Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - There is plenty of water, and the banks are wide...
There is plenty of water, and the banks are wide enough apart to make steaming, even in the dark, easy enoughLord Godalming tells me to sleep for a while, as it is enough for the present for one to be on watchBut I cannot sleep, how can I with the terrible danger hanging over my darling, and her going out into that awful place?
My only comfort is that we are in the hands of GodOnly for that faith it would be easier to die than to live, and so be quit of all the troubleSeward were off on their long ride before we startedThey are to keep up the right bank, far enough off to get on higher lands where they can see a good stretch of river and avoid the following of its curvesThey have, for the first stages, two men to ride and lead their spare horses, four in all, so as not to excite curiosityWhen they dismiss the men, which shall be shortly, they shall themselves look after the horsesIt may be necessary for us to join forcesIf so they can mount our whole partyOne of the saddles has a moveable horn, and can be easily adapted for Mina, if required
It is a wild adventure we are onHere, as we are rushing along through the darkness, with the cold from the river seeming to rise up and strike us, with all the mysterious voices of the night around us, it all comes homeWe seem to be drifting into unknown places and unknown waysInto a whole world of dark and dreadful thingsGodalming is shutting the furnace door?
31 October-Still hurrying alongThe day has come, and Godalming is sleepingThe morning is bitterly cold, the furnace heat is grateful, though we have heavy fur coatsAs yet we have passed only a few open boats, but none of them had on board any box or package of anything like the size of the one we seekThe men were scared every time we turned our electric lamp on them, and fell on their knees and prayed
1 November, eveningWe have found nothing of the kind we seekWe have now passed into the Bistritza, and if we are wrong in our surmise our chance is goneWe have overhauled every boat, big and littleEarly this morning, one crew took us for a Government boat, and treated us accordinglyWe saw in this a way of smoothing matters, so at Fundu, where the Bistritza runs into the Sereth, we got a Roumanian flag which we now fly conspicuouslyWith every boat which we have overhauled since then this trick has succeededWe have had every deference shown to us, and not once any objection to whatever we chose to ask or doSome of the Slovaks tell us that a big boat passed them, going at more than usual speed as she had a double crew on boardThis was before they came to Fundu, so they could not tell us whether the boat turned into the Bistritza or continued on up the SerethAt Fundu we could not hear of any such boat, so she must have passed there in the nightI am feeling very sleepyThe cold is perhaps beginning to tell upon me, and nature must have rest some timeGodalming insists that he shall keep the first watchGod bless him for all his goodness to poor dear Mina and me
2 November, morning-It is broad daylightThat good fellow would not wake meHe says it would have been a sin to, for I slept peacefully and was forgetting my shop trouble
|
|
|
|
About Me
Friends
|
