- [an old folk rhyme about vampire detection]
- Captain Kronos: If a vampire should bestrode / Close to the grave of a dead toad / Then the vampire life shall give / And suddenly, the toad shall live.
- Hieronymous Grost: It is commonly supposed that a vampire attacks in only one way - by biting the neck and draining the victim of blood.
- Marcus: But that's true!
- Hieronymous Grost: The girls you spoke of - they were not drained of blood but of youth, of life itself. You see, doctor, there are as many species of vampire as there are beasts of prey. Their methods and their motive for attack can vary in a hundred different ways.
- Captain Kronos: As can the methods of their destruction!
- [Kronos's friend Grost, who is a hunchback, has just been mocked for this by Kerro, the village ruffian, and his two companions]
- Kronos: To make sport of a physical affliction is both impolite and cruel. After all, I wouldn't dream of calling you
- [to the man on Kerro's right]
- Kronos: Rat Face, or
- [to the man on Kerro's left]
- Kronos: Fatty, or
- [to Kerro himself]
- Kronos: Big Mouth!
- Kerro: [making sport of Grost] Hey you... humpback! How do you sleep at night. On your belly, or in a hammock?
- Fatty: Or do you dig a hole in the ground and put your hump in it!