e heard a cry from the laboratory. We rushed in and
found Monsieur Stangerson, his eyes haggard, his limbs trembling,
pointing to a sort of bookcase which he had opened, and which, we saw,
was empty. At the same instant he sank into the large armchair that was
placed before the desk and groaned, the tears rolling down his cheeks,
"I have been robbed again! For God's sake, do not say a word of this to
my daughter. She would be more pained than I am." He heaved a deep sigh
and added, in a tone I shall never forget: "After all, what does it
matter,--so long as she lives!"

"She will live!" said Monsieur Darzac, in a voice strangely touching.

"And we will find the stolen articles," said Monsieur Dax. "But what was
in the cabinet?"

"Twenty years of my life," replied the illustrious professor sadly, "or
rather of our lives--the lives of myself and my daughter! Yes, our
most precious documents, the records of our secret experiments and our
labours of twenty years were in that cabinet. It is an irreparable loss
to us and, I venture to say, to science. All the processes by which I
had been able to arrive at the precious proof of the destructibility of
matter were there--all. The man who came wished to take all from me,--my
daughter and my work--my heart and my soul."

And the great scientist wept like a child.

We stood around him in silence, deeply affected by his great distress.
Monsieur Darzac pressed closely to his side, and tried in vain to
restrain his tears--a sight which, for the moment, almost made me like
him, in spite of an instinctive repulsion which his strange demeanour
and his inexplicable anxiety had inspired me.

Monsieur Rouletabille alone,--as if his precious time and mission
on earth did not permit him to dwell in the contemplation on human
suffering--had, very calmly, stepped up to the empty cabinet and,
pointing at it, broke the almost solemn silence. He entered into
explanations, for which there was no need, as to why he had been led
to believe that a robbery had been committed, which included the
simultaneous discovery he had made in the lavatory, and the empty
precious cabinet in the laboratory. The first thing that had struck him,
he said, was the unusual form of that piece of furniture. It was very
strongly built of fire-proof iron, clearly showing that it was intended
for the keeping of most valuable objects. Then he noticed that the key
had been left in the lock. "One does not ordinarily have