For a while he forced himself to look at the book in front of him, but at last, unable to control himself any longer, he suffered his eyes to follow their own bent.
"It may have been an hallucination.

He may have accidentally placed the screen so as to favour such an illusion.

But what he saw was a bony hand coming round the corner of the screen, and, with a cry, he fell to the floor in a swoon.
"The people of the house came running in, and lifting him up, carried him out, and laid him upon his bed.

As soon as he recovered, his first question was, where had they found the thing--where was it when they entered the room?
and when they told him they had seen it standing where it always stood, and had gone down into the room to look again, because of his frenzied entreaties, and returned trying to hide their smiles, he listened to their talk about overwork, and the necessity for change and rest, and said they might do with him as they would.
"So for many months the laboratory door remained locked.

Then there came a chill autumn evening when the man of science opened it again, and closed it behind him.
"He lighted his lamp, and gathered his instruments and books around him, and sat down before them in his high-backed chair.