o pave the way for the
forgiveness of his friend. He therefore persisted in his efforts, and
one bright day when the invalid was feeling unusually strong ventured to
press home his inquiries.

"I cannot help thinking," he said, "that you could soon be reasonably
well again if you did not brood so much. I fear there is some trouble
gnawing at your heart."

"There is," he was answered, icily.

"Have you wronged some one, then, and are these thoughts which vex you
feelings of remorse and guilt?"

"Wronged some one!" the sick man fairly roared, gripping the arms of his
chair and gasping for breath in the excitement which the question
brought on. "Not I! I have been wronged! No one has ever b-b-been
wronged as I have. I have nourished vipers in my b-b-bosom and been
stung by them. I have sown love and reaped hate. I have been robbed,
deceived and betrayed! My wife is gone! My health is gone! My sight is
gone! He has skinned me like a sheep, c-c-curse him! My heart has turned
to a hammer which knocks at my ribs and cries revenge! It ch-ch-chokes
me!"

He gasped, grew purple in the face and clutched at his collar as if
about to strangle. After a little the paroxysm passed away, and Mantel
determined once more to try and assuage this implacable hatred.

To his own unbounded astonishment this young man who had long ago
abandoned his faith in Christianity, began to plead like an apostle for
the practice of its central and fundamental virtue.

"My friend," he said, with a new solemnity in his manner, "you are on
the threshold of another world; how dare you present yourself to the
Judge of all the earth with a passion like this in your heart?"

In the momentary rest the beggar had recovered strength enough to reply:
"It is t-t-true. I am on the threshold of another world! I didn't use to
b-b-believe there was one, but I do now. There must be! Would it b-b-be
right for such d-d-devils as the one that wrecked my life to g-g-go
unpunished? Not if I know anything! They get away from us here, but if
eternity is as long as they s-s-say it is, I'll find D-D-Dave Corson if
it t-t-takes the whole of it, and when I f-f-find him--" he paused
again, gasping and strangling.

Mantel's pity was deeply stirred, and he would gladly have spared him
had he dared; but he did not, and permitting him to regain his breath,
he said:

"And so you really mean to die without bestowing your pardon upon those
who have wronged you?"

"I swear it!