At last, daylight penetrated the room; other vehicles passed along
the boulevard; and all the phantoms of the night vanished. Then I
put one arm out of the bed, slowly and cautiously. My eyes were
fixed upon the curtain, locating the exact spot at which I must
fire; I made an exact calculation of the movements I must make;
then, quickly, I seized my revolver and fired.
I leaped from my bed with a cry of deliverance, and rushed to the
window. The bullet had passed through the curtain and the window-
glass, but it had not touched the man--for the very good reason that
there was none there. Nobody! Thus, during the entire night, I
had been hypnotized by a fold of the curtain. And, during that
time, the malefactors....Furiously, with an enthusiasm that nothing
could have stopped, I turned the key, opened the door, crossed the
antechamber, opened another door, and rushed into the library. But
amazement stopped me on the threshold, panting, astounded, more
astonished than I had been by the absence of the man. All the
things that I supposed had been stolen, furniture, books, pictures,
old tapestries, everything was in its proper place.
It was incredible.
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