Presently he roused himself, and began to look about again.

"What means all this ?" he murmured.

"Laws of gravity disturbed! Points of the compass reversed! The length of day reduced one half! Surely this will indefinitely postpone my meeting with the count.

Something has happened; Ben Zoof and I cannot both be mad!" The orderly, meantime, surveyed his master with the greatest equanimity; no phenomenon, however extraordinary, would have drawn from him a single exclamation of surprise.

"Do you see anyone, Ben Zoof ?" asked the captain, at last.
"No one, sir; the count has evidently been and gone." "But supposing that to be the case," persisted the captain, "my seconds would have waited, and not seeing me, would have come on towards the gourbi.