Dracula Chapter 25 Summary

Dr. Seward's Diary, October 11

That evening, Mina calls them all together around sunset (when she's best able to talk without restraint or influence from the Count).
She asks them to promise that they'll kill her if she gets vampire-y.
They all promise, even Jonathan.
Then she asks them to read the burial service to her, in case she's too vampire-y in the future to have it read at her funeral.
Jonathan reads it, and everyone gets all choked up.

They're in Varna, now (a port on the Black Sea), waiting for the Czarina Catherine to arrive.
Van Helsing has been hypnotizing Mina every day at sunrise and sunset, just to check on where the Count is.
The answer is always the same: He's still in his box on a boat.
They bribe the officials at the port to keep them posted on the Czarina Catherine's progress and to warn them when the ship is getting close.

Still waiting.
But they receive a telegram saying that the Czarina Catherine just entered the Dardanelles (the narrow strip of water separating the Black Sea from the Mediterranean).

He's writing in his journal by hand, now, because the phonograph was too big and clunky to take on the long trip.
Everyone's excited that Dracula's ship is so close—only 24 hours away, tops.
Dr. Seward and Van Helsing are worried about Mina: She's sometimes restless, and sometimes sleepy, but rarely like her old self.

Still no word of the ship. It should be in the port by now.
Mina still reports that she hears "lapping water," so they know the Count is still in the boat somewhere…

They receive a telegram that the Czarina Catherine has arrived in Galatz, a different port city.
The next train for Galatz leaves early the next morning.
Mina feels better and freer than she has in a long time—it's like the weight of the Count's influence has been lifted.
Van Helsing thinks that the Count has realized that they've been using the connection with Mina to their advantage, and has withdrawn his influence.
This is good and bad: It's better for Mina, but now they can't hypnotize her to check on where the Count is.
So they have to deduce where the Count is going to go based on what they know about him already.
Van Helsing and Dr. Seward compare the Count's mind to a criminal's and use what they know about criminal psychology to guess where he'll go next.

READ THE BOOK: Chapter 25