yours in the talamasca , petyr stefan , it is dawn , and all my letters are on their way to you , the ship having sailed an hour ago with them , and much as i would have gone with it , i knew that i must not for if this thing means to destroy me , better he play with me here , whilst my letters be carried safely on i fear , too , that the thing may have the strength to sink a ship , for no sooner had i set foot on it , to speak with the captain and make certain that my letters would be safely conveyed , than a wind came up and rain struck the windows , and the boat itself began to move my reason told me the fiend does not have such strength as would be required to drown the vessel , but horror of horrors , what if i am wrong i can not be the cause of such harm to others so i remain , here in a crowded tavern in port-au-prince - the second to which i have gone this morning - and i fear to be alone a short while ago , as i returned from the docks , the thing so affrighted me with the image of a woman falling before a coach that i ran out into the path of the horses to save her , only to discover that there was no woman , and 1 myself was all but trampled how the coachman did curse me , calling me a madman and that is surely how i seem in the first tavern , i fell asleep for perhaps a quarter of an hour , and was waked by flames around me , only to discover that the candle had been overturned into the spilt brandy i was blamed for it , and told to take my money elsewhere and there the thing stood , in the shadows behind the chimneypiece it would have smiled if it could make its waxy face move mark what i say now about its power when it would be itself , it is a made-up body over which it has scant control nevertheless my understanding of its art is imperfect and i am so weary , stefan i went again to my room and tried to sleep , but it flung me from my bed even here in this public room full of late night drinkers and early morning travelers , it plays its tricks with me , and no one is the wiser , for they do not know that the image of roemer seated by the fire is not truly there or that the woman who appears for an instant on the stairs , scarcely noticed by them , is geertruid - dead now twenty years the thing snatches these images from my mind , surely , and then expands them , though how i can not guess i have tried to talk with it in the street , i pleaded with it to tell me its purpose is there any chance that i shall live7 what could i do for it that it would cease its evil tricks7 and what had charlotte commanded it to do7 then when i had seated myself here and ordered my wine , for i am thirsty for it again , and drinking too much of it , i beheld that it did move my pen and make scrawl marks on my paper which say tetyr will die ' this i enclose with the letter , for it is the writing of a spirit i myself had no hand in it perhaps alexander might lay his hands on the paper and learn from it for i can learn nothing from the fool thing except that he and i together can make images the like of which would have driven jesus from the desert , mad i know now there is only one means of salvation for me as soon as i finish this communication and leave it with the agent i shall go to charlotte and beg her to make the fiend stop nothing else will do for it , stefan only charlotte can save me and i pray i can reach maye faire unharmed i shall rent a mount for the trip , and count upon the road at midmorning being well traveled and that charlotte is awake and in control of the fiend but i have one terrible fear , my friend , and that is , that charlotte knows what this devil does to me , and has commanded it to do so that charlotte is the author of the entire diabolical plan if you hear nothing more from me and allow me to remind you that dutch ships leave here daily for our fair city - follow these instructions .