The first thing Frederick did on waking was to look at his watch. He had
a dull feeling that he must have slept through the whole night and even
the following day. He peered at the hands incredulously and held the
watch to his ear to convince himself it had not stopped. No, it was still
running. Consequently, since his last waking, only six or, at the utmost,
eight minutes had passed.
This fact as well as the peculiarity and the vividness of his dream set
him to marvelling. He could not recall ever having dreamed so coherently
and logically. Are there dreams that are more than dreams? Was Rasmussen
dead? Had his friend, keeping his promise, chosen this way to make
himself noticeable from the Beyond? A strange shudder went through
Frederick. In his excitement it seemed to him that he had been honoured
with a revelation. He took his memorandum book from the net bag over his
berth and jotted down the date and hour that the remarkable chandler had
mentioned as the time of his death. "Thirteen minutes past one," he
distinctly heard Rasmussen's voice saying, "thirteen minutes past one, on
the twenty-fourth of January."
The _Roland_ was tossing slightly again, and the great siren was
bellowing. Its repeated thunderous cries, which indicated fog, the
lurching of the vessel, the sign, perhaps, of fresh storms and hardships
to be gone through, vexed and fretted Frederick. From the adventurous
doings in his brain, he was transported to the no less adventurous doings
in reality. Awakening from his dreams, he found himself locked into a
narrow cabin, plowing through the high seas, on a vessel heavily
freighted with the fearful dreams of many souls, and yet not sinking
from the load of that cargo.
Frederick was already on deck before half past five. The fog had lifted,
and from over the edge of a leaden sea of moderate-sized waves rose the
dawn of a gloomy morning. The deck was empty, producing the impression of
dreary loneliness. The passengers were all lying in their berths. None of
the crew even were visible. It looked as if the mighty ship were pursuing
its course wholly without human agency.