, to be certain that nothing should be omitted from the
conditions under which the strange phenomenon was produced, which, until
some natural explanation of it is forthcoming, seems to me to prove,
even better than the theories of Professor Stangerson, the Dissociation
of Matter--I will even say, the instantaneous Dissociation of Matter."

CHAPTER XVI. Strange Phenomenon of the Dissociation of Matter

(EXTRACT FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF JOSEPH ROULETABILLE, continued)

"I am again at the window-sill," continues Rouletabille, "and once
more I raise my head above it. Through an opening in the curtains, the
arrangement of which has not been changed, I am ready to look, anxious
to note the position in which I am going to find the murderer,--whether
his back will still be turned towards me!--whether he is still seated at
the desk writing! But perhaps--perhaps--he is no longer there!--Yet
how could he have fled?--Was I not in possession of his ladder? I force
myself to be cool. I raise my head yet higher. I look--he is still
there. I see his monstrous back, deformed by the shadow thrown by the
candle. He is no longer writing now, and the candle is on the parquet,
over which he is bending--a position which serves my purpose.

"I hold my breath. I mount the ladder. I am on the uppermost rung of it,
and with my left hand seize hold of the window-sill. In this moment of
approaching success, I feel my heart beating wildly. I put my revolver
between my teeth. A quick spring, and I shall be on the window-ledge.
But--the ladder! I had been obliged to press on it heavily, and my foot
had scarcely left it, when I felt it swaying beneath me. It grated on
the wall and fell. But, already, my knees were touching the window-sill,
and, by a movement quick as lightning, I got on to it.

"But the murderer had been even quicker than I had been. He had heard
the grating of the ladder on the wall, and I saw the monstrous back of
the man raise itself. I saw his head. Did I really see it?--The candle
on the parquet lit up his legs only. Above the height of the table
the chamber was in darkness. I saw a man with long hair, a full beard,
wild-looking eyes, a pale face, framed in large whiskers,--as well as
I could distinguish, and, as I think--red in colour. I did not know the
face. That was, in brief, the chief sensation I received from that
face in the dim half-light in which I saw it. I did not know it--or, at
least, I did not recognise it.