After the destruction of the house the overexcitement of Ragz seemed to be somewhat calmed. The townspeople felt reassured. As I had imagined, some of them inclined to the belief that the ‘sorcerer’ had actually been in his home when it was attacked by the crowd, and that he had perished in the midst of the flames.

The truth is that on investigating the ruins, on examining the ashes, nothing was found that would justify this belief.If Wilhelm Storitz had been there when the house was on fire, it was in some corner which the flames had not reached.

Still, further letters received from Spremberg were agreed on one point.He had not reappeared there, his servant Hermann had not been seen there, and nobody had any idea where the two of them could have sought refuge.

Unfortunately, if a relative calm prevailed in the town, it was not so at Dr.Roderich's.The mental condition of our poor Myra was in no way improved.Unconscious, heedless of the care which never ceased to be lavished upon her, she could still recognise nobody.Nor could the doctors dare hold out the slightest hope.

Yet, although she was still extremely weak, her life did not seem to be in danger.There she was, stretched out on her bed, almost motionless, as pale as death.If anyone tried to lift her, sobs burst from her breast, fright gleamed in her eyes, her arms were tossed about, incoherent phrases escaped from her lips.Was her memory coming back to her?Was she living over again, in her troubled mind, the scenes at that evening party, the scenes in the Cathedral?Was she still listening to the threats directed against her and against Marc?Better that it should be so, that her mind should preserve the memory of the past.

The existence of that ill-fated family may well be imagined.My brother never left the house.With the Doctor and Madame Roderich he stayed beside Myra, giving the patient a little nourishment with his own hand, and always looking to see if some gleam of reason were reappearing in her eyes.

On the afternoon of the 16th I was alone, wandering about at random through the streets of the town.The idea came into my head to cross to the right bank of the Danube.This was an excursion which I had long planned, though circumstances had not allowed me to carry it out, and which I was hardly likely to enjoy in my present state of mind.Nonetheless, I made my way towards the bridge, crossed the island in the middle of the stream, and set foot on the Serbian bank.

My walk lasted longer than I had meant.The clocks had struck half-past eight when I returned to the bridge, after having dined in a Serbian inn on the river-bank.I don't know what whim then came into my head.Instead of going straight back, I crossed only the first half of the bridge, and went down the great central walk on the island in mid-stream.

Scarcely had I gone ten yards when I caught sight of M.Stepark.He was alone, he came over to me, and our conversation at once turned on the subject which preoccupied both of us.

Our walk had lasted about twenty minutes, when we reached the northern point of the island.Night had just fallen and the shadows were spreading under the trees and in the deserted walks.The chalets were dosed, and we met nobody.

It was time to go back to Ragz, and we were about to do so when some words reached my ears.

I stopped at once, and I halted M.Stepark by gripping his arm.Then, leaning across so that I could be heard only by himself, I said:

‘Listen!'Somebody's talking……and that voice……it's the voice of Wilhelm Storitz.'

‘Wilhelm Storitz!'he replied in the same low tones.

‘Yes.'

‘He hasn't seen us, '

‘No.The night evens things out and makes us as invisible as he is himself.'

The voice kept on reaching us indistinctly—or rather the voices, for therewere certainly two men there.

‘He isn't alone, 'M.Stepark murmured.

‘No……Probably his servant.'

M.Stepark dragged me under cover of the trees, crouching down to the ground.Thanks to the darkness which protected us, we might possibly be able to get near enough to the two to hear what they were saying without being seen.

Soon we were hidden about ten paces from the place where Wilhelm Storitz must be.Of course we saw nobody, but we had expected that, and so we were not disappointed.

Never had such an occasion been offered us of finding out where our enemy was living since his house had been burned and of learning his plans, if not of securing possession of his person.

He could not suspect that we were there, listening with all our ears.Crouched down among the branches, hardly daring to breathe, we listened with an indescribable emotion to the words they were exchanging, more or less distinct as master and servant got further away or came nearer as they walked up and down between the trees.

This was the first sentence that reached us, spoken by Wilhelm Storitz.‘We can go there I from tomorrow?'

‘From tomorrow, 'replied his invisible companion—in all probability the servant Hermann—‘and nobody will know where we are.'

‘When did you go back to Ragz?'

‘This morning.'

‘Good……And that house, it's been rented?'

‘Under an alias.'

‘You're certain that we can live in it quite openly, and that we're not known at……?'

To our great disappointment we could not hear the name of the town which Wilhelm Storitz was on the point of giving.But from what we had heard it followed that our adversary counted on regaining a human appearance after more or less long a delay.Why was he going to be so rash?I imagined that his invisibility could not be continued too long without prejudicing his health.I give this explanation for what it is worth, because it seemed plausible, but I have never had the opportunity of verifying it.When the voices reapproached, Hermann was finishing a sentence he had already begun:‘The Ragz police will never find us under those names.'

The Ragz police……So it was somewhere in Hungary that they meant to live?

Then the noise of their steps died away as they went farther off.This enabled M.Stepark to say:‘What town?What names?That's what we've got to find out.'

Before I had time to reply the others came back and stopped a few paces away.

‘No, I shan't be leaving Ragz, 'Wilhelm Storitz growled angrily.‘I'll go on hating that family so long as Myra and that Frenchman……'

He did not finish, or rather something like a roar escaped from his chest.At that moment he was passing quite close to us, and perhaps it would have been enough to stretch out our hands to seize him.But our attention had been attracted by some words of Hermann's:

‘They now know at Ragz that we've got the power of making ourselves invisible, but they don't know how.'

‘And that they shall never know, 'Wilhelm Storitz declared.‘Ragz hasn't done with me yet.Because they've burned my house they think they've burned my secrets……The fools……No, Ragz won't escape my vengeance, and I won’t leave one of its stones upon another!’

This sentence, so threatening for the town, had hardly been uttered, when the trees of the coppice were violently shaken.M.Stepark had dashed forward in the direction of the voices, shouting, ‘I've got one of them, Vidal.You get the other!'

His hands had undoubtedly fallen upon a tangible, if not a visible, body.But he was hurled back so violently that he would have fallen, had I not clutched his arm.

I thought then we were going to be attacked under very disadvantageous conditions, for we could not see our adversaries.But nothing of the sort.An ironical laugh rang out somewhere to our left, and we heard the sound of footsteps dying away in the distance.

‘Missed him!'shouted M.Stepark, ‘But now we're quite sure that their invisibility doesn't keep their bodies from being grasped!'

But unluckily they had escaped us, nor did we know where their hiding-place was.Yet M.Stepark did not seem any the less delighted.

After parting with M.Stepark I went back to the house.There'while Madame Roderich and Marc were watching by Myra's bedside, I shut myself up with the Doctor.It was important for him to be informed of what had happened on the island.

I told him everything, The Doctor felt that in view of the threats Wilhelm Storitz had uttered, in view of his intention to continue his vengeance against the Roderich family and the whole town, it was essential to leave Ragz.They would have to go, to go in secret, and the sooner the better.

‘I quite agree with you'I said, ‘and I've only one objection.Is Myra in a state to bear the fatigue of a journey?'

‘Her health isn't any different, 'the Doctor told me.‘She isn't suffering.It's only her reason that's affected.’

‘She'll recover it with time, ‘I declared with energy, ‘and especially in some other country where she won't have anything to be afraid of.'

‘Alas!'exclaimed the Doctor.‘Can we avoid the danger just by going away?Won't Wilhelm Storitz follow us?'

‘Not if we manage to keep secret when we go and where we're going to.'

‘Keep it secret!'Doctor Roderich murmured sadly.

Like my brother, he was asking himself whether any secret could be kept from Wilhelm Storitz, whether at that very moment he might not be within the study, listening to what we were saying and plotting some new machination.

In short, we decided to go, and Madame Roderich raised no objection.She longed for Myra to be taken into some other surroundings.

Marc was no less in agreement.I did not tell him about the episode on the island;that seemed pointless.But I described it to Captain Haralan.He likewise made no objection to our plans for getting away.He simply asked me:‘You'll be coming with your brother, no doubt?'

“Could I do anything else, and isn't my presence as necessary to him as yours is to……'

‘‘I shall not go.'He spoke in the tones of a man whose resolution is absolutely irrevocable.

‘You won't go……'

‘No, I mean to……I must stay in Ragz, because he's there, and I've got a presentiment that I should do well to stay.'

There was nothing to argue about, and I did not argue:‘Very good, Captain.'

‘I rely upon you, my dear Vidal, to take my place near my family, which is already your own.'

‘You can rely on me.'I assured him.

I then began preparing for our departure.During the day I hired two very comfortable vehicles.Then I went to see M.Stepark to explain our plans.

‘You're acting for the best, 'he told me, ‘and it's a pity that the whole town can't do likewise!'

He was obviously preoccupied, —not without reason, I thought, after what we had heard the night before.

I was to get back to the town about seven, and made certain that everything was in readiness.

At eight the coaches arrived.One of them was to hold Dr.and Madame Roderich and their daughter.Marc and I were to travel in the other, which would leave the town by a different road, so as to avoid attracting attention.

It was then that there fell the most unforeseeable and, alas, the most terrible of all these dramatic blows.

The vehicles were waiting for us, the first at the main front door, the second at the smaller door at the end of the garden.The Doctor and my brother went up to Myra's bedroom to carry her down to her coach.

Overcome by fear, they halted on the threshold.The bed was empty.Myra had disappeared!