on him, he began to shout: I ll frustrate them! They shan t rob me!
they shan t murder me by inches! I ll fight for my Lord and Master! and
all sorts of similar incoherent ravings. It was with very considerable
difficulty that they got him back to the house and put him in the padded
room. One of the attendants, Hardy, had a finger broken. However, I set
it all right; and he is going on well.
The two carriers were at first loud in their threats of actions for
damages, and promised to rain all the penalties of the law on us. Their
threats were, however, mingled with some sort of indirect apology for
the defeat of the two of them by a feeble madman. They said that if it
had not been for the way their strength had been spent in carrying and
raising the heavy boxes to the cart they would have made short work of
him. They gave as another reason for their defeat the extraordinary
state of drouth to which they had been reduced by the dusty nature of
their occupation and the reprehensible distance from the scene of their
labours of any place of public entertainment. I quite understood their
drift, and after a stiff glass of grog, or rather more of the same, and
with each a sovereign in hand, they made light of the attack, and swore
that they would encounter a worse madman any day for the pleasure of
meeting so bloomin good a bloke as your correspondent. I took their
names and addresses, in case they might be needed. They are as
follows:--Jack Smollet, of Dudding s Rents, King George s Road, Great
Walworth, and Thomas Snelling, Peter Farley s Row, Guide Court, Bethnal
Green. They are both in the employment of Harris & Sons, Moving and
Shipment Company, Orange Master s Yard, Soho.
I shall report to you any matter of interest occurring here, and shall
wire you at once if there is anything of importance.
Believe me, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
PATRICK HENNESSEY.
_Letter, Mina Harker to Lucy Westenra_.
(Unopened by her.)
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