he had torn open the door, and I saw him spring out into the yellow
fog. I cleared the steps in a jump and ran down the garden-walk but
just as the gate clicked in front of me. I had it open on the
instant, and, following the sound of the man's footsteps, I raced
after him across the open street. He, also, could hear me, and he
instantly stopped running, and there was absolute silence. He was so
near that I almost fancied I could hear him panting, and I held my
own breath to listen. But I could distinguish nothing but the
dripping of the mist about us, and from far off the music of the
Hungarian band, which I had heard when I first lost myself.

"All I could see was the square of light from the door I had left
open behind me, and a lamp in the hall beyond it flickering in the
draught. But even as I watched it, the flame of the lamp was blown
violently to and fro, and the door, caught in the same current of
air, closed slowly. I knew if it shut I could not again enter the
house, and I rushed madly toward it. I believe I even shouted out, as
though it were something human which I could compel to obey me, and
then I caught my foot against the curb and smashed into the sidewalk.
When I rose to my feet I was dizzy and half stunned, and though I
thought then that I was moving toward the door, I know now that I
probably turned directly from it; for, as I groped about in the
night, calling frantically for the police, my fingers touched nothing
but the dripping fog, and the iron railings for which I sought seemed
to have melted away. For many minutes I beat the mist with my arms
like one at blind man's buff, turning sharply in circles, cursing
aloud at my stupidity and crying continually for help. At last a
voice answered me from the fog, and I found myself held in the circle
of a policeman's lantern.