Invisibly I received the most unprecedented blows on the ribs
that mortal man probably ever received.
The effect of the terror in me was convulsively to close my arms,
and firmly to inclose that which stood unseen before me. In the rapid
transaction I plunged forward to the ground, but backward and under me
was a man whom I had embraced and who now first became visible.
The whole occurrence then became very naturally explicable to me. The
man must have carried the invisible bird's nest which renders him who
holds it, but not his shadow, imperceptible, and had now cast it away.
I glanced round, soon discovered the shadow of the invisible nest
itself, leaped up and toward it, and did not miss the precious prize.
Invisible and shadowless, I held the nest in my hand.
The man swiftly springing up, gazing round instantly after his
fortunate conqueror, descried on the wide sunny plain neither him nor
his shadow, for which he sought with especial avidity. For that I was
myself entirely shadowless he had no leisure to remark, nor could he
imagine such a thing. Having convinced himself that every trace had
vanished, he turned his hand against himself and tore his hair in
great despair. To me, however, the acquired treasure had given
the power and desire to mix again amongst men. I did not want for
self-satisfying palliatives for my base robbery, or, rather, I had no
need of them; and to escape from every thought of the kind, I hastened
away, not even looking round at the unhappy one, whose deploring voice
I long heard resounding behind me.
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