Stephen Harrigan

In Budapest, Van Helsing transferred to a local train that would take him deep into the mountains. In Brasov he met a daring coach driver who, on a previous research trip, had taken him as close to Dracula’s castle as it was safe to go. This time, Van Helsing wasn’t going to stop where it was safe. The driver sold Van Helsing a horse and offered his best guess for how to approach the castle with the least chance of being detected.

Quin and Erzsebet took the channel steamer to Calais, then traveled on to Paris by rail to board the new Orient Express to Brasov, near Dracula’s castle in Transylvania. It was for Quin an excruciatingly slow journey, especially at the junctions where they had to wait for the cars to be switched or when the train was forced to crawl upward over steep mountain passes. During the day Erzsebet stayed in her sleeping car with the shades drawn.

Of all the spectacular moments Buffalo Bill staged in London for his Wild West show, the most difficult to bring off was called the Cyclone. It was the last major scene—the destruction of a Rocky Mountain mining camp by a tornado. To create the illusion of the terrible storm, he deployed crashing thunder, flashing lights, and steam-driven fans that threw off pillars of dust and debris in the tornado’s destructive vortex.