Coming suddenly forward, thus enwrapped and dishevelled, in that horrified crowd, I must have had, in the strange mixture of lights, an extraordinary and terrifying appearance.

It was well that I recognised all this in time to avert another catastrophe; for the half-dazed, mechanically-acting Detective put in the cartridges and had raised his revolver to shoot at me when I succeeded in wrenching off the respirator and shouting to him to hold his hand.

In this also he acted mechanically; the red, half-awake eyes had not in them even then the intention of conscious action.

The danger, however, was averted.

The relief of the situation, strangely enough, came in a simple fashion.