thday gift, and they hauled it on to the
table so that all the guests might see it.

The four ends of the box were fastened down by strong iron clamps, and
these had first to be removed with the aid of strong pincers.

What could be in this box? The guests laid their heads together about
it, but not one of them could guess.

Suddenly all four clamps burst asunder, the four sides of the box fell
aside in four different directions, and there on the table stood--a
covered coffin!

A cry of indignation resounded from every corner of the room.

A pretty present for a seventieth birthday! A black coffin covered with
a velvet pall; at the head of it the ancient escutcheon of the Karpathy
family, and on the side, picked out with large silver nails, the
name--J-o-h-n K-a-r-p-a-t-h-y.

Horror sealed every mouth, only a wail of grief was audible--a heavy,
sobbing cry, like that of a wild beast stricken to the heart. It came
from the lips of old John Karpathy, who had thus been so cruelly
derided. When he beheld the coffin, when he read his own name upon it,
he had leaped from his chair, stretched out his arms, his face the while
distorted by a hideous grin, and those who watched him beheld his
features gradually turning a dreadful blue. It was plain, from the
trembling of his lips, that he wanted to say something; but the only
sound that came from them was a long-drawn-out, painful rattle. Then he
raised his hands to heaven, and suddenly striking his forehead with his
two fists, sank back into his chair with wide-open, staring eyes.

The blood froze in the veins of all who saw this sight. For a few
moments nobody stirred. But then a wild hubbub arose among the guests,
and while some of them rushed towards the magnate and helped to carry
him to bed, others went to fetch the doctors. The coffin had already
been removed from the table.

The terrified army of guests was not long in scattering in every
direction. Late that night all the roads leading from the castle of
Karpathy were thronged with coaches speeding onwards at a gallop. Terror
and Hope were the only guests left behind in the castle itself. But the
rockets still continued to mount aloft from the blazing firework and
write the name "Karpathy" in the sky in gigantic fiery letters visible
from afar.

* * * * *

Now, what more natural than that the mob of breathless, departing guests
should lose no time in presenting their respects, a