenda Lemoyne wasn’t in the roadster. There was no

  Jeb Starko tried to block them. “I won’t let you do trace of her anywhere. “Brenda!” he shouted thickly.

  anything to Eula!” he cried. “Maybe she is what you-all “Brenda!”

  say. But she’s my wife, an’ I hain’t a-goin’ to let you—”

  She didn’t answer. He heard only the soughing of the

  Lige struck him, knocked him staggering. “Shet up, wind, the hissing pelt of raindrops in the scrub oak.

  you,” he growled ominously. Then he glared at Tim Sickened fear assailed him, then; fear, not for himself Croft and Brenda. “As for you two . . . well, your time’s but for the girl he loved. He remembered the dark, a-comin’. If you-all hadn’t harbored the witch-vampire, sinister threats uttered by Lige Ludwell, and he recalled none of this woulda happened.” He and his clan trooped how Lige’s daughter had died; how Edith Paxon had out and vanished in the storm. Jeb Starko slunk after died. Maybe Brenda was even now hanging suspended them like a whipped cur.

  head-downward somewhere, her life-blood being

  Croft took Brenda’s arm. “I hope the car will run,” drained from her veins, either by vengeful clansmen or he said slowly. “Something tells me we haven’t seen the by something worse . . . such as an undead vampire-last of this business tonight.” He led her toward the lean- corpse . . .

  to garage where he kept his rattletrap roadster.

  Until tonight, he would have scoffed at such an

  She crouched close to him in the car, as if seeking eldritch, hellish fancy. But in view of what had already the protection of his hard body. “Tim . . . I’m frightened. happened, a cold slime of horror slid into his marrow Do you think there could be such a thing as—what the when he considered the possibility that the Ludwells had Ludwells claim?”

  been right in accusing Eula Starko of vampirism. And

  “No. Of course not.” Secretly he wasn’t so sure. All while his reason rejected such an idea as fantastically his knowledge, all his scientific and medical training, impossible, his instinct compelled him to find out for rebelled against the belief that a dead woman could have himself; to learn the truth, one way or another. He arisen from her bed to kill two young girls and drink started running through the storm.

  their blood. And yet—how else could it have happened?

  The ridge lay to his left, and a tortuous footpath

  Who else could have been responsible? And where had traversed it, precariously leading to the Starko cabin in Eula Starko’s corpse gone?

  Haunted Hollow. Up this treacherous path he stumbled,

  “Tim!” Brenda faltered. “After we go to the village while branches flayed his face and snagged at his and report these th-things to the sheriff, let’s not come bathrobe and pajamas. Panting, winded, he presently back here tonight. Please!”

  gained the summit and started down, his feet slipping in

  “All right,” he patted her cheek. “We won’t come the oozy muck. Then, dead ahead, he saw a light and back until daylight, my dear.” He stepped on the starter, realized that he had gained his destination. The Starko and the motor responded with a heartening clatter. He shack was before him.

  headed for the muddy, deep-rutted road; saw no trace of

  Silently he stole toward it; reached the uncurtained

  the Ludwells. It was as if the night had opened up and window. He peered in—and felt the short hairs prickling swallowed them.

  at the nape of his neck. “My God!” he breathed.

 

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