"How long I lay stunned I cannot tell you. Wholly unconscious at first, I must have continued for hours in a state of semi-consciousness, vaguely aware, like a man in a dream, of the strange things that were going on around me. I perceived dimly that night fell and that the lamps were lighted. As it were through a mist, I saw the figures of men watching me. From time to time I heard muffled voices that I could make nothing of. At last if seemed as if a cloud had suddenly lifted, and my senses returned to me with a flash.
"Horror of horrors! I was sitting—in an open coffin—with the lid lying on the floor beside it, ready to be fixed on!
"'A thousand thunders!' I yelled, trying to struggle to my feet. 'What are you doing? I am——'
"But, with my hands and feet fastened, I could scarcely move.
"A rough hand thrust me back, and one of my enemies—he with the damaged forehead—held a piece of stamped paper before my eyes, saying jeeringly—
"'You are Jean Antoine Stromboli Kosnapulski, are you? Then read that, my friend!'
"'Good Heavens!' I ejaculated.
"The paper was my acte de décès—my death certificate, bearing the signature—forged, of course—of the leading physician of Montreux.
"So the scheme of these ruffians of the Third Section was—to bury me alive! I could have no doubt of it, and I could do nothing to help myself. There was just a chance that Daisy might find a means of saving me; but it was a very faint chance. The others would almost certainly look too sharply after her for that. I felt my face blanch and great beads of sweat stand out upon my forehead. I made a desperate effort to free myself, but with no result.
"The men stood round and laughed at me, and then one of them advanced and clapped a pad over my mouth.