Before we moved away Van Helsing said, "Now, my friends, one step of
our work is done, one the most harrowing to ourselves. But there
remains a greater task: to find out the author of all this our sorrow
and to stamp him out. I have clues which we can follow, but it is a
long task, and a difficult one, and there is danger in it, and pain.
Shall you not all help me? We have learned to believe, all of us, is
it not so? And since so, do we not see our duty? Yes! And do we not
promise to go on to the bitter end?"

Each in turn, we took his hand, and the promise was made. Then said
the Professor as we moved off, "Two nights hence you shall meet with
me and dine together at seven of the clock with friend John. I shall
entreat two others, two that you know not as yet, and I shall be ready
to all our work show and our plans unfold. Friend John, you come with
me home, for I have much to consult you about, and you can help me.
Tonight I leave for Amsterdam, but shall return tomorrow night. And
then begins our great quest. But first I shall have much to say, so
that you may know what to do and to dread. Then our promise shall be
made to each other anew. For there is a terrible task before us, and
once our feet are on the ploughshare we must not draw back."

CHAPTER 17

DR. SEWARD'S DIARY--cont.

When we arrived at the Berkely Hotel, Van Helsing found a telegram
waiting for him.

"Am coming up by train. Jonathan at Whitby. Important news. Mina
Harker."

The Professor was delighted. "Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina," he
said, "pearl among women! She arrive, but I cannot stay. She must go
to your house, friend John. You must meet her at the station.
Telegraph her en route so that she may be prepared."

When the wire was dispatched he had a cup of tea. Over it he told me
of a diary kept by Jonathan Harker when abroad, and gave me a
typewritten copy of it, as also of Mrs. Harker's diary at Whitby.
"Take these," he said, "and study them well. When I have returned you
will be master of all the facts, and we can then better enter on our
inquisition. Keep them safe, for there is in them much of treasure.
You will need all your faith, even you who have had such an experience
as that of today. What is here told," he laid his hand heavily and
gravely on the packet of papers as he spoke, "may be the beginning of
the end to you and me and many another, or it may sound the knell of
the UnDead who walk t