he has her motives," he said fretfully. "And very likely
they're good. I'll not deny that. But I can't make her see that this
constant espionage--this everlasting watchfulness is not to be borne.
I want freedom, and by God I'll have it!"

He sprang from his chair and began pacing the room.

Wesley Elliot stared at his visitor without speaking. He perceived
that the man dragged his feet, as if from excessive fatigue or
weakness.

"I had no thought of such a thing," the stranger went on. "I'd
planned, as a man will who looks forward to release from--from a
hospital, how I'd go about and see my old neighbors. I wanted to have
them in for dinners and luncheons--people I haven't seen for years.
She knows them. She can't excuse herself on that ground. She knows
you."

He stopped short and eyed the minister, a slow grin spreading over
his face.

"The last time you were at my house I had a good mind to walk in and
make your acquaintance, then and there. I heard you talking to her.
You admire my daughter: that's easy to see; and she's not such a bad
match, everything considered."

"Who are you?" demanded the young man sharply.

"I am a man who's been dead and buried these eighteen years," replied
the other. "But I'm alive still--very much alive; and they'll find it
out."

An ugly scowl distorted the man's pale face. For an instant he stared
past Wesley Elliot, his eyes resting on an irregular splotch of damp
on the wall. Then he shook himself.

"I'm alive," he repeated slowly. "And I'm free!"

"Who are you?" asked the minister for the second time.

For all his superior height and the sinewy strength of his young
shoulders he began to be afraid of the man who had come to him out of
the storm. There was something strangely disconcerting, even
sinister, in the ceaseless movements of his pale hands and the sudden
lightning dart of his eyes, as they shifted from the defaced wall to
his own perturbed face.

By way of reply the man burst into a disagreeable cackle of laughter:

"Stopped in at the old bank building on my way," he said. "Got it all
fixed up for a reading room and library. Quite a nice idea for the
villagers. I'd planned something of the sort, myself. Approve of that
sort of thing for a rural population. Who--was the benefactor in this
case--eh? Take it for granted the villagers didn't do it for
themselves. The women in charge there referred me to you for
information.... Don't be in haste, young man. I'l