In such confusion did the whole vaporous matter seem, that I think--I cannot say for certain it was so, but the impression left on my mind was--that one of the eyeballs was looking out at a nostril, and the tongue lolling out of one of the ears. It was, however, only for a moment that I saw this germ-body; I cannot call by another name that which had not more substance than smoke. I saw it only so long as it was being dragged athwart the ray of sunlight. The moment it was pulled jerkily out of the beam into the shadow beyond, I could see nothing of it, only the crawling finger. I had not sufficient moral energy or physical force in me to rise, pursue, and stamp on the finger, and grind it with my heel into the floor. Both seemed drained out of me. What became of the finger, whither it went, how it managed to secrete itself, I do not know. I had lost the power to inquire. I sat in my chair, chilled, staring before me into space. "Please, sir," a voice said, "there's Mr. Square below, electrical engineer." "Eh?" I looked dreamily round. My valet was at the door. "Please, sir, the gentleman would be glad to be allowed to go over the house and see that all the electrical apparatus is in order." "Oh, indeed! Yes--show him up." III I had recently placed the lighting of my house in the hands of an electrical engineer, a very intelligent man, Mr. Square, for whom I had contracted a sincere friendship. He had built a shed with a dynamo out of sight, and had entrusted the laying of the wires to subordinates, as he had been busy with other orders and could not personally watch every detail. But he was not the man to let anything pass unobserved, and he knew that electricity was not a force to be played with. Bad or careless workmen will often insufficiently protect the wires, or neglect the insertion of the lead which serves as a safety-valve in the event of the current being too strong. Houses may be set on fire, human beings fatally shocked, by the neglect of a bad or slovenly workman. The apparatus for my mansion was but just completed, and Mr. Square had come to inspect it and make sure that all was right. He was an enthusiast in the matter of electricity, and saw for it a vast perspective, the limits of which could not be predicted.