Is there not more at stake for us than for him?
Then why not be more careful than him?
By my clock it is one hour and already, if all be well, friend Arthur and Quincey are on their way to us.

Today is our day, and we must go sure, if slow, and lose no chance.

See! There are five of us when those absent ones return." Whilst we were speaking we were startled by a knock at the hall door, the double postman's knock of the telegraph boy.

We all moved out to the hall with one impulse, and Van Helsing, holding up his hand to us to keep silence, stepped to the door and opened it.

The boy handed in a dispatch.