casks. It appeared to be made of black
wood, and to be rimmed with discoloured brass.

"That is a curious thing," I remarked. "What is the history of that?"

"Ah!" said he, "it is the very question which I have had occasion to
ask myself. I would give a good deal to know. Take it in your hands
and examine it."

I did so, and found that what I had imagined to be wood was in reality
leather, though age had dried it into an extreme hardness. It was a
large funnel, and might hold a quart when full. The brass rim
encircled the wide end, but the narrow was also tipped with metal.

"What do you make of it?" asked Dacre.

"I should imagine that it belonged to some vintner or maltster in the
Middle Ages," said I. "I have seen in England leathern drinking
flagons of the seventeenth century--'black jacks' as they were
called--which were of the same colour and hardness as this filler."

"I dare say the date would be about the same," said Dacre, "and, no
doubt, also, it was used for filling a vessel with liquid. If my
suspicions are correct, however, it was a queer vintner who used it,
and a very singular cask which was filled. Do you observe nothing
strange at the spout end of the funnel."

As I held it to the light I observed that at a spot some five inches
above the brass tip the narrow neck of the leather funnel was all
haggled and scored, as if someone had notched it round with a blunt
knife. Only at that point was there any roughening of the dead black
surface.

"Someone has tried to cut off the neck."

"Would you call it a cut?"

"It is torn and lacerated. It must have taken some strength to leave
these marks on such tough material, whatever the instrument may have
been. But what do you think of it? I can tell that you know more than
you say."

Dacre smiled, and his little eyes twinkled with knowledge.

"Have you included the psychology of dreams among your learned
studies?" he asked.

"I did not even know that there was such a psychology."

"My dear sir, that shelf above the gem case is filled with volumes,
from Albertus Magnus onward, which deal with no other subject. It is a
science in itself."

"A science of charlatans!"

"The charlatan is always the pioneer. From the astrologer came the
astronomer, from the alchemist the chemist, from the mesmerist the
experimental psychologist. The quack of yesterday is the professor of
tomorrow. Even such subtle and elusive things as dreams will in