Ryukhin shuddered, and the woman pressed a button on the table, whereupon a small shiny box and a sealed ampule popped out on its glass surface.

even crack, and Ivan was soon thrashing about in the attendants' arms. He became hoarse, tried to bite, and screamed, " So that's the kind of windows you have here! Let me go! Let me go! "

A hypodermic syringe flashed in the doctor's hands, and in a single motion the woman ripped open the bedraggled sleeve of Ivan's Tolstoyan shirt and grabbed his arm with unfeminine strength. There was a smell of ether, Ivan grew weak in the arms of the four attendants, and the agile doctor took advantage of the moment and plunged the needle into Ivan's arm. They held on to Ivan a few seconds longer and then lowered him onto the couch.

" Bandits! " shouted Ivan and jumped up from the couch, but was deposited on it again. As soon as they let go of him, he was about to jump up again, but this time he sat back down himself. He fell silent for a moment, looking around wildly, then yawned suddenly, then grinned maliciously.

" So they've locked me up after all, " he said, yawned again, and then suddenly lay down, putting his head on the pillow and his fist under his cheek like a child. In a sleepy voice, free of malice, he mumbled, " Well, and very good too... You'll pay for what you've done. I warned you, so now do as you wish!... Right now what interests me most is Pontius Pilate... Pilate..." and here he closed his eyes.

" A bath, Room 117—private—and post a guard, " ordered the doctor while putting on his glasses. At this point Ryukhin shuddered again; the white doors opened noiselessly onto a corridor lit by blue night lights. A rubber-wheeled gumey rolled into the room from the corridor, and the sedated Ivan was transferred to it and wheeled down the corridor, the doors closing behind him.

" Doctor, " whispered the shaken Ryukhin, " is he really sick? "

" Oh, yes, " replied the doctor.

" But what's the matter with him? " Ryukhin asked timidly.

The weary doctor looked at him and replied listlessly, " Speech and motor excitation... delirious episodes... clearly a complicated case... Schizophrenia, one must assume. And alcoholism too..."

Ryukhin did not understand anything the doctor said except that Ivan Nikolayevich was obviously in a bad way. He sighed and asked, " And what was all that about a consultant? "

" He probably saw someone who excited his disturbed imagination. Or perhaps he was hallucinating..."