Three Sides of Paradise Green
about the picture, too. What did he do?"

"Oh, yes, that's another thing," added Louis. "He used to stand in front
of it the longest time, gazing at it as steadily as if it were the most
wonderful thing on earth. Next he would turn and stare at me, and then
look back again at the picture, till I could have yelled, it made me so
nervous. It was mostly when he thought I was asleep or in a stupor, but
I wasn't either one of those things half as much as they thought I was. Once he came and stood over me, after I had had my eyes shut for a long
time, and I heard him muttering something about 'the temple look,'whatever he could have meant by that. It all seemed horribly uncanny. I
didn't like it at all. I never was so glad of anything in my life as to
get out of that place and back to my own room at last."

"But, Louis," began Carol, in an awed tone, "whatever do you suppose
caused you to have that queer dream? It's one of the queerest things I
ever heard. Did Monsieur ever say anything to you about the picture that
would make you think of a thing like that?"

"Not a single thing," declared the boy stoutly, "except what he said
about the 'heroic martyr' business, and I can't believe I would have
made up the rest out of my head. It's singular--"

At this moment, however, Dave came in, and the conversation shifted to
other topics.

April 8. Carol and I debated a long while as to whether it would be a
good idea to tell the Imp what Louis had told us last night. At first
Carol was shocked at the idea of such a thing, and she looked at me as
though I'd proposed to dynamite her house. But I reminded her that the
Imp had been awfully amiable to us of late, and really it mightn't be
such a bad scheme to let her into this, especially as she had some
inside information of her own that some time she might be able to give
us the benefit of. This settled Carol's doubts, so to-day we told the
Imp.

When we came to the part about Louis's dream, she grabbed my arm and
said:"Are you making this up, or is it really true?" I never saw her so
excited before.


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