This story is called “The Storm” in English, but is not available in Goodreads in English to review.

There is a roaring storm in Volsinian beside the Crimma mountains.

There is a little village of a few hundred houses called Luktrop. The Vanglor volcano is nearby.

During the day, the “inner cauldron” releases sulphur fumes, while at night it spews forth long flames.

A notable building in Luktrop is the Six-Four.

In the square tower of Saint Philifenus the bells are tolling in the storm. When this happens, the villagers call it an evil omen.

A miserly doctor called Doctor Trifulgas lives in Six-Four.

A young girl knocks on the door and asks the doctor to come to her father, who is dying. His name is Vort Kartif.

Dr Trifulgas only sees his patients after receiving payment in cash.

He has a dog called Old Hurzof.

Vort Kartif is a poor man so the doctor lies down again.

Twenty minutes later Vort Kartif’s wife knocks on the door and tells him that if he refuses to come the man will die.

She has twenty fretzers for him for payment.

Then Vort Kartif’s mother knocks firmly on the door and tells him the man has had a seizure.

The doc says “”May his mother, his wife and his daughter perish with him.”

He tells her that a seizure costs 200 fretzers, but the mother replies that they only have 120.

After careful thought the doc concludes that 120 fretzers for an hour and a half’s walk plus a half-hour visit is about a fretzer a minute – a small profit, but not bad.

So the doctor puts on his outdoor clothes, his marsh-boots, his fur cape, his woollen hood and his warm mittens.

Then he steps outside and collects the 120 fretzers from the woman.

He whistles for Hurzof and sets out. He hangs a small lamp from its mouth.

The bells of Saint Philifenus are tolling in the wind – a bad sign.

The doc is not superstitious, he believes in nothing but profit.

In Vanglor’s “leaping flames” quaint figures seem to struggle.

The doc and the old woman follow the road by the coast.

He is shown Vort Kartif’s house.

The dog howls.

Suddenly the Vanglor shakes, “a sheaf of flames sprouts up into the sky” and the doc falls backwards.

He gets up and makes his way to the house.

It looks like Six-Four, his own house, with the same windows and the same narrow door.

The door is ajar, he only has to push.



The dog howls. Inside, the house is exactly the same as his own house.

He climbs the stairs and recognizes his own room. Even his Code is open at the same page, 197.

Doctor Trifulgas is afraid. He pulls the curtain around the bed and peers at the dying man lying motionless.

He cries and his dog gives a sinister howl.

It is not Vort Kartif, it is Doctor Trifulgas himself, struck down by an apoplectic seizure.

It is he himself who is going to die.

He pierces a vein in the dying man’s arm, but the blood does not rise.

The man sits up and utters one final cry.

And the doctor falls dead into his own arms.

Next morning Dr Trifulgas’s body is found in Six-Four.

Dr Trifulgas has met his fate.

Nature, including the storm, the flames of the volcano, and the howles og the dog indicate something bad is about to happen.

Also, the evil omen of the tolling of the bells.

The sea looks “mourning-white".

Also, the doc falls backwards before proceeding to the house of the dying man. ( )