THE DETECTIVE OF DREAMS

Gene Wolfe

I was writing in my office in the rue Madeleine when Andrée, my

secretary, announced the arrival of Herr D____. I rose, put away my

correspondence, and offered him my hand. He was, I should say, just short

of fifty, had the high, clear complexion characteristic of those who in youth

(now unhappily past for both of us) have found more pleasure in the

company of horses and dogs and the excitement of the chase than in the

bottles and bordels of city life, and wore a beard and mustache of the style

popularized by the late emperor. Accepting my invitation to a chair, he

showed me his papers.

"You see," he said, "I am accustomed to acting as the representative of

my government. In this matter I hold no such position, and it is possible that

I feel a trifle lost."

"Many people who come here feel lost," I said. "But it is my boast that I

find most of them again. Your problem, I take it, is purely a private matter?"

"Not at all. It is a public matter in the truest sense of the words."

"Yet none of the documents before me - admirably stamped, sealed, and

beribboned though they are - indicates that you are other than a private

gentleman traveling abroad. And you say you do not represent your

government. What am I to think? What is this matter?"

"I act in the public interest," Herr D____ told me. "My fortune is not great,

but I can assure you that in the event of your success you will be well

recompensed; although you are to take it that I alone am your principal, yet

there are substantial resources available to me."

"Perhaps it would be best if you described the problem to me?"

"You are not averse to travel?"

"No."

"Very well then," he said, and so saying launched into one of the most

astonishing relations - no, the most astonishing relation - I have ever been

privileged to hear. Even I, who had at first hand the account of the man who

found Paulette Renan with the quince seed still lodged in her throat; who

had received Captain Brotte's testimony concerning his finds amid the

antarctic ice; who had heard the history of the woman called Joan O'Neil,

who lived for two years behind a painting of herself in the Louvre, from her

own lips - even I sat like a child while this man spoke.

When he fell silent, I said, "Herr D____, after all you have told me, I

would accept this mission though there were not a sou to be made from it.

Perhaps once in a lifetime one comes across a case that must be pursued

for its own sake; I think I have found mine.

He leaned forward and grasped my hand with a warmth of feeling that

was, I believe, very foreign to his usual nature. "Find and destroy the

Dream-Master," he said, "and you shall sit upon a chair of gold, if that is

your wish, and eat from a table of gold as well. When will you come to our

country?"

"Tomorrow morning," I said. "There are one or two arangements I must

make here before I go."

"I am returning tonight. You may call upon me at any time, and I will

apprise you of new developments." He handed me a card. "I am always to

be found at this address - if not I, then one who is to be trusted, acting in

my behalf."

"I understand."

"This should be sufficient for your initial expenses. You may call on me

should you require more." The cheque he gave me as he turned to leave

represented a comfortable fortune.

I waited until he was nearly out the door before saying, "I thank you, Herr

Baron." To his credit, he did not turn; but I had the satisfaction of seeing a

flush red rising above the precise white line of his collar before the door

closed.

Andrée entered as soon as he had left. "Who was that man? When you

spoke to him - just as he was stepping out of your office - he looked as if

you had struck him with a whip."

"He will recover," I told her. "He is the Baron H____, of the secret police

of K____. D____ was his mother's name. He assumed that because his

own desk is a few hundred kilometers from mine, and because he does not

permit his likeness to appear in the daily papers, I would not know him; but

it was necessary, both for the sake of his opinion of me and my own of

myself, that he should discover that I am not so easily deceived. When he

recovers from his initial irritation, he will retire tonight with greater

confidence in the abilities I will devote to the mission he has entrusted to

me."

"It is typical of you, monsieur," Andrée said kindly, "that you are

concerned that your clients sleep well."

Her pretty cheek tempted me, and I pinched it. "I am concerned," I

replied; "but the Baron will not sleep well."

My train roared out of Paris through meadows sweet with wild flowers, to

penetrate mountain passes in which the danger of avalanches was only just

past. The glitter of rushing water, sprung from on high, was everywhere;

and when the express slowed to climb a grade, the song of water was

everywhere, too, water running and shouting down the gray rocks of the

Alps. I fell asleep that night with the descant of that icy purity sounding

through the plainsong of the rails, and I woke in the station of I____, the old

capital of J____, now a province of K____.

I engaged a porter to convey my trunk to the hotel where I had made

reservations by telegraph the day before, and amused myself for a few

hours by strolling about the city. Here I found the Middle Ages might almost

be said to have remained rather than lingered. The city wall was complete

on three sides, with its merloned towers in repair; and the cobbled streets

surely dated from a period when wheeled traffic of any kind was scarce. As

for the buildings - Puss in Boots and his friends must have loved them

dearly: there were bulging walls and little panes of bull's-eye glass, and

overhanging upper floors one above another until the structures seemed

unbalanced as tops. Upon one grey old pile with narrow windows and

massive doors, I found a plaque informing me that though it had been first

built as a church, it had been successively a prison, a customhouse, a

private home, and a school. I investigated further, and discovered it was

now an arcade, having been divided, I should think at about the time of the

first Louis, into a multitude of dank little stalls. Since it was, as it happened,

one of the addresses mentioned by Baron H____, I went in.

Gas flared everywhere, yet the interior could not have been said to be

well lit - each jet was sullen and secretive, as if the proprietor in whose

cubicle it was located wished it to light none but his own wares. These

cubicles were in no order; nor could I find any directory or guide to lead me

to the one I sought. A few customers, who seemed to have visited the

place for years, so that they understood where everything was, drifted from

one display to the next. When they arrived at each, the proprietor came out,

silent (so it seemed to me) as a specter, ready to answer questions or

accept a payment; but I never heard a question asked, or saw any money

tendered - the customer would finger the edge of a kitchen knife, or hold a

garment up to her own shoulders, or turn the pages of some moldering

book; and then put the thing down again, and go away.

At last, when I had tired of peeping into alcoves lined with booths still

gloomier than the ones on the main concourse outside, I stopped at a

leather merchant's and asked the man to direct me to Fräulein A____.

"I do not know her," he said.

"I am told on good authority that her business is conducted in this

building, and that she buys and sells antiques."

"We have several antique dealers here. Herr M____-"

"I am searching for a young woman. Has your Herr M____ a niece or a

cousin?"

"-handles chairs and chests, largely. Herr O____ near the guildhall-"

"It is within this building."

"-stocks pictures, mostly. A few mirrors. What is it you wish to buy?"

At this point we were interrupted, mercifully, by a woman from the next

booth. "He wants Fräulein A____. Out of here, and to your left; past the

wigmaker's, then right to the stationer's, then left again. She sells old lace."

I found the place at last, and sitting at the very back of her booth Fräulein

A____ herself, a pretty, slender, timid-looking young woman. Her

merchandise was spread on two tables; I pretended to examine it and

found that it was not old lace she sold but old clothing, much of it trimmed

with lace. After a few moments she rose and came out to talk to me, saying,

"If you could tell me what you require? . . ." She was taller than I had

anticipated, and her flaxen hair would have been very attractive if it were

ever released from the tight braids coiled round her head.

"I am only looking. Many of these are beautiful - are they expensive?"

"Not for what you get. The one you are holding is only fifty marks."

"That seems like a great deal."

"They are the fine dresses of long ago - for visiting, or going to the ball.

The dresses of wealthy women of aristocratic taste. All are like new; I will

not handle anything else. Look at the seams in that one you hold, the tiny

stitches all done by hand. Those were the work of dressmakers who

created only four or five in a year, and worked twelve and fourteen hours a

day, sewing at the first light, and continuing under the lamp, past midnight."

I said, "I see that you have been crying, Fräulein. Their lives were indeed

miserable, though no doubt there are people today who suffer equally."

"No doubt there are," the young woman said. "I, however, am not one of

them." And she turned away so that I should not see her tears.

"I was informed otherwise."

She whirled about to face me. "You know him? Oh, tell him I am not a

wealthy woman, but I will pay whatever I can. Do you really know him?"

"No." I shook my head. "I was informed by your own police."

She stared at me. "But you are an outlander. So is he, I think."

"Ah, we progress. Is there another chair in the rear of your booth? Your

police are not above going outside your own country for help, you see, and

we should have a little talk."

"They are not our police," the young woman said bitterly, "but I will talk to

you. The truth is that I would sooner talk to you, though you are French. You

will not tell them that?"

I assured her that I would not; we borrowed a chair from the flower stall

across the corridor, and she poured forth her story.

"My father died when I was very small. My mother opened this booth to

earn our living - old dresses that had belonged to her own mother were the

core of her original stock. She died two years ago, and since that time I

have taken charge of our business and used it to support myself. Most of

my sales are to collectors and theatrical companies. I do not make a great

deal of money, but I do not require a great deal, and I have managed to

save some. I live alone at Number 877 ____strasse; it is an old house

divided into six apartments, and mine is the gable apartment."

"You are young and charming," I said, "and you tell me you have a little

money saved. I am surprised you are not married."

"Many others have said the same thing."

"And what did you tell them, Fräulein?"

"To take care of their own affairs. They have called me a man-hater -

Frau G____, who has the confections in the next corridor but two, called

me that because I would not receive her son. The truth is that I do not care

for people of either sex, young or old. If I want to live by myself and keep

my own things to myself, is not it my right to do so?"

"I am sure it is; but undoubtedly it has occurred to you that this person

you fear so much may be a rejected suitor who is taking his revenge on

you."

"But how could he enter and control my dreams?"

"I do not know, Fräulein. It is you who say that he does these things."

"I should remember him, I think, if he had ever called on me. As it is, I am

quite certain I have seen him somewhere, but I cannot recall where. Still . .

."

"Perhaps you had better describe your dream to me. You have the same

one again and again, as I understand it?"

"Yes. It is like this. I am walking down a dark road. I am both frightened

and pleasurably excited, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I walk for a

long time, sometimes for what seems to be only a few moments. I think

there is moonlight, and once or twice I have noticed stars. Anyway, there is

a high, dark hedge, or perhaps a wall, on my right. There are fields to the

left, I believe. Eventually I reach a gate of iron bars, standing open - it's not

a large gate for wagons or carriages, but a small one, so narrow I can

hardly get through. Have you read the writings of Dr. Freud of Vienna? One

of the women here mentioned once that he had written concerning dreams,

and so I got them from the library, and if I were a man I am sure he would

say that entering that gate meant sexual commerce. Do you think I might

have unnatural leanings?" Her voice had dropped to a whisper.

"Have you ever felt such desires?"

"Oh, no. Quite the reverse."

"Then I doubt it very much," I said. "Go on with your dream. How do you

feel as you pass through the gate?"

"As I did when walking down the road, but more so - more frightened,

and yet happy and excited. Triumphant, in away."

"Go on."

"I am in the garden now. There are fountains playing, and nightingales

singing in the willows. The air smells of lilies, and a cherry tree in blossom

looks like a giantess in her bridal gown. I walk on a straight, smooth path; I

think it must be paved with marble chips, because it is white in the

moonlight. Ahead of me is the Schloss - a great building. There is music

coming from inside."

"What sort of music?"

"Magnificent - joyous, if you know what I am trying to say, but not the

tinklings of a theater orchestra. A great symphony. I have never been to the

opera at Bayreuth; but I think it must be like that - yet a happy, quick tune."

She paused, and for an instant her smile recovered the remembered

music. "There are pillars, and a grand entrance, with broad steps. I run up -

I am so happy to be there - and throw open the door. It is brightly lit inside;

a wave of golden light, almost like a wave from the ocean, strikes me. The

room is a great hall, with a high ceiling. A long table is set in the middle and

there are hundreds of people seated at it, but one place, the one nearest

me, is empty. I cross to it and sit down; there are beautiful golden loaves on

the table, and bowls of honey with roses floating at their centers, and crystal

carafes of wine, and many other good things I cannot remember when I

awake. Everyone is eating and drinking and talking, and I begin to eat too."

I said, "It is only a dream, Fräulein. There is no reason to weep."

"I dream this each night - I have dreamed so every night for months."

"Go on."

"Then he comes. I am sure he is the one who is causing me to dream

like this because I can see his face clearly, and remember it when the

dream is over. Sometimes it is very vivid for an hour or more after I wake -

so vivid that I have only to close my eyes to see it before me."

"I will ask you to describe him in detail later. For the present, continue

with your dream."

''He is tall, and robed like a king, and there is a strange crown on his

head. He stands beside me, and though he says nothing, I know that the

etiquette of the place demands that I rise and face him. I do this.

Sometimes I am sucking my fingers as I get up from his table."

"He owns the dream palace, then."

"Yes, I am sure of that. It is his castle, his home; he is my host. I stand

and face him, and I am conscious of wanting very much to please him, but

not knowing what it is I should do."

"That must be painful."

"It is. But as I stand there, I become aware of how I am clothed, and-"

"How are you clothed?"

"As you see me now, In a plain, dark dress - the dress I wear here at the

arcade. But the others - all up and down the hall, all up and down the table -

are wearing the dresses I sell here. These dresses." She held one up for

me to see, a beautiful creation of many layers of lace, with buttons of

polished jet. "I know then that I cannot remain; but the king signals to the

others, and they seize me and push me toward the door."

"You are humiliated then?"

"Yes, but the worst thing is that I am aware that he knows that I could

never drive myself to leave, and he wishes to spare me the struggle. But

outside - some terrible beast has entered the garden. I smell it - like the

hyena cage at the Tiergarten - as the door opens. And then I wake up."

"It is a harrowing dream."

"You have seen the dresses I sell. Would you credit it that for weeks I

slept in one, and then another, and then another of them?"

"You reaped no benefit from that?"

"No. In the dream I was clad as now. For a time I wore the dresses

always - even here to the stall, and when I bought food at the market. But it

did no good."

"Have you tried sleeping somewhere else?"

"With my cousin who lives on the other side of the city. That made no

difference, I am certain that this man I see is a real man. He is in my dream,

and the cause of it; but he is not sleeping."

"Yet you have never seen him when you are awake?"

She paused, and I saw her bite at her full lower lip. "I am certain I have."

"Ah!"

"But I cannot remember when. Yet I am sure I have seen him - that I have

passed him in the street."

"Think! Does his face associate itself in your mind with some particular

section of the city?"

She shook her head.

When I left her at last, it was with a description of the Dream-Master less

precise than I had hoped, though still detailed. It tallied in almost all

respects with the one given me by Baron H____; but that proved nothing,

since the baron's description might have been based largely on Fraäulein

A____'s.

The bank of Herr R____ was a private one, as all the greatest banks in

Europe are. It was located in what had once been the town house of some

noble family (their arms, overgrown now with ivy, were still visible above the

door) and bore no identification other than a small brass plate engraved

with the names of Herr R____ and his partners. Within, the atmosphere

was more dignified - even if, perhaps, less tasteful -than it could possibly

have been in the noble family's time. Dark pictures in gilded frames lined

the walls, and the clerks sat at inlaid tables upon chairs upholstered in

tapestry. When I asked for Herr R____, I was told that it would be

impossible to see him that afternoon; I sent in a note with a sidelong

allusion to "unquiet dreams," and within five minutes I was ushered into a

luxurious office that must once have been the bedroom of the head of the

household.

Herr R____ was a large man - tall, and heavier (I thought) than his

physician was likely to have approved. He appeared to be about fifty; there

was strength in his wide, fleshy face; his high forehead and capacious

cranium suggested intellect; and his small, dark eyes, forever flickering as

they took in the appearance of my person, the expression of my face, and

the position of my hands and feet, ingenuity.

No pretense was apt to be of service with such a man, and I told him

flatly that I had come as the emissary of Baron H____, that I knew what

troubled him, and that if he would cooperate with me I would help him if I

could.

"I know you, monsieur," he said, "by reputation. A business with which I

am associated employed you three years ago in the matter of a certain

mummy." He named the firm. "I should have thought of you myself."

"I did not know that you were connected with them."

"I am not, when you leave this room. I do not know what reward Baron

H____ has offered you should you apprehend the man who is oppressing

me, but I will give you, in addition to that, a sum equal to that you were paid

for the mummy. You should be able to retire to the south then, should you

choose, with the rent of a dozen villas."

"I do not choose," I told him, "and I could have retired long before. But

what you just said interests me. You are certain that your persecutor is a

living man?"

"I know men." Herr R____ leaned back in his chair and stared at the

painted ceiling. "As a boy I sold stuffed cabbage-leaf rolls in the street - did

you know that? My mother cooked them over wood she collected herself

where buildings were being demolished, and I sold them from a little cart

for her. I lived to see her with half a score of footmen and the finest house

in Lindau. I never went to school; I learned to add and subtract in the

streets - when I must multiply and divide I have my clerk do it. But I learned

men. Do you think that now, after forty years of practice, I could be

deceived by a phantom? No, he is a man - let me confess it, a stronger

man than I - a man of flesh and blood and brain, a man I have seen

somewhere, sometime, here in this city - and more than once."

"Describe him."

"As tall as I. Younger - perhaps thirty or thirty-five. A brown, forked beard,

so long." (He held his hand about fifteen centimeters beneath his chin.)

"Brown hair. His hair is not yet grey, but I think it may be thinning a little at

the temples."

"Don't you remember?"

"In my dream he wears a garland of roses - I cannot be sure."

"Is there anything else? Any scars or identifying marks?"

Herr R____ nodded. "He has hurt his hand. In my dream, when he holds

out his hand for the money, I see blood in it - it is his own, you understand,

as though a recent injury had reopened and was beginning to bleed again.

His hands are long and slender - like a pianist's."

"Perhaps you had better tell me your dream."

"Of course." He paused, and his face clouded, as though to recount the

dream were to return to it. "I am in a great house. I am a person of

importance there, almost as though I were the owner; yet I am not the

owner-"

"Wait," I interrupted. "Does this house have a banquet hall? Has it a

pillared portico, and is it set in a garden?"

For a moment Herr R____'s eyes widened. "Have you also had such

dreams?"

"No" I said. "It is only that I think I have heard of this house before.

Please continue."

"There are many servants - some work in the fields beyond the garden. I

give instructions to them - the details differ each night, you understand.

Sometimes I am concerned with the kitchen, sometimes with the livestock,

sometimes with the draining of a field. We grow wheat, principally, it seems;

but there is a vineyard too, and a kitchen garden. And of course the house

itself must be cleaned and swept and kept in repair. There is no wife; the

owner's mother lives with us, I think, but she does not much concern herself

with the housekeeping - that is up to me. To tell the truth, I have never

actually seen her, though I have the feeling that she is there."

"Does this house resemble the one you bought for your own mother in

Lindau?"

"Only as one large house must resemble another."

"I see. Proceed."

"For a long time each night I continue like that, giving orders, and

sometimes going over the accounts. Then a servant, usually it is a maid,

arrives to tell me that the owner wishes to speak to me. I stand before a

mirror - I can see myself there as plainly as I see you now - and arrange my

clothing. The maid brings rose-scented water and a cloth, and I wipe my

face; then I go in to him.

"He is always in one of the upper rooms, seated at a table with his own

account book spread before him. There is an open window behind him, and

through it I can see the top of a cherry tree in bloom. For a long time - oh, I

suppose ten minutes - I stand before him while he turns over the pages of

his ledger."

"You appear somewhat at a loss, Herr R____ - not a common condition

for you, I believe. What happens then?"

"He says, 'You owe . . .' " Herr R____ paused. "That is the problem,

monsieur, I can never recall the amount. But it is a large sum. He says, 'And

I must require that you make payment at once.'

"I do not have the amount, and I tell him so. He says, 'Then you must

leave my employment.' I fail to my knees at this and beg that he will retain

me, pointing out that if he dismisses me I will have lost my source of

income, and will never be able to make payment. I do not enjoy telling you

this, but I weep. Sometimes I beat the floor with my fists."

"Continue. Is the Dream-Master moved by your pleading?"

"No. He again demands that I pay the entire sum. Several times I have

told him that I am a wealthy man in this world, and that if only he would

permit me to make payment in its currency, I would do so immediately."

"That is interesting - most of us lack your presence of mind in our

nightmares. What does he say then?"

"Usually he tells me not to be a fool. But once he said, 'That is a dream -

you must know it by now. You cannot expect to pay a real debt with the

currency of sleep.' He holds out his hand for the money as he speaks to

me. It is then that I see the blood in his palm."

"You are afraid of him?"

"Oh, very much so. I understand that he has the most complete power

over me. I weep, and at last I throw myself at his feet - with my head under

the table, if you can credit it, crying like an infant.

"Then he stands and pulls me erect, and says, 'You would never be able

to pay all you owe, and you are a false and dishonest servant. But your debt

is forgiven, forever.' And as I watch, he tears a leaf from his account book

and hands it to me."

"Your dream has a happy conclusion, then."

"No. It is not yet over. I thrust the paper into the front of my shirt and go

out, wiping my face on my sleeve. I am conscious that if any of the other

servants should see me, they will know at once what has happened. I hurry

to reach my own counting room; there is a brazier there, and I wish to burn

the page from the owner's book."

"I see."

"But just outside the door of my own room, I meet another servant - an

upper-servant like myself, I think, since he is well dressed. As it happens,

this man owes me a considerable sum of money, and to conceal from him

what I have just endured, I demand that he pay at once." Herr R____ rose

from his chair and began to pace the room, looking sometimes at the

painted scenes on the walls, sometimes at the Turkish carpet at his feet. "I

have had reason to demand money like that often, you understand. Here in

this room.

"The man falls to his knees, weeping and begging for additional time; but

I reach down, like this, and seize him by the throat."

"And then?"

"And then the door of my counting room opens. But it is not my counting

room with my desk and the charcoal brazier, but the owner's own room. He

is standing in the doorway, and behind him I can see the open window, and

the blossoms of the cherry tree."

"What does he say to you?"

"Nothing. He says nothing to me. I release the other man's throat, and he

slinks away."

"You awaken then?"

"How can I explain it? Yes, I wake up. But first we stand there; and while

we do I am conscious of . . . certain sounds."

"If it is too painful for you, you need not say more."

Herr R____ drew a silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face.

"How can I explain?" he said again. "When I hear those sounds, I am aware

that the owner possesses certain other servants, who have never been

under my direction. It is as though I have always known this, but had no

reason to think of it before."

"I understand."

"They are quartered in another part of the house - in the vaults beneath

the wine cellar, I think sometimes. I have never seen them, but I know –

then - that they are hideous, vile and cruel; I know too that he thinks me but

little better than they, and that as he permits me to serve him, so he allows

them to serve him also. I stand - we stand - and listen to them coming

through the house. At last a door at the end of the hall begins to swing

open. There is a hand like the paw of some filthy reptile on the latch."

"Is that the end of the dream?"

"Yes." Herr R____ threw himself into his chair again, mopping his face.

"You have this experience each night?"

"It differs," he said slowly, "in some details."

"You have told me that the orders you give the under-servants vary."

"There is another difference. When the dreams began, I woke when the

hinges of the door at the passage-end creaked. Each night now the dream

endures a moment longer. Perhaps a tenth of a second. Now I see the arm

of the creature who opens that door, nearly to the elbow."

I took the address of his home, which he was glad enough to give me,

and leaving the bank made my way to my hotel.

When I had eaten my roll and drunk my coffee the next morning, I went to

the place indicated by the card given me by Baron H____, and in a few

minutes was sitting with him in a room as bare as those tents from which

armies in the field are cast into battle. "You are ready to begin the case this

morning?" he asked.

"On the contrary. I have already begun; indeed, I am about to enter a new

phase of my investigation. You would not have come to me if your

Dream-Master were not torturing someone other than the people whose

names you gave me. I wish to know the identity of that person, and to

interrogate him."

"I told you that there were many other reports. I-"

"Provided me with a list. They are all of the petite bourgeoisie, when they

are not persons still less important. I believed at first that it might be

because of the urgings of Herr R____ that you engaged me; but when I

had time to reflect on what I know of your methods, I realized that you

would have demanded that he provide my fee had that been the case. So

you are sheltering someone of greater importance, and I wish to speak to

him."

"The Countess-" Baron H____ began.

"Ah!"

"The Countess herself has expressed some desire that you should be

presented to her. The Count opposes it."

"We are speaking, I take it, of the governor of this province?"

The Baron nodded. "Of Count von V____. He is responsible, you

understand, only to the Queen Regent herself."

"Very well. I wish to bear the Countess, and she wishes to talk with me. I

assure you, Baron, that we will meet; the only question is whether it will be

under your auspices."

The Countess, to whom I was introduced that afternoon, was a woman in

her early twenties, deep-breasted and somber-haired, with skin like milk,

and great dark eyes welling with fear and (I thought) pity, set in a perfect

oval face.

"I am glad you have come, monsieur. For seven weeks now our good

Baron H____ has sought this man for me, but he has not found him."

"If I had known my presence here would please you, Countess, I would

have come long ago, whatever the obstacles. You then, like the others, are

certain it is a real man we seek?"

"I seldom go out, monsieur. My husband feels we are in constant danger

of assassination."

"I believe he is correct."

"But on state occasions we sometimes ride in a glass coach to the

Rathaus. There are uhlans all around us to protect us then. I am certain that

- before the dreams began - I saw the face of this man in the crowd."

"Very well. Now tell me your dream."

"I am here, at home-"

"In this palace, where we sit now?"

She nodded.

"That is a new feature, then. Continue, please."

"There is to be an execution. In the garden." A fleeting smile crossed the

countess's lovely face. "I need not tell you that that is not where the

executions are held; but it does not seem strange to me when I dream.

"I have been away, I think, and have only just heard of what is to take

place. I rush into the garden. The man Baron H____ calls the

Dream-Master is there, tied to the trunk of the big cherry tree; a squad of

soldiers faces him, holding their rifles; their officer stands beside them with

his saber drawn, and my husband is watching from a pace or two away. I

call out for them to stop, and my husband turns to look at me. I say: 'You

must not do it, Karl. You must not kill this man.' But I see by his expression

that he believes that I am only a foolish, tender-hearted child. Karl is . . .

several years older than I."

"I am aware of it."

"The Dream-Master turns his head to look at me. People tell me that my

eyes are large - do you think them large, monsieur?"

"Very large, and very beautiful."

"In my dream, quite suddenly, his eyes seem far, far larger than mine,

and far more beautiful; and in them I see reflected the figure of my

husband. Please listen carefully now, because what I am going to say is

very important, though it makes very little sense, I am afraid."

"Anything may happen in a dream, Countess."

"When I see my husband reflected in this man's eyes, I know - I cannot

say how - that it is this reflection, and not the man who stands near me, who

is the real Karl. The man I have thought real is only a reflection of that

reflection. Do you follow what I say?"

I nodded. "I believe so."

"I plead again: 'Do not kill him. Nothing good can come of it . . .' My

husband nods to the officer, the soldiers raise their rifles, and . . . and . . ."

"You wake. Would you like my handkerchief, Countess? It is of coarse

weave; but it is clean, and much larger than your own."

"Karl is right - I am only a foolish little girl. No, monsieur, I do not wake -

not yet. The soldiers fire. The Dream-Master falls forward, though his

bonds hold him to the tree. And Karl flies to bloody rags beside me."

On my way back to my hotel, I purchased a map of the city; and when I

reached my room I laid it flat on the table there. There could be no question

of the route of the countess's glass coach - straight down the Hauptstrasse,

the only street in the city wide enough to take a carriage surrounded by

cavalrymen. The most probable route by which Herr R____ might go from

his house to his bank coincided with the Hauptstrasse for several blocks.

The path Fräulein A____ would travel from her flat to the arcade crossed

the Hauptstrasse at a point contained by that interval. I needed to know no

more.

Very early the next morning I took up my post at the intersection. If my

man were still alive after the fusillade Count von V____ fired at him each

night, it seemed certain that he would appear at this spot within a few days,

and I am hardened to waiting. I smoked cigarettes while I watched the

citizens of I____ walk up and down before me. When an hour had passed,

I bought a newspaper from a vendor, and stole a few glances at its pages

when foot traffic was light.

Gradually I became aware that I was watched - we boast of reason, but

there are senses over which reason holds no authority. I did not know

where my watcher was, yet I felt his gaze on me, whichever way I turned.

So, I thought, you know me, my friend. Will I too dream now? What has

attracted your attention to a mere foreigner, a stranger, waiting for

who-knows-what at this corner? Have you been talking to Fräulein A____?

Or to someone who has spoken with her?

Without appearing to do so; I looked up and down both streets in search

of another lounger like myself. There was no one - not a drowsing

grandfather, not a woman or a child, not even a dog. Certainly no tall man

with a forked beard and piercing eyes. The windows then - I studied them

all, looking for some movement in a dark room behind a seemingly innocent

opening. Nothing.

Only the buildings behind me remained. I crossed to the opposite side of

the Hauptstrasse and looked once more. Then I laughed.

They must have thought me mad, all those dour burghers, for I fairly

doubled over, spitting my cigarette to the sidewalk and clasping my hands

to my waist for fear my belt would burst. The presumption, the impudence,

the brazen insolence of the fellow! The stupidity, the wonderful stupidity of

myself, who had not recognized his old stories! For the remainder of my life

now, I could accept any case with pleasure, pursue the most inept criminal

with zest, knowing that there was always a chance he might outwit such an

idiot as I.

For the Dream-Master had set up His own picture, and full-length and in

the most gorgeous colors, in His window. Choking and spluttering I saluted

it, and then, still filled with laughter, I crossed the street once more and

went inside, where I knew I would find Him. A man awaited me there - not

the one I sought, but one who understood Whom it was I had come for, and

knew as well as I that His capture was beyond any thief-taker's power. I

knelt, and there, though not to the satisfaction I suppose of Baron H____,

Fräulein A____, Herr R____, and the Count and Countess von V____, I

destroyed the Dream-Master as He has been sacrificed so often,

devouring His white, wheaten flesh that we might all possess life without

end.

Dear people, dream on.