“Here, uncle,” said I, “here is a pocket-book. It belongs to you, I think. You left it in the car....” But the rustling of petticoats made me turn round. Emma was coming to us, radiant in that sunset, in which her hair seemed, every evening, to gain a new wealth of red light--with a tune sounding on her lips, like a rose between her teeth. She came straight on, and her gait was that of a dance. The bell had interested her also. She inquired about the telegram. The Professor did not reply. “Oh, what’s the matter?” said she. “What’s the matter, again, _mon Dieu_?” “Is it so grave, uncle?” I asked in my turn. “No,” replied Lerne. “Donovan is dead, that’s all.” “Poor fellow,” said Emma. Then after a silence: “Is it not better to be dead than mad? After all it is the best thing for him. Come, Nicolas, you are not going to put on a face like that! Come!” And she seized my hand, and dragged me to the _château_. Lerne went away in the other direction. I was prostrated. “Let me alone,” I said, “let me alone. Donovan, the poor wretch. Let me alone. You cannot know! Let me alone, I say.” A maddening fear came over me. Leaving Emma I ran after my uncle and joined him at the laboratory. He was talking to Johann, and showing him the telegram. The German disappeared into the house at the very moment that I accosted the Professor. “Uncle, you have not told him anything, have you? You have not said anything to Johann?” “Yes, why?” “Oh, but he will inform the others, and the others will repeat it before Nell! Nell will know it, uncle, that is certain. They will tell her, and Donovan’s soul will learn that it no longer has a human body. It must not be! It must not be!” “There is no danger, Nicolas, I assure you.” “No danger! Those men are scoundrels, I tell you! Let me prevent this catastrophe! Time is passing, let me in, I entreat you! Please, for a second, I entreat you! Damn it all, I will pass!” The lessons I had learned from the bull stood me in good stead; I charged head first. My uncle fell back on the grass, and with a blow of my fist I opened the already half open door. At this, Johann, who was on the watch behind it, fell back, bleeding at the nose, and then I penetrated to the courtyard, and decided to take away the dog at any hazard, and never again be separated from it. The pack slipped into their kennels. I saw Nell immediately. They had given her a kennel apart from the others. Her great starved, hairless, wretched body was lying against the grating. I called out, “Donovan, Donovan!” She did not budge. The eyes of the dogs gleamed in the depths of their somber huts, and some of them growled. “Donovan! Nell!” I had an intuition of the truth. There also the scythe of Death had done its work. Yes, Nell also was cold and stiff. A chain twisted round her neck seemed to have strangled her. I was going to make sure of this, when Lerne and Johann showed themselves at the entrance of the courtyard.