Early next morning rumours of these incidents spread through the town.First of all, as I might have expected, the people would not admit that they were natural.Yet they must be, they could not be anything else. As to giving them an acceptable explanation, that was quite another matter.

I need hardly add that the evening's festivities had ended after the scene I described.Marc and Myra were distracted.That bouquet trampled under foot, that contract ripped up, that nuptial crown stolen beneath their very eyes……On the eve of the wedding, what a bad omen……

During the day many groups of people were standing in front of the house and talking excitedly.Some gave themselves up to the most extravagant ideas;others were content to cast somewhat uneasy glances on the house.

Neither Madame Roderich nor her daughter had gone out that morning as they usually did.Myra had stayed with her mother;dangerously affected by the episode.she needed a complete rest.

At eight o'clock Marc opened the door of my room, bringing with him the doctor and Captain Haralan.We had to discuss, perhaps to agree upon, certain urgent steps, and it would be better for our discussion not to take place at the Roderich's.My brother and I had stayed together all night.and at quite an early hour he had gone to seek news of Madame Roderich and his fiancée.Then, at his suggestion, the doctor and Captain Haralan had followed him.

‘Henri, 'Marc began, ‘I've given orders not to let anybody in.Here nobody can hear us and we are alone, quite alone, in this room.'

But what a state my brother was in!His face, radiant with happiness the previous evening, was downcast and frightfully pale.But he did not seem any more affected than the circumstances warranted.

Dr.Roderich was making efforts to maintain his selfcontrol.Not so his son, who, with lips pressed tightly together and his eyes troubled, showed quite clearly the obsession to which he was the prey.

I made up my mind to keep cool, and my first care was to ask about Madame Roderich and her daughter.

‘They're both very distressed by what happened yesterday, 'the doctor replied, ‘and it will take a few days before they recover.But Myra, who was greatly upset at first, has summoned up all her energy and is striving to reassure her mother, who is even more overcome than herself.I hope that the memory of that evening will soon vanish from her mind, and unless these deplorable scenes are renewed……'

‘Are renewed?'I asked, ‘we needn't be afraid of that, Doctor!The circumstances in which these phenomena appeared—can I call them anything else?—will not occur again.'

‘Who knows?'the doctor replied, ‘Who knows?So I'm very anxious for the wedding to take place, for I'm beginning to believe in those threats……'

He did not finish that sentence, whose meaning was only too clear to Captain Haralan and myself.As for Marc, who knew nothing about Wilhelm Storitz'latest proceedings, he did not seem to have heard it.

Captain Haralan had his own opinion.But he kept completely silent, no doubt waiting for me to express my views regarding the events of the previous night.

‘Monsieur Vidal, 'the Doctor continued, ‘What do you think of all that?'

I thought I should do best to play the part of a sceptic who did not mean to take too seriously the strange events we had witnessed.It would be better to pretend not to see anything extraordinary in them, if only because of their very inexplicability, if I may be permitted to coin that word.But, to tell the truth, the Doctor's question did not fail to embarrass me.

‘Dr.Roderich, 'I said, ‘I must tell you that“all that”to use your own expression, doesn't seem worth giving much attention to.What are we to think, if it isn't that we were the victims of some practical joke?A trickster has wormed himself among your guests and has allowed himself to add to the evening's entertainment a deplorable display of ventriloquism……You know how wonderfully these things are done nowadays……'

Captain Haralan had turned to face me, and was staring into my eyes as if to read my thoughts.His glance clearly meant:‘We didn't come here to be fobbed off with this sort of explanation!'

‘You'll allow me, Mr.Vidal, 'the Doctor replied, ‘not to believe in some sort of conjuring trick……'

‘Doctor, 'I replied, ‘I cannot imagine anything else, except for an intervention which I for one reject utterly, an intervention of the supernatural……'

‘Natural, 'Captain Haralan broke in, ‘due to methods of which we don't know the secret.'

‘All the same, 'I insisted, ‘as regards the voice we heard yesterday, that voice, which was certainly human, why shouldn't it be some trick of ventriloquism?'

Doctor Roderich shook his head like a man who absolutely rejects such an explanation.

‘I repeat, 'I said, ‘It's not all impossible that some intruder should have made his way into the drawing-room, with the intention of outraging the national feeling of the Magyars by insulting their patriotism with that Hymn of Hate, made in Germany.'

This hypothesis was after all plausible, assuming we were going to keep with the limits of purely human facts.But even if he admitted it, Dr.Roderich had a very simple reply.

‘If I were to agree with you, Mr.Vidal, that a trickster, or rather an insolent wretch, had been able to introduce himself into the building and deceive us with some ventriloquism—and I absolutely refuse to believe it—what do you say about the bouquet and the contract which were torn to pieces, and the crown which was carried away by an invisible hand?'

Certainly, to attribute these two incidents to a conjuror, however skilful he might be, was beyond all reason.And yet there are such clever magicians!

Then Captain Haralan added, ‘Speak, 'my dear Vidal.Was it your ventriloquist who destroyed that bouquet flower by flower, who tore that contract into a thousand pieces, who picked up that crown, promenaded with it through the drawing-room, and carried it off like a thief?'

I did not reply.

‘Are you by any chance pretending, ”he was getting more heated‘that we were the victims of some illusion?'

NO, certainly not, no illusion was admissible, because what happened was in front of more than a hundred people!

After a few seconds of silence which I did not try to break, the Doctor gave us his opinion:

‘Let's take the things just as they are and don't let's try to deceive ourselves.We are in the presence of facts which seem devoid of any natural explanation, and yet which cannot be denied.Still, if we keep to what is real, let's see if someone, not a practical joker but an enemy, had wanted to take vengeance upon us by wrecking the whole evening.'

This was to place the question on solid ground.

‘An enemy!'exclaimed Marc, ‘an enemy of your family, or mine, Dr.Roderich?Do you know him?'

‘Yes, 'Captain Haralan declared, ‘the one who has been ahead of you, Marc, in asking for my sister's hand.'

‘Wilhelm Storitz?'

‘Wilhelm Storitz.'

Marc was then told of what he had so far been unaware.The Doctor described the new attempt which Wilhelm Storitz had made several days previously.My brother learned of the categorical refusal that he had been given, and of the threats which his rival had made against the Roderich family.The threats were of such a nature as to justify to a certain extent the suspicion that this fellow had in some way had a hand in the scenes of the previous evening.

‘And you never told me anything of this!'Marc exclaimed.‘It's only today, when Myra has actually been threatened, that you've warned me……Well, this Wilhelm Storitz, I'm going to find him and I'll know……’

‘You can leave that to us, Marc, 'Captain Haralan told him.‘It was my father's house that he soiled with his presence.'

‘It's my financee whom he insulted!'Marc could no longer contain himself.

Anger was obviously leading both of them astray.That Wilhelm Storitz meant to take vengeance on the Roderich family and to put his threats into execution, granted!But that he had any hand in the scenes of the previous evening, that he had been personally involved, that it was impossible to prove.It was not on mere presumptions that we could accuse him and say:‘You were there yesterday evening in the midst of the guests.It was you who insulted us with that Hymn of Hate.It was you who tore up the bouquet and the contract.It was you who took away the nuptial crown.'Nobody had seen him, nobody.

At last, after a long discussion, we came to the only reasonable thing to do.I suggested it along these lines:

‘My dear friends, let's go to the Town Hall.Bring the Chief of Police up to date with this business, if he isn't already.Tell him the position of this German with regard to the Roderich family, the threats he has made against Marc and his fiancée.Make him realise the suspicions against him.Tell him that the man claims to make use of methods which can defy all human power—pure boasting on his part, no doubt.It will then be for the Chief of Police to see if he cannot take any steps against this foreigner.’

Was that not the best thing to do, and indeed all that could be done in these circumstances?The police could intervene more efficaciously than private individuals.If Captain Haralan and Marc were to go to the home of Wilhelm Storitz, the door would hardly be opened for them.So were they to try to get in by main force……By what right……Well, that right, the police would have it.So it was to them, to them alone, that we must turn.

Agreed on this point, it was decided that Marc should return to Dr.Roderich's while the Doctor, Captain Haralan and I should go to the Town Hall.

It was half-past ten.All Ragz had heard about the the incident of the previous night.When people saw the Doctor and his son making for the Town Hall, they could easily guess their motive.

When we arrived, the Doctor sent his name in to the Director of Police, who gave orders to show us at once into his room.

M.Henrich Stepark was a man of small stature, but he seemed energetic.He had a very practical mind and a remarkable detective instinct and he had several times shown proofs of great ability.All that it was possible to do to throw light on these obscure events at Dr.Roderich's, we could be certain he would do.But had he the power to intervene usefully in such special circumstances, which seemed to be beyond the bounds of possibility?

Like everybody else, he had heard the details of this matter except for what was known only to the Doctor, Captain Haralan and myself.

‘I was counting on your visit, Dr.Roderich, 'he welcomed us, ‘and if you hadn't come to my room I should have gone to see you.I heard that very night of the strange things which happened in your home, and how reasonable it was that your guests should be seized by a very natural terror.I add that this terror has spread throughout the town and that Ragz doesn't seem likely to regain its calm.

‘First must I ask you, Dr.Roderich, if you have incurred the hatred of anybody, if you think that because of this hatred vengeance has been aimed against your family because of the proposed marriage of Mademoiselle Myra Roderich to Monsieur Marc Vidal?'

‘I think so, 'the Doctor told him.

‘And who may this person be?'

‘A man called Wilhelm Storitz.'

It was Captain Haralan who uttered this name.The Chief of Police did not seem at all surprised.

The Doctor then explained that Wilhelm Storitz had sought the hand of Myra Roderich, that he had renewed this request, and that after a further refusal he had threatened to prevent the marriage by methods which would defy all human power.

‘Yes, yes, 'agreed M.Stepark, ‘and he began by tearing down the notice of the wedding without anybody's being able to see him.'

We were all of that opinion.

Yet our unanimity did not make this any more explicable, unless we were to attribute it to sorcery.But it is in the realm of reality that the police move.It is on the neck of people in flesh and blood that they lay their brutal hands.They are not in the habit of arresting ghosts or spectres.The man who had torn down the notice, who had destroyed the bouquet, who had stolen the crown, was a human being who could be laid hands on.All that remained to do was to lay hands on him.

Mr.Stepark agreed that our suspicions were well founded and might reasonably be aimed against Wilhelm Storitz.

‘That individual, 'he said, ‘I've always had my suspitions of him, although I've never received any complaints against him.He lives in secret and nobody knows how he lives nor what he lives on.Why did he leave Spremberg, his birthplace?Why should he, a Prussian from South Prussia, come to settle down in this Magyar country, so unsympathetic to his compatriots?Why is he shut up with an old servant in that house on the Boulevard Tékéli, which nobody ever enters?I repeat, all that is suspicious, highly suspicious.’

‘What do you mean to do, Monsieur Stepark?'asked Captain Haralan.

‘What is plainly indicated, 'replied the Chief of Police, ‘is to effect a descent upon that house, where we may find some documents……some indication……'

‘But for that descent, 'asked Dr.Roderich, ‘won't you need the Governor's authorisation?'

‘It concerns a foreigner, and a foreigner who has threatened your family.His Excellency will grant that authorisation, there's no doubt about that.'

‘The Governor was there yesterday evening, 'I commented.

‘I know, Mr.Vidal, and he has already discussed the events he witnessed.'

‘Can he explain them?'the Doctor asked.

‘No, he cannot find any reasonable explanation.'

‘But, 'I said, ‘when he knows that Wilhelm Storitz was mixed up in this business……'

‘That'll make him more anxious to throw light upon it.'M.Stepark replied.‘Be so good as to wait for me, gentlemen.I shall go straight to the Palace, and within half an hour I shall have brought the authorisation to ransack the house on the Boulevard Tékéli.’

‘Well, we shall go with you, 'said Captain Haralan.

‘If it pleases you, Captain, and you too, Monsieur Vidal.'the Chief of Police agreed.

‘For myself, 'said Dr.Roderich, ‘I shall leave you to go with Monsieur Stepark and his men.I'm anxious to get back home, where you must come after the investigation has been carried out.'

‘And after the arrests have been made, if there are any, 'M.Stepark seemed determined to put an end to this business.He set off for the Palace, and the doctor also left at the same time to go home.

As Captain Haralan and I waited, we exchanged but few words.So we were going to enter the door of that house……Should we find its owner at home?I wondered whether Captain Haralan would be able to contain himself in the man's presence.

Half an hour later M.Stepark brought the authorisation, with permission to take any steps he thought necessary.

‘Now, gentlemen, 'he suggested, ‘please go ahead of me.I shall go on one side, my policemen on the other, and within twenty minutes we shall be at that house.Do you agree?'

‘Agreed, 'replied Captain Haralan.With him I left the Town Hall, and we made for the Boulevard Tékéli.