The rocking caused by the weight of my body was succeeded shortly afterwards by a further rocking—­which I attribute to the embarking of a second person.  Can there be room for doubt that it was Thomas Roch?  As far as he was concerned they would not have had to take the precaution of gagging him, or of bandaging his eyes, or of binding him.  He must still have been in a state of prostration which precluded the possibility of his making any resistance, or even of being conscious of what was being done.  The proof that I am not deceiving myself is that I could smell the unmistakable odor of ether.  Now, yesterday, before taking leave of us, the doctor administered a few drops of ether to the invalid and—­I remember distinctly—­a little of this extremely volatile substance fell upon his clothing while he was struggling in his fit.  There is therefore nothing astonishing in the fact that this odor should have clung to him, nor that I should have distinguished it, even beneath the bandages that covered my face.

Yes, Thomas Roch was extended near me in the boat.  And to think that had I not returned to the pavilion when I did, had I delayed a few minutes longer, I should have found him gone!

Let me think.  What could have inspired that Count d’Artigas with the unfortunate curiosity to visit Healthful House?  If he had not been allowed to see my patient nothing of the kind would have happened.  Talking to Thomas Roch about his inventions brought on a fit of exceptional violence.  The director is primarily to blame for not heeding my warning.  Had he listened to me the doctor would not have been called upon to attend him, the door of the pavilion would have been locked, and the attempt of the band would have been frustrated.

As to the interest there could have been in carrying off Thomas Roch, either on behalf of a private person or of one of the states of the Old World, it is so evident that there is no need to dwell upon it.  However, I can be perfectly easy about the result.  No one can possibly succeed in learning what for fifteen months I have been unable to ascertain.  In the condition of intellectual collapse into which my fellow-countryman has fallen, all attempts to force his secret from him will be futile.  Moreover, he is bound to go from bad to worse until he is hopelessly insane, even as regards those points upon which he has hitherto preserved his reason intact.

After all, however, it is less about Thomas Roch than myself that I must think just now, and this is what I have experienced, to resume the thread of my adventure where I dropped it: 

After more rocking caused by our captors jumping into it, the boat is rowed off.  The distance must be very short, for a minute after we bumped against something.  I surmise that this something must be the hull of a ship, and that we have run alongside.  There is some scurrying and excitement.  Indistinctly through my bandages I can hear orders being given and a confused murmur of voices that lasts for about five minutes, but I cannot distinguish a word that is said.