eat as any I had ever encountered.

My search through the hall and down the stairs elicited nothing; and
an investigation of the bolts and bars by which the house was secured,
assured me that the assassin had either entered by the front door, or
had already been secreted in the house when it was locked up for the
night.

"I shall have to trouble Mrs. Hasbrouck for a short interview," I
hereupon announced to the trembling old servant, who had followed me
like a dog about the house.

He made no demur, and in a few minutes I was ushered into the presence
of the newly made widow, who sat quite alone, in a large chamber in
the rear. As I crossed the threshold she looked up, and I encountered a
good, plain face, without the shadow of guile in it.

"Madam," said I, "I have not come to disturb you. I will ask two or
three questions only, and then leave you to your grief. I am told that
some words came from the assassin before he delivered his fatal shot.
Did you hear these distinctly enough to tell me what they were?"

"I was sound asleep," said she, "and dreamt, as I thought, that a
fierce, strange voice cried somewhere to some one: 'Ah! you did not
expect me!' But I dare not say that these words were really uttered to
my husband, for he was not the man to call forth hate, and only a man
in the extremity of passion could address such an exclamation in such a
tone as rings in my memory in connection with the fatal shot which woke
me."

"But that shot was not the work of a friend," I argued. "If, as these
words seem to prove, the assassin had some other motive than plunder in
his assault, then your husband had an enemy, though you never suspected
it."

"Impossible!" was her steady reply, uttered in the most convincing tone.
"The man who shot him was a common burglar, and frightened at having
been betrayed into murder, fled without looking for booty. I am sure I
heard him cry out in terror and remorse: 'God! what have I done!'"

"Was that before you left the side of the bed?"

"Yes; I did not move from my place till I heard the front door close. I
was paralysed by fear and dread."

"Are you in the habit of trusting to the security of a latch-lock only
in the fastening of your front door at night? I am told that the big key
was not in the lock, and that the bolt at the bottom of the door was not
drawn."

"The bolt at the bottom of the door is never drawn. Mr. Hasbrouck was
so good a man that he never mistrusted any o