me--sleeping. In a trance."

He said something further that Graham could not hear, and a little phial
was handed across to him. Graham felt a cooling spray, a fragrant mist
played over his forehead for a moment, and his sense of refreshment
increased. He closed his eyes in satisfaction.

"Better?" asked the man in violet, as Graham's eyes reopened. He was a
pleasant-faced man of thirty, perhaps, with a pointed flaxen beard, and
a clasp of gold at the neck of his violet robe.

"Yes," said Graham.

"You have been asleep some time. In a cataleptic trance. You have heard?
Catalepsy? It may seem strange to you at first, but I can assure you
everything is well."

Graham did not answer, but these words served their reassuring purpose.
His eyes went from face to face of the three people about him. They were
regarding him strangely. He knew he ought to be somewhere in Cornwall,
but he could not square these things with that impression.

A matter that had been in his mind during his last waking moments at
Boscastle recurred, a thing resolved upon and somehow neglected. He
cleared his throat.

"Have you wired my cousin?" he asked. "E. Warming, 27, Chancery Lane?"

They were all assiduous to hear. But he had to repeat it. "What an odd
_blurr_ in his accent!" whispered the red-haired man. "Wire, sir?" said
the young man with the flaxen beard, evidently puzzled.

"He means send an electric telegram," volunteered the third, a
pleasant-faced youth of nineteen or twenty. The flaxen-bearded man gave
a cry of comprehension. "How stupid of me! You may be sure everything
shall be done, sir," he said to Graham. "I am afraid it would be
difficult to--wire to your cousin. He is not in London now. But don't
trouble about arrangements yet; you have been asleep a very long time
and the important thing is to get over that, sir." (Graham concluded the
word was sir, but this man pronounced it "Sire.")

"Oh!" said Graham, and became quiet.

It was all very puzzling, but apparently these people in unfamiliar
dress knew what they were about. Yet they were odd and the room was odd.
It seemed he was in some newly established place. He had a sudden flash
of suspicion. Surely this wasn't some hall of public exhibition! If it
was he would give Warming a piece of his mind. But it scarcely had
that character. And in a place of public exhibition he would not have
discovered himself naked.

Then suddenly, quite abruptly, he realised what had happe