Melford, had a nightmare in which he was dreaming of burglars?"
"I hadn't a doubt of it."
"And that by a species of dream-transference the nightmare was
communicated to the young lady in the stateroom?"
"Well--yes."
"And that her call for help and her cry of burglars acted as a sort of
hypnotic suggestion with the other sleepers, and they began to be
afflicted with the same nightmare?"
"I don't know that I ever put it to myself so distinctly, but it appears
to me now that I must have reached some such conclusion."
"That is very interesting, very interesting indeed. I beg your pardon.
Please go on," Wanhope courteously entreated.
"I don't remember just where I was," the stranger faltered.
Rulledge returned with an accuracy which obliged us all: "'The porter
merely joined in the general uproar and shouted for the police.'"
"Oh yes," the stranger assented. "Then I didn't know what to do, for a
minute. The porter was a pretty thick-headed darky, but he was
lion-hearted; and his idea was to lay hold of a burglar wherever he
could find him.
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