know suthin'
'bout'n it, Constant,--'bout'n the killin' of him. I be sent ter fetch
ye."

II.

A chimney, half of stone, half of clay and stick, stood starkly up in
the gray rain and the swooping, shifting gray fog. It marked the site
of a cabin burned long ago, and in such melancholy wise as it might it
told of the home that had been. Now and again far-away lightning
flashed on its fireless hearth; a vacant bird's-nest in a cranny
duplicated the suggestions of desertion; the cold mist crept in and
curled up out of the smokeless flue with a mockery of semblance. The
fire that had wrought its devastating will in the black midnight in
the deep wilderness, so far from rescue or succor, had swiftly burned
out its quick fury, and was sated with the humble household
belongings. The barn, rickety, weather-beaten, deserted, and vacant,
still remained,--of the fashion common to the region, with a loft
above, and an open wagonway between the two compartments below,--and
it was here that the inquest was held. It was near the scene of the
tragedy, and occasionally a man would detach himself from the slow,
dawdling, depressed-looking group of mountaineers who loitered in the
open space beneath the loft, and traverse the scant distance down the
bridle-path to gaze at the spot where the stranger's body had lain,
whence it had been conveyed to the nearest shelter at hand, the old
barn, where the coroner's jury were even now engaged in their
deliberations. Sometimes, another, versed in all the current rumors,
would follow to point out to the new-comer the details, show how the
rain had washed the blood away, and fearfully mark the tokens of
frantic clutches at the trees as the man had been torn from his horse.
The animal had vanished utterly; even the prints of his hoofs were
soon obliterated by the torrents and the ever-widening puddles. And
thus had arisen the suspicion of ambush and foul play, and the
implication of the mysterious gang of horse-thieves, whose rumored
exploits seemed hardly so fabulous with the disappearance of the
animal and the violent death of the rider in evidence. The locality
offered no other suggestion, and it was but a brief interval before
the way would be retraced by the awe-stricken observer, noting with a
deep interest impossible hitherto all the environment: the stark
chimney of the vanished house, monumental in the weed-grown waste;
the dripping forest; the roof of the barn, sleek and shining, and