Now was my time!
I sprang upon that whirling form, with a sort of mad desperation, to seize and hold its outstretched hand.
At length I held it.
But no!
His body had come to a rest, but now high over my head, now at my feet, now flashing up one side, now down the other, now whizzing in front of my eyes, now encircling my head like a bird in swift flight that hand went on, ever on, in its wild and mysterious course!
My strength was failing me!
Shall I ever be able to grasp it!
Antonius, too, showed signs of yielding to the awful power of the dread disease which tormented him!
His face took on a strange pallor! His breast heaved convulsively. With one last despairing effort I succeeded in catching his hand in its flight around my head!
I clung to it with desperate vigor!