Chapter Forty-Two:

The League…

Skinner and Quartermain returned to the Nautilus without Kathryn. She had been trapped behind a thick wall of ice and there was no possible way for them to carve away the ice to get her out. Whenever a chip of the ice fell away, the hole filled itself immediately. So, a heart-broken invisible man followed the Great White Hunter dejectedly back to the League.

Nemo had had news of a new mission for the League. They were to take on a villain Mina was familiar with: Count Dracula. They would be leaving to send someone as a scout to Transylvania shortly.

Quartermain had had it with adventuring. He returned to Kenya to finish his existence in retirement.

Mina and Jekyll were engaged to be married by the time the League had left Kenya. They would be married within the next two months. It would be a small, simple wedding. Nothing fancy. There wasn't time for that.

Sawyer volunteered to be the League's scout in Transylvania. They left him on the outskirts of Budapest, with the instructions to learn as much as possible and return to the drop off point in two and a half months.

Skinner had taken Kathryn's despatch-box once again. He was determined to open it. To see what she kept in it. To learn more about her. Though he had known her for eight years, he still knew little about her past, her hobbies—other than Chemistry and poisoning—and her attachments. He wanted to know everything. And he would discover her secrets.