"Pardon me, but from whom have you learnt of it?"
"From Mr. Ferrara," she answered simply. "He has assured me that you are the greatest living authority upon such matters."
"And I want to ask you a question," continued Lady Lashmore. "Have you any idea, any idea at all respecting the cause of the wounds upon my husband's throat? Do you think them due to--something 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?"
"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."