nding upon a high
mountain peak with eternal snows stretched all about him. He looked
down, past the snow line, past the fir woods, into the depths of a
lovely lake, far down in the valley below. It was a lake of liquid
amber, and as he looked it seemed to become two lakes, and they were
like two great eyes looking up at him and summoning him to leap. He
thought that he leaped, a prodigious leap, far out into space; then
fell--fell--fell. When he splashed into the amber deeps they became
churned up in a milky foam, and this closed about him with a strangle
grip. But it was no longer foam, but the clinging arms of Madame de
Medici!...

Then he stood upon a fragile bridge of bamboo spanning a raging torrent.
Right and left of the torrent below were jungles in which moved tigerish
shapes. Upon the farther side of the bridge Madame de Medici, clad in
a single garment of flame-coloured silk, beckoned to him. He sought to
cross the bridge, but it collapsed, and he fell near the edge of the
torrent. Below were the raging waters, and ever nearing him the tigerish
shapes, which now Madame was calling to as to a pack of hounds. They
were about to devour him, when------

He was crouching upon a ledge, high above a street which seemed to be
vaguely familiar. He could not see very well, because of a silk mask
tied upon his face, and the eyeholes of which were badly cut. From the
ledge he stepped to another, perilously. He gained it, and crouching
there, where there was scarce foothold for a cat, he managed fully to
raise a window which already was raised some six inches. Then softly and
silently--for he was bare-footed--he entered the room.

Someone slept in a bed facing the window by which he had entered, and
upon a table at the side of the sleeper lay a purse, a bunch of keys, an
electric torch, and a Service revolver. Gliding to the table Rene took
the keys and the electric torch, unlocked the door of the room, and
crept down a thickly carpeted stair to a room below. The door of this
also he opened with one of the keys in the bunch, and by the light of
the torch found his way through a quantity of antique furniture and
piled up curiosities to a safe set in the farther wall.

He seemed, in his dream, to be familiar with the lock combination, and,
selecting the correct key from the bunch, he soon had the safe open.
The shelves within were laden principally with antique jewellery,
statuettes, medals, scarabs; and a number of lit