d; "but a father can
never forget a murdered child."

He was answered by the most humble appeals for time. A week, a day, an
hour, were each implored, with an earnestness commensurate to the value
they receive, when a whole life is compressed into their short duration.
The squatter was troubled, and at length he yielded in part to the
petitions of the criminal. His final purpose was not altered, though he
changed the means. "Abner," he said, "mount the rock, and look on every
side, that we may be sure none are nigh."

While his nephew was obeying this order, gleams of reviving hope were
seen shooting across the quivering features of the kidnapper. The report
was favourable, nothing having life, the retiring teams excepted, was
to be seen. A messenger was, however, coming from the latter, in great
apparent haste. Ishmael awaited its arrival. He received from the hands
of one of his wondering and frighted girls a fragment of that book,
which Esther had preserved with so much care. The squatter beckoned the
child away, and placed the leaves in the hands of the criminal.

"Eest'er has sent you this," he said, "that, in your last moments, you
may remember God."

"Bless her, bless her! a good and kind sister has she been to me. But
time must be given, that I may read; time, my brother, time!"

"Time shall not be wanting. You shall be your own executioner, and this
miserable office shall pass away from my hands."

Ishmael proceeded to put his new resolution in force. The immediate
apprehensions of the kidnapper were quieted, by an assurance that
he might yet live for days, though his punishment was inevitable. A
reprieve, to one abject and wretched as Abiram, temporarily produced
the same effects as a pardon. He was even foremost in assisting in the
appalling arrangements, and of all the actors, in that solemn tragedy,
his voice alone was facetious and jocular.

A thin shelf of the rock projected beneath one of the ragged arms of the
willow. It was many feet from the ground, and admirably adapted to the
purpose which, in fact, its appearance had suggested. On this little
platform the criminal was placed, his arms bound at the elbows behind
his back, beyond the possibility of liberation, with a proper cord
leading from his neck to the limb of the tree. The latter was so placed,
that when suspended the body could find no foot-hold. The fragment
of the Bible was placed in his hands, and he was left to seek his
consolation