ething supernatural?"

Her voice shook, and her slight foreign accent became more marked.

"Nothing is supernatural," replied Dr. Cairn; "but I think they are
due to something supernormal. I would suggest that possibly you have
suffered from evil dreams recently?"

Lady Lashmore started wildly, and her eyes opened with a sort of
sudden horror.

"How can you know?" she whispered. "How can you know! Oh, Dr. Cairn!"
She laid her hand upon his arm--"if you can prevent those dreams; if
you can assure me that I shall never dream them again--!"

It was a plea and a confession. This was what had lain behind her
coldness--this horror which she had not dared to confide in another.

"Tell me," he said gently. "You have dreamt these dreams twice?"

She nodded, wide-eyed with wonder for his knowledge.

"On the occasions of your husband's illnesses?"

"Yes, yes!"

"What did you dream?"

"Oh! can I, dare I tell you!--"

"You must."

There was pity in his voice.

"I dreamt that I lay in some very dark cavern. I could hear the sea
booming, apparently over my head. But above all the noise a voice was
audible, calling to me--not by name; I cannot explain in what way; but
calling, calling imperatively. I seemed to be clothed but scantily, in
some kind of ragged garments; and upon my knees I crawled toward the
voice, through a place where there were other living things that
crawled also--things with many legs and clammy bodies...."

She shuddered and choked down an hysterical sob that was half a laugh.

"My hair hung dishevelled about me and in some inexplicable way--oh!
am I going mad!--my head seemed to be detached from my living body! I
was filled with a kind of unholy anger which I cannot describe. Also,
I was consumed with thirst, and this thirst...."

"I think I understand," said Dr. Cairn quietly. "What followed?"

"An interval--quite blank--after which I dreamt again. Dr. Cairn, I
_cannot_ tell you of the dreadful, the blasphemous and foul thoughts,
that then possessed me! I found myself resisting--resisting--something,
some power that was dragging me back to that foul cavern with my thirst
unslaked! I was frenzied; I dare not name, I tremble to think, of the
ideas which filled my mind. Then, again came a blank, and I awoke."

She sat trembling. Dr. Cairn noted that she avoided his gaze.

"You awoke," he said, "on the first occasion, to find that your
husband had met with a strange and dangerous accident?"