Thus, in a difficulty he has to seek resource in habitHis past is a clue, and the one page of it that we know, and that from his own lips, tells that once before, when in what MrMorris would call a 'tight place,' he went back to his own country from the land he had tried to invade, and thence, without losing purpose, prepared himself for a new effortHe came again better equipped for his work, and wonSo he came to London to invade a new landHe was beaten, and when all hope of success was lost, and his existence in danger, he fled back over the sea to his homeJust as formerly he had fled back over the Danube from Turkey Land
"Good, good! Oh, you so clever lady!" said Van Helsing, enthusiastically, as he stooped and kissed her handA moment later he said to me, as calmly as though we had been having a sick room consultation, "Seventy-two only, and in all this excitement
Turning to her again, he said with keen expectation, "But go onGo on! There is more to tell if you willI do in any case, and shall tell you if you are rightSpeak, without fear!"
"I will try toBut you will forgive me if I seem too egotistical
"Nay! Fear not, you must be egotist, for it is of you that we think
"Then, as he is criminal he is selfishAnd as his intellect is small and his action is based on selfishness, he confines himself to one purposeThat purpose is remorselessAs he fled back over the Danube, leaving his forces to be cut to pieces, so now he is intent on being safe, careless of allSo his own selfishness frees my soul somewhat from the terrible power which he acquired over me on that dreadful nightI felt it! Oh, I felt it! Thank God, for His great mercy! My soul is freer than it has been since that awful hourAnd all that haunts me is a fear lest in some trance or dream he may have used my knowledge for his ends
The Professor stood up, "He has so used your mind, and by it he has left us here in Varna, whilst the ship that carried him rushed through enveloping fog up to Galatz, where, doubtless, he had made preparation for escaping from usBut his child mind only saw so farAnd it may be that as ever is in God's Providence, the very thing that the evil doer most reckoned on for his selfish good, turns out to be his chiefest harmThe hunter is taken in his own snare, as the great Psalmist saysFor now that he think he is free from every trace of us all, and that he has escaped us with so many hours to him, then his selfish child brain will whisper him to sleepHe think, too, that as he cut himself off from knowing your mind, there can be no knowledge of him to youThere is where he fail! That terrible baptism of blood which he give you makes you free to go to him in spirit, as you have as yet done in your times of freedom, when the sun rise and setAt such times you go by my volition and not by hisAnd this power to good of you and others, you have won from your suffering at his handsThis is now all more precious that he know it not, and to guard himself have even cut himself off from his knowledge of our whereWe, however, are not selfish, and we believe that God is with us through all this blackness, and these many dark hoursWe shall follow him, and we shall not flinch, even if we peril ourselves that we become like himFriend John, this has been a great hour, and it have done much to advance us on our wayYou must be scribe and write him all down, so that when the others return from their work you can give it to them, then they shall know as we do
And so I have written it whilst we wait their return, and MrsHarker has written with the typewriter all since she brought the MS to us
CHAPTER 26
DRSEWARD'S DIARY
29
shop October