Page:Weird Tales Volume 10 Number 5 (1927-11).djvu/44

 known, when further progress was arrested by the changed demeanor of Lee Clayton.

No longer did he walk as a man alone, but rather as one who wends his way in and out among a crowd. Occasionally he paused and gazed fixedly at some object apparently visible to him, then his head turned as though following the course of something in motion.

The effect was most uncanny, and I pinched myself to make certain I was not asleep. The somnambulist, if he were such, strode with dignity in the direction of the triumphal Arch of Titus, and there he paused. Strange words were wafted to my ears, phrases in an unknown tongue. Unknown? Had I studied Latin for six years not to recognize it when I heard it, even in this fashion? Occasionally Clayton paused, apparently to lay his hand upon the shoulder of an invisible associate. Some of the things he thought he heard were mirth-provoking, and his laughter rang out weirdly shrill in the white silence around us.

"Jumping Jehosophat!" I exclaimed, wiping my perspiring brow with my handkerchief. "That's a wow of a dream all right!"

He must have heard me, for he looked in my direction and smiled as if in friendly greeting. Tremblingly I smiled back. I racked my brain for one intelligent sentence in Latin.

All Gaul is divided into three parts' won't do upon this occasion," I mumbled disconsolately.

The only other words that came to my muddled brain were the Latin version of 'Twinkle, twinkle little star.' I tried them and was greeted with a burst of uproarious laughter from Clayton, the incongruity of which at this time caused me to tremble with fear. He said something about vinum nimium, and then turned his attention to the Arch of Titus, talking off and on the while as if engaged in conversation with many around him.

For an hour the apparent monologue continued while I stood spellbound. Finally he turned abruptly and proceeded in the direction of the Colosseum. He strode so rapidly that I had difficulty in keeping a desirable distance behind him. I intended to see that he returned without harm to his rooms at the hotel.

At the foot of the flight of steps leading to the level of present-day Rome, Clayton paused and passed a hand across his brow. He gazed about him in apparent bewilderment and proceeded thereafter with the air of a man in solitude.

Thinking that possibly the knowledge of a witness might cause him some embarrassment I did not make my presence manifest, but allowed him to retire to his apartment before entering the hotel myself.

Was the true explanation of Lee Clayton's night expedition in any way connected with the puzzling dream of which he had told me Sleep claimed me for the few hours that remained until dawn.

following morning found me in bed at a late hour. My vigilance of the previous night had been more fatiguing than I had at the time realized. I lay for some time pondering the enigma of my friend's behavior. Should I feign ignorance of the occurrence in the Forum, or would it be best to inform Lee Clayton of what I knew? Unable to decide the better course to pursue, I dressed and hastened down to breakfast.

Clayton was breakfasting alone in a far corner of the dining salon. As I took the chair opposite him he looked up with a smile of recognition and passed across the table to me an open volume which he had been