I reread this today is in a book of short stories collected under the title Adventure.
Hardly four pages in length, it’s about a traveller. Having arrived in Zurich, he checks into a hotel and goes to bed in his room.
He lights a cigarette and throws the match on the floor. Seized with an anxiety that it may not have burnt out and may cause a fire, he bends down to look at it when –
When a hand hidden under the bed emerges, and puts out the match!
There is a man under the bed!
From then on it’s a breath-taking narration.
When I read this story decades ago I had not realised this was a French author. Today I learnt it from Google. The book didn’t mention it and didn’t give the translator’s name.
Quote
At first our brain appreciates only what our eyes have indicated to it.
