A baby started crying. In the distance a policeman blew his whistle with a note as spiralling as a corkscrew, and Gurdweill was reassured. He did not feel so alone. The night was cool, and not very dark. He heard the sound of brisk, even footsteps not far away. Heinestrasse, thought Gurdweill. He went on standing by the window, leaning his elbows on the sill. He was so tired that he no longer felt his limbs. In the end he gave in and returned with stumbling steps, half asleep on his feet, to the couch. Soon it would be light, soon it would be light, he comforted himself. The dead rabbit in the tram was really quite grotesque — one last thought flickered through his mind — and Lotte would have to buy herself another pair of shoes without delay, so that she wouldn’t catch cold … Red shoes like the girl in Praterstrasse … Gurdweill wanted to take off and fly to the other side of the Danube, where Martin, his son Martin, was standing and waving to him. But he could on no account rise from the ground, which filled him with an inhuman sorrow. When he looked down to ascertain the reason, he discovered to his astonishment that one of his feet was chained to a peg fixed in the ground, and this chain — whose painful pressure he now felt just above his ankle — was preventing him from flying. Martin went on beckoning and calling, and Lotte, too, was suddenly standing next to him, waving something like a signal. At first Gurdweill could not make out what it was, but then he saw that it was a very large open-weave shoe, which she had taken off her head like a hat … Suddenly they were surrounded by a throng of people who were all calling him, waving their hats, beckoning with their hands — and he couldn’t move. Then he gathered all his strength and pulled himself away. The force of the pull tore his chained leg in half, and he felt a great pain in his knee as he splashed into the canal. Ah, now everything was lost! How could he swim with one leg? He tried to cry out for help, but the water got into his mouth and he began to suffocate, and to sink into the depths with terrifying speed.

Bathed in a cold sweat, he woke up. Damn it all! His heart pounded violently and his breath came in rapid pants. He began scratching his knee until it bled. Outside, the sky was already turning blue. Somewhere in the distance a bird began its early-morning song. In the room next door a bed creaked. Gurdweill turned over and sank instantly into a deep, dreamless sleep.