and turning the top in his hands. It was covered with gray
varnish with tiny little yellow stripes painted on it. Towards the lower
point a little bit of the varnish had been broken off and the reddish
wood underneath was visible. The top was much better constructed than
the cheap toys sold in the village. It was hollow and contained in its
interior a mechanism started by a pressure on the upper end. Once set in
motion the little top spun about the room for some time.

"Oh, isn't that pretty! Is this mechanism your own invention?" asked
Muller smiling. Gyuri watched the top with drawn brows and murmured
something about "childish foolishness."

"Yes, it is my own invention," said the patient, flattered. He started
out on an absolutely technical explanation of the mechanism of tops in
general and of his own in particular, an explanation so lucid and so
well put that no one would have believed the man who was speaking was
not in possession of the full powers of his mind.

Muller listened very attentively with unfeigned interest.

"But you have made more important inventions than this, haven't you?" he
asked when the other stopped talking. Varna's eyes flashed and his voice
dropped to a tone of mystery as he answered: "Yes indeed I have. But I
did not have time to finish them. For I had become some one else."

"Some one else?"

"Cardillac," whispered Varna, whose mania was now getting the best of
him again.

"Cardillac? You mean the notorious goldsmith who lived in Paris 200
years ago? Why, he's dead."

Varna's pale lips curled in a superior smile. "Oh, yes--that's
what people think, but it's a mistake. He is still alive--I am--I
have--although of course there isn't much opportunity here--"

Gyuri cleared his throat with a rasping noise.

"What were you saying, friend Cardillac?" asked Muller with a great show
of interest.

"I have done things here that nobody has found out. It gives me great
pleasure to see the authorities so helpless over the riddles I have
given them to solve. Oh, indeed, sir, you would never imagine how stupid
they are here."

"In other words, friend Cardillac, you are too clever for the
authorities here?

"Yes, that's it," said the insane man greatly flattered. He raised his
head proudly and smiled down at his guest. At this moment the doctor
came into the room and Gyuri walked forward to the group at the window.

"You are making him nervous, sir," he said to Muller in a tone that was