“And I put two Derringer bullets and four Colt’s fair into his breast, at ten inches, and blast me if all six didn’t fly back and hit me!” exclaimed a third.
“And I’ll swear that he didn’t come through the open door, for it was fast shut, with my hand on the knob, every second of the time!” said the fourth.
“It was the devil!” said a fifth.
“Or his imp!” said the sixth.
“And I’ll swear he never passed by me on the lower stair!” observed the seventh man.
“Come hither into the room and tell us what you are driving at,” said the Commissary.
“I’m driving at nothing just now,” said the sergeant, as he came in “but I have been trying to drive some bullets through the devil! Do you remember telling me not to let a certain person go out, even if I had to shoot him to prevent it?”
“Certainly I do. Go on.”
“Well, the first thing I knew, that gentleman stood outside the door, and said, as he made faces and ran out his tongue at me, ‘I’m going out in spite of you, monsieur.’ ‘Are you, indeed?’ ‘Of course I am: just see me do it,’ said he, and he marched straight for the stairs, and four of us undertook to clinch him, and did so. Gentlemen, have you ever picked up a hot potatoe? Well, I have, and did not let it drop quicker than we four let go of that individual; only that instead of burning us, it felt for all the world like one feels at the Polytechnic when he takes hold of those infernal things with wires to them, and which discharge a quart or two of lightning into you before you can say Jack Robinson! We let go of the gentleman very quickly, and he passed two or three steps downward, all the while laughing at us, which made me furious, and I fired point-blank at him, and we all attempted to cut him down, but you might just as well have tried to kill a shadow. Messieurs, that man disappeared in the smoke of our pistols! He never passed out in visible form!”
During the sergeant’s relation I had determined to see if Dhoula Bel had really left the room, and for that purpose I carelessly walked toward the window and past the screen. There was nobody whatever behind or near it. I walked back, said nothing, but resumed the seat I had formerly occupied.