Jamison is about to open the coffin when he hears someone enter the house upstairs.
Dirk looks very much the worse for wear, with blood streaming from the puncture wounds in his neck. Barn orders him to sit down. Dirk asks why Barn hasn't killed him. You're more useful to me alive than dead, Barn says. Dirk's assignment: To convince Jamison that everything he (D.) told him (J.) was a lie.
Downstairs, Jamison decides it's time to go.
What happens if I refuse? Dirk asks, but he knows it’s really only an academic question. You can’t, Barnabas reminds him. You have no will of his own. I am your will, and you will do what I ask you to do. It may be too late, Dirk points out. No, Barnabas says. Do you think Jamison may have told someone? Yes, Dirk replies gleefully, but if he really does have no will of his own, he should be terrified at the prospect of Barnabas’s exposure. If Jamison has told anyone else, Barnabas warns, the first think I’ll do is kill you.
Jamison stumbles on the stairs. With his supernaturally keen hearing, Barn realizes he has an additional visitor. He goes to see who it is. Jamison hides behind the metal door when Barnabas opens it and goes downstairs, then he slips out the front door. Dirk is too far gone to notice him. Barn looks around downstairs but finds no one. He pops Dirk into the secret room behind the bookcase under the stairs.
Jamison marches into the Great House. Beth tries to get him to go to bed, but Jamison insists on waiting up for his father in the drawing room. Beth says she's going upstairs, but once she's out in the foyer she grabs a shawl and leaves the house.
Barnabas visits Dirk and finds him inexplicably weaker, not stronger. Beth hurries in to warn Barn that Jamison will undoubtedly blab to Edward, who is due home at 11:00. Beth takes one look at Dirk and realizes something is wrong. Barn admits that he went too far and that Dirk will not survive. Beth warns Barn again about Jamison, but Barn has a plan in case Edward comes to investigate. Everything seems so terribly hopeless, Beth says. Defeated, she sinks down onto the strange round purple settee.
Sure enough, the moment Edward returns, Jamison tells him that Dirk says that Cousin Barnabas is a vampire! Edward promises to investigate--after he takes Jamison upstairs.
When Edward arrives, Barnabas says he's shocked, shocked that Jamison believed Dirk--who after all is completely mad. I've never seen Jamison this scared, Edward says. You're a member of our family, and I won't believe anything without proof--but I must give Jamison the benefit of the doubt. What do you mean? Barnabas asks innocently. I'd like to look at your cellar, Edward replies. Jamison says he was there earlier and saw a coffin. I think you actually believe this story, says Barnabas softly. No, says Edward, I didn't say that. Take my word for it, Barnabas tells him--there is no coffin in my basement. Edward still insists on looking. My word is not enough? asks Barnabas, offended. Edward replies, Under the circumstances, not enough for Jamison, and he's the one I must deal with.
Barnabas takes Edward downstairs, but of course the coffin is long gone. Edward is puzzled, but Barnabas tells him, I think Dirk was bitter about being dismissed by Judith, and wanted to get back at the family, so he told this wild story about me. Perhaps his story wasn’t so wild, Edward muses. Surely you don’t think there is a vampire menacing all of us? Barnabas asks. There was a time I would have though it impossible, Edward replies, but since learning the truth about Laura … I can no longer dismiss the supernatural as a figment of the imagination. Then there are those strange, unexplainable attacks both here and in town. Charity Trask was one of the victims, if you recall. I do indeed, Barnabas replies. She had those strange marks on her throat, Edward continues, and the doctors couldn't explain how they were inflicted. Do you think they were made by a vampire? Barnabas asks. I don't know, Edward says, but I intend to find out, and very soon. How? Barnabas asks. I plan to track down Dirk Wilkins, Edward declares. I’m going to find out exactly what he told Jamison and demand to see whatever evidence he has. Edward goes upstairs and leaves. Barnabas remains in the cellar, thinking over their conversation.
As soon as Edward is gone, Beth comes downstairs, full of concern. I’m safe, Barnabas tells her, but only for the moment. Edward refused to believe there’s no vampire and will pursue it till he is satisfied. Then he smiles as he adds, And we must make him satisfied. Edward is looking for a vampire. Well, we will give him one. Dirk will not live out the night, but will die and rise as a vampire. I will see that Edward finds Dirk and destroys him. Then the matter will be closed and my secret safe. Pleased with his solution to the problem and apparently forgetting how “soft-hearted” Beth is, Barnabas instructs her to stay with Dirk until the end.
Upstairs, Barnabas forgets to work the latch and simply opens the bookcase. But it doesn’t matter, because the secret room is empty. Dirk is gone!....
