d turned the key in my door to prevent intrusion. Only for a short
time did I lie, listening to the hum of voices that came with a hoarse
murmur from below, to the sound of feet moving along the passages, and
to the continual opening and shutting of doors, when something like
suppressed breathing reached my ears, I started up instantly, and
listened; but my quickened pulses were now audible to my own sense, and
obscured what was external.

"It is only imagination," I said to myself. Still, I sat upright,
listening.

Satisfied, at length, that all was mere fancy, I laid myself back on
the pillow, and tried to turn my thoughts away from the suggested idea
that some one was in the room. Scarcely had I succeeded in this, when
my heart gave a new impulse, as a sound like a movement fell upon my
ears.

"Mere fancy!" I said to myself, as some one went past the door at the
moment. "My mind is overexcited."

Still I raised my head, supporting it with my hand, and listened,
directing my attention inside, and not outside of the room. I was about
letting my head fall back upon the pillow, when a slight cough, so
distinct as not to be mistaken, caused me to spring to the floor, and
look under the bed. The mystery was explained. A pair of eyes glittered
in the candlelight. The fugitive, Green, was under my bed. For some
moments I stood looking at him, so astonished that I had neither
utterance nor decision; while he glared at me with a fierce defiance. I
saw that he was clutching a revolver.

"Understand!" he said, in a grating whisper, "that I am not to be taken
alive."

I let the blanket, which had concealed him from view, fall from my
hand, and then tried to collect my thoughts.

"Escape is impossible," said I, again lifting the temporary curtain by
which he was hid. "The whole town is armed, and on the search; and
should you fall into the hands of the mob, in its present state of
exasperation, your life would not be safe an instant. Remain, then,
quiet, where you are, until I can see the sheriff, to whom you had
better resign yourself, for there's little chance for you except under
his protection."

After a brief parley he consented that things should take this course,
and I went out, locking the room door after me, and started in search
of the sheriff. On the information I gave, the sheriff acted promptly.
With five officers, fully armed for defence, in case an effort were
made to get the prisoner out of their hands,