“Are you sure of what you tell us; that you are wide awake, and not dreaming?” said the Commissary.
“As certain as I am that he is not now in this room.”
“Which shows how easily people may be deceived,” said a voice from behind the screen, and instantly thereafter Dhoula Bel himself walked out into the middle of the floor—stone floor it was—and after pointing his finger scornfully at the sergeant and his men, he deliberately walked back behind the screen again.
My hair stood up with fright and horror; not so the seven brave Frenchmen; for with one accord they rushed toward the screen, exclaiming: “But we have you now, man or devil!” dashed it away with a single blow, and—
There was no one whatever behind it.
The sergeant fell as if he had been shot.
Determined to preserve myself from surprise, I steadily kept my seat and watched the Stranger and his companion. The latter rose from his chair, advanced toward Hokeis and his daughter, who had both sat silent and spell-bound during the whole of this extraordinary scene of diablerie, and spoke a few words in a low tone to them.
While this was going on, the tall Stranger passed into the other room, and within a period of twelve seconds I rose and followed, but he too had disappeared!
There was a marriage in Paris next day. A son of Adam had wedded with a daughter of Ish.