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 suspicions were aroused.  But his superstition united with his canniness played the Count’s game for him, and he ran with his favouring wind through fogs and all till he brought up blindfold at Galatz.  That the Count’s arrangements were well made, has been proved.  Hildesheim cleared the box, took it off, and gave it to Skinsky.  Skinsky took it, and here we lose the trail.  We only know that the box is somewhere on the water, moving along.  The customs and the octroi, if there be any, have been avoided.

Now we come to what the Count must have done after his arrival, on land, at Galatz.

The box was given to Skinsky before sunrise.  At sunrise the Count could appear in his own form.  Here, we ask why Skinsky was chosen at all to aid in the work?  In my husband’s diary, Skinsky is mentioned as dealing with the Slovaks who trade down the river to the port.  And the man’s remark, that the murder was the work of a Slovak, showed the general feeling against his class.  The Count wanted isolation.

My surmise is this, that in London the Count decided to get back to his castle by water, as the most safe and secret way.  He was brought from the castle by Szgany, and probably they delivered their cargo to Slovaks who took the boxes to Varna, for there they were shipped to London.  Thus the Count had knowledge of the persons who could arrange this service.  When the box was on land, before sunrise or after sunset, he came out from his box, met Skinsky and instructed him what to do as to arranging the carriage of the box up some river.  When this was done, and he knew that all was in train, he blotted out his traces, as he thought, by murdering his agent.

I have examined the map and find that the river most suitable for the Slovaks to have ascended is either the Pruth or the Sereth.  I read in the typescript that in my trance I heard cows low and water swirling level with my ears and the creaking of wood.  The Count in his box, then, was on a river in an open boat, propelled probably either by oars or poles, for the banks are near and it is working against stream.  There would be no such if floating down stream.

Of course it may not be either the Sereth or the Pruth, but we may possibly investigate further.  Now of these two, the Pruth is the more easily navigated, but the Sereth is, at Fundu, joined by the Bistritza which runs up round the Borgo Pass.  The loop it makes is manifestly as close to Dracula’s castle as can be got by water.