h a tenacious grasp.

'I must first go home,' said Hiram, calmly, 'and send my wood round for
you to split.'

'Not so, not so,' retorted the maniac. 'It has already been sent. Come
and see!'--and he began pulling at Hiram's arm--not with ferocity, but
with a doggedness almost worse.

Hiram looked up and down the street. Not a soul was visible. The
creature who stopped his way was a powerful man--was armed with a deadly
weapon--was mad.

Hiram came swiftly to a conclusion. He would appear to yield, and in the
walk he was about to take it was almost a certainty that they would
encounter some one. So he replied, in a good-natured manner: 'Well, if
the wood has been sent to you, we had better go and have it split at
once.'

'That's the talk--that's the talk! But we must hurry. Come on--come
quick, and you will see how I will do it up.'

He did not relax his hold of Hiram's arm. The two walked rapidly
forward--much more rapidly than Hiram desired; but the crazy man kept
exclaiming: 'We must make haste, I promised _him_ I would not leave the
room. No more would I; but you see, if I can earn the money, I am all
right--all right--all right!'

'How much have _you_ got?' he asked, stopping abruptly, and turning
suddenly on Hiram.

'I have got ever so much. Now I think of it, suppose I pay you on the
spot, so that you can go ahead and split the wood? It is getting late,
you see.'

'That won't do--that won't do. I want _him_ to have the money!
Come--come along, and give it to him.'

On they pressed, till at length the man exclaimed: 'Here we are! Don't
you perceive?'

He had stopped before an old and very common-looking house. In the
second story one could see a light burning. The madman motioned Hiram to
enter. The millionnaire was glad to discover that he was so near the end
of his journey, and in a perfectly respectable neighborhood. Not
doubting that he would find the apartment occupied, and quite sure there
were inhabitants in the other part of the house, he proceeded to mount
the stairs with alacrity, his companion following close at his heels.

It was with a sense of quiet relief that Hiram opened the door into a
well-lighted room. This feeling was suddenly changed to one of horror on
ascertaining that there was no one in the apartment, but that on a bed
at the farther end of it was extended the corpse of a woman, already
laid out and ready for the coffin! He stepped quickly backward, but it
was too late. Th