I saw myself—as one might see another person—in some dark place underground. By my side stood the Dumpling, and far back in the shadow was another man.
In my dream I could not see the face of the third man. I could see the Dumpling's face, and upon it was a look of fiendish triumph as he pointed me to the third man. But I could see my own face, and on my own face, as it was turned to the face of the third man, was such a look of incredulous horror as, waking or dreaming, I shall never see upon human face again.
Then the dream passed. I was free of my bonds, and the Dumpling was holding open the door.
"Good-bye, Rissler!" he said. "We shall meet again and soon; and that meeting will mean great things for both of us."
Without a word, without so much as a "Thank you" or a "Good day," I passed out, like one who walks in his sleep. I could think of nothing save the unseen face of the third man in my dream, and of the incredulous horror which had been upon my own face on realising who that third man was.
CHAPTER XXX.
FORTY MILES IN A PERAMBULATOR!
My discomfiture at the Dumpling's derisive repudiation of the supposition that he was John Carleton was completed next morning, when John Carleton himself returned to town, and John Carleton in the flesh I with my own eyes several times saw, as he went in and out of his house in Taunton Square.
"That man," said I to myself, "should be an object-lesson to you in the futility of theory building. First, you called yourself a fool for not having seen that John Carleton was the Dumpling, and the Dumpling, John Carleton. Now, you have the pleasure of knowing yourself a double-distilled donkey, for ever having supposed anything of the sort."
Upon the theory—the fact, as I had thought it to be—that John Carleton and the Dumpling were one and the same man, rested the only explanation I had to offer in regard to the letter I had received from the two Miss Carletons, aunt and niece. That theory being now entirely exploded, their extraordinary behaviour remained as much, if not more, of a mystery than ever.