ion, and the
rising back to life as a diver coming up through a great press of
water. Since, however, Dr. Van Helsing has been with me, all this bad
dreaming seems to have passed away. The noises that used to frighten
me out of my wits, the flapping against the windows, the distant
voices which seemed so close to me, the harsh sounds that came from I
know not where and commanded me to do I know not what, have all
ceased. I go to bed now without any fear of sleep. I do not even try
to keep awake. I have grown quite fond of the garlic, and a boxful
arrives for me every day from Haarlem. Tonight Dr. Van Helsing is
going away, as he has to be for a day in Amsterdam. But I need not be
watched. I am well enough to be left alone.

Thank God for Mother's sake, and dear Arthur's, and for all our
friends who have been so kind! I shall not even feel the change, for
last night Dr. Van Helsing slept in his chair a lot of the time. I
found him asleep twice when I awoke. But I did not fear to go to
sleep again, although the boughs or bats or something flapped almost
angrily against the window panes.

THE PALL MALL GAZETTE 18 September.

THE ESCAPED WOLF PERILOUS ADVENTURE OF OUR INTERVIEWER

INTERVIEW WITH THE KEEPER IN THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS

After many inquiries and almost as many refusals, and perpetually
using the words 'PALL MALL GAZETTE' as a sort of talisman, I managed
to find the keeper of the section of the Zoological Gardens in which
the wolf department is included. Thomas Bilder lives in one of the
cottages in the enclosure behind the elephant house, and was just
sitting down to his tea when I found him. Thomas and his wife are
hospitable folk, elderly, and without children, and if the specimen
I enjoyed of their hospitality be of the average kind, their lives
must be pretty comfortable. The keeper would not enter on what he
called business until the supper was over, and we were all
satisfied. Then when the table was cleared, and he had lit his
pipe, he said,

"Now, Sir, you can go on and arsk me what you want. You'll excoose
me refoosin' to talk of perfeshunal subjucts afore meals. I gives
the wolves and the jackals and the hyenas in all our section their
tea afore I begins to arsk them questions."

"How do you mean, ask them questions?" I queried, wishful to get him
into a talkative humor.

"'Ittin' of them over the 'ead with a pole is one way. Scratchin' of
their ears in another, when g