He inquired further, as to her sensations before unconsciousness, and
she replied in these striking words: "I felt as if I were strung upon a
complicated system of threads, and as if they tingled and tingled, and
grew tighter to numbness." That answer, he saw, was kindred to the
description given by the young officer of his condition. It was clear
that in both cases the nerves had been seriously played upon; but for
what purpose? What was the secret of the stranger's endeavour? What did
he seek?--and what find? To these questions no satisfactory answer would
come for the asking, so that in his impatience he was tempted to break
through the severe self-restraint of science, and let unfettered fancy
find an answer.
But, most of all, he longed to see close to him the man whom the police
sought for in and out, to judge for himself what might be the method and
the purpose of his strange outrages. He scarcely desired his capture,
for he thought of the possible results to Julius, and yet--Day after
day passed, and still the man was unfound, and very soon a change came
over Lefevre's life, which lifted it so far above the plane of his daily
professional experience, that all speculation about the mysterious "M.
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