in a moment of
horror--seconds passing steadily by in regular succession, sinking into
nothingness....

Had someone moved? Were there steps by the door?...

Fandor thought he heard strange sounds all around him, in the room
itself! His nerves were tensely strung: he was overwrought. Someone was
certainly walking in the corridor!... He had felt a movement along the
wall against which his bed stood!

Impossible to hesitate longer! The door knob, which he could not see in
the darkness, must have moved.... Fandor sensed this movement as surely
as though he himself had placed his hand on the knob....

Yes, the door was going to open!...

It was ajar ... it was turning on its hinges--it was open.... Someone
was coming in.... Who?...

Fandor lay still--he dared not move an eyelid; but in his mind he said:

"Come in, then! Take the trouble to come in!"

Thus Fandor, who believed Death was entering the room, dared to welcome
the grim visitor--with a smile!

* * * * *

Nothing was happening.... Fandor's feverish excitement sank down to
depression.... He must have deceived himself--no one was entering the
room--nothing untoward was happening! He had simply imagined the noises
outside in the corridor, for nothing happened--nothing ... and once more
he was following the eternal tic-tac, tic-tac of the timepiece!

The head of Fandor's bed was near the door. He could not, in the dense
darkness, fix the point where he supposed the enemy would find him, and
he had the agonising conviction that they were very much at their
ease--that they knew exactly where he was, and were quietly preparing
their attack.

But had these unknown assassins entered the room?... Yes, it was
certain--there were men behind him--bending over him with outstretched
hands to strangle him!... He could hear the sound their fingers made in
passing through the air to grip his throat, to squeeze his life out!...

Though he lived a hundred years, never could Fandor forget the agonising
thrill when he sensed that hidden danger! He held his revolver ready to
fire. He thought:

"In whatever way I am attacked, I must not let slip this unique chance
to learn the truth! I must seize the attacker at all costs, and leap to
the electric switch, turn on the light--and I shall be saved! Saved!..."

Without a cry, without a warning sound, without a moment's time to cope
with the violence of the attack, Fandor felt a cloth over his fa