The turbulent days, after the death of his father, bore heavily upon the young man. He was completely lost in the chaos of strange occurrences. Ever since the time he had spoken to Hinez, after his father’s funeral, he found it impossible to collect his thoughts, or direct them along proper and sound channels. The strips of fires and min that had swept over Europe seemed to have cut deep crosses into his breast. He could not, under any circumstances, reconcile himself to the fact that his father was the cause of the disaster now ravaging all Europe. Besides, his old hatred for Deriugin, about whom he continued to hear and read daily, had not ceased for a single moment. And despite the fact that he could not himself explain on what this strange feeling toward the young Russian was being fed, yet, in his utter ignorance, he did not notice how that feeling of reasonless malice was gradually changing into the blind conviction that, it was the Moscovite, who was the cause of his father’s death, as well as of the dreadful nightmares that continued to ravage all of Europe for the last three weeks. Though the thought was wild, without any foundation, still it continued to torment the weak mind of the young Hussar. He felt certain that all misfortunes emanated from Moscow, for, while the fiery sphere had only grazed a small part of the Russian territory, it had played great havoc everywhere else in Europe. And without giving due consideration to his actions, Eitel turned about face to Paris, right on the heels of his detested foe.

VI

DERIUGIN was no longer in Paris. Though hot on his trail, Eitel did not follow him immediately to Italy. In these days of frightful nightmares, it was not easy to travel from one country to another. All depots were beleaguered by enormous crowds of people. Bloody encounters were fought in order to get into a railroad car. The immense city was in hot delirium. Eitel observed with timid curiosity the panic which possessed the human ant-hill and it found a live response in his own heart. And what he saw redoubled his hatred for the supposed author of the unprecedented catastrophe. Paris was dying before his eyes.

All this occurred two days before Eitel’s arrival in Paris. As soon as the news about the appearance of the atomic vortex in the Vosges and about its movements westward were received, an unprecedented confusion broke out on the Bourse. The most solid values tumbled with amazing speed. In the next twenty-four hours, several of the largest concerns in the country were forced to discontinue payments. Hordes of people hastened to withdraw their money from-the banks. In a word, it was an ordinary financial panic multiplied several times by ten.