“What key?” Alex. asked, and Sherry told him the story of the key, leaving out her dream of her grandmother and only saying, “I dreamed some one told me where it was.”
Alex. was more puzzled than ever. Why was she so interested in the chest and its contents? He would ask her later. He must get over the most important part at once, and he said: “The brocade and jewelry and Bible disappeared last night. Do you know where they are?”
For a moment he thought Sherry had fainted, she sat so still and looked so white, and he put his hand on the one of hers nearest to him, and as she opened her eyes and looked at him he said, “Don’t feel so badly; try and remember.”
Then she rallied and said in a choking voice: “No, I don’t know where they are. Did I walk in my sleep, and is that why I feel so dizzy and tired this morning, just as I used to feel? Did I walk in my sleep?”
Alex.’s hand was still on hers, and he felt her cold fingers closing tightly round it; and there was the pallor of death on her face as he told her what he saw.
“Oh,” she gasped, “this is dreadful! You saw me, and it must be true; but I do not remember dreaming at all as I usually do. I must have put the things in my closet. I did not see them as I opened the door this morning to hang up my dress. Your sister and Miss Doane saw me last night, too? Will you ask them to go with me to my room?”
“Let me see you there first,” Alex. suggested, and Sherry did not refuse his help.
Her strength seemed to have left her, and her feet dragged heavily as she climbed the back stairs.
“Sit here till I return,” Alex. said, placing her in a chair near the door and hurrying off for his sister and cousin, whom he found talking to Craig Saltus and telling him of last night’s adventure.
“I remember hearing that she walked in her sleep when a child,” he said. “She was little more than that when we first went to Buford. The whole town knew of it and were interested. She and Rose were great friends, and Rose had her once to spend the night with her, and she scared us all by getting up at midnight and starting for home.”