ed to
clutch me with his hand. Then he reeled, staggered, and, unable to save
himself, fell with a great crash upon the brick floor.

After the sheet of flame, a wind raged round the building as though it
would lift the roof off, but then passed as suddenly as it came. And in
the intense calm that followed I saw that the form had vanished, and the
doctor was stooping over Colonel Wragge upon the floor, trying to lift
him to a sitting position.

"Light," he said quietly, "more light. Take the shades off."

Colonel Wragge sat up and the glare of the unshaded lamps fell upon his
face. It was grey and drawn, still running heat, and there was a look in
the eyes and about the corners of the mouth that seemed in this short
space of time to have added years to its age. At the same time, the
expression of effort and anxiety had left it. It showed relief.

"Gone!" he said, looking up at the doctor in a dazed fashion, and
struggling to his feet. "Thank God! it's gone at last." He stared round
the laundry as though to find out where he was. "Did it control me--take
possession of me? Did I talk nonsense?" he asked bluntly. "After the
heat came, I remember nothing--"

"You'll feel yourself again in a few minutes," the doctor said. To my
infinite horror I saw that he was surreptitiously wiping sundry dark
stains from the face. "Our experiment has been a success and--"

He gave me a swift glance to hide the bowl, standing between me and our
host while I hurriedly stuffed it down under the lid of the nearest
cauldron.

"--and none of us the worse for it," he finished.

"And fires?" he asked, still dazed, "there'll be no more fires?"

"It is dissipated--partly, at any rate," replied Dr. Silence cautiously.

"And the man behind the gun," he went on, only half realising what he
was saying, I think; "have you discovered _that?_"

"A form materialised," said the doctor briefly. "I know for certain now
what the directing intelligence was behind it all."

Colonel Wragge pulled himself together and got upon his feet. The words
conveyed no clear meaning to him yet. But his memory was returning
gradually, and he was trying to piece together the fragments into a
connected whole. He shivered a little, for the place had grown suddenly
chilly. The air was empty again, lifeless.

"You feel all right again now," Dr. Silence said, in the tone of a man
stating a fact rather than asking a question.

"Thanks to you--both, yes." He drew a de