f was near
to falling into the fire. "May God forgive you, Morten!" he groaned.
"God knows I didn't mean anything like that. May my sin be forgiven
me! But surely you only mean to frighten me! I come from far away, and
have heard nothing. No one but you, reverend father, has recognized
me. I have told my name to no one. When I asked them in Veilbye if the
rector was still there, they said that he was."

"That is the new rector," I replied. "Not he whom you and your sinful
brother have slain."

He wrung his hands and cried aloud, and then I knew that he had been
but a tool in the hands of that devil, Morten. Therefore I set to work
to comfort him, and took him into my study that he might calm himself
sufficiently to tell me the detail of this Satan's work.

This was the story as he tells it: His brother Morten--truly a son of
Belial--cherished a deadly hatred toward pastor Soeren Quist since the
day the latter had refused him the hand of his daughter. As soon as he
heard that the pastor's coachman had left him, he persuaded Niels to
take the place.

"Watch your chance well," he had said, "we'll play the black coat a
trick some day, and you will be no loser by it."

Niels, who was rough and defiant by nature, soon came to a quarrel
with his master, and when he had received his first chastisement, he
ran at once to Ingvorstrup to report it. "Let him strike you just once
again," said Morten. "Then come to me, and we will pay him for it."

Then came the quarrel in the garden, and Niels ran off to Ingvorstrup.
He met his brother in the woods and told him what had occurred.

"Did anyone see you on the way here?" asked Morten.

Niels thought not. "Good," said Morten; "now we'll give him a fright
that he will not forget for a week or so."

He led Niels carefully to the house, and kept him hidden there the
rest of the day. When all the household else had gone to sleep the two
brothers crept out, and went to a field where several days before they
had buried the body of a man of about Niels' age, size, and general
appearance. (He had hanged himself, some said because of ill-treatment
from Morten, in whose service he was. Others said it was because of
unhappy love.) They dug up the corpse, although Niels did not like the
work, and protested. But Morten was the stronger, and Niels had to do
as he was ordered. They carried the body back with them into the
house.

Then Niels was ordered to take off all his clothes, piece by