The old woman opened the door and called:

"Hallo, Nicolas!"

He turned around. Then releasing her dog, she cried:

"Go, go! Eat him up! eat him up!"

The maddened animal sprang for his throat. The man stretched out his
arms, clasped the dog and rolled to the ground. For a few seconds he
squirmed, beating the ground with his feet. Then he stopped moving, while
Semillante dug her fangs into his throat and tore it to ribbons. Two
neighbors, seated before their door, remembered perfectly having seen an
old beggar come out with a thin, black dog which was eating something
that its master was giving him.

At nightfall the old woman was at home again. She slept well that night.




MY TWENTY-FIVE DAYS

I had just taken possession of my room in the hotel, a narrow den between
two papered partitions, through which I could hear every sound made by my
neighbors; and I was beginning to arrange my clothes and linen in the
wardrobe with a long mirror, when I opened the drawer which is in this
piece of furniture. I immediately noticed a roll of paper. Having opened
it, I spread it out before me, and read this title: