It snapped like a
piece of tinder, leaving a black, ugly stump. Next he plucked the dagger from his breast--or rather, from where his
bosom seemed to be--and cast it on the floor. I was speechless with
horror and surprise. "Now that you have naught to fear from me," he groaned, "if you have a
heart in your breast you will help to end my pain." "Anything, anything--only tell me how!" I cried, advancing towards him
as I spoke. But hearing me approaching, he shouted out for me to stop. "Don't come near me!" he wailed. "Don't touch me--or I shall try to
murder you--I'll not be able to prevent myself--and I want to undo some
of the ill I've done before I die." I halted. "But what then shall I do?" I asked. "Light the asbestos fire. You'll find matches in the table drawer. I am
perishing of cold, that is the only thing that will soothe the anguish
I am going through. Oh! be quick, be quick!" I flew to obey him, and in a moment I had set the stove ablaze. Belleville found his way to it as if by instinct, and stooping down,
he pressed his awful-looking face against the bars, groaning in a
way that made my very flesh creep. "Yes--yes, I'm blind," he kept
muttering, between his moans. "And very soon I shall be dead. I must
atone. I must atone." "Belleville," I said at last--I forced myself to say it, for his face
had grown ink-black, "are you not wasting precious time? Is there not
something I can get to counteract the acid? It appears to----"

"Hush!" he interrupted. "There is nothing. It is eating into my brain. Besides, I am blind and do not wish to live. But let me think. This
pain--I cannot use my wits--it dazes me! Ah! now! I must. I must. How
can I die with all--Pinsent! Pinsent!" His voice was a piercing scream. "Yes--yes," I answered. I was shaking like a reed. "Is there not a big jar of yellow spirit near the coffin somewhere?" "Yes." "Then, for God's sake, lead me to it." I caught him by the hand and guided him forthwith to the jar. "Take out the stopper," he entreated. I did so and thereupon he plunged
his hands into the vessel and began to lave his neck and face, sobbing
raucously the while. The odour of the stuff, however, was so nauseous
to me that I stepped back in order to escape it. Belleville seemed to know at once. "Pinsent!" he cried, "where are you?" "Here," said I. "Go and wake her, my wife!" he muttered suddenly. "I have something to
tell you both before I go. I am dying fast." I hastened to do his bidding, but before I reached Miss Ottley's side
I was arrested by a loud thudding crash. Turning swiftly, I saw that
Belleville had overturned the jar. Its contents had already flooded the
floor. He hovered over with a lighted vesta in one of his black hands. "What are you doing?" I demanded. He stooped floorwards with the match and instantly a mighty flame shot
up that licked the very roof. "Revenge!" he shrieked. "Revenge! I've
fooled you, Pinsent, fooled you. Now we all shall die together. Look!" With that, he steeped both hands in the burning fluid and, flitting
like a salamander through the flames, he made for the sarcophagus. I could not have stayed him had I wished, for there was a sea of
fire between us. But in good truth I was too dazed for the while, at
least, to move a muscle. Reaching the great lead tomb, the dreadful
flaming object that had once been Belleville thrust his lambent hands
into the coffin. There followed an explosion of appalling fury. A
mass of brilliant, white, combustible shot up with a mighty roar from
the sarcophagus to the ceiling. It pierced the padded lining like a
thunderbolt and flashed into the room above. But on its impact with
the ceiling it also splashed a rain of fire about the great laboratory. In two seconds the whole place ran with flames. By a miracle I was not
touched. But it was not so with Miss Ottley. Her skirt was ablaze. I rushed forward and tore the thing off in strips before it burnt
her--then seizing her in my arms, I made like a madman to the door. A
hideous burning object lay before it shrieking sulphurous curses. It
was Belleville. But he had come to the end of his strength and he could
not stay me. The catch yielded to my hand and I dashed into the passage
half blinded with fire and smoke, but safe. I did not rest until I
had reached the staircase. Miss Ottley was then awake. She struggled
in my arms, so I set her down and faced her. But she did not see me. Her dress was smouldering in places. She seemed utterly bewildered. A woman ran up to her and began to put out the burning patches with
her hands. The house was in an uproar. Servants--they were all either
Arabs or Nubians--ran hither and thither shouting and screaming in a
panic. The woman, evidently a nurse, who attended to Miss Ottley, was
the only white person to be seen. She was evidently terrified, but
she did not lose her head. She kept asking Miss Ottley in French to
explain what had happened. Nobody seemed aware that the house was on
fire. They had all been merely alarmed by the noises they had heard. Miss Ottley in the middle of it all began to weep. She was thoroughly
upset and ill, and I perceived at once that she was on the verge of a
mental and physical collapse. In the circumstances, I judged it best to
remain a silent onlooker of events and not to take any action unless
there arose a real necessity. It was plain that I was still invisible. And as for the house being on fire, I deemed it utterly desirable that
it should burn down to the last shaving and thus fittingly entomb
in its destruction the ghastly tragedy of the laboratory. The issue
tallied largely with my wishes. The fire was seen first from the
street. There followed a veritable pandemonium. The coloured servants
fled like cowards for their lives, and in an incredibly short space
of time the house was in the hands of firemen and police. Miss Ottley
was taken by the nurse out into the street and there questioned by a
sergeant. But she was quite unable to answer his insistent queries
satisfactorily. All she could say was that she had been a long time
ill. She had fainted in her room that afternoon, and Dr. Belleville
or someone had carried her to the laboratory. When she woke up she
had heard a frightful noise. She supposed it was one of the Doctor's
experiments. She thought she had fainted again, but she remembered
nothing more until she found herself with her dress on fire at the foot
of the staircase. She could not explain how she got there. The sergeant
was civil enough to her, but the fool, in his fussy officiousness,
overlooked her weak condition, and the girl broke down and utterly
collapsed before he realised his quite unnecessary cruelty. The worst
of it was that the French nurse had disappeared during the colloquy. There was, therefore, no woman at hand to attend to my poor sweetheart. Fortunately, however, a physician appeared opportunely on the scene,
and at his direction she was immediately conveyed to a hospital. After
she had gone, I did not tarry very long.