his victim--me!
2. _By Rail._--There is no one in charge of the box. It would have to
take its chance of being delayed; and delay would be fatal, with enemies
on the track. True, he might escape at night; but what would he be, if
left in a strange place with no refuge that he could fly to? This is not
what he intends; and he does not mean to risk it.
3. _By Water._--Here is the safest way, in one respect, but with most
danger in another. On the water he is powerless except at night; even
then he can only summon fog and storm and snow and his wolves. But were
he wrecked, the living water would engulf him, helpless; and he would
indeed be lost. He could have the vessel drive to land; but if it were
unfriendly land, wherein he was not free to move, his position would
still be desperate.
We know from the record that he was on the water; so what we have to do
is to ascertain _what_ water.
The first thing is to realise exactly what he has done as yet; we may,
then, get a light on what his later task is to be.
_Firstly._--We must differentiate between what he did in London as part
of his general plan of action, when he was pressed for moments and had
to arrange as best he could.
_Secondly_ we must see, as well as we can surmise it from the facts we
know of, what he has done here.
As to the first, he evidently intended to arrive at Galatz, and sent
invoice to Varna to deceive us lest we should ascertain his means of
exit from England; his immediate and sole purpose then was to escape.
The proof of this, is the letter of instructions sent to Immanuel
Hildesheim to clear and take away the box _before sunrise_. There is
also the instruction to Petrof Skinsky. These we must only guess at; but
there must have been some letter or message, since Skinsky came to
Hildesheim.
That, so far, his plans were successful we know. The _Czarina Catherine_
made a phenomenally quick journey--so much so that Captain Donelson s
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