"I will tell you why, Detective Carter, yet I fear that you will think me very weak and foolish to have been so seriously affected."
"No; I think not."
"I had a terrible dream last night, sir," Violet now explained. "I dreamed that I was alone in an enormous graveyard at midnight, with a full moon revealing the dismal surroundings, the dark tombs, the staring, white headstones and the silent graves."
"Not very cheerful—certainly," smiled Nick.
"What followed was infinitely more terrible," continued Violet, with an irrepressible shudder.
"What was that?"
"I dreamed that I saw a grave near which I was standing suddenly begin to open, as if a living being were pushing up the ground from within. Then I saw a fleshless hand appear above the disturbed sods. Then a sightless human skull thrust itself forth, and presently, filling me with a terror I cannot describe, the entire skeleton emerged from the partly open grave, and arose and approached me."
"A grewsome dream, indeed," remarked Nick. "But what of the casket?"
"This of the casket, sir," concluded Violet. "In the skeleton's right hand, which was extended straight toward me while he approached, was a silver box—the exact likeness of the one you hold, and which you so abruptly showed me a short time ago."
"Ah, I see," nodded Nick.