ld turn out this
way," said Mrs. Winterose, glancing uneasily at Gem.

But Miss Tabby sighed, and Miss Libby shook her head, and Gem continued
to look very grave.

"Well, I declare! I am out of all patience with Joe!" exclaimed the old
lady, by way of changing the whole conversation. "It has been full forty
minutes or more since I sent him after them cones! And now I am going to
call him."

And so saying she went and opened the back door.

But she had no sooner done so, than she started with a cry of horror and
fled back into the room.

And well she might!

Behind her came three men, bearing in their arms the mutilated and
bleeding body of a third man!

Following them limped lame-legged Joe.

The affrighted women shrank back to the chimney corner, where they clung
together in that dumb terror which is the deeper for its very silence.

"Now don't you be scared, ladies," said Joe, soothingly. "Nobody an't a
going to do you no harm. It is only some man as has been murdered out
there."

"_Murdered!_" echoed Mrs. Winterose, in an awe-deepened tone.

"Another Hallow Eve murder!" groaned Miss Tabby, wringing her hands.

"It is doom!" muttered Miss Libby solemnly.

Gem vailed her eyes and said nothing.

"Lay him down here on the floor, men, and let us take a look of him to
see if we know him," said Joe, as he took a candle from the table.

The bearers laid their burden gently down.

Joe held the candle to the face of the murdered man.

Old Mrs. Winterose cautiously approached to view it.

"Good angels in Heaven!" she exclaimed.

"Who is it, mother?" inquired her daughters, in terrified tones.

"MR. HORACE BLONDELLE!" she whispered.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE LAST FATAL HALLOW EVE.

So do the dark in soul expire,
Or live like scorpion girt with fire;
So writhes the mind remorse hath riven--
Unfit for earth, undoomed for heaven,
Darkness above, despair beneath,
Around it flame, within it death.--BYRON.

The awe-stricken women drew nearer to gaze upon the murdered man.

"Grandma, he is not dead! He breathes," exclaimed Gem, whose young eyes
had detected the slight, very slight motion of the man's chest.

The old woman knelt down beside the body, and began to examine it more
closely. The shirt-bosom, vest, and coat front were soaked with blood,
that still seemed to ooze from some hidden wound.

She hastily unbuttoned his clothing, and found a small round blackened
bulle