gth which he had given it. He turned and tore
his hair and flesh. He gnashed his teeth until they broke into bits.
He cursed; he raved; he pleaded; he offered all his great treasure for
freedom. But the skulls grinned their horrid mockery at him; and the
blood on the stones dripped upon his burning head. And above it all he
heard the low plotting of those without who were awaiting his death,
that they might throw down the wall and take away his treasure.

And then his fear became frenzy; his love of gold turned to horror;
his reason fled; and he dashed himself wildly against the prison which
he had reared, until he fell, bleeding and broken. And as he fell, he
heard the shrill cackle of demons that danced their hellish steps on
the top of the wall. Then the Furies flew down and bound him tight.

"Ah, my God, What might I not have made of Thy fair world Had I
but loved Thy highest creature here? It was my duty to have loved
the highest; It surely was my profit had I known."

He awoke from his terror, dripping. He feebly lifted his head. Then he
sought to raise his arms, to move. He was alive! And then the scream
tore from his dry throat. His great body was half dead!

The attendants flew to his couch. The physicians bent over him and
sought to soothe his mental agony. The man's torture was fearful to
behold; his weakness, pitiable. He sank again into somnolence. But the
sleep was one of unbroken horror; and those in the room stopped in the
course of their duties; and their faces blanched; and they held their
hands to their ears, when his awful moans echoed through the curtained
room.

Through his dreams raced the endless panorama of his crowded life. Now
he was wading through muddy slums where stood the wretched houses
which he rented for immoral purposes. He was madly searching for
something. What could it be? Ah, yes, his girl! Some one had said she
was there. Who was it? Aye, who but himself? But he found her not. And
he wept bitterly.

And then he hurried to Avon; and there he dug into those fresh
graves--dug, dug, dug, throwing the dirt up in great heaps behind him.
And into the face of each corpse as he dragged it out of its damp bed
he peered eagerly. But with awful moans he threw them from him in
turn, for she was not there.

Then he fled down, down, far into the burning South; and there he
roamed the trackless wastes, calling her name. And the wild beasts and
the hissing serpents looked out at him