"Wha-at?"

For once in his life M. Pougeot was surprised. He knew all about this
foreign offer, with its extraordinary money advantages; he had rejoiced in
his friend's good fortune after two unhappy years, and now--now Coquenil
informed him calmly that he was not sailing.

"I have just made a decision, the most important decision of my life,"
continued the detective, "and I want you to know about it. You are the only
person in the world who _will_ know--everything. So listen! This afternoon
I went into Notre-Dame church and I saw a young girl there who sells
candles. I didn't know her, but she looked up in a queer way, as if she
wanted to speak to me, so I went to her and--well, she told me of a dream
she had last night."

"A dream?" snorted the commissary.

"So she said. She may have been lying or she may have been put up to it; I
know nothing about her, not even her name, but that's of no consequence;
the point is that in this dream, as she called it, she brought together the
two most important events in my life."

"Hm! What _was_ the dream?"

"She says she saw me twice, once in a forest near a wooden bridge where a
man with a beard was talking to a woman and a little girl. Then she saw me
on a boat going to a place where there were black people."

"That was Brazil?"