And then, all at once, the sensation passed. The eyes, doubtless, were turned away from me. I drew a long breath. Another sigh echoed my own. Was it from the breast of Rouletabille--was it the Lady in Black, who perhaps, had at the same time as myself endured the weight of those piercing eyes? Old Bob spoke: “Prince, I do not believe that your last spinal bone goes any further back than the middle of the quarternary period.” And all the black spectacles turned in his direction. Rouletabille arose and made a sign to me. I hastened to the council room where he was waiting for me. As soon as I appeared, he closed the door and whispered: “Well, did you feel it, too?” I felt smothered. I could scarcely articulate. “He was there--at that table--unless we are going mad.” There was a pause and then I resumed, more calmly: “You know, Rouletabille, that it is quite possible that we are going mad. This phantasm of Larsan will land us all in a madhouse yet! We have been shut up here only two days and see the state we are in!” Rouletabille interrupted me. “No, no; I felt him. He is there. I could have touched him! But where--but when? Since I came into that room, I have known that it was not necessary for me to go further. I will not fall into his trap. I will not go and look for him outside the castle even though I have seen him outside with my own eyes--even though you saw him with yours.” All in a moment he seemed to grow perfectly calm, passed his hand across his eyebrows, lighted his pipe and said, as he had so often said before, in happier hours when his reasoning powers, which were yet ignorant of the ties which united him to the Lady in Black, were not disturbed by the tumult of his heart: “Let us reason it out!” And he returned on the instant to that argument which had already served us and which he repeated again and again to himself (in order that, he said, he should not be lured away by the outer appearance of things): “Do not look for Larsan in that place where he reveals himself; seek for him everywhere else where he hides himself.” This he followed up with the supplementary argument: “He never shows himself where he seems to be except to prevent us from seeing him where he really is.” And he resumed: “Ah! the outer appearance of things! Look here, Sainclair! There are moments when, for the sake of reasoning clearly, I want to get rid of my eyes! Let us get rid of our eyes, Sainclair, for five minutes--just five minutes, and, perhaps, we shall see more clearly.” He seated himself, placed his pipe on the table, buried his face in his hands and said: “Now, I have no eyes. Tell me, Sainclair--_who is within these walls?_” “What do I see within these walls?” I echoed stupidly. “No, no! You have no eyes at all; you see nothing. Enumerate them without seeing. Count them ALL.” “There is, first of all, you and I,” I said, understanding, at last, what he wished to reach. “Very well.”