nutes ticked away and the watch commenced to strike the
hour's seven strokes. Did it sound the death of Rouletabille? Perhaps
not! For at the first silver tinkle they saw Rouletabille shake himself,
and raise his head, with his face alight and his eyes shining. They saw
him stand up, spread out his arms and cry:

"I have found it!"

Such joy shone in his countenance that there seemed to be an aureole
around him, and none of those there doubted that he had the solution of
the impossible problem.

"I have found it! I have found it!"

They gathered around him. He waved them away as in a waking dream.

"Give me room. I have found it, if my experiment works out. One, two,
three, four, five..."

What was he doing? He counted his steps now, in long paces, as in
dueling preliminaries. And the others, all of them, followed him in
silence, puzzled, but without protest, as if they, too, were caught in
the same strange day-dream. Steadily counting his steps he crossed
thus the court, which was vast. "Forty, forty-one, forty-two," he cried
excitedly. "This is certainly strange, and very promising."

The others, although they did not understand, reframed from questioning
him, for they saw there was nothing to do but let him go ahead without
interruption, just as care is taken not to wake a somnambulist abruptly.
They had no mistrust of his motives, for the idea was simply untenable
that Rouletabille was fool enough to hope to save himself from them by
an imbecile subterfuge. No, they yielded to the impression his
inspired countenance gave them, and several were so affected that they
unconsciously repeated his gestures. Thus Rouletabille reached the edge
of the court where judgment had been pronounced against him. There he
had to mount a rickety flight of stairs, whose steps he counted. He
reached a corridor, but moving away from the side where the door was
opening to the exterior he turned toward a staircase leading to the
upper floor, and still counted the steps as he climbed them. Some of the
company followed him, others hurried ahead of him. But he did not seem
aware of either the one or the other, as he walked along living only
in his thoughts. He reached the landing-place, hesitated, pushed open a
door, and found himself in a room furnished with a table, two chairs,
a mattress and a huge cupboard. He went to the cupboard, turned the key
and opened it. The cupboard was empty. He closed it again and put the
key in his pock