him, and we value him, but all the same we must not let him think himself all the
truth in the universe."
"Then you want me not to let some previous conviction inure the receptivity of my
mind with regard to some strange matter. Do I read your lesson aright?"
"Ah, you are my favorite pupil still. It is worth to teach you. Now that you are
willing to understand, you have taken the first step to understand. You think then
that those so small holes in the children's throats were made by the same that
made the holes in Miss Lucy?"
"I suppose so."
He stood up and said solemnly, "Then you are wrong. Oh, would it were so! But
alas! No. It is worse, far, far worse."
"In God's name, Professor Van Helsing, what do you mean?" I cried.
He threw himself with a despairing gesture into a chair, and placed his elbows on
the table, covering his face with his hands as he spoke.
"They were made by Miss Lucy!"
