Frank R. Strayer

“ I've jested about this vampire business because my better judgment told me it was a lot of nonsense. Then I had reached the point where I was willing to accept even that, because it seemed to satisfy the equation.
Doctor von Niemann
All of it was a bit superstitious.
Karl Brettschneider
I don't know which way to turn—where to look, what to look for! Why should anyone want human blood? Why? Why?
Doctor von Niemann
Calm yourself, Karl.
Karl Brettschneider
Calm myself? Calm myself? With all these unsolved murders staring me in the face, and no solution in sight? ”

“ Let us suppose that these corpses do not actually stir from their tombs, but only the ghosts or spirits appear to the living. Wherefore do these phantoms present themselves and what is it that energizes them? Is it actually the soul of the dead man which has not yet departed to its final destination? ”

“ The Bürgermeister and his grand council still stick to the vampire theory, hm?
Karl Brettschneider
Stick to it? Ha! They're quoting history to prove it. I think you and Doctor von Niemann are the only sane people left in the village.
Ruth Bertin
And you? What about you?
Karl Brettschneider
Me? Well, I'm beginning to think I'm seven different kinds of a fool. Murders are being done under my very nose. I must be as blind as the bats themselves. I can't find a single clue. ”

“ Hermann Gleib
Martha give me apples. I like!
Martha's caretaker
Shh!
Doctor von Niemann
She wants her cross.
Hermann Gleib
Hermann get. Hermann get. Here. Here now. There. For Martha. There. No.
Martha's caretaker
She won't let it out of her sight.
Doctor von Niemann
A terrible experience. To be attacked by a giant bat is enough to shatter anyone's nerves.
Martha's caretaker
She talks about it all the time—how it flew in her face and tried to sink its teeth in her throat.
Hermann Gleib
No, no, no, no! Bats no do. They soft, like cat. They not bite Hermann. ”

“ Doctor von Niemann
A certain species, yes. There are vampire bats. Doctor William Jameson, who explored many of the tributaries of the upper Amazon, states that bloodsucking bats do exist. He further asserts the victims often become blood drinkers themselves, citing a case in which he saw a native tortured to death on an ant hill by his tribe brothers. They swore he had become a human bat. And, states Jameson, he confessed it.
Karl Brettschneider
Do you mean to say that such a thing as a human vampire is possible? ”

“ Have they located Hermann yet?
Karl Brettschneider
No, not a trace of him. I hate to think of that poor misfit being hunted down like a dog. You know, I simply can't bring myself to believe in that vampire theory.
Doctor von Niemann
Here, will you pour, Ruth?
Ruth Bertin
Certainly.
Doctor von Niemann
I know, Karl. Our saner, calmer judgment tells us that such things can't be, and yet...here, for instance, in this ponderous tome are cited 1,001 phobias and complexes that human beings are heir to. Some of them are strange, more untenable even than werewolves and vampires. ”

“ Karl Brettschneider
Well, that ends the vampire theory as far as I'm concerned. Hermann Gleib died in the accepted fashion for killing a vampire. Oh, no, there's some human agency at work here, Doctor—a madman, who kills to satisfy some violent, sadistic urge. ”

“ Karl Brettschneider
Well, all the records in the world can't make me believe in vampires. There are bloodsucking bats, yes—in South America, thousands of miles from here, but not in Kleinschloss.
Weingarten
But bats fly. They could fly here.
Bürgermeister Gustave Schoen
You saw the bodies, all of them—two wounds on the neck right at the jugular vein; two wounds on the neck pierced and spread apart just as if two fang-like teeth had bitten through the flesh and right into the veins ”

“ Maybe he's the vampire.
Doctor von Niemann
Now, don't start any gossip with that, Kringen. Heaven only knows where it might end!
Doctor von Niemann
Goodnight.
Kringen
Goodnight, sir.
Doctor von Niemann
All right.
Hermann Gleib
There. Now. Soft. Nice. There. There.
Kringen
You see? What did I tell you?
Bürgermeister Gustave Schoen
Perhaps there's something in what Kringen says.
Sauer
Seems strange that a human being should want to play with bats.
Hermann Gleib
Aah!
Stube
Kringen
He isn't human, I tell you! He's in league with the devil!
Sauer
Yes.
Martha Mueller
Put it on. ”

“ Kringen said Hermann would get him and he did.
Bürgermeister Gustave Schoen
Well, Brettschneider?
Karl Brettschneider
I appoint you my deputy. Organize a searching party and comb this countryside from one end to the other. Find Hermann Gleib and bring him in but don't harm him. Do you understand?
Sauer
What good will that do? He is the vampire. There's only one thing for us to do when we find him—kill him and drive a stake through his heart. ”

“ She does know how to make good coffee. Thank you. She brings it to me every night at exactly 10 o'clock. And when I've drunk it all, then I know it's time to quit.
Ruth Bertin
Yes, and eat breakfast so you can have more coffee.
Doctor von Niemann
No.
Gussie Schnappmann
Georgiana, you mustn't lie like that.
Gussie Schnappmann
You'll get yourself a torticollis—you know, stiff neck. Georgiana? Ahh!
Ruth Bertin
That was Auntie!
Ruth Bertin
Auntie!
Gussie Schnappmann
Oh, my god! I'm all right. I'm all right now. I was...
Karl Brettschneider
Emil, help Frau Schnappmann to her room. ”

“ Von Else last night, five others before him—that's six, within as many weeks, Inspector. Our friends, neighbors that we've known for years, drained of their life's blood, found dead in bed, lifeless skeletons of skin and bone. Vampires are at large, I tell you—vampires. ”

“ Does that appear the mark of a human being or a demon's?
Weingarten
God save us—the devils.
Karl Brettschneider
You ought to make a pretty fair meal for a vampire. But let's be consistent. Are these human vampires or...or bats?
Sauer
Vampires can take the shape of a human or a bat, just as they choose. ”