spectre, but seeing that the
young man was about to sink to the floor exhausted, he sprang to his
feet and helped him to a chair.

"What, Joseph! God be praised! Kathinka, Recha, come quickly," he cried,
running to the door leading to an adjoining apartment. "Bring some
brandy."

Kathinka was not long in coming, and unmindful of his appearance, with a
cry of joy, she fell upon Joseph's bosom and kissed him rapturously.

"Oh, Joseph, I am so happy!" murmured the girl. "Are you free, entirely
free?"

Joseph gasped for breath. He could not speak. The Rabbi hastily poured
some liquor into a glass which Recha had brought and held it to the
young man's lips. The draught seemed to revive him.

"Hurry," he whispered, looking about him, anxiously; "hide me somewhere
before the officers come after me."

A look of disappointment passed over the Rabbi's face.

"Then you are not acquitted?" he asked.

"No! I escaped. I'll tell you all about it, but not here. They might
come and find me. Let us go upstairs, anywhere out of sight. Send for my
parents! It would be dangerous for me to visit them, but I must see them
before I leave."

"You are not going away again!" cried Kathinka.

"I must. It is death to remain here!"

The Rabbi supported the young man while he went to an upper floor, and
leaving him to the ministrations of his wife and daughter, he despatched
a messenger to the Kiersons to inform them of the arrival of the
unexpected guest.

By the time they were all assembled, Joseph had, in a measure revived
and recovered his cheerful spirits.

"But where have you been and what have you been doing?" asked the Rabbi,
after the first loving greetings had been exchanged.

"I have been in a terrible place," sighed the student, shuddering at the
mere recollection of his experience. "When I was taken from home I was
led to the jail near the barracks, up in the Petcherskoi quarter, and
without a trial, without a hearing of any kind, I was thrown into a
cell about five feet square. After my eyes had become accustomed to the
darkness, I looked about me. In one corner I found a bed of straw with a
cover as thin as paper. A broken chair and a rough wooden basin
completed the furniture. The place reeked with corruption and filth, and
the stench was almost unbearable. Of the vile food they placed before
me, I could eat nothing except the bread. It was _trefa_, but had it
been prepared according to our rites, its nauseating appe