Then they came to a quiet neighborhood, where stood a large house with grey, gloomy windows. It looked severe and uninviting. It was very quiet within, and there came to Johannes a mingling of strange, pungent odors--a damp, cellar-like smell being the most perceptible. In a room, full of odd-looking instruments, sat a solitary man. He was surrounded with books, and glass and copper articles--all of them unfamiliar to Johannes. A stray sunbeam entered the room, passed on over his head, and sparkled on the flasks filled with pretty, tinted particles. The man was looking intently through a copper tube, and did not look up. As Johannes came nearer, he heard him murmur, "Wistik! Wistik!" Beside the man, on a long, black bench, lay something white and downy. What it was Johannes could not clearly see. "Good morning, doctor!" said Pluizer. But still the doctor did not look up. Then Johannes was terrified, for the white object at which he was looking so intently, began all at once to struggle convulsively. What he had seen was the downy, white breast of a little rabbit. Its head, with the twitching nostrils, was held backward by pinching clamps of iron, and the four little feet were tightly bound along its body. The hopeless effort to free himself was soon over, and the little creature lay still again; the only sign of life being the rapid movement of the blood-stained throat. Johannes looked at the round, gentle eyes--so wide open with helpless anguish, and it seemed to him that he recognized them. Was not this the soft little body against which he had rested that first, blissful, elf-land night? Old remembrances came thronging over him. He flew to the little creature. "Wait, wait! Poor Bunnie, I will help you!" And he hurried to untie the cords which were cutting into the tender little feet. But his hands were seized in a tight grip, and a shrill laugh rang in his ears. "What does this mean, Johannes? Are you still so childish? What must the doctor think of you?" "What does the boy want? Why is he here?" asked the doctor, amazed. "He wants to be a man, and so I brought him to you; but he is still rather young and childish. This is not the way to find what you are seeking, Johannes!" "No, this is not the way," said the doctor. "Doctor, let that rabbit loose!" But Pluizer clutched both his hands, and squeezed them painfully. "What was our agreement, Jackanapes?" he hissed in his ear. "We were to seek, were we not? We are not in the dunes here, with Windekind, and with stupid animals. We should be men--men, do you understand? If you wish to remain a child--if you are not strong enough to help me--I will send you out of the way. Then you may seek--all by yourself!" Johannes believed him and said no more. He determined to be strong. So he shut his eyes, that he might not see the rabbit.