“True. Well, then, I was walking, and I had just noticed some ladies pass on horseback. Prout! but they rode finely! Other horses came along and I stepped to one side; and it was then that I saw you. They shouted: ‘Look out!’ I don’t know what you were looking at, but you didn’t move; and yet I said to myself: ‘That gentleman isn’t deaf, for he heard me sing well enough.’ Still the horses came on. I shouted ‘Look out!’ to you myself, and I sung out to the riders to stop; but prout! you were already on the ground, and with a famous scar! The young men stopped then. I already had you in my arms. The man who knocked you down was in despair, I must do him justice. We carried you to the nearest café; and when I said that I was your neighbor and that I knew you, they sent for a cab; and then you opened your eyes. But never mind! you got a rousing kick!” “And while I was unconscious, you saw no other people near me? Those ladies on horseback--did not one of them come back?” “No, monsieur; there was no other lady near you except the one that keeps the café; but she washed your head; oh! she didn’t spare the water!” I said no more. I was beginning to suffer terribly; the carriage made me sick, my head was on fire and my brain in a whirl. At last we reached my home. Pettermann and the concierge carried me upstairs, put me to bed, and went to call a doctor. I had a violent fever; soon I was unable to reply to the people about me; I did not know them. One evening I opened my heavy eyes and glanced about my room. It was dimly lighted by a lamp. I saw Pettermann sitting at a table, with his head resting on one of his hands, and his eyes fastened upon a watch which he held in the other. I called him feebly; he heard me, uttered a joyful cry, dropped the watch, and ran to my bed. “Ah! you are saved!” he cried as he embraced me. “The doctor said that you would recover consciousness to-night, before nine o’clock. I was counting the minutes; there are only five left and I was beginning to doubt the doctor’s word. But you recognize me! _Sacredi_! you are saved!” He embraced me again, and I felt tears upon my cheeks. So there were still some people who loved me! That thought relieved me. I held out my hand to that excellent man, pressed his hand, and motioned to him to sit down beside me. “First of all,” he said to me, “you are going to drink this; it’s some medicine ordered by the doctor, and you must do what he orders, since he has cured you. I believe in doctors now.” I drank the potion; then Pettermann picked up the watch and put it to his ear, saying: “It was your watch that I dropped on the floor, monsieur; but it hasn’t even stopped. It’s like you, the spring is strong.” He sat down and continued: