ened. For the first time, he bethought him of his mask,
and raising his hand to his face found it had fallen off, probably, he
concluded, in his hurried flight through the window.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

"Who hath done this most foul deed?"

It were hard to tell, perhaps, what broke the head clerk's heavy
slumber. It may have been Guly's wild cry, when he sank quivering to the
floor, which reached his ear, even above the tempest-din. It may have
been that instinct, which, sleeping or waking, teaches the heart to miss
what it loves, or it may have been the natural effect of the drug, which
had spent itself, that aroused him. He opened his eyes, turned heavily,
and instantly became aware that the golden head no longer nestled on his
bosom.

Alarmed, he sprang to his feet in an instant, wide awake. He reached for
the lamp, but found it gone; and, with nothing but a lighted match in
his hand, he started out to look for Guly. The match went out before he
was half way down to the store, but he went on, groping in the thick
darkness, till suddenly his foot struck Guly's body; and with a moan of
agony, he stooped and lifted him in his arms, and bore him hastily back
to his bed, where he laid him down, in wild suspense, not knowing
whether he was alive or dead.

After several minutes he succeeded in finding a store-lamp; but the
moment he lighted it the wind gushed through the open pane and blew it
out, leaving him again in total darkness.

Cursing the luck, he turned to obtain another match, when another gust
of wind rushed in, and swept across his face; and, like a lightning
flash, the truth darted through his brain. Taking the lamp to his own
room, he lighted it there, and finding, to his joy, that Guly still
lived, he immediately applied the restoratives he deemed necessary; and
soon saw the chest heave, the eyelids quiver, and the whole form once
more wearing the glow and motion of life.

"Oh, Wilkins, such a dreadful dream! Horror! horror!"

"There, Guly, compose yourself. Don't tell me about it till you are
better."

Guly obeyed, and lay quite still, trying to recall his wandering senses;
and soon the truth rushed back upon his mind, in all its stern reality,
and he felt it was no dream.

"Have you been in the store, Wilkins?"

"Only in the dark--to bring you back."

"Things are in wild confusion there. Oh, could I have only wakened you,
it might have been different."

"Did you try, then, and fail?"